Water water everywhere....
I'm a water baby. Well, I don't subscribe to such hocus-pocus as astrology; it's evil; but I like the water. Sometimes. When it goes where I want it to and not where it wants to. Sometimes, though, water can give you clues. And sometimes, you gotta reach for your inner MacGuyver! Here's the story:
I thought great, it's 90 degrees already and I've got a busted sprinkler pipe. There was an awful lot of water coming up out of the ground by the pool but no clear indication it was coming from the pool. The hose was in the pool but not leaking. OK, it's not the pool, but where?
I turned on the sprinklers I had on earlier in the day because I'd changed a couple of heads. They didn't pop up out of the ground far enough and would become waterlogged and not sprinkle. The original installation used the flexible black pipe, metal saddles, galvanized risers, and brass heads, which means they're so corroded they're next to impossible to change. I got around to two, added a riser to elevate one sprinkler head in the hopes that it would hit more of the flower bed, and these are all on the same valve. I turned them on and everything worked as advertised, but there was all this clear water bubbling up from the ground.
I used to have this big beautiful yarrow plant. I now have what's left of my big beautiful yarrow plant with a sprinkler head coming out of the middle of where it once was a big, bushy plant. The puddle of water I saw was coming from a long buried and forgotten sprinkler head. My flowers have been dying right there ever since I put the pool up and had to move a sprinkler head or two. I didn't know the thing was there but I"m so grateful it was. It took some work, some Coop"guyver" skills, but I installed a new sprinkler head on a riser that clears the flowers and will now gently rain down much needed water on them.
Yay!
I wanted to put a sprinkler head right where there was one, so it worked out. I also know how the yarrow got so big. It got plenty of water!
I said I had to get creative because I couldn't get one of the screws undone. No biggie; the old sprinkler was about an inch or two below what is now grade, so with the one screw removed, the saddle was loose enough to slide down the pipe. I dug a bigger hole, slid it down the pipe, and buried it. It won't hurt anything. The screws on these are so stuck, I broke one screwdriver tip twice and bent two more just getting them undone. I have to hold the screwdriver in place with the palm of my hand and use a pair of pliers to grab the screwdriver and turn it.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
The pool was another water project. I did some reading and it's OK not to drain the thing every year. Apparently you can shock it a couple of times and you're good to go. I had all the stuff I needed for this except the little bag for my pool vac. It disintegrated years ago. They don't last long for some reason. But never fear, if you're creative, you can always find something that will work. One suggestion I saw online said to use a nylon stocking. I tried this years ago. It doesn't work all that well. What did though, was a ladies' net stocking. It embarrassed me to purchase it, but it was $10 cheaper than buying a new pool vac. I used a couple of large bread ties (the twisty wire kind) to hold it in place. I tried a hair scrunchy that June had but that didn't work. It was too stretched out.
I cleaned out all the big gunk and filled it so the filter can do its' job. Later on in the week, when I get the garbage from the back 40 hauled off, I'll hook the heavy duty vacuum up to the pump and vacuum out the stuff the fishnet wouldn't trap. I have to unhook one of the recirculation hoses and drain it onto my lawn so that junk stays out of the pool. A little algaecide, some more chlorine, a couple of weeks of filtering and the pool will be ready for swiming. Just in time!
The overwhelming projects are finally starting to whittle down. A little bit at a time and we're making dents in them. I'm tired but it's a good kind of tired. I feel like I'm rebuilding something and it's a good feeling. My house and everything in it belongs to God; Im just a steward, and I'm trying to be a better steward of the things He's given me.
And I'm trying gang, really I am, to learn to live on purpose again! I mean that. Crazy is all around me but I'm trying to keep my head above it, not to play along with it, and to just mind my own business and stay busy. Prayer helps. Don't believe me? Look at the story on KSL about it (there's a link on my Facebook to the story).
Working around the house helped me a lot this past week. I started out overwhelmed. On Friday, I just picked a spot and started there. Cleaning up the mess on the south side of the house helped. That was important to do. Replanting strawberries took my mind off a lot of things. So did weeding raspberries and putting down bark. It looks so much nicer back there already. There is a bit of cleaning up yet to do, some weeds to kill, grass to mow, and just a wee bit of tilling left (that's the priority so I can return something I borrowed!). Then it's on to cutting rows with the tractor and planting this upcoming weekend.
Once the garden is in, then the real work starts. There's always weeding to be done back there and I'm really looking forward to starting to reclaim some of my flower beds in the back 40 that have been neglected. The flowers still grow but they need some love. I have one section that has apple trees and it's where my hammock goes. I'd like to put some chairs and a fire pit back there, too. It's quite peaceful and I think cleaning up the flower beds again will help add to that ambiance.
