Do It Yourself!!

I've always been a do-it-yourself kind of girl.  I remember way back in grammar school when they taught us to work together on a social studies project.  I got a D because we were graded on our whole project, not individually.  My partner didn't do ANY of her work.  I decided right then and there that I would always do it myself.

Sometimes that gets me into trouble, but at least I generally know when to call UNCLE and get someone who knows what they are doing.  Such was the case with the sprinklers.  This one was broken, so I brought another from California.  It can't be too hard, just unscrew the old one, screw in the new one.

Not so fast Miss Nancy ... seems the new one is WAY too big.  With the valves stuck open and watering the entire two acres, I called out the calvary.  Able from Arcadia Landscape came by yesterday morning.

Wasn't I shocked when he said it would cost $600 to replace these four sprinkler valves.  Good grief Able ... don't scare me like that!!  He said he would clean the bad one first and see if that worked.  I asked if I could watch and maybe do the rest myself.  

The nice man said certainly ... he would be happy to teach me all about them.  We unscrewed the top and discovered lots of gritty white junk from the hard water here.  All cleaned out, he unscrewed the anti-siphon side and gave it the once over.  Once back together, we turned on the water and it worked just fine.  He also showed me how to adjust each valve for water flow so it would quit blowing the emitters off the end of the lines.

Now to repair the broken sprinkler ... come to find out it was the correct size, but whoever installed it attached the water line permanently to the side instead of the bottom.  That meant cutting the pipe and making the same type of repair.  Probably $50 for that one!!  No matter, the new one is working great!

The next cool morning, I'll grab my screwdriver and clean out all the other valves.  Able said they would send me a bill for his time ... that's a scary prospect since he had no idea how much it would be.  Any questions about your valves, just give me a call.  I've got Able on speed dial. 

Here's something new I learned about yard work.  Seems there's always something to learn.  While waiting for Able, I started pulling weeds from the flowerbed, overgrown from WAY too much water.  I actually did wear a pair of gloves, not that they helped much.  I kept running into that nice little cactus plant.

Two hours later, I discovered I am covered from head to toe with little tiny minuscule cactus spines in my hands, arms, legs and feet, and a couple other places I won't mention.  I figure I'll have to live with it because I can't see them at all.  Note to self:  be more careful when pulling weeds around the cactus.

Deciding to treat myself for lunch, I made a quick trip to Dairy Queen just down the road.  A dangerous place when you don't have much self control.  However, they have a great meal deal.  I got seven chicken strips with a load of fries, two pieces of garlic toast and all the dipping sauce I would ever need, all for $9.50.  Not bad since it made three meals for me.  MUCH better than Taco Bell.

I've procrastinated long enough ... today is Mow-The-Lawn day before it rains again.