I broke my own rules. Again. One of the AZ DIY Guy's Pillars of Wisdom is to always buy more material than necessary to complete a task. Otherwise when something goes wrong, (and it always does), it's another trip to the store. It adds up to serious, wasted production time.
In this case, it was the dang drip irrigation system that failed, again.
I've replaced most of it over the years, but the older sections continue to break. I ran out to grab breakfast, prior to attacking the window install project, only to return home to find a geyser spewing in the front yard.
Of course. The flowers in the front beds had been looking dried out and crinkly lately. Lantana's usually do great in the Arizona summer, as long as they have water.
The leak must have been there for a while, escaping our attention, since the watering schedule happens when we are driving to work. Walking by the flowerbed multiple times a day, I didn't notice the absence of flowers indicated the plants were screaming in thirst. Their precious water was being diverted into our side-yard geiser.
Seriously, dried up and crinkly flowers.
I hauled out a mini spade and started shoveling. I knew the flexible line was buried shallow. I'd tied onto it a couple feet further along when I'd installed the flowerbeds last year.
The patented AZ DIY Guy's Kneeling Square of Plywood in action.
In the mud, I couldn't easily find the hole in the line, so I triggered the irrigation controller in manual mode.
Found it! I wouldn't get too hot for a while after a front yard shower.
There was the leak alright. It was a small slit, probably where a rock had worked its way down through the soil and eventually rubbed through the tubing.
Do you see the leak? It's in low in the center. Look closely.
No problem. A compression coupling would be longer than that cut. It was just a quick trip to the hardware store away and I'd soon be back to regularly scheduled weekend DIY'ing.
I took the liberty of humming a merry tune to myself when I returned from the store 15 minutes later and started the quickest little fix in all of DIY-dom. I cut the split section out with a razor knife.
I slipped the coupling on and tightened it down on the feed side of the line. A cake walk.
When I slipped it into the downstream side, the tubing split. Dang it! I pulled more of the run out of the ground thinking I could re-dig the trench and shorten it by pulling in a little of the curve.
But it was not to be the case, that brittle section was too long. It included two single-use couplings within inches. I'd need to replace the section, which would require a second coupling.
I searched the garage desperately for just one more coupling... please?... just one?... nope
Alas, it was time for...
Another trip to the hardware store...
Another conversation with a clerk to say I didn't need help finding anything,..
Another time poking around in the irrigation parts bins to find parts that still had the bar code stickers attached to a void a price check at the register.
Another side-tracked visit to the tool department to see if there was anything interesting, that wasn't their 20 minutes earlier...
Another wait in line,...
Another, "yes, found everything I needed,.. yes, I was just here,... yes, I am a club member, no,.. I lost my card,.. here's my phone number,... oh, that's right, the other phone number,...right, no debt button? push credit... here's my ID,... can I have a copy of the receipt?,...no I don't need a bag,..."
Another drive home, burning more gas...
Another big waste of time.
I came home with three-times the couplings I needed. I wasn't going down without a fight. Luckily, I had a fair amount of leftover tubing in the garage from redoing the back yard system. I cut out both single-use couplings and inserted some new tubing.
It was over in seconds. This is a very easy fix that should have taken a few minutes, if I had just followed my own advice and bought more than I needed on that first trip. What's a couple bucks to save a bunch of time? What's my time worth? Plus, there's two trips of fuel to consider.
Either way, I now have two couplings in reserve and plenty of tubing. Next time, I can do a repair and be on to the day's normally scheduled programming without a trip to the store.
Less than a week later...
All was right in the world again.
Buy more than I need. Keep a stash for later.
Yep, Next time.
On another note, one of my projects was featured on a podcast this week.
If you aren't already aware of it, check out the
Home Repair Tutor Podcast
. In addition to two websites, great YouTube tutorials, and a huge Facebook group, my blogging buddy, Jeff Patterson, puts out a new, short podcast episode
every weekday
(!!!) I really enjoy his positive energy and great info. He shares tips, techniques, tricks, and deals on tools and materials. He also routinely features cool projects from other DIY bloggers.
This week, I was humbled to learn he featured one of my posts, along with a great project by Woodworking for Mere Mortals Check out the mp3 here, or iTunes here. Give him a good review over on iTunes too!
Thanks Jeff!