Most times I can visualize a process ahead of any mistakes and easily avoid them. The times this does not happen? When I’m in the middle of “a thing” and didn’t think it through. Most times, that is trouble.
I’m planting citrus trees: a lime, a tangerine, and a tangelo. These will require a separate irrigation line with its own timer. More on the citrus in another entry.
Today, after visualizing the issues I may have adding a dedicated sprinkler line and valve for our citrus trees, I headed out to dig “a bit” to make the in-place lines more accessible. “Yup”, I thought, “It would go better if I yanked out the irrigation box. I’d have better access to the valves.” So I grabbed a shovel, slid it down the side of the box and levered upwards. It just wouldn’t budge. More Force, thought I and it started to move. Even More Force. Yup, up it came, but with a spray of water straight upwards! Not only had I moved the irrigation box, I had yanked one solenoid right out of the valve.
Crap. No, no, no… crap. Luckily our irrigation system has a separate master shut-off valve. Still I must now decide how to proceed. The valves are original equipment probably installed more than a decade ago. Do I fix the immediate problem or do I replace the valve manifold and valves? That would be a cleaner and more reliable solution. I’ll head off to a irrigation supply company tomorrow morning and get parts. Though they’re local, Home Depot carries Rain Bird and I’d rather use Toro parts.
I put in a bed of strawberries that is producing, but requires short daily watering. I have no time for procrastination on this job.