Outside Stuff

Our little "farm" has plenty of projects to keep us busy.  Ryan really, REALLY wanted to get irrigation water to our property this year.  Where we live, pretty much everyone pays a fee for their water rights every year, whether or not you actually have access to the water.  At our last house (which was in town), we paid $72-$85 (inflation got us during those 5 years) every year for water we didn't and couldn't use.  But here at this house, the water box was at the end of our driveway, and by golly, we were going to use that water we pay for.

To use the water, we (ok, mostly Ryan) had to dig trenches for water pipes, and pipes for electrical wire.  Ryan originally thought he could dig them.... But then he realized the month of all weeknights and weekends it would take was worth a trencher rental.

 There he goes.

 He picked up the trencher after work one Friday afternoon, and worked past dark.  (Note to self- don't attempt to do any but a right angle trench, or the trenches collapse and you lose the trencher.  Between me, Ryan, and Ryan's little truck, we eventually got the silly machine out again.)  The trencher was unloaded at the rental place when it opened Saturday morning so we could take advantage of a half day rate.

 Cutting through our lawn to get the electrical wires out to the pump from the house was a low point for us.

 Here's the trench I dug.

 Elizabeth and her strong muscles helped bring the pipes to her dad.

 Running the wires through the glued pipes was HARD.  Next learning curve was- under no circumstances should your wires run through an elbow.  Run your wires through the straight line, and then turn and go through the next straight line.  It's ridiculously hard otherwise, and the rope you are pulling with will break.

We glued pipe, and glued pipe, and glued more pipe.

Finally, the sprinkler heads were attached.

Water!  (If you look closely, on the left there is water squirting from the orange sprinkler head.)  Ryan was stoked.  It took about a month to finish.

Since that picture was taken, all of the trenches have been filled in, and half of the field has been mowed and roto-tilled.  We now have sweet corn and pumpkins planted out there.  I really need to take pictures of our enormous garden.

Speaking of which, here's some of our other plant life:

 This one below was a hanging basket from the FFA plant sale that I transplanted into one of the 5 boxes Ryan built.

 I have two "herb garden" planters out the kitchen door that I haven't managed to kill yet.