Good morning! I hope the world is being good to you and you’re being good to it.

Grab your coffee or beverage of choice and share a thought with me!

I never expected lawn care to become such a major part of my life. It came about as a responsibility of necessity rather than choice. We moved into a house, and while I could’ve ignored the yard and let it descend into weedy disrepair, my wife would’ve taken up the mower well before that happened. I never would allow that to happen, to be clear; I take pride in how things look and in keeping things working. Still, it had been years since I regularly mowed a yard, and with home ownership, the nuances of seeding, weeding, and watering were all things I’d need to learn and execute. Couple learning landscaping with the inherent element of neighbor-pressure to keep adjoining lawns on par, and there was a lot that made me miss living in an apartment.

I share all that to come to the point that, eight years after moving into our house, sprinklers have become a larger part of my life than I ever expected. Obviously, grass needs water to stay green and grow. If Mother Nature won’t provide the precipitation, I’m doing it myself. I mean, I’m setting up the sprinklers to provide the water. Providing that much precipitation myself, in public, would get me arrested. Anyway, this is where I get far too invested in the devices.

I’ve cycled through a number of sprinklers to find ones that provide customizable coverage and maintain functional reliability. I’m pleased with my current arsenal but am still searching for a good hose to complement the aqua tossers. My current sprinkler toolkit consists of two gear-driven, one impact, and one stationary. The gear-driven sprinklers allow for customizable ranges and 360 coverage. My two bugaboos with them are that I don’t feel they move as much water volume and getting a sense of the spray pattern is a bit of trial-and-error. Next, since we live on a corner, the stationary sprinkler helps cover the thin strip of lawn abutting the neighbors’ yard. It’s nothing special and requires manual movement to cover what it needs to.

My champion is the impact sprinkler, with adjustable range and possible 360 coverage. It’s a soaking machine that will dampen even the driest lawns. When he and his twin (making it a “he” for the sake of storytelling) patrolled my yard’s brown patches, the water flew with efficient fury under a cacophony of ch ch ch ch ch ch ch chhhhhhhhhhhh – the true sound of summer. Unfortunately, one day, the twin’s spin went away, and he retired from service.

While the sprinklers themselves have occupied more conversation than probably necessary, their use creates one of the more cathartic moments in my life. Listening to the impact sprinkler’s steady rhythm of that ch ch ch ch ch ch ch chhhhhhhhhhh, feeling the wind kick back a little of that cool mist, and smelling the cocktail of moisture on grass has a hypnotic effect. I could stand outside listening and watching that sprinkler paint its Mona Lisa for far longer than you’d expect. The whole process brings about a peace to the day that you have to pause and appreciate. I know I’m not alone in this, because I’ve caught my neighbor standing in his driveway staring at his sprinkler for an extended period as well.

Ten years ago, this wasn’t something I cared about. As a kid, when my dad asked me to turn a sprinkler on or move it to a different part of the yard, I was quick about it without a care for what came next. I probably don’t need to care about watering the lawn now like I do, which is still only a mindset to keep more green on the lawn than brown. Even still, I could spend that effort and concern elsewhere. The act, however, brings with it unexpected positive moments, and there’s nothing wrong with, dare I say, sprinkling in a few of those each day.