Leaky Pipes

 We have been trying to water our new yard all month. Yard seems like such a tame, tiny word for the vast fields that are under our care. We have about 13 acres to take care of this summer while we wait a few months for the boundary line adjustment. We weren't planning on jumping into full on irrigated Yakima Valley farm life so abruptly, but here we are! It's not bad; it's just overwhelming. I know very little about irrigation and there isn't exactly a how-to manual on it. We don't have a map of how our irrigation system works. We do have a brother in law who's a farmer, though. BLESS HIM. Jasen came twice last week to fix broken valves and pipes so we could start watering. And he made it look easy. 

Saturday, May 27th was the first day we watered our acres. We were only 5 or 6 weeks late! Hah. The grass was definitely getting crispy, and it didn't even need to be mowed over the weekend. Hopefully after some nice smelly irrigation water it will perk up again. I spent a lot of time walking all over the land checking PVC riser pipes and sprinkler heads on Saturday. There was a whole lot of trial and error, twisting this valve and turning that nozzle to see what happened. My absolute least favorite way to learn is by trial and error. Give me detailed instructions and I'll follow every single one! But a system of disjointed buried old pipes with partially labeled valves? No, thank you. I learned a lot through my efforts on Saturday, but still know so little. My inexpert conclusion was that we definitely have more work to do before the system is leak-free and fully functional. 

The good news is our new neighbors got me in touch with the guy who makes hay on their land, and he agreed to care for our 10 acres of Timothy hay. If he waters it, he keeps the hay. That is our deal. So we will only have to care for 3 acres over the summer. That's definitely a burden lifted. 

Jeff was at the state track meet from Wednesday through almost midnight on Saturday (Sunnyside High School had boys qualify for state in 6 events). While Jeff was gone I felt extra responsible for our land all on my own.

You can't water with a broken ball valve. It's a flood.

Irrigation parts inspired my daily drawing, they were on my mind so much.

Jasen drove his truck right out to the irrigation valves and made quick work of it. We were SO grateful that Jasen could help, because we couldn't find anyone for a job this big or a job this small--if that makes sense. The job was too big for some and way to small for others.

The freshly installed Zone 4 valve worked great, but then I discovered a big hole in the underground pipe leading up to it, which created a gurgling fountain-flood and required us to turn off the water after only five minutes.

Jasen came out to fix pesky #4 again on Friday, and at last it worked!

While Jasen worked, the cousins roamed all over our new yard and our old yard. This picture is actually Amber, Jay, and the neighbor BFF, Dekker, who came to play with the cousins too. They ambushed everyone else with Nerf guns in the barn.

Speaking of leaky pipes... my period started early while I was wearing my pale lavender dress. So I scrubbed it out with soap and water while still wearing the dress, and let it dry, never changing out of the dress.

This expanse of gravel at the edge of our driveway is a weed magnet. I tackled these weeds with a couple gallons of weed killer on Friday. I hope I mixed the solution right and they all die! It took forever to spray all of them because I kept forgetting where I had sprayed, so I probably sprayed everything at least twice.

Speaking of leaky pipes... no, we haven't found any leaky pipes in our actual house (thankfully), but the demo crew left the last toilet on our front porch all week. Welcome to our fancy house! On your right you will see a vintage toilet from 1990, complete with dribbly stains of questionable color.

Somehow this next series of pictures kind of fits under leaky pipes theme too: The grandparents' ancient dog Toby died this week. Jay and Rose were able to say a final goodbye to him. He had some sort of stroke and couldn't walk, so Dan and Leslie had him put to sleep. 

From the archives: BABY JAY making friends with Toby.

Saying goodbye to the venerable creature.

My daily drawings are often inspired by current events. Toby was a hairy smelly animal, but he was always gentle with my babies and he was not a bark-er, so he was always my favorite out of all my in-laws pets.

This has nothing to do with leaky pipes, but I made it to the temple for the first time all year on Thursday! I found and printed my own family name and took it to the temple for the first time in my life! It was easier than expected, and also felt better than expected. I love the temple, and felt so relieved and glad and HAPPY to finally make it back there.

As of Thursday, May 25th, I have run this half mile stretch of Cemetery Road between the canal and Arrowsmith Road 301 times! I made it into a segment on Strava and the app tracks how many times I run the segment. 301 times in 6 years of living here!

Triumphant end-of-segment picture at the corner of Cemetery Road and Arrowsmith Road.

Here's the Strava proof.

And now, a house update: The crew finished most of the indoor demolition and started framing our new floorplan this week!

Gutted.

Framing going up!

It's pretty wild watching this happen little by little each day!

Saturday night I went back over to check on the irrigation and had to sit on the back porch and take it all in. Country living takes a lot of work but it also yields a whole lot of tranquility. 

Speaking of work...another leaky pipe!