We started the water for the first time Thursday morning around 6:00. Terry worked at the head gate and I cleaned the ditches as the water flowed toward the fields. I rejoiced that I had gained back my summer muscles by the time we turned on the water! You see a person must straddle the ditch, pitch fork in hand and scoop and fling out trash like crazy, then jump back to one side and rush down to a further location, straddle the ditch, and start scooping again until we get to end of our place and the water flows back into the canal.
There is always, always tons of trash in the ditches.
Then Terry joins me, he places the dams along the cement ditch; backing up the water. After which we start the tubes, he digs out the furrows and I start the tubes. We must work fast or the water will back up and flood over the sides creating a mini-disaster.
Twice a day every day the tubes are changed….every two hours or so, the tubes are checked to make sure there is no trash in the ditch and the water isn’t running over into fields that haven’t been worked.
During the daytime–the morning set —we are watering the corn ground —Terry likes to water-up the seeds, instead of planting and then watering.
In the evening we move the water to the alfalfa field, since it doesn’t need to be checked while we sleep.
Spring time work is always a huge, huge push. But there are so many wonderful things about being out there on the land: the smell of the ground as the water hits it for the first time, the extremely cold invigorating wind on your face as you drive the 4-wheeler, the warm body of Boomer as he huddles next to me using me as a shield, the peace and beauty all around, seeing pheasants rise with loud squawks and cries of alarm, if we get too close to them, watching a fox trot along the edge of the alfalfa field searching for mice, bending over and setting a tube (and it works the first time) then moving on, always staying ahead and in a rhythm, the sun coming up and starting to warm the air the land and you, shedding your jacket and feeling the sudden coolness that soon disappears as you work.
Long before we finish the last set of the day the air starts to cool down so the jackets come back on, Boomer is tired and hangs by me all muddy and pleased with himself, the Western Meadowlarks are now silent and the Red-winged black birds chirping sleepy time calls, a little family of Kill Deer run quickly away from us, and the sun breaks forth into dazzling colors, peace and calm settle down upon the land as the life giving water flows toward the end of the field.
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
My God that is back breaking “YAKKA”.
I dunno how your backs with all that bending copes – ie: you and Terry
(T.O.H.) do it. You must have some miracle cure that you rub in
each night before retiring???
I wouldn’t mind getting the brand name from you for my back – now
linked by one lateral on the left side!!
Very picturesque sunset.
Cheers
Colin
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The back isn’t the thing that seems to give out, but the arm muscles. Winter arm muscles are the worst. But thankfully we are now in Spring muscles territory.
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I love the certainty that the change of season brings. The sun always, always returns, the land always wakes up and sends forth green, and then returns to sleep through the winter. Thank you for telling the story so eloquently, and with such love.
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Your comment is also full of love and beauty!
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Oh My Dog. Farming is really hard work. No wonder Boomer is exhausted at the end of the day.
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Lots to do and smell out there, things to study (and if I’m really lucky) to roll in. Mom gets mad if I do the roll in thing. I don’t get why.
Boomer
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Yes, that rolling thing is usually followed by a bath. Makes one wonder why?
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Linda, this is truly beautiful. Your description of it all is so rich. I feel like I sort of know what it would be like to be there. I love that Boomer keeps you warm.
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Sometimes a wet beagle makes for a not so good back rest. 🙂
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your words are pure love for what you do.
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We do so love this work. Isn’t it a grand design of things that there are those for one job, and others for another job, making a richness to our lives?
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I shall call the farmer to look at your photographs – he is so interested in your irrigation methods.
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We are a high mountain desert; therefore water is extremely precious and requires much fiddling with.
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I don’t know anyone who can make hard work sound like poetry
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Gosh, thank you, Jan. It really is a labor of love.
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Linda, you describe all of this so beautifully, and realistically at the same time. I could feel the changing temperature, hear the rush of the water and feel your well-worked muscles. What a critical time it is, getting the water to the right places. It’s such a pleasure to get a taste of such a different world, as I always do from your blog.
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Oh, Thank you so much, Juliet!
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Goodness, it does sound like it would make my back all wobbly.
Spring and the smell of the earth are truly magical things to me as well.
Silly question—wouldn’t it be easier to clean the ditches before you let the water in?
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Actually no, the water pushes all the trash into a heap, then all a person has to do is life the heap out. Otherwise, there is much scraping and pulling to get the trash into a heap, then lifting and flinging.
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God bless you all!
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Love your farming updates Linda; the scale is so vast compared to ours 🙂
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We are small farmers. People around us are in much bigger. But its the right amount for just the two of us. I’m sure that your farm is just the right amount for you…besides you can feed your whole family off your farm…A great and wonderful feat.
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I am tired just reading about all that work
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We are tired (at the end of the day) DOing the work. Tee Hee 🙂
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Love those last two paragraphs, your description is awesome it was almost like being there with muddy feet like Boomer:)
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You make your farm sound like the place we all should be. Or at least to come visit. Thank you for being such a great writer. Smile!
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Oh, thank you! I love my tiny little life on my western Colorado farm. 🙂
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