farmer...me!

Today I was really Farmer Jennie...it was our day to irrigate our pasture (about 4 acres get irrigated).

We get to flood irrigate about once a year, twice if we're really lucky when there is lots of extra water. This has been a particularly hot, dry year, and our pasture is really suffering because we really haven't had any rain. This time last year our pasture was so lush and fabulous that the grass was up to my chest (seriously). When we cut our pasture last year we got nearly 200 bales of hay. This year, we probably won't cut it at all because is just isn't tall in the places it is growing, and hasn't even come up in large patches of the pasture.

So today was our irrigation day. Michael had to go to work because of some crazy busy stuff happening, so I stayed home all day and was totally in charge of the irrigation from 9am until 6pm when Michael returned. I've never done this before myself, eventhough Michael and I have worked together on it the last 2 years.

The way flood irrigation works is this...there are ditches that run the perimiter of the pasture, and in some places ditches that run through the pasture. when it is your turn for the water, you go to the main dam switch and open and close the right dams so that the water flows down the ditch to your propery. Then, at your property you need to set up dams along your ditches to get the water to flow out into the pasture and then throughout the day, you need to move the location of the dams so that you end up flooding the entire area. The idea is pretty simple, but the land is not 100% flat, so you've got to figure out how to trick the water into flowing onto the high spots and how not to flood your neighbor's lawns, and on and on. The dams are big pieces of tarp that are attached to long 2x4 boards that you can set wherever you want along the ditch (there are no pre-set locations).

So today I was the farmer walking around in my knee-high waterproof muckboots with shovel in hand (for shoving the fabric of the tarp-dams into the mud). I would go outside on the hour to move the dams that needed to move and then check the dams that were stationary to make sure they hadn't blown a leak. Each trip out would take 20-30 minutes, then I would come inside, do some work for 30min or so, and then back out...a long, long day.
But I think I was successful, and Michael and I played tag (he's it) after dinner, so now he's on ditch duty throughout the night (we get the water for 24hrs). 4 eggs today.