Thanks ciefneil. I was hoping you'd found some magical source of blue bahia that you could point me too for a great price :) That is great to know about the etching though, so I can cross it off my list definitely anyway!) We're putting marble on the perimeters so we want the island to be the less-sensitive workspace. I guess I am back to thinking I'll use the blue macuba quartzite I've been thinking of (of course, haven't heard the price on that yet... I seem to have a tendency to find the most expensive item wherever we go, lol)

I've heard that new trees should get 45 minutes a day ==>>> that a nonsensical answer from peeps who have no clue about your soil.. in your yard.. in your weather ... water plants when they need them.;.. and then let them near dry ... i think i gave you the link in your other post ... the new shrubs will only need water this year.. and only in drought next year.. and then be free range .. ergo ... you can use a temporary line.. which you just hooks up to the spigot when you need to ... and remove it after next season ... dont forget the mulch ... you would arm yourself with a hand trowel.. run the line for 30 mins.. and then go see how deep the water got ... and then water for another 30 mins ... you want to achieve a deep watering .. down into the root mass .. and keep going.. until you put down PROPER WATER ... after that.. and with good mulch.. you might not need to water again.. for a month ... when the heat of summer really hits .. keep digging small holes AND FIND OUT HOW IT ALL WORKS IN YOUR SOIL ... as noted.. absolutely no one can tell you hole it all works in your microclimate and soil ... ken

oure, you can set it up that way. But the bigger question is how to set the run time? Sprinklers need to run for only minutes, drippers/soakers may need to run for an hour or more. End result: Some things drown; other things die of thirst.

For the past about 20 years I've replaced brass fittings with plastic. Brass has a nasty feature whereby it can erode under relatively low pressure water leaks. I ruined a brand new, solid brass, male fitting, in 30 minutes because I did not notice the small leak from lack of tightening. I fixed it with a file, but when the female side could not be fixed. I replaced the female with plastic and together they lasted for years. The real problem is the male ends made from stamped metal. Those things dig into the hose washer and chew it up. Plastic male ends never chew up the washer. The other thing I do is replace all the flat washers with #15 O-rings from Ace Hardware. ALL of them. Every new sprinkler gets an O-ring. Also with plastic in the mix, you never get metal to metal corrosion like you see in your picture. Some of the new sprinkler heads are made of iron, which, of course, rusts like crazy. You don't want to screw one of those into a brass male side.