the hidden power of water
During the long days of summer, when the farm is full of activity, it's hard to find moments to sit down and just take in the glory of it all. The amount of manual labor that it takes to keep a small farm running when you're just one against all of nature is immense. The animals constantly need attention, the field needs attention, the farm, in general, needs attention. Things need to be picked up, built, moved, removed, reworked, watered and fed. It's a lot and there is really not enough time in a 14 hour day to get it done, especially when a sprinkler is on.
Sprinklers are just amazing and I am not talking about the silent little water spouts that leaks on the lawn every so often, I am talking the magical, rhythmic, hypnotizing sprinklers that you can't take your eyes off of. The ones that wave back and forth are the worst type of moisture Sirens, they can draw you in for hours as you just watch the water shoot out, crest ever so lightly and fall like mist on to the grass. Then, just to make it even more tantalizing, it slowly moves to one side, crawls to a stop and then slowly crawls back toward the top, flips over and then back down on the other side. It's pure child-like joy to watch. I have one of those sprinklers and I don't use it, not because it sucks the hours out of my day but because one of the jets is broken and it creates a noticeable gap in the water wall, which is completely unacceptable. I am grateful for that clogged jet, a lot got done this summer because of it.
Out in the pasture are two hard working sprinklers. The rugged kind that smack the jetting water on the side with a piece of metal so that it can move around and around from the recoil. These sprinklers are the ones that most people think of when you think, "sprinkler". It doesn't really "sprinkle" per se, but we still put describe it in that way. It's more of a water cannon that shoots water out thirty or forty feet in any one direction. These are not as hypnotic to watch, but they are more interesting to study and a lot can be learned in their labor.
Rain in the summer is the holy grail to country folks. It's not as common as it used to be say, before Reagan, but I think that is what makes it so valuable and appreciated now. If it still rained everyday and made the valleys full of orchards and farm land grow and prosper, it would diminish the amount of headache and complaining that is so necessary for fueling a farmer's resolve. Farmer's need a challenge to keep them on that tractor and easy farming would make everyone want to do it and thus take away from the overall attractiveness of the lifestyle. No one wants to farm, except people with defeatist mentalities that want life to throw every road block it can in their way. These are rare people that need a valid reason for their frustration.
Small doses of rain over a long summer means that issues that you would normally not think about are thrust into your everyday conversation. "Water rights" becomes a phrase you use a lot and you only use it when you're complaining about it, which you do a lot. No rain at all means you have to look to irrigation to keep things growing. Irrigation means government regulations. Government regulations mean getting involved with the community, the state and the federal debates over water rights, air quality and abortion. ( In some weird way, yes it does) Farmers, normally sullen, docile, self-loathing people, have an outward focus for their building rage. They get active, they vote, they run for office and one peanut farmer made it to the highest office in the land he was so outraged. I'm sure it was a water right's issue that set him off. Moisture is important and the lack of it means farmers in the White House. It's a very delicate matter.
The less it rains around my house, and I have no crops to whine about, the more I have to water the field so that the horses can have grass to eat. The only benefit of this, less money spent on hay. That's it. So the watering continues 24 hours a day and sadly, most of the water evaporates before it can soak in to the ground. I am constantly moving the sprinkler three or four times a day to cover an area that is ten times larger than the reach of the sprinkler's water cannon abilities. As soon as one part of the field dries up, you move the sprinkler, which dries out another part, so you move it over there, then another dries up, etc.
A sprinkler cannot cover the same ground with the same amount of proficiency as rain. I know this must come as a shock to many of you, but it's true. However, unlike rain, a sprinkler will stay at it. Covering it's field of influence as long as you let it. It doesn't complain about it and it does what it can to do exactly what you ask of it. The 900 square feet or so that it can water, it does and it's only goal is to keep that 900 square feet alive. That's as far as the sprinkler can reach and it can not be held accountable for that which it cannot cover, that part is up to you. Keeping nature alive requires an understanding between man and machine. They must work together or it's massive destruction and a peanut farmer will rule them all.
When I think about all of this I am baffled. It makes me want to watch that sprinkler and somehow figure out a way to help it, however, watering evenly with a sprinkler is something that my presence would only hinder. My body would block a certain amount of water from reaching some areas and those areas would soon dry out and die, because of me and my wide girth. Best just to leave that sprinkler alone and "let it do what it do".
We are in fall now and the temperature doesn't suck the moisture out of the ground. Ten minutes of sprinkler attention and the ground is fully saturated. Of course, there is nothing that is willing to grow at this time of year other than alien weeds that will grow no matter what time of year it is. Even with the knowledge that the watering isn't helping matters, the watering continues and the sprinkler can be heard in the dead of night, swacking away at the side of the water spout, drowning the ground with the hopes that it will make that pasture lush and green for the spring.
