On Sunday, Nov. 3 I touched down in Austin and hooked up with my friends Mike and Vivian, ex-Seattleites now living in the Hyde Park neighborhood. They agreed to house me for a week out of the kindness of their hearts, or the lack of sense in their brains. Crusty had come down the dusty trail to see all the other Crustys in the water biz. From the Wiki page, IA in a nutshell: “The Irrigation Association (IA) is a membership organization, founded in 1949, that includes over 1,500 irrigation companies and professionals in agriculture, landscape, and golf.
Headquartered in Falls Church VA, IA promotes efficient irrigation technologies, products and services in an effort to ensure water is available for irrigation for future generations. Members can include irrigation equipment and system manufacturers, dealers, distributors, designers, consultants, contractors, educators, government entities, technical members, water providers and end users.”
Every November the IA holds a weeklong convention/ trade show/ education conference in a different warm weather city. Last year was in Orlando, FL, and next year will be Phoenix, AZ. I can’t wait. This was my first time, but it was a blast.
Monday I got to the vast Austin Convention Center and checked in, got my “badge”. I realized there was nothing else going on for me that day, so I hopped in a Car2Go and headed up I-35. A brown road sign caught my eye and led me to the library and museum of our 36th Commander In Chief, ‘El Beejay’
I wanted to see this presidential library and the tower Charles Whitman fired his rifle from. Here I killed two birds with one stone. 
Later that evening Mike took me to the Continental Club on south Congress. It’s a legendary little dive where you can hear Honky Tonk and Rockabilly any night of the week. This night featured the mid-century country sound of Dale Watson, who actually shamelessly shills for Lone Star Beer about every 20 minutes. The dance floor was full of young and old swing dancers. 
Tuesday morning was a little rough, but I didn’t need to be to my classes until 1:00. Down the street where I was staying was a wonderful little hippie coffee shop Dolce Vita. They had great coffee, and I mean really good coffee made locally. This Seattleite was impressed. They also had a full bar which meant I could also get a spicy Bloody Mary and a plate of Italian eggs with panini toast for about ten bucks total. Did I mention Austin is a cheap place to dine? The hippie guy gave me a table flag for my order labeled “BLUE”. My favorite color, I even mentioned it to him. “Mine too,” he said, “always will be…’til I go blind”. I let that poetry sink in a little and had a seat with my Austin American-Statesman.
Later I bussed down to the CC and sat through four hours of seminars on Rainwater Collection Codes, Stormwater retention, Graywater systems, and Deficit Irrigation- which is the art of letting plants and turf stress out nearly to death but not quite. I found the rain and storm water lessons interesting, but I’m not at all impressed with graywater application. This is water from your shower, bathroom sink, or washing machine. It’s not advisable to store this water or pump it, which means you build a gravity system to water your plants. This is fine if your house is on top of a mound and all your landscape runs downhill. In order to pump it, you need a special graywater pump which is spendy. This whole mess is a waste of time in my opinion. There is no ROI on this foolishness. Another annoyance for me was the back and forth from British spelling in the resources- greywater on one website, graywater on another. Whatever.
Then came the opening night party in one of the big ballrooms. Here we were fed Texas BBQ brisket and chicken, along with tickets for two free beers. I sat at a table and met two sprinkler guys from Edmunton, Alberta. I found out that plumbing code there for water lines is 8 feet deep! Brrr..that’s cold country! It’s only 2′ here in Seattle, 4′ in Idaho. I had my two beers and got the heck out of there before karaoke started. Besides I had a class at 8 the next morning. Wednesday I had Advanced Wiring and Troubleshooting from 8-5. This class was pretty good as far as touching on Two-Wire technology and flow sensors I was clueless about. I also met a kindred spirit in Mark Petersen, a contractor from Denver with the same passion for solving tricky wiring puzzles. If you happen to be in the Denver area and need an irrigation expert look up WaterKetch. Mark also has some crazy ideas about making some training videos for professionals, which I think would be great. Hopefully we can work together on that sometime soon.
Thursday was the opening of the General Session. This is where the IA hands out awards to the best sprinkler guys out there saving the planet, and manufacturers that make killer new stuff to help us all save the planet from ending up like Dune. After the awards legendary pitcher and Texas cattle rancher Nolan Ryan took the stage and told us funny stories about baseball and brawling. After Nolan there was a lunch for Certified folks like me. These are the certifications IA awards those who pass the testing and maintain with CEUs. Examples include Auditor, Designer, Golf, Site Water Management, Agriculture Specialist, etc. The lunch was great- grilled chicken in mushroom gravy with smashed potatoes . Then it on to the exhibits, with a lot of yakking and hand shaking.
Friday morning I had my final class entitled “Managing an Irrigation Service Company”. This half day class was probably the most informative. I heard some great insights from fellow sprinkler guys, and learned about a myriad of new software and cellphone apps that will make our lives at City Rain much easier. I haven’t had so much fun in a long while. Thank you IA and the city of Austin, a genuinely friendly place!
view from the convention center
Big Ag guns!
Party’s over!
