Rhoni, "Why should we pay a professional?" There are a number of reasons including leaking pipe from the old system undermining the pool decking and compromising the integrity of the concrete decking and/or the gunite shell of the pool. (Concrete breakout and repair is expensiveÂIÂd say it probably starts around $2500 or maybe more.) A professional irrigator would provide you a design which provides some semblance of distribution uniformity, professional grade products, (unlike the "material" sold at the big box stores) and a warranty, not to mention insurance in case of an accident or mishap. IÂm sure there is no warranty from your "professional" CPA on your taxes, much less on the work he did on your system. I donÂt profess to be a CPA, so I have a CPA do my TAXES. You see Rhoni, a professional irrigator is going to access the damage done to the existing system and give you his professional opinion on how best to rectify the situation. This not only includes the integrity of the plumbing servicing the system, but heÂll also recommend changes to the design/layout of the system to best cover the "new" areas created when you plopped a pool in the middle of the existing system/design. ItÂs not just a matter of reconnecting pipe and eureka, and itÂs as good as a "new" 1 ½ year old sprinkler system. It sounds as if you had 2 different IRRIGATION professionals tell you that the system needed to be renovated for similar amounts of money. But you chose to essentially call both of them ripoff artists and tackle the job yourself. If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. So go ahead and hook up your pipe again. Let it water your pool, decking, summer kitchen, house, fencing ect. all the while leaving dry areas which cant be covered short of adding heads or complete zones. When it doesnÂt cover properly, I DARE you to call those same 2 contractors whose time you wasted previously and bid the "repair" work. I bet they give you a bid of $2500 or probably more. But please, please, PLEASE donÂt call ME to come repair it. As I have told people in the past, "I can put spinners on your Yugo, but I cant wave a wand and turn your Yugo into a Cadillac". IÂve been a licensed IRRIGATOR for 24 years, but IÂve never been much of a magician.

Yes they are prickly! I managed to climb a few of the Pine trees near me to look for cats, only when I got to the ground I was cut up, and with no cats. I love climbing trees though, so even though it cuts me up, I'm still going to look! I might get some eggs from Bill Oehlke soon to. I never heard of them on Austrian Pine but I'm sure they will eat it, like any other Pine, plus they are native to OK so if you dont find any on your trees, you could buy some eggs, test them out on your pine, and if theyll eat it get some more and start a family in your area. They are beautiful. Good luck S.B.

I'm not really missing, I just don't post as much. There are plenty of "new" people here though, I've really enjoyed the new pics and opinions. I miss Nicki too. I thought of her not too long ago when a cat named Miss PissyScat had a prescription filled. I assume (ahem) the name was given affectionately. I was hoping to be the person to announce over the intercom that it was ready. And where is Steven? Did he run off to Europe? Not much new is going on. Sophronia, the bossy little Barred Rock, passed away in her sleep a few weeks ago. She would have been 2 this week. Johnny is a brave soul; he woke me up (early, really early!) to tell me he found her still in her dust bath, so she apparently died sometime between the evening scratch feast and sunset and he didn't notice her when he closed up the coop. I wouldn't have wanted to tell me that. I buried her by the shed (where a skunk and a groundhog are duking it out over the den underneath) and the lilac there is going to bloom (finally) after 7 years. I know a Rock was laying wonky eggs and we thought it was her, so maybe that was the reason. Who knows with chickens? The rest are fine, but a little bitter about being cooped until the plants and grass fill in a little. I'm still waiting for bees. I'm still debating how exactly I'll set up my hive. I've been getting outside and attempting to right wrongs in the garden. I stomped out one morning and ripped the medlar out. I couldn't take one more day of it. It has gotten fireblight and cracked fruit, and I can never figure out just how long to let the fruit rot before it's edible. Last year I got a fruit with fuzz on the inside...ick. I also tore out a few floppy plants that have been annoying me for years and moved them to the alley, where they can flop all they want. I've been planting up the hell strip up front. I'm sure the neighborhood terrors will manage to destroy most of it, so I'm putting groundcovers and daylilies up there. Daylilies and crocosmia divide endlessly. I'm modeling my efforts on a planting a neighborhood over. The only thing I don't like about their strip is that they didn't allow anywhere for guests to park. Getting out of a car would be awkward without breaks in the planting, so I moved the car around and measured out car lengths and placed stepping stones. Anything to entertain the curtain twitchers. The hens have destroyed most of the front gardens, so what I have left is what I'm going to go forward with, on the assumption those plants are pretty darn tough. We put up a short fence in the side yards to try to keep the hens in the back. I'm working my way around the yard, moving and dividing. I'll be putting in annuals here and there to fill in spots and I'll see how it goes. The longer I garden, the more I want voracious perennials that will cover lots of ground and look nice without needing my attention. If someone marketed variegated crabgrass, I'd be 1st in line. Johnny decided to plant a rose garden and he has some David Austin roses on the way. (And, oddly, after years of telling me to buy red roses, he got pinks and I think a yellow.) He's planting them on the back end of our lot, which means a long haul with watering cans or the hose. He claims it won't be so bad. I have my doubts, but after his tomato crop last year that he planted in what I think is a too shady spot, I'm willing to bite my tongue. I started the biting right after I voiced my opinion. I did offer up chicken poo and worm castings to help improve the awful soil back there. He's planning on putting up some sort of arbor. With any luck, his ramblers and my vines will help each other look better. We're still both knitting. He made a pair of fingerless gloves on a whim, I'm still slogging through a baby blanket that may never end. My advice on baby blankets is "keep it simple!" Hard won wisdom. I want to get back to projects that are more self-centered. Our Himalayan prolapsed again a month or so ago and is once again better and frisking around with practice thumb strips from Johnny's gloves. Our 9th anniversary is tomorrow, on April Fools' Day, no less. No big plans, but we're somehow both off together. Mostly, we just see each other in passing these days. I feel like I see him more on Facebook than in real life. kent

Anne, I had a similar thing happen to me. My Dad was laid off from his job in my high school senior year. I told my parents I wanted an opal ring for graduation. Lo and behold, they got me an opal ring with a big beautiful opal and two small diamond accents. I loved that ring, and especially when I thought of my parents, with four kids, finding the money to buy me that ring. I wore it on special occasions only. I kept it in a separate box inside my jewelry box in my bedroom. I got married, moved 500 miles away from my parents and had two daughters. The only person who had access to my jewelry box was a babysitter who took care of my kids for six years. We fired her when she stole some items from my kitchen, a shot glass and some cookie cutters. Not expensive, but I was creeped out at her stealing from me. Several months later I looked in my jewelry box and the ring (and its' box) were gone. I looked all over, asked my kids if they had played with my jewelry, but no. The only person who had ever been in my house was that baby sitter. I still see her in the neighborhood. I wish I had some evidence, but it's too late now. I've been looking on Ebay to see if I can find a similar ring, but I can't. I'm afraid to tell my Mom the ring is gone (Dad died 10 years ago).