Another week, another round of dirt and rock displacement – this time in the backyard to replace our ancient watering system with better material and a more logical configuration. And while the cost was about what you would expect for the kind of work that was done – just a hair above $1,700 – the whole effort went amazingly fast.

The first step was to make damned sure the guys understood what I was looking for – something that was real basic and straight-forward: two main lines, one for the queen and date palms, one for all the other flora and fauna. The lines placed in a way that they’d be easily identified (i.e., running along the cement walls as much as possible) to make future troubleshooting (hopefully, the next occupant!) easier, with spaghetti lines running out to each and every tree and bush. No more main lines spread all over the place. No more trees sharing multiple valve stations. And, most importantly, no more water wasted in areas that didn’t need it.

Considering the task at hand I was pretty surprised at how quickly it all went: two guys, one with a pickaxe, one with a shovel, working their way from the main valves out, starting from the left and gradually working their way around to the right and around the back to the side yard. And the foreman/supervisor following up, pulling the old stuff up. In the better part of two hours they had unearthed the entire system, covered the old areas with the original dirt and rock, and had started a new trench running at the base of the wall all around.

They found the leak quickly enough, by the bend in the swimming pool patio deck. Nothing serious, just age and (once again) the settling of ground pulling an underground (and heretofore unknown) spaghetti line away from one of the main lines.

Within another hour they had laid the new main lines down and connected them to the main valves. A quick test to make sure the main lines were intact and not leaking, and the next step was to connect the smaller “spaghetti” lines to each bush and tree to its respective line. Another check of station five (the palms) and station six (everything else) to make sure the emitters were working without leaks, and while one guy covered up the trench the other was washing down everything.

And that was that. Backyard watering system issues a thing of the past, a credit card a little more bloated, and everyone happy.

After settling the bill I talked with the head honcho about next steps. We walked the front yard and peeked under the tarp covering the area of the driveway needing cement. He could already see the difference my watering had done on the dirt racing stripe running across our front lawn and thought another two weeks of watering would be sufficient to get everything ready for the final visit. The goal is to have everything done by April 15. Which reminds me, time to get scooting on our taxes prep!