Close to home!

This week I started another Irrigation job. I have been blessed to be able to save gas, and walk across the driveway to our neighbor's house. I have been fortunate enough to be able to work with some very good teens, as I mentioned before, but this week they were away on a family vacation. So, this left the entire job up to me to complete. Nathan and Emily have been finished with school for about 2 weeks now, and I recruited Nathan to help (with pay of course). Thursday I started the trenching, and Emily came out to take some pictures for me. The first two are from the side of our driveway. I also started to lay the pipe for the job, and had to wait for Nathan to finish breakfast to get some OJT. The house sits on 1/2 acre, but still requires 8 zones. Well, 9 if you count the garden. I have that set up on 3' risers, and will water the lawn when their garden is not in use. I will up date with pictures when finished.
Finally, he comes out ready to work... but the first words out of his mouth is "dad, how much am I going to make". Typical worker. Never mind wanting to help out, just to help. Well, I can't complain, Nathan has worked hard for the last two days... and worth everything he has made! It has been a great blessing bonding with Nathan as he asks sooooo many questions about how the Irrigation works.

I wish I was this excited to go to work!!!
A few minutes of OJT and he knows what to do by himself....
Gluing the pipes together...

If you want an Irrigation installed, just ask Nathan and he'll gladly do it for you :)! After two days of working he knows the basics of how it works, how many heads to put in a zone, and how many gallons per minute each head can put out. Not bad for a 9 year-old....the hardest part of the irrigation work is trenching (which he didn't do, too dangerous for him), and covering the trenches (which he did do). I'll update later to show what a good job he did, and how hard he worked to help his dad out. I couldn't be prouder of his efforts!!

Services we provide

At McClard & Son Irrigation we provide quality products that have been tested throughout the industry and proven to be the best.
Our Irrigation line includes: Rain Bird and Hunter Heads and Controllers. We also provide weather sensors on all installations, which helps save on the water bill. Also, we install Drip Line in the planter areas, and have the ability to install it in the lawn as well (this is for the person who wants to save major moola on the water bill!!!). I could go on and on about the benefits of an irrigation system, but I won't bore you with the details.
So, along with the irrigation system we also provide fertigation. We can install 2 different brands E-Z Flo (which is an in ground unit), see previous posts; and, FertiGator (which is an above ground unit) about as big as the cable or phone box in your yard. Both of these have their pro's and con's, so I will leave it at that. Besides, no one can argue the benefits of micro-dosing fertilizer onto the lawn.
Our Synthetic Lawn and Putting Green line uses All Pro Greens Synthetic turf. I have checked into the other companies that put out synthetic turf, and the quality (in my opinion) doesn't stand close to that of All Pro Greens. All Pro greens uses a coal slag to infill the green, which does not mat down like sand. The synthetic lawn uses the same infill process, but the turf looks more like fescue than any I have seen. For the ULTIMATE WATER SAVINGS install a synthetic lawn (not that I wouldn't try to talk you into an irrigation system first). Our Water Garden line uses a variety of pond products. To say that one company has totally captured the market would not be truthful. There are pro's and con's about each company, so I will piece together a water garden of all the great components that are available.

Our Night Lighting line consist of using ClaroLux and Focus Lights. Each of these have proven themselves here with me. The last lighting job I did I installed ClaroLux Lights. They have a lifetime warranty on the fixtures, and timer. Let's face it, it's all about $$$$. You could spend more money on higher priced fixtures, but who is going to see the light fixture in a tree, shrub, or group of flowers. If the light fixture is your primary focus you totally missed the idea of "Night Lights". At night you want to see the effect of the light, not the light itself.

If you are in the Raleigh/Durham area we can design, install, and maintain any irrigation, water garden, putting green, synthetic lawn, or night lighting you would need.

On a side note...

I have been coaching a fantastic group of boys soccer the last 10 weeks. Today we finished our last game of the season. The outcome was a 5-0 romp over our opponent. Our stats for the year is 3-2-2. The Lord has really been gracious with no one getting seriously injured. We have taken a few bumps and bruises, but never given them, which is a great testimony for these 9 & 10 year-old boys. I know that some of these boys do not know Jesus as their savior, but my prayer is that they will come to Him this summer. They have all heard the gospel and plan of salvation through our Devotionals each week.

It is amazing how in just a few weeks they go from being so independent, to working as a team to get goals. GO TEAM FIRE!!!

Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance

This week has been about catching up with maintenance. I recently purchased a chatter box to help me locate valves in the yard. Before I got it, I spent about 11/2 hours poking around in a customers yard trying to find the valves. When I attached the chatter box I stepped out of the garage and could hear the valve "chattering". Following the noise I found it in less than 45 seconds. Sure beats poking the ground... The Chatter Box in action. The light lets you know the valve is "talking" to you.

Just for fun..... I had a new customer call the other day and tell me "My head is stuck in the ground and it won't come out...what do I do." I had to laugh at that one.

New to the blog!!

This is my first job to install a fertigation system. I have 2 teenagers helping me which are homeschooled, and Christian. This is a great blessing, since I don't have to put up with all the language and attitudes that teenagers have now days. Every job has its challenges, this job the home builder "had" to put the sod down the day before we were scheduled to come and install the irrigation. So, we had to roll the sod back in order to trench! This is time consuming, but it makes for a great look after your done.
The front already trenched, piped, heads, and valves. Oh yea, and the sod rolled back into place. It doesn't take long in our heat to dry out the sod. This pic. was taken at 1:00 p.m and we started at 8:00 am the same morning.
The new fertigation system. This is a 3 gal. container able to fertilize 10,000-17,000 sq.ft. of lawn in a month. You can put any liquid organic, or water soluable fertilizer in it.
I hope you enjoy my blog. I will try to keep you up to date with the various jobs that we do. Thanks for looking