Watering a small part

Today we were watering the part of the vines I said last week needed some help. It is a bunch of work (what isn't) but it is my favorite activity with regard to vineyard life.

The vineyard is flood irrigated. What that means is that we flood (duh!) the field. But we do so methodically. There are two creases next to each row of vines. The water flows out of the pipes into those creases making its way down to the north end of the row. Our vineyard has a slight downward slope to the northwest so we don't need any pumping power. Thank goodness! That extra electricity cost and all the valves and piping that goes with the additional pumping is not something I want to tackle right now.

So what we do is, we take (Kenny on one side and me on the other) the 18' long, 6" aluminum pipes and push one end into the other end. I'm on the female end and he's on the male end. I make sure the pipe is guided into the other pipe just right and Kenny's takes a rubber mallet and pounds the pipe in. Boy, how's that for a sexual inuendo!?

When they are all connected, we put a cap on the end of the open pipe and hammer the clasp shut so it doesn't open. Now we're ready to water from a piping standpoint. We share water with 5 other people and the organization of who waters when is chaotic at best. I used to call Art and John and Tom and Brett and Trent to tell them we were going to water......whenever. But then I realized they never call us, so bleh! Actually, now I can tell what's getting water where, so I'm not nearly that courageous or callous.

Our watering system is very high tech. We have an open vault with water normally doing it's thing and flowing by, level varying for who knows what reason. We have a manual aluminum knife gate valve thingee that we open when we are ready to water. But first we have to go up to the death defying east valve that is the source of our water off the Colorado river. I say death defying because the "steps" going up to the canal where the valve is are covered with weeds, littered with loose rocks, and move randomly (depending on the alignment of the stars I think). Then once I'm up on the canal, I have to gingerly make my way down a small loose rock path to the valve on the left. If I would fall and slide down this path, I'd fall into this 20' wide canal. And that canal is roaring this time of year, so I don't know if I'd be able to get out. I think "geez I'm having a hard time, how does Art (age somewhere between 70 and 80) do it?" So I give the valve 4 turns open and make my way cautiously back to the vineyard.

After about 15 minutes, you can see the vault level rise. Filling the vault almost all the way to the top is the best way to water. Then you have the most pressure. Once the 3' by 3' vault is full, I can now open the knife gate valve knowing I've got the pressure and flow of water I need. If I don't have enough height in the vault, the pipe won't fill all the way up and some rows will not get watered. Let the watering begin.

Well, now these pipes have these little plastic gates on them about every 3' or so. As I'm going down the line, I can hear the cold water gurgling through the pipes struggling to get out and do what that water was meant to do. I love walking from gate to gate, making sure the gate is aligned with the crease, being able to adjust the gate to allow the right amount of water to flow.

When all the gates are open, we have to go back and adjust the gates so that each crease gets a "soaking" of water. If there is too much flow, the soil will not soak in as much water as it needs before flooding and the northwest end will get completely flooded. And flood our neighbors. Thank god they're cool.

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW!