Iron Stone Canal | Life on a Colorado Farm

Our internet isn’t working today. I am hoping this gets posted, but one never knows.

The water in our canal is clear as the Blue Mesa Reservoir, of which it comes from. Very few farmers are irrigating now—although there are some…new seedings of alfalfa and winter wheat.

By November 1st the water will be stopped and stored in the Blue Mesa Reservoir until next spring. The canal will dry up…if our grandchildren were here, it would make a great play ground.

Today I’m taking advantage of our warm summer-like days and painting the chicken house. We got the pump winterized and the hose put away yesterday, and all the lines blown out. Today I finish getting my last gallon of paint on the hen house and the picket fences.

Terry is working on the corn combine…with the thought corn harvest will start in a month!

I hope this makes it to you! I’m rather addicted to the internet. 🙂

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

Terry is leveling the farm ground, even as I write. We are getting closer and closer to starting water.

Speaking of water the irrigation company is supposed to start our canal–The Ironstone– sometime this week. It is the last canal on the system to get water. Putting water into a canal is a HUGE project, it takes several men and a back hoe, because of the trash collected into the canal over the winter. Canals are gigantic transmission ditches, from the head gates of the reservoirs way above us –Blue Mesa and Taylor. The transmission canals move into smaller lateral canals which then flow onto farms for irrigation water.

Our main canal is the Iron Stone, but we live and receive water on the FNC lateral. Today, or no later than Friday the water will be in the FNC lateral, the Uncompahgre Water Company worker bees–called Ditch Riders– will be following the water through our canal taking out the huge amounts of trash.

This is ALWAYS an exciting event for me! (Silly as this sounds, I like changing and setting the water.) For Terry it means hurry, rush, get done, because we need to be getting the fields wet…time is marching on.

The first field we will start the water on (OH! MY! GOODNESS! I just remembered we still have two gated pipe to fix) is the alfalfa field. It’s greening up nicely and is ready for a huge growth spurt once we get the water on the field.

The little family is still here…YAY! Tonight we will have at least Blade and maybe one or two of the girls spending the night. I’m absorbing as much of them as I can. 🙂