Hooray! They are Home!

Posted on April 24, 2009 by Dayphoto

evan-comes-home

What a long trip for Terry and a coming home for Evan. They rolled in about dark Tuesday night, making it one day sooner than originally planned. They had at first thought about going through Texas, into New Mexico, but instead cut through the panhandle of Oklahoma right into to Colorado.

Boy was I ever glad to see them!

terrys-home

Irrigating worked out fine, I only had two horrible problems, the head gate broke, (just before the guys got home) and a pipe split, but I was able to work around both of them. The head gate had to be fixed by the ditch company, but wire held everything together until Terry could talk to the Ditch Rider.

Now I am just back to being the back-up farmhand. This is good, real good.

hangn-with-grandpa

And the granddaughters get to help by riding up to Grammy’s for a visit.

It won’t be long now until Bladen is out of school so we will have two helpers when we irrigate.

Big sigh of relief!

On a Fast Plane and Step 7 (By Myself)

Posted on April 20, 2009 by Dayphoto

through-the-gate

DH left at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday.

After a day of visiting, and making sure everything is packed (rider truck, pulling a large camp trailer- Dodge Truck pulling a trailer) they left early Sunday morning.

At the time of this posting they are now drawing close to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

IN THE MEAN TIME

fuzzy-helps

The last photos I wanted to show you of irrigation are the photos of the head gate. The magical (scary), roaring, thundering, (frightening) place where the canal water enters into our farm

head-gate

This is the head gate! And that little slit is the amount of water we water with all year.

head-gate-water

Although, you’ve seen the siphon tube set up, you are now looking at MY siphon tube set up in the 25 acre hay field. I wanted to show you this because hay is watered with every furrow, while corn is every other row.

This field’s rows are so long it takes three tubes per row to propel the water to the very end.

siphon-tubes-my-set

And so you know what an imprinted row looks like, you will see that it is sealed over making it easier to get the water down the next time.

Once the field is cultivated we have to start over getting the rows to seal, yet let water through. This is a circle= water, cultivate, water until the plants are too tall, then we just hope the seal holds and the water makes it to the end of the furrow. It usually does, but if we have a horrible drought and the water is cut back sometimes ….

imprint

Fuzzy and I are doing okay. We had a pipe split, but DH can fix it when he returns. Until then we will just move the water to another field and water something else.

smiling-dog

Saturday

Posted on April 17, 2009 by Dayphoto

making-a-ditch

Saturday my husband leaves for Macon, Georgia, to help our son move back home. This is a good thing for us, but it will entail lots of hours of driving. While he is gone I will be responsible for changing the water, feeding the animals, and keeping wood in the fire. (Maybe it will warm up and I won’t have to worry about that part.)

I have a few more step 7 photos, but I need to take them first. Then Step 7 will be complete. Irrigation lasts until October, but setting the water up for the first time, takes lots of work.

dirt-ditch

We still have a few dirt ditches, which have to be cleaned out every spring and when they sand up, cleaned out again and again, until the water is turned off.

And we water our pasture out of an earth ditch.

One thing about farming, you get to use big equipment.

earth-ditch

Here is how the gates are opened from one ditch to another on our place.

gate

The orange dam is how the water is stopped from going down another ditch. (The ditch you aren’t using at the moment.)

Irrigation—Continued (Step 7)

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Dayphoto

spring-trash

Trash! Trash is a BIG deal, and this year seems worse than other years. Mainly because of the wind! I like the wind; I like the fact that the wind is one of our helpers in that it brings the leaves to the tops of trees. But I don’t like the wind for all the trash and weeds that blow along with it.

Then you couple wind and trash with water (which sinks all the trash) you get a mess! And if you aren’t diligent you will get ditches that are stopped up enough to flood whole fields.

So every couple of hours YOU MUST GO CHECK THE DITCHES for messes like this one!

Look closely and you can see bubbles (white foam) and the each of the cement ditch, which means that we don’t have enough gates in the gated pipe open and a build up is about to occur. The build up means the water flows over the side (NOT GOOD) and creates another mess. We don’t like those types of problems.

imprint-of-water-005

This photo shows you success. The water made it all the way down the 25 acre field to end of the field. YEAH!!!! The furrow with the water will form a crust that will make the water flow down better next time. Imprint the row. This is good. This is the goal. To get the water to seal the row, but at the same time provide enough moisture to sub across to the next row!

