having had to deal with many leaking gate valves it's my belief that if you replace the gate valve with a ball valve that will fix your shutoff trouble. the leaking anti-siphon valve will need to be rebuilt or replaced to stop the leaking emitters.

Thank you! That is exactly what happened! The plumber came and replaced THAT gate valve, as well as each of the gate valves on our house bibs. Only turns out the antisiphon valve in the picture had something to do with the pool auto-fil. I do have someone coming into to look at the irrigation valves. How long should THEY last ?

while I have had failures happen in less than a year, 5 to 7 yrs. are a good average for these types of valves.

You've been great thanks!

One more thing!

When the plumber was here, he also checked the pressure coming in to the house (husband says every plumber looks at the regulator!), said the pressure was too high,(80 vs 60-70) that he couldn't get the pressure regulator to work, and gave an estimate to replace the "whole thing", this time with a ball valve.

I swear I remember getting the pressure regulator changed within the last three years, but can't find the papers. How long should a "gate" pressure regulator last, and is there a way to "unstick" them?

while the pressure seems a bit high replacing the regulator with a ball valve eliminates any way to adjust the pressure. if it does need to be replaced a new regulator should be installed.