Category Archives: Weather

Sprinkler Systems

Posted by on July 10, 2011 1 comment

Today I successfully replaced a sprinkler head. It was not as easy as I had assumed it would be and it is merely the first step in my task of fixing my busted irrigation system.

I pre-home-depoted todays task. I picked up a shovel, some 9V batteries, a solenoid and some water proof wire, to be technical, “thingys”. The shovel was useful for about 10 seconds when I removed the sod. The 9Vs helped me test individual zones to help rule out the new controller as the source of my troubles. The solenoid remains unopened as well as the wire thingys.

My first effort had me left with the top of the sprinkler head exposed. Seeing as how the sprinkler head itself was fine and the nozzle is all that broke (I was learning as I went along), I figured I could make a second run to home depot and pick up a new nozzle. My day was looking really easy at this point.

I gathered the inner part of the sprinkler head where the nozzle would attach and was off back to Home Depot. Home Depot had exactly two brands of irrigation products: Orbits and Toro. I was happy to see Toro as 50% of the equipment in my set up is Toro. I was less happy when I found that there were no nozzles at Home Depot that fit my existing head. It was a serious debacle of male vs. female heads. I guess male is the new hotness. This meant that I would have to install a new head.

Joy.

I found a suitable head based on spray pattern. Picked a thread size and prayed that it would fit in the existing set up. (You’re supposed to bring the head in to make sure the threads match up.) I picked up an adapter just in case I wasn’t lucky. I also picked up a multimeter because 3/7 of my zones don’t respond to power and I am determined to find out why.  The last item I decided to pick up was a hand trowel with serrated edges on one side and a knife like edge on the other.  I had seen where I was going and I was not going to take that journey unarmed.

The first step to changing a sprinkler head is to dig down below the existing head’s base. This is usually a simple task. The hardest part being that you must avoid destroying the mysterious and fragile source pipe. My effort in this task was made ever more difficult due to the fact that this sprinkler head was entwined within the root system of a near by tree.Now you know why I purchased my unique trowel. Let’s just say that it took me the better part of the afternoon to find the bottom of the existing sprinkler head and I hope the tree lives.

Eventually I found the mysterious source pipe and proceeded to dig some more. You are supposed to dig a little under neath and around to make your life easier. I couldn’t stand digging through a thicket of roots anymore. At this point I said “what the hell” and unscrewed the existing head. First I checked the threads and thank goodness the head I purchased would work perfectly. While checking the threads I failed to notice that water was boiling up from the source pipe. This made sense of course as the head I was working on was the lowest head of the zone and would naturally be where any remaining water would flow. This wouldn’t be a problem if my hole wasn’t just big enough to replace the head. Dirt found it’s way into the source pipe and my work zone was soon underwater.

I decided it was a wise idea to dig some more to give the water an escape path. In addition I needed to jettison the dirt in the source tube or it would clog the screen on the new head and render my entire efforts wasted. I screwed the old head back on. It was nothing more than a 4 inch piece of PVC pipe now and I was hoping it would guide as much of the water up and away from the hole so as to not increase the amount of water in my workzone. Upon manually activating the zone I realized this was a pipe dream.  (Pun?) Without the nozzle, the head became more of a slow boiling exit for the water. It used to geyser up about 3-4 feet. After a few seconds I shut the zone back off.

I now had a 6 inch deep and 4 inch in diameter hole filled with water. I could tell that no new water was filling my work zone so I looked for a way to get the water out of the hole. A quick jump inside and I had a plastic cup. For about 5-10 minutes I used the cup to bail out the water. Eventually most of the head was exposed and the water level was at a workable depth. I unscrewed the old head and then screwed the new head in

Success!  I have 3 eggs – Q.E.D. I have 3 chickens.

Being the smart person that I am, I quickly headed over to the control valve to give it a test before filling in the hole.

I turn it on. Run over to find that the nozzle has popped up but no water is coming out. Son of a… I recall that there is a screw on top that controls something to do with water. At this point I was really just guessing. I start turning the screw and something seems to be happening but no water is coming out. Just a couple more turns.

Boom.

Nozzle goes whizzing past my face, screen comes bubbling out. I drop my tiny screwdriver and make a b-line for the control valve as I have a geyser again. At this point I really think I just wasted money on this sprinkler head and will have to go buy a new one. I attempt to put the nozzle back in and solve the mystery of the tiny screw. It was at this time that I realized I no longer have my tiny screwdriver. Another 3 minutes is lost as I find that I tossed it towards the base of the tree during my moment of self defense. The tiny screw driver does nothing so I head in to get a slightly bigger screwdriver.

