Written by So here’s the story. Once upon a time – about 1940 or so – a little house was built on Santa Ana Avenue and somewhere around 2006, after changing hands a few times, was sold to a young woman named Kristi. The previous owners, in a mad rush to boost its value last-minute, ran around throwing together a lot of poorly conceived, adhoc improvements to the property. One such boondoggle was our sprinkler system.
The guys who put it in really didn’t know what they were doing. The lines are about three times as deep as they should be. All the heads are on pivots rather than fixed and stationary. The heads themselves are all wrong – 360 degree sprays, half of which cover the pebble driveway leading out of the garage. And the lines themselves run in a maze all under the yard.
Before we could do anything useful with the back yard, something had to be done about those things. So today Don and Kathy came by and the four of us attacked the back yard – Don and I replacing the main trouble-child sprinkler line, and Kristi and Kathy powerwashing the fences to prep for painting sometime in the next week or so. And I’m happy to report that at least a good chunk of the yard sprinkler system now works perfectly and actually MAKES SENSE, which means that now we can seriously start thinking of what to plant in that area, while we plan our attack on trouble-child sprinkler line #2. We got the worst one down and done today, though. It really felt good to see that line come on and work just the way we wanted it to.
You know, my sympathy goes out to anyone faced with extensive yard care and landscaping work on their home, especially if they’re doing it alone or just with their spouse. It’s tough work and a lot of it. But it’s so much easier when you can get a gang of family on it – everyone knowing that when the time comes for a returned favor on their own yard, we’re only happy to oblige. Family’s good for that.
Laura: I’ll get some photos up soon. I know it’s been a while; I think the “Eugene” hairball was our last. We’ll get a few good shots of the backyard in progress and get them up here for you guys.