"the grass is always greener"

We recently celebrated the "4th of July" Independence Day. The warm weather made it more of a necessity to stay in doors or go to a beach. Here in PG, we don't have a beach.Our daughter Erin and her family headed to camp up in the mountains. We used to love camping, when the family was younger and for economic reasons. Now that the children are grown, have their own families, and moved away, we don't camp much. If we do, it's at places like La Quinta, Ramada, Days Inn, etc.

Now there are some upsides to camping out doors, such as fresh air, building an out door fire, roasting hot dogs, marshmellows, making smores, etc. There's also the fun of setting up tents, packing everything but the kitchen sink, sleeping bags, bug repellant, food, ice chests, etc. Then there is the camp itself with bugs, bears, both in the tent and outside, finding a suitable potty, and the lack of all the conveniences of home.

Bottom line, if you like to camp out doors, have fun and have at it. Enjoy nature, the great out doors, and all the blessings of a fun camp. For those who don't anymore, be at peace indoors, with the cable TV, nearby refrigerator, a comfy bed, and a convenient potty.

Now moving on, ever since we decided to install our own automatic sprinkler system, I've been consumed with getting it put it. First there was the city charging us automatically for "secondary water" usage, even if we didn't yet use it, having to design the layout, getting all the parts, and more parts, the trenching, laying the polypiping, clamps, valves, funny pipe, connection tees, etc., etc.

Once you lay it out, install it, you've got to test it, hook up the wiring, and then its burying the trenches so the dog doesn't fall in it. It's on and on. With an automatic sprinkler system, the intent is that the water will come on when you want it to and you don't have to drag the water hose around.

So, what I've learned is that doing it yourself does save you money. Because we're doing it ourselves, we also get obsessed with making it do everything we want it to do, such as having 7 watering stations with the possibility of adding in another one in the future. All of the stations are wired in to the timer controls conveniently installed in the office. If I had purchased a different timer box, I could have had it controlled through our PC. Isn't that the height of laziness or is it a sign of technology in action?

Since we're on the last stages of completing the job, here are a few things I experienced:

• If your clamps aren't secure, the hose will come off the connections and water will explode everywhere.


• Polypipe is a hose but it's tough to insert connection tees or elbows. PVC is straight forward and cost less.


• Water pressure varies at different times of the day due to others accessing the same water source, so adjusting your sprinkler spray can be tricky.


• Trying to take advantage of this cheap water source can make one obsessed to dream up, design, and attempt to install water feeds to various portions of the garden or yard.


• Burying the trenches as soon as you can will allow for your lawn to recover soonest.


• What do you do with all those rocks that the trencher brought up?


• You probably still have to get some topsoil to fill in some portions of the trench and grow some grass from seed. Last resort is to buy sod and trip and fill places.

So now that you've heard my rantings and ravings, I need to thank a few people who have helped make our yard what it will become shortly and not a yard of "death".

• Mark, for helping with the bulk of the work, like helping with the trenching and wiring.
• Erin, for telling make to come and help.
• Jo, for trying to help with the filling in the trenches, even with her being tired and aching and for insisting to install the sprinkler system.
• Jase, for spending some of his vacation helping to fill in the trenches and install a couple of sprinkler heads.
• Grandkids Klailea, Rykell, George, Henry, and Teddy, for picking up rocks from the yard.
• Bubba and Ipo for laying down a few mines in the yard.

One day soon, we hope that the great lawn will be revived enough to resemble a yard again without weeds and be green with lush Kentucky Bluegrass. We hope the well worn foot path that Ipo has made along the back of the house will be filled in with lush grass. And lastly that our yard will look like a realy yard for the grandkids to enjoy.