Last summer I made a wee suggestion that we plant a few tomato plants. Well, Doug cleared a 50 x 50 foot garden, planted 30 tomato plants, and decided it was necessary to install a sprinkling system. (Stay tuned for the update on our garden thus far this year.)
Although I tease him for the amount of veggies we ended up planting, the sprinkler system was pretty ingenious. In addition to improving the house by adding a sprinkler system, we added a totally personalized way to fill the sprinkler system with water.
It turns out we are way too cool to water our lawn and veggies with the city’s water. Come on now. We water our goods with pure artesian spring water. Nothing but the best for our foliage.
And the source of this fancy-schmancy water? This very, very non fancy pipe:
Doug is lucky enough to have an artesian spring in his backyard. The water gushes like crazy – Doug’s latest estimate is 11 gallons per minute. That’s a whole lotta tasty h20!
An artesian spring is different from other water sources in that the water is thrust upward from below as opposed to running downhill. That makes it super cold and super pure.
Image available here.
Beyond that, all I know is that Jack loves to lick it up.
Doug did all the trenching and pipe laying that is standard for building a sprinkler system. But in addition to all that jazz, he had to build a water pump to pump the water from the spring to the pipes.
(I will pay big money to someone who can disguise this pump. Big money, I say.)
Here’s what’s going on inside there:
The pump fills a bucket full of the spring water in preparation for the sprinkler system. Any overflow is released down a culvert.
At Doug’s command, the pump sends water to the sprinklers and onto the yard. I must admit that the water pump is pretty magical. Doug and I like to sit on the patio at night and just watch it water those veggies. Every once and I while I pat his back with a, “You made that.” And he did. And it’s awesome.
Now, enough pattin’ our backs. Who has ideas about covering this really ugly pump?
