One Step, Two Step, Away We Go —- Thursday, March 4, 2021

Posted on March 4, 2021 by Dayphoto

Terry finished digging out the headgate to the point rows and the horse pasture

The kids had their handprints in it :). Evan (our son) is showing here. 1981 the headgate went in.

The point rows are gone!

Groundwork has begun!

Here he is disking up the corn stalks.

We are on our way!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

The Sound of Water —- Sunday, April 5, 2020

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Dayphoto

After Terry marked out (put furrows) the cornfields, and the alfalfa fields

He made all the earth ditches, which carry the water onto the fields

Then he went back to the bottom each and every field to make the shallow waste ditch….this is the ditch, which catches the water, then moves the water to the next field or to the canal.

Then it was time for us to start the water onto the land. You are looking at Terry opening the headgate and the water starting into the headgate

The water starts down the cement ditch where the trash is forked out by Terry and me

There is always lots and lots of trash; thanks to the cows (it gets caught in their hooves) and the wind.

There are lots of cement ditches on our place, so lots of forking out of the trash.

I always think how grateful I am for my arm muscles and for the ability to straddle the cement ditch — still, at my age. 🙂

Now we start setting the siphon tubes. (See that pooling of water—not good, we have to go out there and dig the furrow out and dam up the spots where the water broke out.)

There is no wasting of the water. Ever. Please don’t think that. We water several fields all at the same time…water that runs by one field is put on another field, the water that goes to the end of the field goes onto another field.

And we work at it constantly. Water checks every two hours to make sure nothing is happening, which shouldn’t be happening—like trash in the ditch causing the water to spill over the side, or trash in the furrow causing two (or more furrows) to run together, or trash in a tube stopping the water altogether.

To put in dams one must straddle the ditch again.

The over-flow of this dam, tells us we need to start two more tubes.

No waste. Ever!

One last time…one more check before the sighing of the night wind takes over.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That—Sunday, April 17, 2016

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Dayphoto

Here is the loud, roaring (we can hear it two fields away), scary (to me) headgate.

See all the trash the comes down Terry takes it out several times a day!

Here Terry is opening the chute so we can get water onto our place. It’s measured in holes. Only so many feet of water (holes) goes with our place. I don’t like walking across the little board (which you can not see) to get to the little chute — I get dizzy and want to topple over into the roaring mass of water. It takes lots of concentration for me to get there, clean the trash out, adjust the boards (the boards are laying across the cross over board from one cement wall to another, and get back. Terry just walks over like it’s dry land.

My pear trees are just stunning.

Today the plum trees burst into bloom even though it terribly cold, with a nasty wind. And a freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow night. I guess I won’t have to worry about thinning the fruit again this year. A mixed blessing.

Terry and I were working on setting water when we saw five fire trucks speed past our place so we jumped on our four-wheelers and headed off to the Rocky Point…sure enough. The neighbor, who almost burned us out a few years back, had set another fire that got away from him. Thank heavens for quick response…the fence line you see is our property. Scary! But they got it out so all is well.

We have to check the water around mid-night or one, because of all the trash coming down the canal. Trash backs up the water and causes floods, or breaks through or over dams or ditches. This time of year the trash is the worst…wind, opening up of farm ground up above us, and opening canals that feed into ours. By the first of May or so, we should be okay. (No mid-night walks for Boomer and I, but mid-night rides and water checks instead. 🙂 )