The Summer of Sprinklers

The Summer of Sprinklers is coming to a close, and so is the project of setting up irrigation to our yard.

It all started back in July when Amber went in to have her septum worked on. In case you are not aware, the septum is the bone in the back of your nose that divides your nostrils. When your septum is damaged it may close off one of the air passages, making it difficult to breath. This is what led to the operation. For a long time Amber had been laboring to breath through one side of her nose.

But, rather than explain each detail, it is only important to know that she had surgery to correct the problem and I took a week off work to help with things at home while she recovered.

It was during this time that we thought it would be good to start putting in sprinklers, as I would have a bit of free time while Ashley and Amber both slept through out the days.

We started by having someone else dig our trenches. The decision to hire out for such a task was really a no-brainer. Armed with a shovel and load of determination, it would have taken me days - if not weeks - to clear all the dirt. This man with his back-hoe (or skid loader, as my Caterpillar employed father informed me) took all of an hour to do the work. I had no problems writing that man a check.

Under the direction of Amber's boss, Steve, who was a skilled sprinkler-man, I began sawing, priming, and gluing PVC pipes. Slowly, the open trenches were filled with white pipe - sealed irrigation canals, if you will. Power was strung from the control box in the garage out to the two stations of valves. Some digging was still required. Around the buried cable and phone lines in the front yard I had to remove the dirt by hand, careful to not damage the hidden wires.

Due to her condition, Amber was not able to assist with much of the physical labor during the early stages. However, her role would become vital at the end.

In the grand scheme of the whole process, laying pipe and connecting the heads was probably the easiest part. The task that nearly beat me was hooking up the sprinkler system to the water line that poked out from underneath our foundation. I went rounds with that part alone for nearly two weeks.

The first test of pushing water through it resulted in several leaks spraying fluid. At one point I actually dismantled every metal piece and then reassembled the whole ensemble only to discover more leaks. This the lowest of my low points I reached this summer.

In a frustrated rage I rumbled into the house and told Amber that we were calling a professional to hook up the water properly. While I vented and moaned my wonderful wife just smiled and nodded. Before I realized it, we were both back outside tightening some pipe and other pieces, and before long water passed seamlessly from the house through our Stop and Waste, up to our Backflow Preventer, and spewed out the other side. This was a good thing, the Backflow Preventer wasn't attached to anything, yet.

With the water properly hooked up, we quickly laid the rest of the pipe for the front yard and extended pipe to connect the Blackflow Preventer to the main set of valves. If you're confused, please ask questions now as there will be an exam at the end of this.

The glorious moment of truth came yesterday. Everything was connected. All the heads were attached in the proper location. I turned the lever to unleash the water and .... the unfiltered heads gushed with high powered wetness!

We spent Saturday evening heaping dirt back onto the pipes, and with the holiday tomorrow, we should be done and done before I return to work on Tuesday morning.

It has been possibly the most challenging household task, but the rewards of seeing it work - know that we did it - made it all worth it.