Medium Rare ... In The Oven

It's time for more weird weather in the desert.  We are cooked to medium rare like the perfect prime rib!   Crusty on the outside, yet still red and tender in the middle.  Then it's going to rain.  How can that be??

My first trip out the door at 5:00 was to look for the rat bait in the garage.  Thankfully there were NO snake sightings.  While digging around in the cupboard however, I found not one, but TWO new sprinkler valves.  I headed straight to that part of the yard to see if they would work.

Sadly, they had already used the parts I needed off of one, but the other was intact.  Time to try and repair ONE of the four.  That's when Mom Quail and her four teenagers stopped by.  I was only able to capture three on my camera.

Gosh, while I'm here, I might as well pull up those dead weeds.  If I wasn't so mad, I might have laughed.  I stepped on and BROKE one of the sprinklers I just put in.  Why in the world would they make sprinklers out of PLASTIC!!!  Grrrrrrrrrr

Here's a break in the action.  Though I haven't seen much on the game camera at night, these bunnies always show up.  It seems like they never sleep.  I hope they are keeping an eye out for snakes too.

So this is the valve.  That right side is the piece I took off.  Outside I went at 8:00 to start the repair.  It was already 90 degrees.

This little black o-ring is the problem, causing water to leak out the side.  The only way to stop it was to turn the water off completely.  I removed the caps, took the parts out, cleaned them and replaced the rings.  I can't believe  it ... it worked!!!  That one no longer leaks!  Just another hat to wear ... I'm a sprinkler repair man now!!

Of course all FOUR were leaking ... so on to the next one.  One seal wasn't TOO bad, so I tried to reuse it.  It never did work.  At least I made one repair ... except I can't run them because of the BROKEN sprinkler.  

Hey .... I remember having a leaky valve at the other house ... and the gardener replaced the entire thing and charged me a chunk.  And all he really needed to do was replace the o-ring?????

By 8:30 I was completely overheated and headed back to the house.  It's frustrating to sit all day long and not be able to get anything done because it's so hot.  That's when Mother Nature decided to flip her skirt and turn us into a big pot of boiling water .... you know like cooking lobster.  

Suddenly there was a CRACK and a big BOOM ... and then the rains fell.  No kidding, it's 106 degrees and it's raining.  Just what I need on my leaky roof.  I have to admit though, it was glorious to have the temperature come all the way down to 79!!!  I sat on the patio and soaked it in.

It lasted all of 30 minutes before I went inside to find something for dinner.  I've had these shrimp in the freezer for awhile, and didn't think they were any good.  I was wrong.  I mean really, how can you not love butter, loads of garlic and shrimp?  They turned out quite tasty!!

Today's schedule involves a really early trip to Arizona DOT for my truck registration.  They always mail it to me, then return my check saying it needs a smog.  The only good part about THIS one is you don't have to wait three hours.  If you make an appointment, someone is helping you at that exact time.

Then it's on to Home Depot to return those two valves I bought.  In talking to Bob, he said they sell just the seals, so I ordered some on-line.  Hopefully that fixes my sprinkler problems (along with buying another one to replace the broken one) so I can focus on the roof, the snakes, the tarantulas, the spiders and the scorpions!!