My Lawn (The Lighter Side)

The last 3 weeks or so I have been fertilizing like a mad man trying to get some green grass to grow. I am proud to report in most places of the yard my efforts have not been in vain. Dark green grass is starting to become evident all throughout my yard. There is one exception to this green grass taking hold and it has been driving me bonkers. All that changed Saturday.

I have a sprinkler system that has made by job much easier. I did start to notice that one place in my back yard was not getting any greener, as a matter of fact it was becoming more yellow. I started watching the spray patterns of my sprinkler and to my chagrin I realized that my entire right hand side of my yard was receiving no water. I started to hand water the area, but to be honest it was still not getting the water it needed in this crazy 100+ degree weather we have been having.

At some point last week my beautiful wife pointed out that there was a sprinkler head that didn't seem to be coming up. I was thrilled because I didn't even know there was a sprinkler there. I tried to see if I could fix it, but since I have no freaking clue what I was doing I was pretty useless. I called my dad and told him about the situation. In my head I theorized that this sprinkler head would hit the entire section that I had been missing. I asked him if he knew of anyone that may be able to fix the broken sprinkler head. He responded by saying he knew of two capable men that could fix it and wouldn't charge me a dime. That sounded too good to be true. It was. I soon realized he was talking about me and him.

We got to work on the project early on Saturday. I pointed out the sprinkler that was the problem to my dad. I thought if I could just get a new sprinkler head we would be good to go. Dad wanted to test out the sprinkler system though. When we arrived at the zone that the sprinkler resided at I noticed something interesting. I heard a gurgle sound directly across from the sprinkler. I walked across the yard and found that there was a hole that had become filled with water. My thought was that this hole was the result of water that could not flow to the sprinkler head because it was broken. My thought was also wrong and Dad knew it.

He said that we needed a new sprinkler head. I agreed and we headed off to get one. What was interesting to me was while we were there he was picking up supplies I wasn't sure what their use was for. He picked up some adhesive and an elbow of PVC pipe and a cap and some nylon string. At the point I am utterly confused about what is about to happen. We get back to my house and he goes to the hole that the gurgling noise came from earlier. By now evaporation has set in and there is no water left in the hole.
I can clearly see now there are 2 pipes. The bad news is that both pipes run directly into the cement that was laid when a fence post was dug out. Dad pointed out that whoever had my fence built broke the water line and knew it. Instead of fixing it or doing anything about it they just poured cement on the top of it. He gets out the nylon string and wraps it around the pipe and starts rubbing the pipe with the string until the pipe snaps clean across. At this point I still have no clue what my dad is thinking and now I am freaking out a little in my head. then he takes adhesive and starts rubbing it on the cut he just made in the pipe and asks for the sprinkler head. This whole time I was under the impression the sprinkler head was not for this hole, but instead to replace the sprinkler head that Amy discovered. I reluctantly handed him the sprinkler head and he glued it in place. After a few minutes he says OK lets go try it out.

My thought is if this works I will have 2 new sprinklers I did not have before, which I would have been more than please with. He turns the station on and both sprinklers started to work! Then I get another surprise. Three (yes I said 3) other sprinkler heads popped up and start hitting the areas that I was having trouble with. I had no idea they were even there! I was thrilled to say the least! So I started the day thinking I will have 1 more sprinkler at the end of the day and instead I ended up with 5! We still had to fix up the other pipe that was broken by capping it off, but it was great news all the way around. Just goes to prove you're never too old to learn something from your old man. Thanks Pop!!



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