Dishwasher Door Gasket

On the project list....I think the steak knives have have scrapping a spot of the gasket.

Thankfully there is no leakage yet, but this needs to be taken care of, and soon.

Just one more of those small little tasks that needs to be taken care of and take up room on the To Do list....grrr

And The Sprinkler Project Continues At The Bamboo Lagoon

Old one

So after doing alll that work on the PVC so I could turn on the water supply to our front sprinkler system, I find that the controller box we have had for years had finally died.

I was trying to turn on just the pop up zone so I could water the majority of the grass and beds in the front yard, but none of the buttons would really respond to being pushed. There was plenty of power, it just seemed that it was worn out. Upon investigating, it looked like it was not that hard of a job to replace it.

The next day, I went to one of our local irrigation stores and asked their opinion about trying to fix the one we had or replacing it. Replacing it seemed to be the way to go since fixing it would be almost the same cost and there was no guarantee that the repairs would last very long.

New one in the box

So I purchased a new controller on the recommendation of two different stores and proceeded to install it this afternoon. It really was a matter of hooking the power to it and then putting in the wires for the valves into the right slots.

New one installed and set up

Once I had it hooked up and set the time, date and year, I turned on a manual run of the main popup zone and adjusted the sprayers when it came on as it was meant to. Looks like all the popups still work although two need to have some vegetation cut out around them, and I was able to water the majority of our front yard for 30 mins. Good soak!

PVC Plumbing Repair

This project was not on the list at all but as I was turning on the water valves for feeding water to the sprinkler system in the front yard, I discovered a broken gate valve and so in order to use the sprinkler system, it had to be repaired.

Rusted and cracked

It seems that this supply line probably originally was just a spigot on the edge of the porch wall and when the sprinkler system was installed, they modified the set up to get water to the system. Since the gate is turned off in the winter to keep the pipes from freezing, air does get to the inside of the pipe and it is an old pipe so it just eventually rusted out.

Before cutting

I had to get a new gate valve, and then cut out the PVC portion, so I could remove the old gate valve and put in the new one, which then meant rebuilding the PVC portion. This was a better option than trying to cut through the galvanized iron pipes on the other side of the valved and then having to couple them.

First cut

Once I cut through the PVC in two spots with a hack saw to pull out the majority of it, I then unscrewed the old gate valve with a plumbers wrench. I took all the parts, including the new gate valve that I had previously purchased with me to the local hardware store to find out exactly what I would need to buy and configure.

Cut out portion and old gate valve

At the store, Jim helped me to figure out what pieces I needed and explained exactly how to do all the connecting, as I had never done any PVC "glueing" before. He actually threaded the pieces that had threads together for me before I left, and I took a picture of the set up so I would be sure to put it together correctly. He also cut several pieces of the 3/4 inch PVC I would be using in between to varying lengths, so I wouldn't have to cut them myself and I would have a few options for getting the new stuff lined up with the old stuff that still remained as part of the system.

Laid out at store

I also bought the primer and glue for the job since we didn't have any at home, with this being my first time ever doing this kind of plumbing.

New gate valve

Primer

Glue

When I got home, I cleaned up the threads of the pipe sticking out from the porch wall, and then reapplied three rounds of teflon tape before then screwing on and tightening the new gate valve.

New gate valve attached

Once I had it connected, I lined up all the other pieces where they would go in the line and made sure that the various connecting pieces of 3/4 inch pvc would fit where they needed to be. I cleaned up the ends of any rough edges of the cut pieces of PVC with a rasp file. I put on latex gloves as recommended by Jim to keep my fingers from turning purple or blue from the primer and glue. I then applied the primer to all the pieces I would be eventually applying the glue to, which included both sides of each junction.

Pieces with primer applied

Once I had all the pieces primed, I double checked my order of things and then started to apply the glue to each piece and its opposite junction piece and putting them together with one quarter turn. Once I had the entire thing glued back together, I cleaned up my mess. I decided to wait 24 hours before turning on the water to the system because we have a lot of pressure on our system and I wanted to give the entire thing time to set up.