The problem was that I could not unscrew the screw that I had screwed so well.  I know it needs to come back out but it seems I may be…screwed.  A moments pause and some investigative flipping, I eventually find out that the tiny screw has a much bigger screw head on the bottom side and I am able to retrieve what was assumed to be lost.

After some tinkering I finally figure out that the nozzle and the screw are partially unrelated.  The nozzle needs to be opened to the desired spray pattern and the screw seems to affect flow.  With everything sorted out I replace the nozzle, adjust it to the desired 90 degree pattern and reactivate the zone.

Great Success!

It is by far the best performing head in the zone now. I looked around the zone and noticed other nozzles that were not working and set to fixing them. Now all nozzles in the zone are working great.

At this point I refilled the hole and made sure that the new nozzle could clear the grass. Done and done.

Next post I’ll talk about my electricity issues. Speaking of…it’s quite the storm out right now.

You Can’t Spell Job Without OH BOY!

Posted by on March 28, 2008 No comments

It has been a while since I’ve made a personal blog post; as has been kindly been brought to my attention.  It is because a lot of things and yet at the same time, not much had happened.  I feel confident now in having something substantial deliver to my audience.

Important things first:  I purchased Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Wii) and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (X360).  SSSB is an amazing game with a surprisingly very enjoyable single player and co-op.  I recommend it for any Wii owner.  (We even got Elizabeth to play and she seemed to be having a bit of fun once she found a character she liked.)  RSV2 is a lot like RSV1 with sprinting and a RPG aspect not unlike COD4.  The single player story is fun to play but ridiculous.

Hockey has been down right amazing.  The Gophers went on a streak to beat Mankato 2 out of 3 games that all went into over time to get into the Final Five.  The Gophers then went on to beat St. Cloud State and Colorado College to make it to the championship game.  Ultimately Denver won but The Gophers put up such an amazing effort that it is impossible to be upset.  If they continue to play this hard they have a great chance in the Frozen Four.

This past Tuesday I made crab cakes.  They were pretty good and with some tweaking they could be great.   Perhaps I’ll share the recipe if there is any interest.

I leave on my Ski Paradise vacation soon.  A whole week of water skiing in wonderfully warm and sunny weather.  It should be an absolute blast.  I only hope that my body can survive 4 sets a day for 5 days.  I leave on the 5th and come back on the 12th.

I had a slight cold this past couple of weeks, but nothing Halls cough drops couldn’t fix.

Visited the family on Easter.  Really strange when only half the family is there.

Gas is expensive ($3.10+) and influences me not to drive anymore.  I have the feeling that when I look back and read this post I will be jealous of the low price.

It appears that a lot of my favorite shows are starting to air new episodes again.  Reaper is on, South Park has been on for a while and I think the office should be coming back sometime soon.

The snow is melting and things are heating up.

I got a job.

…

Wait what?  Yup :-)  I have been offered a position at Accenture as a Consulting Analyst and I have accepted it.  The start date is May 27th.  Meaning, I’ve got a couple of months to wait.  However, as an entry level job I would be hard pressed to find anything better in this line of work.  The job will require hard work, networking and perhaps frequent travel, but at this time of my life that sounds incredibly exciting.

The last week or so I’ve spent going through the interview process.  I first was contacted by the recruiter and communicated with her.  After that it was a phone interview.  Having success in the phone interview led to an office visit.  At the office visit I had a couple of interviews and lunch with a fellow potential hire and three employees who were in our position a year or so ago.  Even though it was an interview and interviews are supposed to be huffy, I had a great time and met some very wonderful and interesting people.

I had originally been informed that I could start in April.  This date has be canceled for some unexplained reason.   My guess is that they don’t have enough new hires to warrant batching the training process.  This means I will be starting in May with all the new college graduates.  That’s fine and waiting the extra month while I live on a budget is fine.  Where things get complicated is the 2 weeks of training at Accenture’s campus in Chicago.  This will likely occur at the end of June.  Right about the time Becky and Brad get married.  I can only hope that I’m allowed to fly back, if even on my own dime for that, or that the training wraps up on Friday and we leave Friday night.  If anyone has any thoughts on this I’d be happy for any advice.  What if I’m not able to come back?  For now it’s as the old adage goes, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”

I now have about 2 Months (minus vacation) to spend on a side project or catch up with friends, because once I start working I have a feeling I will fall off the face of the earth.  I kid, but seriously during the week I will be a ghost.  You will only be able to catch me on the weekends.  Weekends are pretty sacred at Accenture.   I’d be happy to share more details in person.  I don’t feel comfortable expunging details on the internet, never know who is listening.

That leaves us with today.  I’m going to be picking up the parents from the airport after their two week long cruise.  They have yet to hear about my job, so that should be good news for them.  I’ve got laundry that needs to be done and some other misc. cleaning to do in preparation, so have a great weekend everybody!

