Bring out your dead II

Yes, we are dead today. After a marathon of work over the weekend, all of you muscles ache.
I spent a good part of Saturday, under the house, running the new water line to the backyard sprinkler valves.

I need the pipe to go forty feet under the house, turn right for about ten feet, then straight again through the wall in the front of the house.
Chip a hole in the stucco, then drill a two-inch hole through a 4x6. Push in a ten-foot length of PVC pipe. Enough to go across the house to the existing water line. Then feed in ten feet of PVC pipe, glue on a coupling and another ten feet; until forty feet of pipe is under the house.

Now the fun begins. With a tub of all the tools I need, it’s time to crawl under the house. This is a job for a tiny person, but it has to be me.
It’s all crawling on your stomach work. Keep your butt low, there may be nails above you. Rocks and hard dirt dig into your hands and chest. Dirt gets scooped into your pants.
Put on a strap, crawl six feet, put up another strap. You get to the bend, glue on an elbow, spill the can of glue. A full can of glue. The solvent fumes fill the air. I am sure it’s just not healthy.

A little air blows in through the vent. You strap the pipe to the floor joists and crawl away from the fumes. You find the spot in the front wall, drill the hole, roll onto your back and stare up at the pipe that is too short. Okay, it’s a ten to fifteen minute crawl back to the crawlspace access door. Get…you measure…eighteen inches of pipe; then crawl all the way back. I wish my friend Skinner lived close by. She is short and was in the military. She should be a crawling expert. But being a wimp, I know she would not do it.

I grab my cell phone and call Wonder Girl. I can hear her footsteps above as she gets to the phone.
“Hi Honey, can you do me a favor?”
“Everything okay down there?”
“Yes, but I need a little more pipe. Can you cut me an eighteen inch piece of the one inch pipe in the Garage? Then feed it through the hole by the front faucet? Then feed the rest of the pipe through the same hole?”
“Sure.”

Maybe five minutes later, the pipe comes through the hole. It’s not just cut to the correct size; but the burrs have been sanded off, inside and out. Is there any doubt why I call here Wonder Girl? In minutes I am done and it’s the long crawl to get out.

Sunday, we rent the trencher, dig the trenches. Hand dig some spots. Lay out the pipe, fittings, sprinkler heads. Measure, cut pipe, glue. We work well together, to each according to their needs, from each according to their abilities. We started at eight am, by nine pm we are filling in the trench. Dead tired, but ninety percent done.

And Monday we are sore and tired. And while I sit in my comfy office chair and juggle parts, Wonder Girl is finishing up with filling the ditch and getting the dirt off the lawn before it kills it.

There is no stopping Wonder Girl.