Latest DIY is almost done. An annual thing, it’s preparing the sprinkler system for use. Phases One and Two are done every year: find the sprinklers and uncover the dirt and weeds which grew over them, clean and adjust the heads.

Phase Three, raising the heads, was new. Should’ve been done several years ago but I was intimidated. It was a job I’d never done nor seen done ‘live’. I saw potential disaster in trying it, along with a lot of shoveling and work. As we’d experienced several years of high heat and unhealthy wildfire smoke, it was easy to rationalize not working in that environment and putting it off. I finally ordered myself to do it this year. What do you know, it was easier than expected.

Since I’d stalled, ten sprinkler heads needed raised now. After watching Youtube videos, raisers were purchased at my local Ace Hardware, $1.59 each. Over three days, a doughnut of sod was dug out around each head. The sprinkler body was then unscrewed, the raisers screwed into the body’s bottom, and then screwed into place with the new raiser attached. The sod doughnut was then restored.

It’s easy when you put it like that, but it was sweaty work done on my knees. First though, I cut the grass. That smoothed the process.

The first sprinkler head and body being removed was done tentatively and took about thirty minutes, because I worried about all the things which could go wrong. Second one was about half of that time, and then the rest were usually done in less than ten minutes. My neck felt the most impact from the work as I muscled the bodies off their perches. Screwed on for almost sixteen years, they resisted my charms as I strove to remove them, and the work was being done in mud. Keeping the area around the body intact was paramount so dirt didn’t get into the pipes. I developed a style of sliding a dandelion fork along the body to loosen the mud’s hold on it. After everything was done, the heads required cleaning and adjustment again.

Just one backyard sprinkler head remains to be raised. That’s this afternoon’s chore. Like most DIY, it’s satisfying to finish a job and mark it off my mental list of things to do.