We have 10 sprinklers!...

I know, I can hardly believe it either. That happened faster than I ever thought it could. My dad manned the gas-powered trencher, and John and I focused on the hand trenching in the flowerbeds. Dad was done with the trencher by noon, and then we began laying pipe to the grass strip that runs between the sidewalk & the street, and before we knew it, we had our first sprinkler line! I couldn't be happier. Our goal is to get the front yard wrapped up quickly (so the neighbors don't think we're deadbeats) and then work on the backyard at a slightly slower pace (I'm not one for slow paces though, so we'll see). The backyard will require quite a bit of hand trenching due to the various water & gas lines that run through it from the alley, as well as the awkward angles & flowerbeds, but I'm already soaking the dirt in preparation.

Check out those roots my dad chopped through...the one on the left is lifting up our foundation a bit, so we were glad to get rid of it.

We'd be nothing without that trencher

My dad at the helm...although the machine is self-propelled, it still requires quite a bit of man-power to maneuver it, and those huge tree roots don't make things any easier.

John fitting pipe

Our valves...who knew something like this could make me so excited?!

My dad busted out the chainsaw...some of those roots were just too big for the trencher (Good thing we have access to all his farm equipment...I don't know what we'd do without it).

John making a final adjustment to a sprinkler head before we turned them on

Water!

Check out those gnarly tree roots

I'm happy...

...and really dirty. If you can tell I even wore a hole in my left knee. There's something strangely satisfying about purchasing a pair of jeans and then wearing them out enough to earn a hole in the knee. It's fantastic really.

My dad knows his stuff, and he's a great teacher, so it may be that by the time we reach the backyard, John and I will be flying solo on the project. That will be nice because it means that we learned something, but I kind of hope my dad sticks around. I like it when he's here.