Our neighbor recently installed a sprinkler system in their back yard. Normally this isn't much of an event for the next-door neighbors, especially when the neighbors in question have a back yard that looks as horrible as ours does (or maybe I should say that it is still “being improved”). This particular sprinkler installation was not done as well as it should have been and consequently has been flooding our backyard ever since they put it in. It’s amazing how much a person can water when using irrigation water because they don’t have to pay for every drop of water that comes through the system. I’m sure the sprinklers throughout the entire subdivision were malfunctioning since the water pressure must have been seriously altered due to the massive quantities of water being poured into MY yard. It would have been much more effective if we had switched the system around and used our yard as a canal in order to provide water to everyone else.
I just so happens that water, especially standing water, is a very popular place for mosquitoes to breed. I have been excessively paranoid about mosquitoes since the water appeared because I have a little boy who is allergic to mosquito bites (plus we have West Nile Virus here and mosquito bites are no fun for anyone anyway). Water also happens to support plant growth. Watering plants can be a very good thing, but since the area of unnecessary watering was dirt and weeds (as previously mentioned) the yard became an area of dirt (the dry parts) and four-foot weeds (the wet parts). The weeds became quite tall during the time they were receiving ample liquid nourishment, but I had no yearning to brave the cesspool in order to rid the area of undesirable plants that would re-seed in their watery home (having likely originated within the sprinkler system in the first place).
After multiple knocks on the neighbor’s door, conversing with the neighbors in Spanglish, and being told that the one person who speaks English in the household was not home we began to languish (we languish with Spanglish—hey, that’s catchy!). I still don’t know how they were previously unaware of the fact that not only was our yard filled with enough water to support the ark with millions of animals on it, but also that their grass was covered with a few inches of standing water, yet that is a subject for another day. Even though we never held a complete conversation with the neighbors, the flood began to dry up (I guess we are more fluent in Spanglish than we thought).
Monday morning the massive flood began dissipating and by Thursday we had the marvelous opportunity of walking on our dirt again. Now there is no longer any reasonable excuse for ignoring the previously-mentioned well-watered undesirable plants.
Disclaimer: The writing above is subject to exaggeration in order to make the reader more aware of the extremity of the situation.
Translation for the Disclaimer: The water was really only a few inches deep most of the time, so we didn’t worry about it since we hadn’t done anything on that area of the yard yet, until one Sunday morning when it had spread across the yard and flooded our sprinkler box which is at least 2/3 of the way across the yard (this part is not an exaggeration since the disclaimer is only for things stated above and the sprinkler box resides across 36 of 52 feet of our yard, which is 9/13–more than 1/3, being approximately 69.23%). After this we were counting our blessings that we had decided to plant our garden in the areas we had since those areas and the house were the ONLY parts of the yard NOT under water. It also gave us a very accurate look at where the water will settle and where we still need to level our ground before we do our own sprinklers and grass. Nothing quite like a few blessings in disguise!!
Picture obtained from http://ldolphin.org/flood.shtml
I just so happens that water, especially standing water, is a very popular place for mosquitoes to breed. I have been excessively paranoid about mosquitoes since the water appeared because I have a little boy who is allergic to mosquito bites (plus we have West Nile Virus here and mosquito bites are no fun for anyone anyway). Water also happens to support plant growth. Watering plants can be a very good thing, but since the area of unnecessary watering was dirt and weeds (as previously mentioned) the yard became an area of dirt (the dry parts) and four-foot weeds (the wet parts). The weeds became quite tall during the time they were receiving ample liquid nourishment, but I had no yearning to brave the cesspool in order to rid the area of undesirable plants that would re-seed in their watery home (having likely originated within the sprinkler system in the first place).
After multiple knocks on the neighbor’s door, conversing with the neighbors in Spanglish, and being told that the one person who speaks English in the household was not home we began to languish (we languish with Spanglish—hey, that’s catchy!). I still don’t know how they were previously unaware of the fact that not only was our yard filled with enough water to support the ark with millions of animals on it, but also that their grass was covered with a few inches of standing water, yet that is a subject for another day. Even though we never held a complete conversation with the neighbors, the flood began to dry up (I guess we are more fluent in Spanglish than we thought).
Monday morning the massive flood began dissipating and by Thursday we had the marvelous opportunity of walking on our dirt again. Now there is no longer any reasonable excuse for ignoring the previously-mentioned well-watered undesirable plants.
Disclaimer: The writing above is subject to exaggeration in order to make the reader more aware of the extremity of the situation.
Translation for the Disclaimer: The water was really only a few inches deep most of the time, so we didn’t worry about it since we hadn’t done anything on that area of the yard yet, until one Sunday morning when it had spread across the yard and flooded our sprinkler box which is at least 2/3 of the way across the yard (this part is not an exaggeration since the disclaimer is only for things stated above and the sprinkler box resides across 36 of 52 feet of our yard, which is 9/13–more than 1/3, being approximately 69.23%). After this we were counting our blessings that we had decided to plant our garden in the areas we had since those areas and the house were the ONLY parts of the yard NOT under water. It also gave us a very accurate look at where the water will settle and where we still need to level our ground before we do our own sprinklers and grass. Nothing quite like a few blessings in disguise!!
Picture obtained from http://ldolphin.org/flood.shtml
1 comment:
Niiiiiiice Shelly! I am glad to hear that things are now better...and that you can now decide how your hard will be finished and altered due to previous complications with the neighbors and their water. Good luck with all that!
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