To take the irrigation water off our place, we had a mud ditch.  It was a huge problem.  We fought it for years and years, as did Terry’s Uncle and Grandfather before us. Since it was a mud ditch, it would mud up over the year, the weeds would grow so rapidly I couldn’t keep up with them, then the water would flow over the side onto the farm road, making a huge mess.

Last winter, Terry said, “Now or never”.  He covered the ditch up.  Bladed it shut, then leveled the ground, allowing it to settle until March.

Wells Excavation Company said they would come out and dig the many, many feet of ditch we needed.

Four feet deep (so we can farm over the top of it) —–Yes!  That IS a girl doing the trench work.  Brian Wells is running the back hoe

After they left, it was up to Terry and me to pack in and lay the 10 underground pipe

Which took a wee bit of time.  We had to lower one pipe down, then lower another pipe down, hook them together, steady, steady, until we reached the end of the trench.

After which, it was time to push the dirt in and cover the pipe up.  Sounds easy, but the dirt had to land just right on the pipe, or the pipe would move and be crooked.  What a nightmare that would have been.

Next, we had to create a dam out of cement to hold the intake firm and to keep the water from eroding away the dirt.

After getting everything in place, we had to install the outtake pipe to carry the water to the canal.  We will put in a valve later in the season. The valve will help us with the flow onto the horse pasture and the last cow pasture.

Then he leveled our work.

Done!  You wouldn’t even know there was a pipe under there.  Of course, it will settle and do ‘stuff’ over the course of this farming season; we will keep working on it as needed, but for now—

We are done!  And it’s perfect!  (Boo Berry helped us every step of the way. She wanted you to know.  🙂  )

So there you have it!  In between plowing, disking, rolling, leveling, and marking—-cleaning all the winter weeds and leaves from the yard and the farm yard, we laid 10 sticks of pipe and created a whole new part to the farm!

Your friend on a Western Colorado farm,
Linda