Oh Sweet Water

Water is always on my mind - water from the sky, water in the soil, water for dryland crops, water for irrigation. The Farm is flood irrigated (minus a couple fields) from a ditch that's fed from Lake Frances, north of Conrad. It also has a couple of reservoirs that are filled from the ditch and supply a handful of hydrants including one in front of the greenhouse.



Though the water in the canal hasn't been turned on yet (released from Lake Frances), there is just enough water in the upper reservoir to reach the farm buildings. My plan was to set up drip irrigation for the garden field and last week, my friend Byron and I laid out the first lines.



Not knowing if there would be enough pressure for the drip to work (the water is gravity fed from the upper reservoir with maybe a 5-foot drop over 1/2 a mile). We hooked it all up, turned on the hydrant and watched as glorious water drip dripped from the lines.



In an effort to fill the upper reservoir with as much of the snowmelt as possible, I got permission from the ditch rider to dam the main canal in the hopes that as the snow melted, it would back up to a small gate that feeds into smaller ditches into the reservoir.



To dam the canal, you slide boards down two brackets to a concrete base.



There was a winter's worth of grass and crud and I tried to drag it out with a stick while laying on the bridge, but it was difficult. So, I took my boots and socks off and waded through the frigid water to pull it out by hand.



That done and the boards in place, I simply had to wait for the snow to melt, the water to rise, and the reservoir to fill. Alas, though the water started to back up over the next few days, it has since dropped and no new water was fed into the reservoir. I'll just have to wait until the water is turned on.



Geese