Not Intuitive

I've talked about the juniper removal and replacement with sod, but I'm not sure I mentioned watering this new sod. That's about to change.

The controller I have for my sprinkler system feels much more complicated (to me) than the one I had at my house in Minnesota. That was felt easy and straightforward. This one? Not so much.

I've relied on other people to set it for me. The landscaper. My brother. But my yard is just a muddy, sodden mess and I didn't understand why.

I also didn't understand how my water bill could be as ridiculous as it was.

Then I tried to adjust the time on the controller myself, made everything worse with zones running twice, and I was like what is going on?

Finally, on Saturday, I did a search for the manufacturer/controller names. Found a YouTube video that the company created about how to program the controller. It was eye opening to say the least. What I thought were Zones were program numbers.

PROGRAM NUMBERS!

My sprinkler was running THREE times. Every day.

When the landscaper had it scheduled to run for an hour for the new sod, it was running for three hours.

I didn't notice this because I was sleeping while most of the running was happening, but when I adjusted the times, it started running while I was awake and that's when I noticed it was going off twice. Actually, it was still going off three times, but I wasn't up for the first one.

With the YouTube video fresh in my mind, I went to the controller and turned off programs 2 and 3. Verified that program 1 was hitting all three zones and turned it to run.

Of course, I'm going to continue to monitor the situation to make sure I did it right, but I'm hoping this takes care of how wet and muddy my yard is. The water bill is still going to be outrageous this month, but hopefully that goes down next month.

What a mess. 

The River O'Shea

I'm not sure I mentioned this or not, but the backyard of my new house was not completely sodded. Approximately the back one third of the yard is dirt. At first, I didn't think this would be a huge problem. All the trees are in that part of the yard and this meant no need to rake and no lawn to cut in that area.

The problem came when it rained. My house isn't that far from the retention pond, and because of that, the yard is sloped to send the water toward the pond. When it rains, the water flows like a river through the dirt, taking soil with it away from my house.

The erosion is bad enough that the tree roots are becoming exposed. Some of the trees are pretty far along. During a rainstorm in January, not only did I have the main river going through this dirt part to the retention pond, I also had tributaries winding their way around the dirt.

So I'm having landscaper come out to take a look at the yard. I'm hoping there's something we can do to prevent the erosion that doesn't involve sod. Not only is it expensive, but then I have the upkeep that comes with it. Plus I do not believe that I have my in-ground sprinkler system in that area. If I recall correctly, only the part that sodded is in the sprinkler's path.

However if my choice is between sod and some kind of ground cover that will attract snakes, I am all in on the sod.

Not a Drop to Drink

A couple of weeks ago, I arrived home from work to find the city water department had dug a deep hole between my yard and my neighbor's yard. I stopped and got the mail, which was right near where they were working, but no one said anything to me and I didn't think anything more about it.

It was about an hour later, when I go to get water from the dispenser in my refrigerator and nothing came out. My first thought was that one of the doors wasn't closed all the way. The fridge won't dispense water or ice unless both doors are completely shut. But no, both doors are closed. I try opening and shutting them again. Still no water.

I get a little panicked. I'm worried my refrigerator has developed an issue. I never gave a thought to the guys outside--not yet--because I'd had water within the first half an hour that I was home.

It was while I was panicking about my fridge that I remembered the city's water department. To test out this theory, I tried to run the water in my sink. Nothing. Okay, it's not just the fridge. Now I panicked in earnest because it was late and what if the water guys had left already? I rushed to the front door.

I see a water department guy and I ask if they're still working. Um, yeah, I was so blind in my worry that I missed the guy standing in the hole and the rest of the team doing whatever nearby. No wonder he looked at me like I was nuts. Oops. Well, what can I say? The idea of no water was terrifying and no one had said anything to me about turning off my water when I was just feet away from them.

It was about another hour before one of the guys rang the doorbell and told me I had water again. They'd put in a new line and a new meter, he said. I was so relieved that they weren't going to stop working (it was nearly 7pm by this point) that I forgot to ask why they did the work. Another oops.

I already knew I wouldn't have made a good pioneer, but this reinforces that knowledge. It also underlines the fact that if I ever have a chance to time travel, I'll be going to the future, not the past.

Water

Believe it or not, this post isn't about my house. Although be prepared. It's not too much longer until I close and then you will be getting more stories. Sorry, but it's like my number one topic of conversation and look on the bright side. You're not stuck in the office with me all day like my coworkers are. :-)

I'm a big proponent of drinking water. That's my beverage of choice like 99% of the time and sometimes, to break things up, I'll drink one of those flavored waters like Sobe or Propel. Part of why it's a now and then thing for me is the cost. To say it in Minnesotan, they're a little spendy.

And then at work, I saw someone use a water enhancer.

I'm probably the last one to know about them, but I loathe grocery shopping. I go in with a list and my goal is to get out as fast as it's humanly possible to do so. No doubt I've wheeled past them a number of times and never noticed.

Armed with my new knowledge, I went online and ordered a variety 3-pack. Lemonade, Strawberry-watermelon, and Berry-pomegranate.

I'm meh about the strawberry-watermelon, but I love the other two flavors and it's cheaper than the bottled flavor water and probably better for the environment (plastic bottles). From now on, it's water enhancers for me, but I still will keep it to once a day (most days) because I'm sure that's healthier.