All finished

We'll see how it works...I am sure as soon as the water is turned on, I will then have to deal with the issues the sprinkler system itself has, and that will be a new project to blog about.

Sprinkler Issues

Old diaphragm

Well, it seems I spoke too quick.

While over 700 miles away, I get a text from our neighbor that our sprinklers are shooting water straight into the air in the middle of the day, which is not on the schedule. She let it run for a bit thinking the timer would turn it off and when it didn't, she thankfully came over and turned off the valve to the front yard system and spigot. Of course it was about 800 degrees here while we were gone too...

I am sure that the old diaphragm died...thought we would get one more week out of it, and we didn't. So I looked up the sprinkler people online, and called their supplier to order three diaphragms thinking we might as well replace all of them at once. They haven't come yet and I am starting to get worried since we can't water in the front at all unless by watering can.

Oh, and while the gushers were going, which of course I can't determine anything about yet, a lot of bark in one of the beds got washed out...more fun work to do...LOL. I am hoping that there is not another leak in the system somewhere else...

Update: Now that I think about it, we do have a spigot in the garage, I might see if it is still functioning with the front turned off, because I could put in a rotating sprinkler for the front in a few spots. Especially if the delivery doesn't come today. Have to wait until it gets shady in front though...

Functioning Sprinklers

One of the large popups

Okay, it seems that we have a fully functioning auto sprinkler system in the front yard. I don't have it set exactly as I want it but it will do for now. I still need to order the diaphragms for the valves but right now, none of them seem to be leaking so I am not super worried about that just yet.

So the other day, after my trip to Ewing and the packed full brain of all the info that they gave me, I replaced all the sprinklers that I had purchased replacement parts for, and I put the old diaphragm back into the valve so that I could turn the system on and find the rest of the missing popups.

New small popups

I figured out pretty quick that I didn't have the big popups in right because they were both watering the street instead of the lawn but I was able to just grab them and "ratchet" them around like the folks at Ewing had told me.

While the sprinklers were on, I ran through the yard with my homemade markers and found the missing small popups as well as three more that I didn't even know about. I marked them all and made another trip to Ewing for more small popups.

While running the system again, I also realized that some of the small popups I got were

Blue tape marks the spot

spraying way farther than I needed them too, so I traded 5 of them in for smaller distance heads.

Today, I dug up all the remaining marked popups that needed to be replaced and went through and replaced each one. Some of the popups were so buried in vegetation that I had to cut them out a little hole to see through. They are clear enough to pop up but I will need to clear more vegetation if I want them to spray as far as they are supposed to.

New guts and head

I then turned on the system to see if I had them set the way I wanted. I realized when I was working on the last one that the system was installed in 2000-2001 timeframe when I think the sod for the front yard was done. Make sense that some of them have tilted a bit with the growth of the yard. I got soaked while figuring out the settings for each head but it kind of felt good since we had a close to 90 degree day today.

Once I was sure they were all spraying the way that I wanted them to, I set the auto system up to water on odd numbered days so it should water tomorrow morning, and I'll know if it is working as it should on a schedule. Fingers crossed that it all functions as it should.

The Start Of The Sprinkler Project At The Bamboo Lagoon

Valves and valve box

So, this wasn't on the "already purchased list", but it is something that has been looming since last year. When I had Jeff come out to look at the sprinkler system in front and teach me the basics, I noticed that the valve box for the system had a lot of water in it. We tried to see if we could figure out where the leak was, but at the time, there were no clues.

For the winter, I had the water to the system turned off but I always knew that I would have to figure out what was going on with it, if I wanted to have it set in full auto this season. So far this year, I have been just turning on the water valve when I need to, running the system and then turning it off when it is done.

