or Shall I Say “Mowing Forward?”

As you may have seen, a crew from Landscape Workshop has been on site since last Tuesday working on the new irrigation system.

Early in the week, the old controllers were removed and the new control unit was installed on the side of the Clubhouse.  In addition, nearby, a grounding plate was buried to serve as protection against a nearby lightning strike that could take out the whole system.  This part was easy.

Then came the job of locating each and every decoder around the subdivision, checking them to ascertain that they were working (namely listening to signals from the main clock controller)  and mapping them onto a copy of the plat for the whole subdivision so that, in the future, when it is necessary to locate them due to necessary repairs, we know exactly where they are.  This task is the monumental aspect of the job since it involves someone at the Clubhouse controller and another person out in the field looking for the decoder being tested and then reporting back whether or not its working.  In fact, a number were found to be defective which means that they may not have been working for some time without anyone being aware.  At this point in time, there are perhaps five or six that still need to be tested.

It’s worth noting that there was no rhyme or reason for the original layout at the time of installation, making it quite difficult to figure out where things were, including an instance of piping and electrical (low voltage) going under the road from the outer perimeter homes to the inner loop homes and around the common area!

The next step in the operation which should happen early next week is actually defining the schedules.  That is assigning a start time and duration to each zone and well as coming up with a numbering/naming scheme for the zones.  This aspect, according to the installers, can be done without an installer being on site since the system may be accessed via the Web.

One of our concerns was that lawns not receiving irrigation for such an extended period of time but we’ve been reassured that due to the lateness on the season and the cooler weather that we’ve had, the grass should fare well into the fall.

We’ll continue to keep you posted and hopefully soon we’ll be all wet again! 

For the Landscape Committee,

Len

[email protected]