Winter must truly be a magical season, but I don’t mean that in a good way.
Every year in the late fall, I clear out weeds from the garden and orchard, I put down fertilizer for all the trees and bushes I have planted over the past decade, as well as trimming and pruning those plants so they come back healthy in the spring. I double check sprinkler valve timers to be sure they have fresh batteries and are functioning properly. And I spend hours checking miles of hoses, sprinkler heads, and drip lines to make sure there are no clogs or leaks.
Then comes that magical few months we call winter. Winter absolutely must be magical because somehow, every spring, just like magic despite all my planning and hard work, I find dead trees surrounded by acres of weeds, non-functioning valve timers, and broken drip lines.
And the chores begin all over again.
Abra-effing-Cadabra!
This year was no different. I spent several weeks recently identifying all the broken stuff and trying to fix it. I have cut down three dead trees and replaced two of them. (The third one may grow back on its own, so I’ve adopted a wait and see policy with that one.) I have spent hours mowing, spraying and pulling weeds and have only just begun to see progress. And, I discovered several broken drip lines throughout the yard, two broken sprinkler heads, and three valve timers that have decided to retire early.
Buying replacement parts has also become quite the endeavor this year. My choices are to go to a nursery and bump into every other stir-crazy, shut-in trying to find any excuse to be out of the house right now, or go online to order parts and wait out the prolonged delivery times. Personally, I prefer the online route, but that’s only because I dislike interacting with people. Especially large crowds of people that should be staying home instead of constantly popping up in my way.
My latest project involved the three dead valve timers. It only took two weeks to complete what should have been a five-minute job. I started out by going to each of the timers and checking battery function. Two of the dead timers came right back to life with a fresh infusion of double-A goodness. The third one was not so cooperative. When I opened it up, it immediately leaked some kind of grey and brown crud all over my hand.
That timer was all the way dead and needed to be replaced.
I checked my toolbox and the cabinet where I keep spare sprinkler parts in the garage but could not find a spare timer. I was sure I had one, but I guess winter had one more magic trick up her sleeve and made it disappear.
Next, I went online and ordered a new timer. I decided to order two of them because I figured I should keep an extra one on hand for when (not if) the next volunteer in the yard decided to call it quits. Then I spent the next two weeks hand watering all the plants on that particular drip line until the new timer arrived.
With a new valve timer in hand, I trudged out to the well pump to turn off the water to our yard. Have you ever noticed that one project often turns into two or three?
As soon as I turned the water off, I noticed that the water pressure in the lines was low. This happens every year or so when the water filter gets gummed up and starts interfering with water flow.
To check the filter, I unscrewed the filter housing and was instantly assaulted by a geyser of slimy black water. It was just like the end of the log ride at Disneyland, that is if the log ride was dropping you into a vat of stagnant sewage and it smelled like a humid locker room.
I slogged back to the garage, dripping and dry heaving, to look for spare filters. Fortunately, I had a spare set. I swapped out the old filters for the new ones, made a mental note to order some new filters for next time, then trudged back to the front yard to replace the sprinkler valve timer. (You know, the original reason I was even out there.)
After replacing the dead timer, I decided to turn on the sprinklers to check the water pressure. I wanted to see how they were working after I had put the new water filters in the well pump. One of the sprinkler heads started gushing water from somewhere two feet underground.
Apparently, the water pressure was excellent. The sprinkler lines? Not so much.
Back to the garage I went to get a shovel and a new sprinkler head.
Despite all the fun things I got to do that day, my favorite part of the day came when I took the extra valve timer I had ordered and decided to put it somewhere in the garage where it would be easily found when I needed it. The way things were going, I figured that day might come sooner rather than later. I decided that the best place for it would be a storage cabinet right next to my toolbox.
I opened the cabinet and placed the new timer on a shelf…
Right next to three other brand-new, never been used, still in the box, valve timers.
Abra-effing-Cadabra!
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