Shatter expectations and conquer the world!

Things I’m looking forward to:

  • Starting training for my Job
  • GTA4
  • Spore
  • Water Sports

Things I’m not looking forward to:

  • Juggling personal and work life
  • Commuting/Driving

The Pre-Christmas Warm Up

Posted by on December 24, 2007 No comments

If you haven’t noticed, it’s been a few days since I’ve last posted.  A very influential reader informed me that it would be best if I did so again.

I feel I can not be blamed for the passing of time and of the rate at which it travels.  To me the past few days have blended into one giant super day.  It is mostly the effect of a multi day graduation celebration.  A number of us made trips to Minneapolis (or stayed there since some live there) and we got our “party on” as the kids (ha!) say these days.  Greg found it in his infinite wisdom to purchase a Breathalyzer.  We turned it into a game of sorts and were certainly surprised by the results.  The most interesting part of the night occurred when JJ while playing wingman happened to be the only one to come out “victorious”.  JJ ended up staying and chatting with the girl when the rest of us decided to get out of his hair and head to KHK to see Quigley.  He was a wonderful host but that doesn’t change the fact that my desk is better than his.  Afterwards we stopped at the lovely Burrito Loco to get some food.  Back at Chops’ place Greg and Elizabeth quickly slipped off to dreamland after finishing their Loco. They were the top players in the Breathalyzer Olympics.  Elizabeth being the winner with a BAC of .21.  Chops and I entertained ourselves by making a video of JJ’s empty room and then watched TV while we waited for JJ to return.  JJ showed up in short notice to inform us of the anticlimactic end to his evening.  Unsurprisingly the girl was not JJ’s type and who could blame him?  It’s not that he didn’t have the chance to make things happen, it’s just he is a better guy than that.  Still, it was something out of the usual and that is always a good time.   That was pretty much the end of that evening.

Saturday was quality time with Elizabeth.  We just relaxed the whole day together.  Moments like that are far and few between.  It is wonderful when we get to enjoy each others company alone for so long.  It had rained the previous evening and sequentially dropped back below freezing so I had to veraciously scrape off my car.  The roads were pretty nightmarish when driving Elizabeth back home.  Capped off the evening with some COD4 and some ranked doubles in Halo3 with JJ.  We pretty much rocked everyone we played by a good measure.

My effort to go to sleep early last night failed.  (I blame myself, although JJ could hold a close second.)  Which in turn threw my plans to wake up early and finish my Christmas Shopping into blarney.  (English references ftw!)  Woke up around 4:00pm.  Found, to my wonderful surprise, that my parents had cleared out the middle stall of the garage so that it could now be used to berth a car like it was intended.  Thus, scrapping ice from my car as previously detailed has come to an end.  It was with good timing as today we were hit by a good dose of snow and wind.  So at around 5:00pm I headed out into the storm to finish my Cristmas shopping.  I still had my sister, Secret Santa and few more items to purchase for Elizabeth.  I headed over to W******* L**** and W**-M*** to make my purchases.  I was lucky I had woken up so early (</sarcasm>) because W******* L**** was closing at 6:00pm.  I stopped in 3 different stores and was able to pick up some gifts for my sister and Elizabeth.  With still a few things in mind I headed off to W**-M***, the store that never closes.  I was able to pick up the remainder of my gifts for all three people.  Total time was 40mins for that shopping trip.  Given the terrible driving conditions and the amount of walking between stores I must stay that I deserve some kind of medal.  The only demerit I deserve was forgetting a battery for the garage remote.  A23 battery?  Honestly, what the crap kind of battery is that.

I must reiterate that people are terrible drivers.  You live in Minnesota.  It’s going to snow.  It kind of happens every year.  Long term memory exist for a reason!  Remove head from arse!

Able to rest having completed all my shopping I spent some quality time with the parents.  We prepared for the family Christmas Eve party while Discovery Channel was on in the background.  (A cool show about a couple living with Wolves in Idaho.)  My Dad helped prep the Turkey, my Mom made the stuffing and I made the Chex Mix.  I had to improvise a bit because of the size of the batch we were making but it turned out well.  (Kind of hard to screw up.)  When we were done cooking and the show about the wolves was over we switched it over to Comedy Central where we watched Trading Places.  As the night drew to a close and the show was over, I retreated to the basement for some COD4 with Chad.  We tried to get JJ to play with us, but he his home for the holidays and doesn’t have the mechanical means to connect to Xbox live.

And now we come to the present hour and find me wrapping up this post with a cliche conclusion.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve and if you are having a party, party in moderation.  Enjoy the holiday season and be safe on the roads.  Merry Chirstmas everyone.