little house

I survived irrigation.

Here's how it went down. The neighbors had used all the water they wanted to use when there was still 20 minutes of their time left, and sent the water on through to me early. This is nice, on the one hand, because water is good for plants, right? But, on the other hand, our yard can only hold so much water. When this same thing happened last week, we ended up with a stream of water running down the road because it had overflowed our yard. And that is bad. So, when they sent the water my way, I was worried because I had 1 hour plus and extra 20 minutes of water coming my way, with no real experience in how to manage it, and knowing that if it overflowed again we could risk losing our water rights.

What's a girl to do, I ask you?

But, I was a champ. I did it. I managed the water, slowing flow here, redirecting it there, stopping and starting it through that area. (The reason our yard takes more than the average attention during irrigation is because it is woefully un-level. We can't bear to dig up a yard of beautiful grass just yet, so that's a project that will be waiting until fall.) And it didn't overflow.

But, whoo boy, it did wear me out.

Here's the crazy thing that happened, because there is ALWAYS a crazy thing that happens, right?

The neighbor's granddaughter wanted to come into our yard to play in the water and mud with our kids. Great! But, as she came through the fence, she let one of their 4 dogs into the yard. No biggee! Except no adult saw it happen, including me. The dog bounded into our yard, through the very muddy and wet grape area, straight across the driveway and right into our back door! Not good! There are muddy doggie footprints everywhere. Everywhere.

Eventually, the kids herded her out of the house and back into her own yard.

So, irrigation mastered. I just hope I don't have to end up doing a mid-nighter all alone anytime soon!