Sprinklers...Day 2

Today was a very exhausting day. I was able to finish the trenches for the yard. What a pain. I can't even imagine doing this by hand. The shoveling is bad enough just to clean out the corners or crosses where trenches meet.



My brother and his wife showed up to help out. We still didnt make much of a dent in the overall system but their help was appreciated. I didnt think it would be this much of a hassle to get a sprinkler system in the ground. My brother and I spend a large portion of the day trying to figure out where and how to place the sprinkler boxes that house the manifolds. One of the things we were able to complete was connecting to the main city water and installing a mainline filter for the sprinkler system.
As far as actual pipe, we were able to run 1 main line all the way out to the end of the property which will feed a hose bib. We also were able to dig the location for the first bank of 5-manifolds for the backyard sprinkler zones. We ran into the problem of location due to how the sprinkler plan was written up. The sprinkler box was going to run from East to West. When we tried it in that orientation, it was found that we wouldn't be able to connect the main line to it. Therefore we had to dig an even bigger hole to get the box turned correctly. The part about digging which really sucks is that the ground has spots of clay which is not very fun to try and dig through. With my hands killing me from yesterdays excitement, shoveling proved to be even more painful.
Anyway, at about 4:30pm my help had to go home and get ready for a party that was being held at my place at 6pm. This is why if you notice that scratz wasn't mentioned as to helping out, she was busy cleaning the house and running errands to get ready for the party. I did a few minor things to the sprinkler system before I too had to go get cleaned up for the party.

The party was a combined Birthday party for the Parents. It was a nice little get together and even the infamous flat mate of my sister showed up. The only downside was that I am completely exhausted from the two days of working in the yard. This was probably a nice change for the rest of the family because I wasnt as loud and rambunctious as I normally am. All-in-all I had a pretty nice day.

Tomorrow, I took the day off with the hopes of getting a little more completed on the sprinkler system. I hope to finish the section of the system which is located where the dog kennel usually sits. This way I will have a place to put the dogs when we head back to work on Monday.

That's all for tonight, it is past my bedtime and I can hardly think. So if this post doesn't make much sense, I will correct my errors tomorrow. until then, remember rabies isn't the worse thing you can catch.

Long time coming...Sprinkler install...Day 1

Hello to all of you faithful fans. (in case you were wondering I am not dead, just busy) Today I decided I would start with some of the home improvement updates as I get my lawn ready for the year. I keep thinking of things to blog about then another part of live takes center stage, so I forget what I wanted to blog about. Hopefully this project will allow me to have something to post about.

I finally had the chance to get a start on the "house to-do" list. The top thing on the list is getting the yard ready for the sprinkler system. A few weeks ago I reserved a trenching machine to help speed up the process of digging the trenches in the yard. Part of the reason I scheduled the trencher was to insure that I would actually start the work.

Once I made the reservation, I drew up a plot map of the yard and took it to the local sprinkler supply store for them to design my sprinkler system.

Here is a photo of the map I drew.


With the plan made, it was time to move forward with the project. A few days ago we paid for and had all the parts for the sprinkler system delivered. For the main piping, we are using black poly pipe instead of PVC. Due to the location, we had to buy pipe that is rated to 125psi.



Once the supplies were delivered, scratz and I placed fancy red flags all over the yard to show the location of where the sprinkler heads are to be placed. This took a couple of days because of work schedule and because the baby needs to be played with as well. :)

Front yard with hard to see flags


Backyard flags




Which brings us to today...Today was the day to pickup the trencher from the rental store and to start the fun work. I had my mother come over to watch the baby while I went to get the trencher at about 2:30pm. I finally got started trenching at about 3:30pm. Since it took me a little time deciding on my game plan, but once I got started it wasn't to bad.

Here I am just getting started for the day.


Shot of me making the first of many long trenches with this beast.



This think is like 800lbs if not more. It takes my whole body weight forcing against this beast to try and keep it on the path I want it to be on.


Making a little progress...Had to stop to text.



Here is one of the long runs.




This continued on for about 6 hours and I had to stop because it was getting to dark to see what I was doing. I only have a little more to go in the front yard. That should mean tomorrow I will finish up the rest of the trenching. I do need to figure out a few more things about main valve placement and which is the best way to run the pipe.

As for tonight, after many hours of trying to force that beast where I wanted it to go, my hands are killing me. When I was younger and worked construction, I don't think this would have made my hands this tender and sore. However because I work a desk job now, the most physical labor I have done recently is falling of my chair...I do have it on video but I think I would be in trouble if I posted it.

Anyway here is a shot a of my hand, both of them are this bright red.


So that is all for today, tomorrow we are going to see about getting some of the pipe in the ground.

Until then, don't get arrested.