Time Warner needs to review their call center

In January we were scheduled to have our rates go up for cable, phone and internet. We called Time Warner to see if we could get a better rate for these services. We already had a better rate from Charter and AT&T for the services we needed. We talked to the call center and they said we could get a better rate and also get a $300.00 gift card (score!!). Well today we received the bill and no rate change (boo). After 30 minutes with Time Warner they have see where we talked to the rep we spoke to on the phone, but not where we actually agreed to the change and gift card. Boo Time Warner...bad service. Now we have to wait 7-10 days while they review the case.

Last Job before Winter??

I received a call from a customer, two weeks ago to move some sprinkler heads I had put in his backyard. When I got there the whole yard was a mess! He had extended his deck and wanted to move heads and get rid of drip line I had put in. So, seeing the lawn go from a beautiful green, to a red clay was aweful. Well I had told him that I can bring in 9 yards of top soil to fill in his yard and sod it. It took two days to put down 9 yards of top soil, 6 yards of compost and 205 yards of tall fescue! The pictures are of the work I did.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Winter?!

Well it has been 7 months since I have last updated. In the last 7 months I have been busy installing irrigation systems, of course. Now I am busy winterizing the irrigation systems; which is good. I am also trying to inform our customers about the new ET controller (no it does not phone home!), and yes it saves a ton of water and money! I have installed one already and hope to do even more in the spring. With all of the regulations here, I have been certified as an irrigation contractor and getting CEU'S, to maintain my license. Nathan has been a big help this year. He has helped with covering the trenches and putting seed down. A few more weeks of work and we'll close shop for the winter.

Has Spring Really Sprung???

At McClard & Son Irrigation we (I) have been enjoying the nice weather we have had lately. I have installed 3 systems from Feb.12-March 9.
I am now in the midst of Spring Start-ups for existing customers. Then I have a few add-ons to do. Since I was doing a job close to the house, I decided to extend the irrigation to the back of the garden, so it can be thoroughly watered for all the seeds to come up. I decided to recruit the help of my favorite helper as shown below.

Have a great spring!!

Luxury Box Seats at NC State!!

This past weekend Nathan and I were blessed to get two tickets to the NC State game. We had no idea at the time that they were Luxury Box Seats. Below is a picture from the end zone looking up to where our seats are. It was nice to be inside with the wind blowing, misting rain and 50*. We walked down to the tunnel where the football players come out and took a pic. of Mr. Wolf.

A view from inside our box. The seats were nice, but the free catered food was even better.

Another pic. from the endzone just after halftime and the Wolfpack are driving down the field.

Back in our seats, nice and warm!

Nathan had a great time going to his first football game, and wants to go again next year. Only if we can get the Luxury Box again. It was great spending time with Nathan and I'm sure he enjoyed hanging out with his dad.

Is it Winter Already???

For the past week I have been steadily shutting down irrigation systems. I have about 2 more weeks of the shut downs then I'm done for the year. That means that winter is here and I will soon be hibernating. I love winter, but I do not like that there is nothing going on work related. I guess Jen loves having me home every day for 3 months, because she doesn't complain much, if at all.
Check back in a few days for more posts'.

How can you help???

I am writing this post to say that we are still waiting on our baby. I know that a couple of people have stated that they would help if the could, but just cannot afford to right now. That is very understandable, considering the economy, the job market and its instability, and trying to just pay the bills that you already have. Jen and I thank everyone that has been able to contribute, and freely give as God has given you the ability.
This post is not a plea for money or donations, rather an informational post. We have signed up for AdSense by Google (which explains the ads on the sides of our blogs). The way it works is for every ad that you visit or click on, google pays us for the visits, as advertisers pays google for the traffic to their site. We try to monitor the sites so that there is not any advertisement listed that we would not look at ourselves. So you are helping us by looking and not actually giving of your own money.
On a side note; we pray that everyone will get out on Nov. 4th and vote for the President and local offices in your state. We unashamedly will be voting a Conservative ticket, (McCain-Palin) for a free America. You may not agree, that is your right to do so. I could say alot more but my ads may turn into public service ads (which I do not want).
Thank you for your support and prayers as we are eagerly awaiting our baby.

