It helps to know your options. But it also helps to know how to implement them. Sometimes that means being aware of your limits and having help available. I began this project full of hope and high expectations of doing it myself. I had completed another Netafim project by myself last year. However, there were non-obvious details of this new Netafim adventure that exposed my lack of understanding of some of the materials, as well as my limited understanding of how to problem solve. Thankfully, the Head Engineer came to my rescue.
First of all, “funny” pipe is the more flexible sprinkler line extension pipe that is often used from the main hard sprinkler lines underground. This funny pipe allows for more exact positioning of sprinkler heads. It is DIFFERENT than drip line pipe in a few of ways. Drip line (which I used on my first project, linked to in the first paragraph), is both more flexible, about ⅛th inch more in diameter, and has thinner walls. It was relatively easy to insert an adapter into the drip line extension. Drip line: ⅝ths inch diameter. Funny pipe: ½ inch diameter. My landscape architect son says that it can be very hard to insert adapters into funny pipe, and he often uses a rubber mallet for the job. (Now he tells me. Palm slaps forehead – see video below) I actually have a rubber mallet of my own that the Head Engineer gave me for Christmas a couple years ago to deal with errant grout in the kitchen’s tile floor. I hate it when I have all the things I need and I don’t even know it.
Another problem was not thinking “outside the box” quite enough when it came to finding the angle to screw things into the sprinkler pipe at ground level. I struggled and struggled with it, only to gasp in frustration when the Head Engineer came to help and promptly pulled it much further out of the ground and made it all look easy. Not that I’m not grateful. I’m just mad and embarrassed that I didn’t think of it. On the other hand, I never know what I’m going to break, so sometimes it is better to learn these options from watching someone else. Now I know. If I can remember.
No matter the frustration, it all got done and is working very nicely. The Head Engineer says he would be grumpy if he was in charge of the sprinklers and doing it himself, but helping me do it is fun. Not sure how much of that is the entertainment factor, but I can be humble. And grateful. I am willing to learn. Someone who doesn’t recognize a need to know, misses opportunities to learn. I am still going to try more Netafim projects. It can only get easier, right?
