We asked at the local irrigation department what the previous owners did and then ordered ourselves one hour of irrigation. Irrigation is measured in time not an amount. You sign up on a paper in front of the office and then wait until the schedule comes out. You don't get to choose your time so when the schedule came out I was happy to see that we were scheduled for Sunday at 4pm. A weekend afternoon start meant Jerry would be home to open the valves and that it would be daylight so we could watch. Not looking forward to getting a schedule with an irrigation start time of 2am!
We all watched the clock waiting for 4pm. When the time finally came we all headed out and Jerry opened the first valve.
Hayden's on the run. I think he was expecting a faster flood! The boys quickly ditched their shoes and socks for flip flops so they could splash around.
At first the water was just gently bubbling and we weren't getting water out of the last two valves. So Jerry went in and called our Zanjero (which is Spanish for water master - I had to look that up!). He said things were running a bit behind and that we'd see a surge in a minute. And sure enough a minute later they were gushing!! See the difference between the photo above and the one below?
A few minutes after the water really started gushing our zanjero pulled up in his truck. Turns out he's a really nice guy named Vance. He chatted with us a bit, explaining a few things us newbies didn't know, and making sure things were running smoothly. One interesting thing we learned was the water coming out of our well comes out at about 86 degrees (year round). It is one of the "cooler" ones. Another one in our district has water that comes out at 98 degrees (year round). Vance said it steams when it comes out in the winter months!
We have seven valves in the front where the water comes out so the front floods first. Then the side yards fill with water through little culverts and a tube that runs under the driveway. (The first time we flushed out that tube under the driveway a skunk came out. Thankfully, he/she must have moved on!)
This is what the valves look like when they aren't gushing water.
We interrupt this irrigation to... hose down the children. Eli tripped at some point and came up covered in mud (you can't really see but he's crying in this picture). JD, on the other hand, thought getting muddy and being sprayed with the hose was fun.
Jerry stayed out supervising the whole time. We had to pull a few grass clogs out here and there but overall the water went were it was supposed to. (See the mountains? We have such a nice view!)
We could have used a bit more in the way back by the front of the guest house and a little less on the west side. Next time we'll mess around with the valves a bit to balance it out.
The birds noticed what we were doing right away. They came by for a free meal! All kinds of bugs came crawling out as the water moved through the grass. We were wondering what kind of creatures would come out when their homes were flooded. We didn't see anything too crazy. One gopher for sure. The boys saw another furry friend of some kind but no adult was able to view and identify it. Justus insists in was a wombat. :) Wesley says it was a rat. We're guessing maybe a mole. Wesley came running and screaming when he saw it. He flipped out again when we accidentally cornered the gopher between us and the water. The kid has pet gerbils so you would think small furry creatures wouldn't scare him!
Alas, our hour was up and it was time to close the valves. Jerry, once again, did the honors.
Within an hour it was already doing it's thing... soaking in! Here's to greener grass in the days ahead!
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