We have officially entered our second year of home-ownership and although we continue to learn important lessons every day there is one important lesson we learned last year that we must pay homage to.
Draining the sprinkler system.
Scott and I are procrastinators and so we let the sprinkler system go un-drained FAR too long. Neither of us had done much research because the fall went on continuously in a mild, above freezing fashion. Then, one night, we could ignore the situation no longer. We originally thought we were supposed to blow the sprinkler out, but by the time we contacted different lawn services we learned they had already put their compressors into storage. At this point I was imagining one gigantic frozen sprinkler system leaking gallons upon gallons of water into the Greeley water table and costing us thousands of dollars in repair/water bills.
The night before a lasting freeze warning Scott went out to do some reconnaissance. Notice how I said night. As in, 10 o'clock at night in the single-digit temps.
I will set the scene.
I'm 6 months pregnant, and all of a sudden panicked about an exploding sprinkler system. We're entering a week of below 0 temperatures and we decide that something must be done. At 10 o'clock at night. Armed with only a flashlight that runs on man power (i.e you must crank a handle to charge the light).
Scott goes outside and without turning OFF the sprinkler system begins investigating. (Um, neither of us are handy in the SLIGHTEST of ways...). Water rushes all over the drainage system, Scott is wet, it's dark, and it's cold, and Scott continues to crank away at the flashlight to make sense of it all.
At this point our kind neighbor brings over a fully-functional flashlight and has some helpful tips about draining our sprinkler system.
1. turn the system off
2. turn some sort of lever inside that switches the water off
3. turn another lever that empties the remaining water in the sprinkler system
Three easy steps. The only problem is that now the water won't drain out of the pipe because the water that rushed out earlier is above the drain. So. Scott begins to bail out the water, one cupful at a time (because that's all that will fit between the pipes) in the negative degrees, now three hours into the project.
The good news is that after a few intermissions of running his hands under hot water, a few minor curse words, and a few hundred cupfuls of water the system is drained. In Scott's display of jubilation he replaces the water-system drainage cover and manages to sever the wire that connects our house to the Greeley Water Supply to let them know how much water we are using.
Cue the electrician. At 12:30 a.m.
So: 3 hours, 50 dollars, 2 frozen hands, and one frozen husband later our sprinkler system is drained.
This year, on Halloween evening, we are faced with lingering, lower temperatures and a sprinkler system that needs to be drained.
In the 50 degree temps Scott went outside, in his work clothes, turned off the sprinkler system, opened the cover, turned a couple levers, drained the excess water, and came back inside. 10 minutes. TOPS.
Next up: Learning to chop down a tree with a chain saw!
