story time

 

Once upon a time, a family built a lovely home in Heber, Utah.  This family loved their new  house, and everything about it.

The family had grand plans of getting their yard put in by the end of the summer.

The family called a company to come dig the trenches to being putting in the sprinkler pipe.  The company said they would arrive in 2 weeks.

The family waited anxiously for 2 weeks...the company never showed up.  So, the family called another company, who said to wait one week.

The following week, the sprinkler trenching company came, took one look at the yard pretty much made out of rock, and said their equipment would not be able to handle the rock.  Then they left.

So, the family called another company, who never called them back. 

The family called another company, who kept them hanging for weeks, and then never came through.

A couple months went by, and frustration continued to build.

Finally, one company kept their word, and the dirt was leveled, and the yard was graded.

Another company finally pulled through, and dug the trenches.  With the digging of the trenches, an innumerable number of rocks were dug up, and the yard was uneven once again.  But hey, at least the yard was ready to lay sprinkler pipe.

Then it was on to extending the back patio.  The family called a cement company.  They never came out to give the family a quote.

The family called another company, who showed up to give a quote, but never got back to them again.

The family called another company, who said they would come if the family found other jobs for them to do in the area as well.  The family found other jobs, the company never came.

The plans for the back patio were finally just set aside.

Then the family lined someone up to dig a hole to put the trampoline in. 
The person ran out of time, and could not do it.

So, the family found another person to dig the hole...until they found out it would cost $600 for that person to dig a hole.  No way!

The family found a good friend who said they would dig the hole.  The day before they came, their tractor broke.  No trampoline hole.

In the main time, it was time to order the sprinkler pipe, and get it put in the trenches.  Good thing Sprinkler World wrote the sprinkler plans for a house that faced the other direction.  That was so fun for the family, and ended up taking over a month to get the pipes in.  Thank goodness for the help of wonderful friends.

By this point, summer was over.  The family was sad, their plans did not even come close to working, but hey, there was always the spring.  The yard would be done by late spring 2014, they just knew it!

Spring of 2014 came.  And with it, so did the weeds...and lots and lots and lots of rock that had to be shoveled into piles, and manually moved via wheel barrow out of the yard.  After all, rock cannot be placed on top of sprinkler pipe when the time came to cover the trenches.

Moving the rock was no small job.  The rock had to be raked or manually lifted into numerous small piles.  The piles then had to be shoveled into a wheel barrow, and then wheeled out onto the parking strip and dumped.  The rocks ranged from the size of the palm of a hand, to boulders so big, that it took 2 people to lift them.
During this process, the weeks had to continuously be killed and removed...over the entire yard.

The mother of the family was pregnant and could not help, so the husband spend hour after hour, day after day, week after week, and month after month, moving rock, and killed weeds by himself.  This took months of hard work to complete.

By this time, summer was coming to an end once again.  The sprinkler pipe had been exposed to the sun and elements for almost a year.

Finally, with the rock removed, the yard re-graded, and the sprinkler system set up, it was time for top soil.  The family called a top soil company, and they were out of top soil.

So, the family called another company.  They did not answer the phone.  The family called and called and called.

The family called another company, but their price was way too high.

Finally, the family found a company who could come...hooray!
After finding this company, another company called back and offered a lower price.  Score!

The day the top soil came felt like Christmas!

Soon after, the family had a sweet precious baby girl added to the clan.

The week the baby was born, the family had a guy come and level the top soil.  The guy actually showed up on time...and did a great job!  The family was in shock.

For the next two weeks, the husband frantically put on all the sprinkler heads, set up the system to the computer, raked the top toil that was not graded, patched up a few more areas, re-routed some sprinkler pipe, and got the yard completely ready for hydro-seed.

Finally, after two summers of set back after set back, and tons of hard work, the day arrived for the hydro-seed to be sprayed!!!!  This was a HUGE deal to the family. 

The hydro-seed was sprayed on a Friday.  The family was told to just water it 3 times a day and to keep it damp, but not soaking.

Saturday morning, it began to rain.  It rained and rained and rained.  And then it began to pour and pour and pour.  The family watched with pits in their stomachs as their yard soaked, and then puddled, and then finally began to create small little rivers where the hydro-seed clustered and poured through. 

After 18 months of trying to get to this point, and so much hard work, the family could not believe the timing of this monster rain storm.
The mom of the family cried.  The dad of the family couldn't talk about it.

The rain continued for 3 days.

When the rain cleared up, the husband of the family valiantly set out with a bag of grass seed and Pete moss, to "patch up" the damage the rain had caused.

With the yard patched up, and the sun out, it was time to turn on the sprinklers.

Little did the family know, the city had turned down the water pressure, because fall had arrived.

The husband valiantly set out once more, to replace every sprinkler head, with a smaller one, in order to have enough water pressure to water the newly laid seed.

With the sprinkler heads changed out, and the seed laid, the family turned on the sprinklers...

and three pipes were broken.

So, the husband valiantly set out to fix the three broken pipes.  It took him working by a headlamp, well into the night, and the mother of the family struggled inside with 4 children and an infant, trying to do the night time routine.  The baby began showing signs of colic this evening.  The baby was so uncomfortable.

The next day, the family turned on the sprinkler system, and found 3 more broken pipes.

The husband valiantly set out the next evening to replace those broken pipes, and to once again re-seed the areas he had to dig up.  The mother once again, did the evening with 4 children and an infant alone.  This evening, the baby cried and cried.

The next day, the family turned on the sprinkler system and found 2 more broken pipes.  The family knew that the pipes being exposed to the elements all summer, had taken it's toll.

That evening, the husband valiantly set out once more, with his head lamp, to fix the broken pipes, and re-seed the areas he had to dig up.  Again, the mother did the evening alone with 4 children and a newborn baby. The baby had cried most of the day and evening.  The family finally realized that the baby had a milk protein intolerance.  The mother went to the store at 11:00pm, and bought the formula to help the sad baby.

The next day the family turned on the sprinkler system, and found 3 more breaks.  The mother finally cracked, cried, became too overwhelmed and exhausted, and wanted to give up.  The husband was strong, comforting and doing his best, but he was very frustrated as well.

That day, the mother in law showed up to meet her new grand daughter.  Her timing was perfect.  The family was cracking...just like the sprinkler pipes. 

The mother in law helped, the mother of the family finally had a much needed extra set of hands, the baby was finally feeling better, and the husband was able to fix the 3 breaks.

And here we are.
The sun is shining.
The mother in law is here helping so much.
The husband is getting a much needed nap.
The kids are outside playing.
The mother has found time to blog.
And yes....there are 2 more breaks in the pipes.


What gives?