Irrigation

[Dave]

Irrigation season is in full swing now. It has been dry and there is plenty of water coming down the river so we have the ditches running full. Flood irrigation involves getting into the ditch to set the tarp dam. Most have to be changed daily. The neighbor calls it irritation not irrigation. The weather forecast for tomorrow morning is 40 degrees and rain. Somehow being dressed for that weather and standing in the water with your hand often in the water just don't sound like a good mixture. The wife says I am living the dream. Not a nightmare but not a pleasant dream tomorrow.

 

[Travlr]

Irrigation season is in full swing now. It has been dry and there is plenty of water coming down the river so we have the ditches running full. Flood irrigation involves getting into the ditch to set the tarp dam. Most have to be changed daily. The neighbor calls it irritation not irrigation. The weather forecast for tomorrow morning is 40 degrees and rain. Somehow being dressed for that weather and standing in the water with your hand often in the water just don't sound like a good mixture. The wife says I am living the dream. Not a nightmare but not a pleasant dream tomorrow.

I worked for the irrigation district in SD, and thought it was probably the best way to spend a job. If you're gonna have to waste your life working for a paycheck, that's a good way to do it. But doing the actual irrigation was frustrating. The d**m water just never seemed to go where it was needed. It's an art that I never got a good handle on. Easy to keep it in a ditch compared to getting it to spread out over a field.

 

[Dave]

No ditch riders or employees of the irrigation except the dam man. Once we get to the point where is not a lots of snow melt run off he regulates how much water he releases from the reservoir. Right now the reservoir is full so he is just releasing everything coming in.

 

[Travlr]

No ditch riders or employees of the irrigation except the dam man. Once we get to the point where is not a lots of snow melt run off he regulates how much water he releases from the reservoir. Right now the reservoir is full so he is just releasing everything coming in.

How do they maintain the ditches... and monitor who is using the water? No water thieves in Oregon?

 

[Dave]

How do they maintain the ditches... and monitor who is using the water? No water thieves in Oregon?

Other bigger irrigation districts have ditch riders and the district does the maintenance on the ditches. They also pay $65-$75 an acre for their water. Our water is $7 an acre. Our ditches are smaller and everyone each other on the ditch. So we work together. Take all the water you need but be considerate of your neighbors. Last year we needed to clean one of the ditches. We got bids. Once the work was done we simply divided the bill by the acres and everyone paid accordingly.

 

[Dave]

Another point is there are 2 ditches here one on each side of the river. The head gates for both of those ditches are on my property. Which means I am the first one on both ditches. If I don't have water, nobody has water.

 

[Chuckie]

I always wanted an irrigated hay field. Wow, I could imagine how much hay you could produce if you took care of it to make it top hay. Cattle can stay fat and happy on the Bermuda as it has more protein in it than the feed does if you keep your fields limed and fertilized. Here, irriagation is run from the wells dug and then off of three phase lines or diesel engines. So, just how ever much water you can afford.

 

[Dave]

I always wanted an irrigated hay field. Wow, I could imagine how much hay you could produce if you took care of it to make it top hay. Cattle can stay fat and happy on the Bermuda as it has more protein in it than the feed does if you keep your fields limed and fertilized. Here, irriagation is run from the wells dug and then off of three phase lines or diesel engines. So, just how ever much water you can afford.

There is a reason dams were built all the streams and big irrigation systems installed here. Because without irrigation here in the desert you just have sorry dry range land. 10 - 12 inches of rain a year doesn't grow much hay or anything else. Back in the 1870's, 80's and 90's these old timers dug some serious ditches by hand. They diverted water out of the streams into their ditches. But without the reservoirs they had a lot of water from spring run off in May and some in June. But it didn't last. Before the reservoir the river that runs through my place dried up in the summer. Stories from the old Oregon Trail. They got to this point in August or September. The river was dry so the wagon trains went right up the stream bed using it for a road.

 

[Chuckie]

There is a reason dams were built all the streams and big irrigation systems installed here. Because without irrigation here in the desert you just have sorry dry range land. 10 - 12 inches of rain a year doesn't grow much hay or anything else. Back in the 1870's, 80's and 90's these old timers dug some serious ditches by hand. They diverted water out of the streams into their ditches. But without the reservoirs they had a lot of water from spring run off in May and some in June. But it didn't last. Before the reservoir the river that runs through my place dried up in the summer. Stories from the old Oregon Trail. They got to this point in August or September. The river was dry so the wagon trains went right up the stream bed using it for a road.

That is pretty neat to hear about history of things. I bet that river did make a good road bed, but not good for the water aspect. It would be nice to have the road laid out ahead, but with no water along the way, then that would be a different story. Sorry to hear about how the river dries up that runs through your land. Wish I could send some of the rain we get down your way. Crazy how one area can only get 10-12" a year and in a really wet month, we get that much. Makes it tough on getting seed in the ground and even mowing your hard means a Zero turn cannot move on a hill because it is too wet. Sure makes a mess of your yard as you just have to wait for a few dry days and catch it.

I have never seen the desert, but always enjoy looking at the pictures of the cactus and plants that grow there. Maybe one day I will be able to drive out that way and see the land. I love to see new land and how it lays and the soil. Iowa was really beautiful with the big fields with the rolling hills. But here, it is small fields often with a ditch running down the sides. Water in the ditches all the time pretty much from springs or water coming off of higher land. They seldom go dry. Fish swimming and turtles hanging out. I can describe our fields as looking like a home made quilt. Lots of small fields mixed in with a some a little bigger. Along the Mississippi River, there are large fields however.

 

[Dave]

The river use to dry up. The reservoir which catches the snow melt from the mountains keeps it running all year. Although in about August sometimes I think I see fish walking up stream.
The Oregon Trail people complained about how rough the river bed was. Not exactly a smooth bottom. Lots of bowling ball size and bigger rocks. I imagine the first wagon train or two cleared some of worse rocks out of the way. In the beginning they took a 2 day detour because the 5 miles or so of the river route was just too rocky. About 15 years into the trail someone built to toll road along that 5 mile stretch. There is a history story of a shooting and resulting hanging related to that toll road and the toll ferry down on the Snake River.

 

[Dave]

This is flood irrigation at work. Picture taken from up on the road. The ditch running across the bottom of the picture is the main ditch taking water to others down stream. The field ditch I am irrigating from is out of sight below that.

 

[wbvs58]

It costs a lot of money to pump water, anything that is done like this is a big win.

Ken