Anyhow, time has come and it has to be dealt with. I opened the valve boxes so I could take pics. One of them contains the valves for the three zones on the front system and the other box contains the backflow preventors to keep the sewer water from backflowing into the city water system.

Closeup of leaking valve

Before taking anything apart, I wanted to get some information, so I headed to the Grange because I knew that at least some of the parts were purchased there. They didn't have a lot of info about valves but sent me to Ewing which is a great irrigation store. They were able to tell me that my valves and box were from the Olson company and while they didn't sell the parts for those particular valves, they did get me a number I could call to get parts once I was sure what I needed. Apparently Olson has a system that contains all the valves and wiring in a prebuilt system. Ewing gave me some good advice on how to proceed with all the other maintenance issues I wanted to take care of on the rest of the system too.

Inside of valve

I could see that one of the valves was leaking when I turned on the water, and with the box dried out, it was easy to narrow it down. I took that valve apart to look at the diaphragm inside. It seemed like it wasn't in great shape but decided I would take it to Ewing and see what they could tell me.

I also took out one of the large popups and one of the small popups from that same zone so I could get replacement parts while I was at Ewing. All my popups are Hunter brand and Ewing does carry that brand. I figured if the system was put in around 2000-2001, it was probably time to update all the popups.

To be continued...

Solar Panel Work At The Bamboo Lagoon

As you might know from previous posts, we have solar panels on our deck roof that heat the pool during the summer time. Last year when I first got here, we tried to turn them on, but one of the pipe junctions broke and water came shooting out of it. So I turned off the pump for the solar panel, and didn't use the panels for the season.

I met up with a technician from the solar panel company and purchased replacement parts for the pipe junctions, but never got around to fixing it before it became too cold to use the pool.

Deck roof and panels with pinestraw (before)

Deck roof and panels without pinestraw (after)

In the meantime, the two Ponderosas that we have in the backyard left a ton of needles on the back deck roof and solar panels. The back deck roof is corregated metal and figuring out a way to get on the roof, while not damaging it or the solar panels, prevented me from attacking this project until now.

I finally was able to have a nice day, where the needles weren't super wet, and got on a ladder to look at the structure up close to figure out my best options. Once I could see where the studs were, I was able to get up on the metal roof from a different spot, and while using a soft deck broom, was able to sweep most of the needles off the roof and solar panels.

Ponderosa before pruning

Ponderosa after pruning out lower branches

While up there, I pruned the Ponderosa hanging over the roof so that there is some clearance and maybe a little bit more light hitting the solar panels. I spray painted all the cuts to keep the tree from getting infected.

Lastly while I was up there, I put the new gasket and pipe junction in where the old one broke. I wasn't able to test the system just yet since we are still freezing at night, but I am hopefull that it will hold. I inspected the other lower junctions and they all looked okay. I have to get on the roof in a different spot to check the upper ones, but I will do that on another day but before we turn the system on for the season.

Broken junction

Fixed junction

The amount of pruned limbs and pine straw filled the yard bin up to capacity. Overall, it was a very productive afternoon.

Sprinkler Woes At The Bamboo Lagoon

It happened again...grrr. Guess I get to try out one of the two other end capping options I purchased recently to see if we can get things up and running again for the last few weeks we have of watering before it all needs to be turned off for the year.

I bought a siphon so I can get the water out of the valve box and see if I can figure out where it is leaking from (or if it is leaking at all). Obviously I need to have that baby dry before it starts to get too cold. I am hoping that even if I don't figure it out, when I turn off the water to the sprinkler system, it should eventually drain out and we should be good at least for the winter.

The yard does look a lot better and we are making headway in getting rid of the dandelion farm...which is a good thing. I purchased some seed, top soil and a cultivator tool so I can replant some of the spots that were killed by lack of maintenance by our old tenants. Hope this means that next year, it will be super nice!!

Enough about grass...got lots of other things to work on as usual...