Terry and I spent yesterday switching out the broken gated pipes for new pipes,
putting in new seals in the pipes that needed them.
He also decided that he wanted to not replace the four broken pipe but extend the dirt ditch further into the field.
If he likes this he might (MIGHT) turn the whole ditch into a cement ditch…heavy on the might. The cost will be high, but the work load (after the ditch is made) lots easier.
Fall Maintenance work just makes spring work that much easier!
Linda
The last cutting of the year is done on this field, but we still need to irrigate. Irrigation goes on until a HUGE killing frost occurs. Sometimes fall is very, very dry here causing the hay to be watered until late September and/or early October.
Of course you don’t want the fields to go into winter wet, but you do need to have them go into winter healthy. The main irrigation water from Blue Mesa Dam, will be turned off the last week in October. Golly, gee, that isn’t very far away now.
The onion farmers are in the swing of harvest with the cow people starting the silage/ensilage harvest on Labor Day.
Alfalfa is harder to get wet and to stay wet, so we put (yes, I help) gated pipe in the middle of field to water the rest of the way. Next year this field of alfalfa will be plowed under and turned into a corn field. Corn is easier to water so we won’t need to use these pipes.
Corn harvest is close now…..very close. Maybe in October, we will just have to wait and see what the weather brings.
Happy Labor Day!
The gated pipe had a hard time this year, with all the snow the cows really couldn’t see the pipe (no we don’t pick it up yearly, it is just too hard and there is just too much of it).
Still it was only two sticks and those can be ‘mended’. We won’t have to replace them, just patch them. Stay tuned so you can see what a ‘patched pipe’ looks like. Nothing like patched jeans! J
This time of year we start to get ready for water. Water on our farm is transported through culverts, ditches, underground transport pipes, and gated pipe.
These same pieces of transportation for water are also really good homes for critters: fox, skunk, feral cats, and feral dogs from the rigors of winter. The problem of making these things their homes is instant death as soon as the water is turned in.
Therefore, we like to check all everywhere making sure there is nothing living there.
Getting them out of their burrow (the water transportation unit) can sometimes be a real problem, especially if we are talking about skunks.
But this year we are safe (so far).
Skunks are mating right now, and will be looking for a nice warm nest, but water is just a few weeks off and if we cover the ends they will move on to dens in the ground.
The coyotes have dens on the hills on our place, but I’m not brave enough to go poking my head where they are. I have been thinking I might, MIGHT, go to where they live and see if I could get any baby pictures, but I haven’t worked up enough courage.
The gated pipe system can move water through the field with a small amount of effort on the part of the farmer. Just open the gate!
Blade and Linkin like to help ‘set water’ when we are watering the gated pipe fields. Of course, they have a bit of trouble understanding just how ‘wide’ to open the gates, but they are catching on. Open the gates two fingers wide of Grandpa’s, or four fingers wide of theirs.
Life on a Colorado Farm 