Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the jungle

It gets worse here everyday
Ya learn ta live like an animal
In the jungle where we play
If you got a hunger for what you see
You'll take it eventually
You can have anything you want
But you better not take it from me
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring you to your shun n,n,n,n,,n,n,,n,n,n,,n,n,,n knees, knees
I wanna watch you bleed

— Guns N' Roses, Welcome to the Jungle

It has taken be a while to get around to mowing the lawn because I've been busy and I've also been trying to avoid an issue. Our city requires that each residence have these backflow preventers with pressure regulators above ground in our front yard that come off of our culinary water line and become our sprinkler line. Last winter, I didn't quite get mine turned off before the freeze and it busted. The price to replace them is about $180 from Home Depot. The weather has been very accommodating to me with all that I've had to do and so I haven't had to water on my own until this weekend. So, I've been trying some suggestions from neighbors (thanks Shad and James) regarding the use of a cold weld where my backflow preventer is cracked but they didn't quite work so I went looking for a replacement and found one at Lowes for $148. It looks slightly different from what I had and it's about a half-inch longer but I was able to fit it on and I've been happy about that part. However, while testing my sprinklers this weekend, I found out that my sprinkler line is leaking in the back yard so I'll have to dig something up and repair that.

You can see from the photos above that the valve on one end was severely cracked. But I replaced it and mowed the lawn and it's no longer a jungle out there.

Diggin' a Hole to China

We've been working on our yard quite a bit the past few weeks and we decided to put in a few trees. The first of the three is a [tart] cherry tree. I'm really excited about this one because I've always wanted a cherry tree. Bethany wants a lemon elberta peach tree and a fuji or gala apple tree. I would imagine we'll be making some cherry pies later in the summer or the fall (as well as apple pie and peach cobbler) and you're invited to come on over and have a slice with some ice cream. I'll let you know when they're ready. :)