There are water patterns on the fence! Yes!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was having a crappy day and part of that was due to the discovery my sprinklers weren't working. I just felt so helpless. The sprinkler system was a boy chore. Last spring, I had a moment of panic when I realized I was going to have to turn the system on at some point and didn't know how. It turns out the control panel is pretty self-explanatory and all I had to do was bring up the schedule and hit the on button. Last fall, I brought up the schedule and hit the off button, satisfied I mastered the sprinkler system.

So, a few weeks ago, when we went through our mini-drought (two weeks without rain in May), I brought up the schedule and hit the on button. A couple days later, I was coherent enough one morning to realize there weren't water patterns on the fence. It is set up to water every other day so I decided to wait and see the next morning. Sure enough, no water patterns.

That afternoon when I got home, I reset it to go off 5 minutes after the time it was when I reset it. About 10 minutes later, I went down and saw the control box was counting down the time remaining for Zone 1. Ten minutes after that, it was counting down Zone 2. But the lawn was not being watered. So, I went and checked the valve 6-pack thingy (I am pretty sure that IS the technical term for it). It was humming, so it was getting power. I tried adjusting all the knobs, but still no water.

I finally broke down and called the landscaping service I had been using. He came over the other night and told me I had a broken sprinkler head. My first thought was "great, I am going to have a huge ass water bill." I also thought a broken sprinkler head would not prevent the system from watering-it would just make a huge mess. He showed me where the head was leaking and it took me a minute to realize that 1/2 the sprinklers in the back yard (Zone 3, I do believe) were all on.

"Wait, how did you get water to come out?" I asked. I explained that I knew the system was working but I wasn't getting any water. He then showed me where the master valve is that he had turned off to winterize the system.

I knew it had to be something simple. I also wonder if I stop going to Starbucks if I can afford to have my landscaper back.