Yard Work
I just got back from the folks house. Dad's doing better, which is a relief, but he's still not back to normal. Hopefully that will be soon. The new dog is a sweetheart too. Hard to resist a yellow lab. I still wish Dad would've gotten a smaller dog. I just think that he won't be able to give it the exercise he needs. We'll see.
I was finally able to locate the broken sprinkler head in our back yard. I had to dig about 3 holes to find it too. Anyone who has tried to dig a hole in our lovely "soil" knows just what a pain in the ass digging one hole is, much less 3. Why three? Well, when I turn on the sprinklers, and artesian spring would pop up somewhere in a flower bed. So I started digging there. No luck, just a muddy hole that kept filling up with water. Next was a hole by an existing sprinkler just so I could determine which direction the pipe went. No luck, and no pipe heading towards the new spring. Finally I find a nearly buried sprinkler head near the new spring. This as to be it. Find a suitable spot to start digging, set up the spade, hop up in the air and land on the shovel, and clang, I sink about two inches. After some precision digging with a trowel, I find root from a near by tree that is about as big as the trunk itself. This root has grown a fork around the sprinkler and started to push it over, busting the sprinkler. As if digging a hole around here isn't bad enough, I have to dig through, and around a very well developed root system from several nearby plants and the tree. Man! sometimes I love that I live in a condo. Anyway, long story short, (and three trips to Home Depot) I got the sprinkler fixed...I think. I left the whole open, so I can see if there are any more leaks coming from my repair job before I fill up the hole. More yard work tomorrow....yay! (and I think one more trip to Home Depot, the one spare sprinkler left has the wrong spray pattern....DOH!)
I was finally able to locate the broken sprinkler head in our back yard. I had to dig about 3 holes to find it too. Anyone who has tried to dig a hole in our lovely "soil" knows just what a pain in the ass digging one hole is, much less 3. Why three? Well, when I turn on the sprinklers, and artesian spring would pop up somewhere in a flower bed. So I started digging there. No luck, just a muddy hole that kept filling up with water. Next was a hole by an existing sprinkler just so I could determine which direction the pipe went. No luck, and no pipe heading towards the new spring. Finally I find a nearly buried sprinkler head near the new spring. This as to be it. Find a suitable spot to start digging, set up the spade, hop up in the air and land on the shovel, and clang, I sink about two inches. After some precision digging with a trowel, I find root from a near by tree that is about as big as the trunk itself. This root has grown a fork around the sprinkler and started to push it over, busting the sprinkler. As if digging a hole around here isn't bad enough, I have to dig through, and around a very well developed root system from several nearby plants and the tree. Man! sometimes I love that I live in a condo. Anyway, long story short, (and three trips to Home Depot) I got the sprinkler fixed...I think. I left the whole open, so I can see if there are any more leaks coming from my repair job before I fill up the hole. More yard work tomorrow....yay! (and I think one more trip to Home Depot, the one spare sprinkler left has the wrong spray pattern....DOH!)