Thanks for the comments. Holleygarden, I do it all of the time! haha. A lot of the plant material I'm using is very young and will take some time to fill in. Most of the succulents actually look better this time of year when the cold temperatures come our way because they get awesome colorations. Take Aloe Cameronii for example, it will turn a bright red when stressed by cold or drought. Plus, I got to expand the "plantable" space in my yard. I am now growing lots of plants that I didn't have room for before. Arbutus Marina, Agave Vilmoriniana, Aloe Littoralis, Aloe marlothii, Aloe arborescens... those are only some of them. I can't wait to see what my yard evolves into. I agree with Rhodium as well. We thought we would need a lawn at the time we installed it. We would always have friends and family over, and we love to have a good barbeque, so we figured a lawn would be the best option. It turns out, we opted for eating indoors a majority of the time because it was either too hot or too cold outside! lol (our summer temperatures can easily reach 115F and more). Even if we ended up eating outside, we would stay under the ramada (to the right of the pictures above). It's been about 4 years since that. It was always such a hassle to mow the lawn, fertilize it, water dry spots... all for looks, since we hardly gave it its intended use. This summer was the last straw for me. The pressing drought issues along with what i've already mentioned made me take the lawn out. It was a rather slow process since I took out pieces as I had the money to replant the bare spots. Plus, I added some mounds here and there to give my aloes good drainage. Like laag mentioned, it makes you content to stay in the garden. And we use the area even more now that the lawn is gone!

FWIW, I did eventually identify this valve. The bypass appeared identical to the Toro models and I have all Toro sprinklers. I found that it appeared to match Toro 53380 (264-06-03). This was confirmed by a HD Fowler who actually had a replacement in stock. I replaced the guts and everything works fine now. It appears that the reason for the failure was that there must have been a pin on the bleed port internal to the valve. When I cracked the bleed screw, that pin must have been washed away/sheared off. In any case, the bleed screw was no longer capable of sealing the valve for whatever reason. Oh, and I located the last 3 valves by determining approximately where the would likely be and having my wife turn them on and off to actuate the solenoid. After a few clicks, I was able to hear and locate them.

I'm glad you're in a 4Runner, Susan, that's my vehicle of choice, too. However, as good and as heavy as they are, ice makes anything dangerous to drive. We are more prone to ice storms around here, but my 4Runner got us home in a blizzard a few years ago that was stranding everyone else. The snow came down so fast and heavy, it was being pushed out of the way by my own frame, and you know that's pretty high, so it was impressive. I kissed my car for weeks after that, I thought we would be walking home the last 10 miles, but nope- we drove! Took forever, but we made it. I'm glad you got home safe from the party. You might consider cables (those work great if there's snow or ice on the ground, you can order them thru an auto supply store, they aren't cheap but they last a good long time) for your tires- they will make your commute a lot safer. Woody has cables for his truck and he used them all the time when he was on the FD and responding to traffic accidents as an EMT. Swears by them! You have to take them off when the roads are clear and dry, but it only takes a few minutes.

Sorry - I couldn't post these in the original post. It’s hard to tell in the pictures but the dark pink half of the weird rose is darker than the solid one - the photo is a liar!