You will notice that every other row has the water in it. That is the way you water corn, every other row. So this field will be planted to corn in about 10 days. Beans and hay are watered differently.

tallin-and-grandpa

Talli used a stick to help dig out the trash. She called it her shovel.

The grandkids like to come out and help irrigate. Blade and Linkin were way down the row digging out the stuck corn stalks and other bits of trash but Tallen stayed with us.

helping-grandpa

Irrigation Step 7, Continued

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Dayphoto

gated-pipe

Some of our irrigation is set up with either a dirt ditch or cement ditch, which uses siphon tubes or the easy way….gated pipe!! (My personal favorite)

It is easier to use, costs more to set up, harder to fix if the pipes become broken. The easier to use part is why I like it.

on-no

Here is an example of what you don’t want to have happen. The water gets caught in a low spot and starts cutting over into another furrow until you have a bog hole. The only way to fix it is re-dig the furrow by hand, er shovel.

now-what

What Ya Got?!?!?! Can I Have Some Too?

Posted on April 10, 2009 by Dayphoto

whats-up-whats-up

Anytime I walk outside and I look like I’m carrying something the chickens run over to me as fast as they can.

chickens-003

They didn’t think the camera looked like anything good to eat, still I enjoyed the expressions on their chicken faces.

Step 7- Starting the Irrigation Water

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Dayphoto

utah-wind

Before we could begin a big wind storm from Utah hit our area bringing with it 45-60 mile an hour wind.

Step 7 has many, many parts to it:

1. Call the ditch rider so the water can be turned into your head gate. This is the amount of water you are allotted per season. You can NEVER go over this amount, but they can cut you short of your amount because of drought. You still pay the same, whether you get your full amount or not (and water here, costs more than the taxes on the farm.)

2. Gather up all the siphon tubes and lay them out in the correct pattern

picking-up-tubes

3. Turn the water down the main ditch artery for our place- once it is turned into this ditch, that ditch will always have water in it until the end of the growing season.

4. Although we cleaned the ditch (by hand-called digging out the ditch) the really messy wind had filled it back up with trash

cleaning-the-ditch1

5. Set the tubes. This requires a siphon like action. I have to put the tubes in the ditch, cover up one end and then hurry and spill it over the side.

Terry just walks along and covers one hand over the end, pumps two times and drops the tube in the furrow. I take forever; he is done in a short time. THEREFORE I set the tubes in the furrow, while he siphons the water into the furrows. We try to have enough tubes that once they are set we don’t have to pack them again. But every year we have to replace tubes as they wear out or get broke. Some years we just pack the tubes as that is a cheaper way to go.

Depending on the field there are about 30-40 tubes per field. It also depends on the amount of water in the ditch. Sometimes we double tube, but that is later on in the season.

setting-tubes

6. The water is moved after the proper amount of ‘subbing’ has taken place. And the water has made it to the end of the field. Usually about a 12 hour set. But when water is short it is moved every 8 hours, day and night to get it through all the crops.

wind-in-fuzzys-fur1

Fuzzy loves to help, he spends lots of time barking at bubbles, trying to catch sticks and sometimes jumping in and wading.

7. The irrigator has to follow the water down each row, making sure it doesn’t plug up, sink in a hole, cut over into another row until it gets to the end of the row. 5 acres is a job, 30 acres a pain, and 50 acres horribly hard. We farm 80+ acres. The water only has to be walked if the leveling job is not good (that’s why I say it is an art form). Then we only have to walk until the row is imprinted with the memory of the water, after that it is sealed. BUT….once Terry cultivates we have to start over again. Then when the crops get too big to get the tractor through the field the water just has to make what way it can, hopefully the imprint is firm and we don’t have to worry.

Maybe you can see the subbing taking place in the below photo.

water-in-the-furrows

There is more, but this gets the water started for the season.

Wordless Wednesday

Posted on April 8, 2009 by Dayphoto

hay-on-cow

“Couldn’t you throw the hay better”?

Step 6- Marking Out

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Dayphoto

down-the-row-step-6

Because Terry likes to irrigate before he plants, step 6 is marking out the rows

step-6-marking

This is always my favorite part. I love seeing the fields all marked and ready for the first water to come hurtling down each and every furrow.

Step 5 – Kick the Dirt

Posted on April 7, 2009 by Dayphoto

kick-the-dirt

After all the snow and rain, then wind and snow, and then rain, the sun came out and warmed up the earth.

To check the soil to see if it was ready for more tractor work, a good rule of thumb is to rub your foot into the soil to see what type of moisture comes up.

The soil is ready!