About 3:00 yesterday afternoon the ditch rider came by and locked our head gate down more holes…we are now at 50% of the 100% of water we pay for every year.  We will still pay the 100%;  there just isn’t water in the mountains.  Snow pack was only 4 feet last winter and is gone now, accept for a few tiny drifts here and there.

And it isn’t even July!

What is July going to bring?  An even worse thought…what is August going to bring!?

We are back to changing the water every 8 hours.  6 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 10 at night.  At least we got caught up and the ground is starting to hold the water.  Less water and less rows we can set.

To give you an idea…say at 100% you can set 35 rows, at 70% you can set 23 rows so now we are looking at 15-18 rows.  This is just an approximate, a general idea.  Each field is different and sometimes each row is different.

IF this heat continues and the hot, heavy wind (we had 40 m.p.h. gusts yesterday) ….. let us not go there.  Worse thought yet, is what if there isn’t any snow in the mountains this winter…!!!?

Okay, okay.

July could/can be a wet month–typically that is our monsoon month, with moist air moving up from the Gulf of Mexico…this would be good!  RAIN!

The middle of July starts to see the Winter Wheat being harvested and the sweet corn crops going into to market.  (The sweet corn harvest starts in July and ends the second week in September.) As these fields are harvested the farmer does NOT continue with water on the field. This reduces the strain on the canal.  So if these two things come together…rain and crops being harvested the rest of the crops in our area—onion, shelling corn, hay,and pinto beans all the farmers in the area should make it.

We will just have to wait and see.

The hummers are back!

This year instead of one soft tiny nest in the tractor shed we have TWO!  I tried to climb up on the tractor to see if I could peer into the nest, but it was just too far up there for me.

At least I can see the nests, maybe if I keep checking I will see the baby hummers!

Sorry about the worry/rant…sometimes I think farming very stressful.

Linda