Outdoor Adventures

First things first... New roof!
When we bought our first house last November - at 22 years old with the original roof - we knew it would need a new one this year.
We finally got it scheduled, they did a great job and did it in just one day! But it wasn't without a few hitches.

I come home at lunch and find them nearly done with ripping the old shingles off.... and a large dent in the driveway.
In all fairness, it wasn't really the roofers fault. They order the shingles from a local company that deliver them to the site on the day of installation.
Evidently that company set the supports for their lift on the driveway instead of the lawn, and with our sandy soil in this area, the blacktop crushed under the weight. Grrrrr. The dent is about a square foot in area and an inch lower at the deepest spot.
At least the roofer gave us the name and number of the shingle company, so we will have to call them up and see what they can do as far as reparations go.

The other casualty? An in-ground sprinkler head. We had one sprinkler that would pop up when the sprinklers go off, but it would "stick" and not go back down unless you tapped it. Well one of the roofer's wheelbarrows must have run it over and broke it off. The roofers were really great and cut an appropriate amount off the bill for repair costs.

Believe it or not, this was a small blessing in disguise because another one of the sprinklers wasn't turning and needed to be replaced. But what did this mean? I had some learning to do about in-ground sprinkler systems.

After a couple days of internet research and a couple trips to the hardware store, I got ready to try my hand at sprinkler repair. It was actually much easier than I expected!

Eva "helping"

1. Dig giant holes in the yard, saving the top sod (and avoiding the cable line that I ran into with the first one)
2. Unscrew the broken ones (make sure not to get any dirt in the pipe)
3. Screw the new one in
4. Fill in the hole, replacing the sod
5. Turn on sprinklers and adjust the angles (this was actually the toughest part by far!)

Eva playing with the neighbor dogs

DH (Dear Husband) was the designated camera man, so there ended up being just as many pictures of Eva as of me... and half of those had my fanny up in the air as I was digging in the dirt!

A few hours and a pair of sopping wet shoes later, we finally have all our sprinkler heads working... Now we are just hoping the crispy, dry lawn can recover!

Eva monitoring quality control

Trying to adjust the spray...