Well, that's all gang! Hope you have a great Tuesday.
I thought great, it's 90 degrees already and I've got a busted sprinkler pipe. There was an awful lot of water coming up out of the ground by the pool but no clear indication it was coming from the pool. The hose was in the pool but not leaking. OK, it's not the pool, but where?
I turned on the sprinklers I had on earlier in the day because I'd changed a couple of heads. They didn't pop up out of the ground far enough and would become waterlogged and not sprinkle. The original installation used the flexible black pipe, metal saddles, galvanized risers, and brass heads, which means they're so corroded they're next to impossible to change. I got around to two, added a riser to elevate one sprinkler head in the hopes that it would hit more of the flower bed, and these are all on the same valve. I turned them on and everything worked as advertised, but there was all this clear water bubbling up from the ground.
I used to have this big beautiful yarrow plant. I now have what's left of my big beautiful yarrow plant with a sprinkler head coming out of the middle of where it once was a big, bushy plant. The puddle of water I saw was coming from a long buried and forgotten sprinkler head. My flowers have been dying right there ever since I put the pool up and had to move a sprinkler head or two. I didn't know the thing was there but I"m so grateful it was. It took some work, some Coop"guyver" skills, but I installed a new sprinkler head on a riser that clears the flowers and will now gently rain down much needed water on them.
Yay!
I wanted to put a sprinkler head right where there was one, so it worked out. I also know how the yarrow got so big. It got plenty of water!
I said I had to get creative because I couldn't get one of the screws undone. No biggie; the old sprinkler was about an inch or two below what is now grade, so with the one screw removed, the saddle was loose enough to slide down the pipe. I dug a bigger hole, slid it down the pipe, and buried it. It won't hurt anything. The screws on these are so stuck, I broke one screwdriver tip twice and bent two more just getting them undone. I have to hold the screwdriver in place with the palm of my hand and use a pair of pliers to grab the screwdriver and turn it.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
The pool was another water project. I did some reading and it's OK not to drain the thing every year. Apparently you can shock it a couple of times and you're good to go. I had all the stuff I needed for this except the little bag for my pool vac. It disintegrated years ago. They don't last long for some reason. But never fear, if you're creative, you can always find something that will work. One suggestion I saw online said to use a nylon stocking. I tried this years ago. It doesn't work all that well. What did though, was a ladies' net stocking. It embarrassed me to purchase it, but it was $10 cheaper than buying a new pool vac. I used a couple of large bread ties (the twisty wire kind) to hold it in place. I tried a hair scrunchy that June had but that didn't work. It was too stretched out.
I cleaned out all the big gunk and filled it so the filter can do its' job. Later on in the week, when I get the garbage from the back 40 hauled off, I'll hook the heavy duty vacuum up to the pump and vacuum out the stuff the fishnet wouldn't trap. I have to unhook one of the recirculation hoses and drain it onto my lawn so that junk stays out of the pool. A little algaecide, some more chlorine, a couple of weeks of filtering and the pool will be ready for swiming. Just in time!
The overwhelming projects are finally starting to whittle down. A little bit at a time and we're making dents in them. I'm tired but it's a good kind of tired. I feel like I'm rebuilding something and it's a good feeling. My house and everything in it belongs to God; Im just a steward, and I'm trying to be a better steward of the things He's given me.
And I'm trying gang, really I am, to learn to live on purpose again! I mean that. Crazy is all around me but I'm trying to keep my head above it, not to play along with it, and to just mind my own business and stay busy. Prayer helps. Don't believe me? Look at the story on KSL about it (there's a link on my Facebook to the story).
Working around the house helped me a lot this past week. I started out overwhelmed. On Friday, I just picked a spot and started there. Cleaning up the mess on the south side of the house helped. That was important to do. Replanting strawberries took my mind off a lot of things. So did weeding raspberries and putting down bark. It looks so much nicer back there already. There is a bit of cleaning up yet to do, some weeds to kill, grass to mow, and just a wee bit of tilling left (that's the priority so I can return something I borrowed!). Then it's on to cutting rows with the tractor and planting this upcoming weekend.
Once the garden is in, then the real work starts. There's always weeding to be done back there and I'm really looking forward to starting to reclaim some of my flower beds in the back 40 that have been neglected. The flowers still grow but they need some love. I have one section that has apple trees and it's where my hammock goes. I'd like to put some chairs and a fire pit back there, too. It's quite peaceful and I think cleaning up the flower beds again will help add to that ambiance.
Well, that's all gang! Hope you have a great Tuesday.
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