weed seeds | Life on a Colorado Farm

Terry started covering the rest of the transmission ditch. Terry’s been putting in transmission pipe for some time — a transmission ditch is just that a ditch that takes the water from point a to point b or c or d or whatever. We do Not irrigate out of a transmission ditch. A transmission ditch is just a mini-canal.

With water always an issue, and getting worse in the southwest part of the United States, we are always trying to think of ways to help the water stretch further. (We are in the abnormally dry area). An open dirt transmission ditch has lots of problems—water is lost through evaporation (the sun beats down and takes up water into the air), the ground itself has to absorb the water until it get full enough of the water (turns to mud) for the water to move fast enough toward the take out point to get enough to start the siphon tubes or to fill the gated pipes, and then there are the weeds. Weed seed just naturally flows toward soil in water, when the water is stopped from that transmission ditch, the weed seed stops with the water; delightfully growing and growing taking up even more water as the season progresses.

So yesterday Terry began the closing in the ditch, shifting the ground so the deep frost will start to dry out, and gathering the weeds in a pile so the cows can munch through them. Even if we get snow the snow will blow on over toward the canal now and not land in the ditch causing us to have to wait even longer before we can begin.

Once the ground is frost free (or Terry gets tired of waiting) the backhoe will come in and dig the last link to connect all the transmission lines together. Then Terry and I will start laying the pipe; then covering up the pipe. Once done we will be ready for the new year to begin.

This weekend is the second consignment sale for the winter. We’ve decided not to take anything up to it, but wait for the first week in March for the third consignment sale. Every day we moving closer and closer to the beginning of another season of farm work.

Once that happens I know that we have advanced into spring!

Your friend on a Western Colorado farm,

Linda

P.S. Cully if you are reading this, your email doesn’t work. I’ve tried to answer your comment two times and the mail comes back undelivered. Please know that I really appreciate you taking the time to read and to stop by and comment. I’m sorry if you aren’t able to get my replies. I do try to reply to everyone who leaves me a comment. 😦

We have decided that, to ease the work-load for next year, all of the transmission ditches need to be put underground.

Transmission ditches only carry the water from one place to the next place, they don’t have to be open ditches for a person to use siphon tubes to water the actual fields.

The time in managing the open ditch is huge, you have to make the ditch, keep the ditch clean of trash and weeds and deep enough, with enough slant, so the water will flow. It’s an all season job, which sometimes gets away from us. The water, with the weed seeds gets a start and then this is what you get.

A mess.

The mess takes up some of the water for themselves and the sun takes more, so by August how many tubes or gates you get to use starts to shrink.

We have several transmission ditches.

Gradually, every year (pipe costs lots of money) the transmission ditches have been going underground.

The first two years Terry dug the ditches by hand, last year he rented a backhoe and dug it that way. But this year, after putting pencil to paper, we hired Troy Wells to come out and dig this ditch.

~~(Besides I don’t think – at our ages – we should be doing all the work!)~~

Terry got everything ready so all that had to be done was the digging.

The work was excellent!

All the top soil (because we are going down a road-the one that goes to our head gate and to the upper end of our place) was put on one side of the trench, the good farming soil on the other side. The sides were squared and the bottom flat…very little hand work had to be done. Just at the top where the transmission pipe connects with the first artery of that system.

And that WAS a job!

The it was up to us. Get a pipe, lay in the trench, get another pipe, glue them together, make sure the fall of the land is still good, if not take a shovel and shovel the spot until perfect, put another pipe in,

(Jump out so a picture or two could be taken. But don’t do it too often or the “Boss” will get upset for goofing off!)

Then…THANK HEAVENS FOR BIG MACHINES…Terry would start dumping the good farm soil back into the trench. Here the test is to make sure the dirt lands on TOP of the pipe, not on one side or the other causing it to roll.