life on the wand

After sleeping in until about 8 I got up and went jogging. When I got back I mowed, edged, and trimmed the yard. I fixed a few things around the house, including the fountain for the pool. When I got the fountain turned on almost no water was coming out. So, I went to look at the pump and saw the filter was up to 25 PSI.
Oh oh, that means it needs to be backwashed. After backwashing the filter I put chemicals into the pool. It just now occurred to me that I forgot to brush the sides. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. The next project was to get the appliances we took out of the kitchen at Easter out of the garage. I found a place called Christian Community Action in Lewisville and decided to take the double oven, microwave, and gas range there. It took an hour or more to get all the boxes, junk, and Styrofoam off the trailer and the appliances appropriately tied down for the road trip.
When I got to the donation center there was line of 10 cars to drop stuff off! I waited in the line and when it was my turn I was glad they they accepted all of the appliances and helped unload. This place seems well run. When I got back to the house I spent several hours rearranging the garage, breaking down boxes for recycling, and putting some storage bins together. I decided to put the trailer on the other side of the garage for several reasons:

• All the stuff that was on the floor in front of the jeep can be placed on the trailer
• There is enough room at the front of the trailer to get the trash can in and out of the garage
• Whenever we open the garage to pull a car in or out the neighborhood won't see the messy trailer

While cleaning the garage I cleared a path to the lawn sprinkler control panel. I decided to check all the zones and make sure the heads all worked, etc. Well, the very first zone was the front yard, and it had a problem. Right down by the street water was pouring up out of the ground and running into the street. I found a hole the water was coming up out of and stuck my hand down in it trying to find a broken sprinkler head.
I dug down over a foot and didn't find anything, so I decided to abandon the first zone and check the other five. They all seemed okay for the most part. I had to clean out and adjust a few heads. I also learned that the zones are completely different than what is written on the box. They redid the zones and sprinklers when they put the pool in. When Philip and I fixed the fence that blew over we ran into a sprinkler head that was damaged and replaced it. Turns out that sprinkler head had been abandoned when the pool was put in, so I spent $10 replacing a dead head. Ah bon, c'est la vie.
If you look at the bottom picture you can see a brick on the curb. That brick was dug up out of the yard (what it was doing there I don't know), but that isn't why I point it out. Where the brick is sitting is about where the water was pouring out of the ground. I had to dig down about 18" and follow a pipe 3 or 4 feet before I found the leak. I think what happened was when they put the fiber optic line in for our Internet they damaged my sprinkler pipe. The water was following the fiber line instead of the sprinkler. I finally found the leak when I reached the spot where the fiber and the sprinkler lines cross. This is all a bit of supposition because I did this all be feel through mucky muddy water. Hopefully it will dry out enough by tomorrow to get a proper look at the leak.
And, the day ended with a quick dip in the pool, a simple dinner and a long blog entry. And, I am worn out, tired, and sore. It's been a good day.
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