Here in the desert, where survival is dependent on water, most people use drip irrigation to water their landscape planting. Our home came with a system that I estimate is nearly 20 years old. It's been failing for a while, requiring constant repairs.

I've let the back yard go a bit this year since I've been occupied on other projects and repairs. This spring the back yard simply erupted in weeds. I did nothing. I saw a few leaks; still, I did nothing about it. Finally, when I spotted a geyser, I took a walk around with the system running. Awwww... nuts.

There were three major leaks, and several minor ones. The ground was soggy in spots all along the path. I found buried drip heads bubbling where plants didn't exist.

I started marking all the leaks with blue paint. 

Soon the backyard looked like Blue Cheese. It needed at least 10 repairs. At that point, I decided to scrap the whole thing and redo it. It was a good call, there were at least 20 couplings in the 150 foot run. 

I quickly regretted my decision after digging in the sun with in triple digit temperatures. Why was I installing a new floor inside the house in the wintertime, when I could have been outside when it was paradise caliber weather? Knucklehead.

Lord, it's hot out here. Spending a few bucks on a trenching shovel was a good move, I only wanted a six inch deep trench wide enough to install a 1/2" flexible line, no reason to move a full size shovel's worth of dirt.

Dig baby dig.

I finished the trench, and laid down the tubing  but lost the battle when I discovered the valve had a massive leak. The story of that repair is a debacle, not my finest hour. 

I got back to this project a week later, early in the morning. The tubing was nicely in the trench.

I cut in a "T" coupling to run a branch around our bed of lantana by the patio. It's easy work, requiring just a knife and and the hand tightened coupling.

..

When it came time to install the 1/8" irrigation lines that branch off, I tried a new style of tool. Rather than the stab style punch tool I've used in the past, I used a gun style.

It slips over the 1/2" tubing and pops a hole when you squeeze the trigger like a caulking gun.

They make another, more expensive version that installs the barb at the same time, but I thought that was unnecessary. They're easy to stick in by hand.

Slip the 1/8" line over the barb and it's done. 

A few minutes to work my way down the rest of the run and I was complete.

I cranked up the system and let sweet cooling refreshment loose on our thirsty desert landscape. A raging torrent of rushing water gushed forward and burst from the emitters with a mighty, "drip... drip... drip"

Ok, so I guess that wasn't very climatic. How about this beauty?

Everything works, no leaks. I filled in the trench, taking care to keep rocks from laying directly on the tubing. 

I'm glad this project is behind me. We're in the full heat of summer here and I'm not a fan of the yard work when Mr. Sun is hammering me mercilessly.