Sprinklers are just amazing and I am not talking about the silent little water spouts that leaks on the lawn every so often, I am talking the magical, rhythmic, hypnotizing sprinklers that you can't take your eyes off of. The ones that wave back and forth are the worst type of moisture Sirens, they can draw you in for hours as you just watch the water shoot out, crest ever so lightly and fall like mist on to the grass. Then, just to make it even more tantalizing, it slowly moves to one side, crawls to a stop and then slowly crawls back toward the top, flips over and then back down on the other side. It's pure child-like joy to watch. I have one of those sprinklers and I don't use it, not because it sucks the hours out of my day but because one of the jets is broken and it creates a noticeable gap in the water wall, which is completely unacceptable. I am grateful for that clogged jet, a lot got done this summer because of it.
Out in the pasture are two hard working sprinklers. The rugged kind that smack the jetting water on the side with a piece of metal so that it can move around and around from the recoil. These sprinklers are the ones that most people think of when you think, "sprinkler". It doesn't really "sprinkle" per se, but we still put describe it in that way. It's more of a water cannon that shoots water out thirty or forty feet in any one direction. These are not as hypnotic to watch, but they are more interesting to study and a lot can be learned in their labor.
Rain in the summer is the holy grail to country folks. It's not as common as it used to be say, before Reagan, but I think that is what makes it so valuable and appreciated now. If it still rained everyday and made the valleys full of orchards and farm land grow and prosper, it would diminish the amount of headache and complaining that is so necessary for fueling a farmer's resolve. Farmer's need a challenge to keep them on that tractor and easy farming would make everyone want to do it and thus take away from the overall attractiveness of the lifestyle. No one wants to farm, except people with defeatist mentalities that want life to throw every road block it can in their way. These are rare people that need a valid reason for their frustration.
Small doses of rain over a long summer means that issues that you would normally not think about are thrust into your everyday conversation. "Water rights" becomes a phrase you use a lot and you only use it when you're complaining about it, which you do a lot. No rain at all means you have to look to irrigation to keep things growing. Irrigation means government regulations. Government regulations mean getting involved with the community, the state and the federal debates over water rights, air quality and abortion. ( In some weird way, yes it does) Farmers, normally sullen, docile, self-loathing people, have an outward focus for their building rage. They get active, they vote, they run for office and one peanut farmer made it to the highest office in the land he was so outraged. I'm sure it was a water right's issue that set him off. Moisture is important and the lack of it means farmers in the White House. It's a very delicate matter.
The less it rains around my house, and I have no crops to whine about, the more I have to water the field so that the horses can have grass to eat. The only benefit of this, less money spent on hay. That's it. So the watering continues 24 hours a day and sadly, most of the water evaporates before it can soak in to the ground. I am constantly moving the sprinkler three or four times a day to cover an area that is ten times larger than the reach of the sprinkler's water cannon abilities. As soon as one part of the field dries up, you move the sprinkler, which dries out another part, so you move it over there, then another dries up, etc.
A sprinkler cannot cover the same ground with the same amount of proficiency as rain. I know this must come as a shock to many of you, but it's true. However, unlike rain, a sprinkler will stay at it. Covering it's field of influence as long as you let it. It doesn't complain about it and it does what it can to do exactly what you ask of it. The 900 square feet or so that it can water, it does and it's only goal is to keep that 900 square feet alive. That's as far as the sprinkler can reach and it can not be held accountable for that which it cannot cover, that part is up to you. Keeping nature alive requires an understanding between man and machine. They must work together or it's massive destruction and a peanut farmer will rule them all.
When I think about all of this I am baffled. It makes me want to watch that sprinkler and somehow figure out a way to help it, however, watering evenly with a sprinkler is something that my presence would only hinder. My body would block a certain amount of water from reaching some areas and those areas would soon dry out and die, because of me and my wide girth. Best just to leave that sprinkler alone and "let it do what it do".
We are in fall now and the temperature doesn't suck the moisture out of the ground. Ten minutes of sprinkler attention and the ground is fully saturated. Of course, there is nothing that is willing to grow at this time of year other than alien weeds that will grow no matter what time of year it is. Even with the knowledge that the watering isn't helping matters, the watering continues and the sprinkler can be heard in the dead of night, swacking away at the side of the water spout, drowning the ground with the hopes that it will make that pasture lush and green for the spring.
posted by Daniel Loomis | 9:50 AM
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