Fortunately, I’m over the speed bumps (I think) with no damage (I hope).

Here’s what happened…

Friday after work I stopped at Lowe’s to pick up cement mix, cement coloring and sprinkler head caps.  The first two were no problem, but the last one required me to ask for help.  I scoured the aisles for something to fit over the pop-up spray heads that would prevent the pop-up from popping, but I couldn’t find anything, so I asked for help.  Imagine my stunned surprise when I was directed to these 58 cent pieces…

Definitely NOT what I had envisioned…though to be honest, I hadn’t really figured out how I was going to cap the heads, and I was a bit confused as to how I was going to disguise them in the dry creek bed.

Mystery solved!

Tons more work involved!

Last week while waiting for the local mechanic to pick me up & bring me to the garage after the timing belt replacement on my CRV, I discovered that I needed to expand the front garden area by 3′ and reduce the future deck area by the same amount.  Why?  See that green circle to the right of the post?

That’s the main shut-off for the water supply to the sprinkler system.  Originally the garden area was ending to the left of my post but now?  It’s ending to the right…after that green circle.  That main has to be accessible, so first thing Saturday morning I adjusted the length of my dry creek bed before I did anything else.

Next up was bathing some of my river rock in order to get rid of the sand covering them and see their true rock colors…

All of those rocks shrunk my 30″ tall bag of rocks by…an inch 

But…I do have some awesome looking rocks!

Unfortunately, the beauty will only shine through when the rocks are wet.

*sigh*

While the rocks dried I started capping the 5 sprinkler heads that were in need of capping.  I dug and dug and dug without success.  I could not find the end of the pop-up spray head!  I knew there would be a division of some kind between the riser and the pop-up part, but after digging until my fingers hurt I still hadn’t found it.  I was so dismayed…

I checked the rocks and decided they were dry enough to move them by wheelbarrow to the dry creek bed.  I mixed the cement mix with coloring, plopped it on the ground then added the river rock.

The first couple feet looked okay but I wasn’t sure the rock would be secured, so for the next three feet I made the cement base deeper so I could sink the rock into it.

The rocks on the right, the ones without the deep concrete base?  Love ‘em!  The rocks on the left with the deeper base?  HATE ‘em!  Why?  Because I was using a cement mix, there were lots of little rocks in the mix which prevented the river rocks from getting close to or overlapping each other!

Saturday was anything but productive so far…sprinkler head not capped and dry creek bed unhappiness.

Undetered, I focused on the next sprinkler head, one that was just inches from the first.  I was energized from the discovery that the pop-up spray head met the riser much sooner!  I cleared all the dirt from anywhere near it, as instructed by the Lowe’s employee, unscrewed the pop-up spray head then scrambled to screw on the cap…while water bubbled up (I hadn’t blown out the sprinkler system).  Once the water all went away I dried off the cap and surrounding soil then watched…and cursed when it got wet again.  I used the rubber jar opener square from my kitchen and managed to screw on the cap tight enough that no more water leaked.

I went back to sprinkler head #1 and dug some more, finally meeting with success!!!  I repeated the same procedure as with the first completed replacement and now found myself the proud owner of two holes with nearby piles of dirt.  There was no way I was going to fill these holes until I was sure that they were not leaking.

So?

Holes remained open until Sunday morning.  But, what I can show you is the difference in the size of the pop-up spray heads.  The long one, the first one I tried to replace, is 16″ in length — the shorter ones?  A mere 9″!  Any wonder why I felt like I was digging to the center of the earth?

I headed to Lowe’s bright and early to pick up mortar mix — powdery without rocks — so I could follow the suggestion a neighbor made on Saturday.  Once home I placed 4′ of river rock in the dry creek area, moving the rocks around until I was happy with the arrangement.  Then I mixed some mortar mix with some power coloring, sprinkled it over all the rocks, used a broom to brush it off the rocks and into the nooks and crannies then watered it down with the hose.

Is this perfect?  I won’t know for sure until I check it Monday night, but what I can emphatically say is that it is TONS better than my first attempts (that rock cluster at the very top of the picture is another failed attempt from Saturday).

While this area began its drying process I removed two more pop-up spray heads, the last of which was full of obstacles…called tree roots!  This is what the hole looks like from a distance…

And here’s a close-up so you can see the tangle of tiny roots…and none of the larger roots that I had to cut away in order to dig deep enough to make the replacement…

That white pipe on the left?  That’s the water supply for the sprinkler system!  Not only was I dodging roots but I also had to dodge that pipe…and naturally, the larger roots I had to cut away went right up to that pipe.

As of Sunday afternoon there is still one sprinkler head that needs to be replaced, two 10″ deep holes in my yard waiting to make sure the caps aren’t leaking and one 4′ section of river rock drying to make sure it looks great.

Next weekend?

Swinging my pick axe to remove the icky dry creek bed sections, buying the 1st round of plants, finishing the dry creek bed, capping the final sprinkler head and planting some, if not all, of the first round of new front yard residents.

YAY — the fun part of the front yard conversion is about to start!