Beltane Emergence Moon
In the basement, next to the softwater tank, is a blue pressure cylinder that holds water from our well as it waits distribution to the rest of the house. Coming out of it is a copper pipe that goes straight up for about six feet, has an elbow, then penetrates the envelope of the house to connect our well to the irrigation system. This pipe has a small butterfly valve, often locked with a lead seal though not this year. After screwing in a bolt that prevents water from bypassing the irrigation system and landing in our orchard, used for fall blow out, I hopefully opened both blue butterfly valves.
Then I plugged in the irrigation clock and hit run on an overhead water zone for our one half of our vegetable garden, the north half where I’ve planted tomatoes, bush beans, egg plants, swiss chard, cucumbers, collard greens and peppers. Waiting expectantly, my contrarian thrill ready to exult, I. Waited. Nothing. Hmmm. Let’s see, water on. Yes. Clock running. Yes. What was I missing?
I went to the valve outside and turned one butterfly valve in the opposite direction, imagining I had turned them off instead of on. Water gushed out against the siding. So. The water has gotten from the well to the valve itself. I turned that off and noted that it meant I had in fact turned the water to the system off with the other valve that gates the water from the well to the system itself. This must be it. I turned that one to the open position and went back to the clock.
Punched manual start on zone 1 which is in the front. Waited for the spume of water to arc out. Nope. OK. RTFM. I got on the web and discovered I’d missed pressurizing the lines. Sigh. At that point I decided my self-education in all things sprinkler start-up had exceeded my willingness to learn.
That was when the hose came out, three hoses really, and, connected to a house spigot, the yellow, three-armed irrigation spinner began to twirl in the vegetable beds. I have no need to learn how to start up the irrigation system, I just wanted my plants to get water and I thought the startup would be simpler than it was. Something I could learn, no doubt, but with probably only one more spring to practice my knowledge, I’d rather spend the time on my Latin.
