We got our irrigation up and running for the season. Boy, do we need rain! Everything is powdery dirt and so dry for this time of year. I am trying to get the yard watered & the hoses drained at night so our frost-free hydrants don't freeze at night (the frost-free function only works when I hose isn't hooked to it and it's turned off). It's an interesting time of year. The irrigation pipes in our field have been creating a frozen formation on the field many mornings this past week. When our local forecast shows slightly above freezing lows we have been getting into the high 20's at night. I feel we have a colder than average zone in the draw on our property than what the nearby Pendleton weather forecast shows.
I have been tasked as the president of our community water corporation where we live and we coordinate getting the larger irrigation well set up for the year and dealing with all the legal requirements of operating a community water system. Our neighborhood is so fortunate to have such an amazing value in water and to be able to irrigate our 5 acre parcels at such a low cost. Truth be told, that was a HUGE part of why we selected this place in our real estate search when we were looking for land 12 years ago. The rich, deep topsoil and the water rights being such a good value. At first, I balked at a shared well idea because of stories I had heard about that not working out well. However, once we read through the by-laws and corporation paperwork we felt a lot better about sharing major expenses with 26 other property owners to share the burden of maintaining wells etc.
I am not sure how I ended up president of the water corporation board for the last 8 years, but I am doing my best to juggle those responsibilities along with everything else around here. I am really hoping for an understudy soon and eventually the goal is to work myself out of this role. I am glad I could serve, but I would love more involvement from the rest of our neighborhood too.
In our area, acreages with water-rights are harder to come by. So we are so thankful to have this place and to have so many options of what we can grow and produce as a result of having water rights. I am really looking forward to the future as we try new things over the years and find our niche of things we enjoy producing for the local area and beyond.
One thing we are trying to figure out is what type of irrigation delivery system we want to use as we are facing an empty nest soon. Holden, our nearly 18 year old son, will be moving out in the next year or so and we need to get ourselves set up for managing things once he is no longer able to change irrigation pipe for us. 3" handline in 40' sections won't be physically practical for me to do long term. So we are keeping an eye out for a 200-300' section of wheel line or other solution that will work well for a hay field. If you know of a good irrigation solution for a 3.5 acre rectangular hay field I would love to hear about it.
I hope your spring season is going really well so far!