…and we did get the real ’emergency’ things done. Though I do see Jane patrolling the garden out there, possibly with work in mind.
Naw. She’s dressed in a clean new shirt, which is not what you do to go wrestle the garden.
I do need to get out there and wash the pond filter.
Mostly now it’s watering.
We’ve been trying to figure how to get water to the ‘back 40’, ie, the ‘ell’ by the garage, which is not on the sprinkling system. And we looked at a) the possibility of using an unused zone in the control box by figuring out how to wire in and plumb in another valve for what looks like a fully used manifold [metal thingie that has a lot of connectors to let you put daughter valves all on the same mother line]—and we can’t tell one wire from the other: no wiring diagram b) installing a new control box and valve manifold, for just one line (kind of overkill)…
In everything it’s the frustration of having water on one side of the yard and power on the other: getting the two together constructively has just been a bear.
Then we realized that the #6 line in the control box actually WAS used, but for a section of sprinkler between us and the neighbors that we cut off when we coated the area in deep mulch, no plants.
Ha! We tie onto THAT line, run it clear out to the ell, install a couple of meaningful sprinkler heads, reactivate zone 6 on the control box with the flip of a switch, and we’re in it for an easy DIY with a mattock, a coil of irrigation hose, four hose barbs and some hard pipe where we insert the two sprinkling heads out in that ell, and we’re good. We’re also not having to dip into savings to get that area irrigated so we don’t spend our time hauling hose out to the apple tree and dogwood. Yay us.
I suspect Jane is simply enjoying the fruits of the current labors of Sisyphus, and making a few mental notes about what needs to happen next. And making sure Wii-chan and Pookie aren’t getting into anything unauthorized.
And I’m thinking how we can spend that money we’re not spending on the sprinkler system…
Lol. But I think we are going to put in the lotus pond this year. We’ve already got a pit where Jane took out the Vanderwolf Pine, so a little deeper, a little wider, and then some rock and dirt and gravel to build up a waterfall/stream down to the lotus pool, and we’ve got ourselves a nice little secondary stream, which will be much lazier than our waterfall.
no wiring diagram
That’s a low-voltage, 12v, system. Not dangerous to work on, charged. Just turn on everything and unscrew one wire at a time and see what goes off. Make own diagram. 🙂
Lol—thanks, Paul. Nice to know that.
As a certain kif said, “Was that not understood?”, so I was puzzled that it was an issue. OTOH, as a general rule electricity and water are considered “incompatible”. 😉
You have to recall that one of my principle hobbies involves bringing water and electricity together in a glass box full of fish… 😆
“OH. Never mind.” 😉
The phrase “easy DIY” and “mattock” sorta buck up against past yard episodes. Not to mention sore backd. How about your nifty watchamagigger, the rotor-tiller? I can’t quite remember — will it dredge a narrow channel? Good luck, but all in all, this sounds like a great solution.
The little Mantis tiller only churns up the ground a few inches deep. But a mattock can trench a 3″ channel 6″ deep pretty easily in Washington dirt—in Oklahoma clay, not quite so easily, but it still goes pretty fast, about half a foot at every swing if the ground is cooperating and there are no complications like weedcloth to have to undo before you can get through. I can trench thirty feet in under an hour—with sitdowns to rest, granted my back holds up, and we’ve got to take the line maybe a hundred feet, from where it starts in the space between the houses to the place where we want the new heads.
I sit and hang my head in shame. Took me all day to hang three hose hangers, clean up and rake a 13 x 15 area of yard and lay three bags of mulch. All fricking day! — of course it was 93F/34C out and I had to stop, go inside, drink a bottle of water and cool down about once an hour. We had a good rain this evening, though. Much, much needed. Out again tomorrow to start in on the back yard. Haul stuff to the dumpster, clean iris beds, prune/deadhead roses, sort out a bed full of climbing roses, and have a serious discussion with a fence. Only supposed to get up to 89F, but then it’s back up into the 90’s all the rest of the week.
Heat slows me down to a crawl.
Very amused at all the side discussions.
Tangential: I’m still on about those minions, and it struck me, the difference between English minion and French mignon, which is something like favorite or best, cute or special. How they drifted apart in meanings, I’m not sure. Though perhaps one’s minions are one’s best, hand-picked servants of doo-oom? Ah well, no matter. I am woefully lacking in minions….
(I tried for a story idea, a send-up of minions, but it insisted on taking a sharp turn into the serious story. So, I suppose I should make another stab at it. …Or have those minions take a stab at it…. Heheh.)
— However — I’ve been writing more. Heck, if I could get a draft finished, something I’m satisfied with, I’d have a short story by now. Or a novella length story. I think I’m working a few bugs out and *maybe* close to getting over a hump in beginning fiction writer status. Hoping so. Anyway, I’m feeling a little better about it all.
I’m threatening to do some things inside the house that need doing. We shall see how it goes this week. My motivation just isn’t what it ought to be. I expect to push more this week, though.
My budget has just vaguely improved from careful management this month, though that front panel needs replacing. (I should rewatch that Firefly ep.) If I can do likewise a few more months, I’ll be…oh, maybe not ahead, but better.