Another Water Garden!

Some how the pictures loaded in reverse order...oh well. I have been busy with maintenance calls in the past two weeks. Fortunately, these are not my customers, so that means extra $$.. A builder had installed this water garden, but the homeowner has been unhappy with it since he completed it. They had gotten my number from a flyer that had "blown" into their yard.... and people say that God does not provide for His children :) Well I had talked to them about fixing their algae problem and recommended a few changes. These changes included installing a cavern for the new fish. Below is a picture of some comet fish I put in. Refilled and flowing!

A beautiful verigated water lilly.
I reworked the rocks on the waterfall since the guy who put them on there originally just "threw" them on there and foamed it with expansion joint foam (bright orange) and stuck out like a sore thumb.

This lilly plant is sitting on the cavern I installed for the fish to escape to when predators threaten. It is dug out about 6" deep and covered with a Tennessee Flagstone.
Starting to refill!
I love a challenge to make the homeowner happy...and for them to finally be pleased with the water garden and not see it as an algae and mosquito breeding ground.

Busy, Busy, Busy....

Okay, I've decided to hack into Dave's blog because I just noticed it has been 5 weeks since his last post!! My hubby is not dead just very busy.... Fall is always his busy time of year and he is on his 4th installation this month. We are very thankful for the steady work as it helps us to save for the winter. I'm sure he'll be back soon with updates and photos!

Water Garden Haven

Last week we rocked a water garden. Not a typical water garden, but this is what the homeowner wanted. He has the water feature going up under his deck about 3', and a pond about 16' x 21'. Then a stream about 27' long and 5' wide. There still needs landscaping that has to be put in, and a dry stream placed about mid way down from the falls.
This is where the dry stream will cross.
The falls, which still need a little work. There is going to be extensive landscaping around it so you will not see the liner at all.
Happy viewing:)!!

Follow up on last job

I realize that a month has passed without posting anything...It's been busy around here doing maintenance work and a new installation. I have bid on 4 jobs in the last week and the Lord has really blessed with possible work in the near future. I know that doesn't sound like much, but with only needing 2 jobs a month to pay our bills, anything extra is a real blessing and goes toward our adoption expenses.
I'll post later with some pics. of our latest irrigation job.

It is almost finished!

Today we worked on laying the putting green and seaming it....The teens working with me are really taking a beating with this heat. Laying down the seaming tape, and cutting the seam.
It is in place and cut. The putting green has turned out better than I had expected.

Here is an over all view of the putting green...Tommorow we fill it and roll it...Then we golf!
If you would like a green installed leave a comment!

Putting Green Day 1 and 2

This week I finally started on the putting green...After many shape changes by the customer, we finally agreed on an hour-glass shape. The green measures 36 x 35. I have a few candid shots from our progress.
Day 1. Mark and "cut" shape the green with a bobcat. Day 1. Try a level out the area. We used a laser transit level, and the green has one high pin, and one low pin (hole) for the non-golfers. The way you are looking at it now, the high pin is on the right, and the low pin is on the left. This has been a challenge to construct.
Day 2. Starting to look like something

Day 2. Filling in the golf green with screenings. Tomorrow we will lay the green down, cut the pins (Holes) and infill....Stay tuned...

FORE!!!!

This week coming up I am installing a golf green! I will post pictures on the progress of the green, when I start. The green is going to resemble the 12th green at Augusta, without the bunker in the front, that might come later. The green is synthetic and is an All Pro Greens product. The customer is going to hit from 135 yards out to the green. This green is 1" thick and can receive shots from 150 yards away. If you are in need of a green just let me know.

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!!!