Today was irrigation day. Jim calls the Ditch Rider early in the morning to see if it’s OK to irrigate. We have to coordinate with other properties that draw from the same ditch. If everyone irrigates at once, the water level will drop and no one will be able to get water.
But today, a Thursday after good rains up north, the water comes fast out of the gate. It flows from a larger ditch, one of many that run throughout the Rio Grande Valley, into smaller acequias. Ours is lined with concrete, technology from decades ago.
It’s not an efficient way to water. It’s ancient, flood irrigation. It’s cultural. We are slow to change. Jim wants to participate in the latest water conservation methods, but we can’t do anything until after the season. The trees are full of apples, and we have to use what tools we have.
It’s labor intensive, too, working the land. Not many people do it any longer. We know old-time farming families in our community. The men and women, both, get hunched over. They look like they are walking sitting. They work harder than anyone I know. Their lives seem romantic. It’s the land. The land is beautiful, but its beauty (if it’s a farm) is often directly proportional to the amount of bend in its farmer’s back.
We’re not real farmers. Well, I’m not a real farmer. Jim is close. He works hard every day outside. He works with his hands. I tell people that if we both worked on computers, our lives would be sad.
Jim took these shots today with my camera. I loaded them into my Flickr account, just to save space on WordPress. I feel weird having them there. But he’d never create his own account. He just comes to where I’m working, shows me his shots on the small screen on the Canon. Then says, “OK,” when I ask him if he wants me to load them onto my computer. I look at them and realize, artists aren’t the only ones who see things a certain way.
Right now we grow apples. Some pears, too. And grass that can be turned into hay. We talk about farming. It’s true we might do it. A little patch, anyway. We’ll have to see. That’s what my mom always used to say. We’ll have to see.
I wouldn’t mind if we stick with pasture grass and the orchard. We could do so much more, I know. But we could do a lot less, too.
Your hard work seems to be paying off after looking at the photos Jim took of the juicy apples. There are so many things you can make with them, not to mention my favorite (apple pie). They’re also low in carbohydrates and don’t raise the blood sugars, plus their a healthy snack. This article and the photos remind me that fall is very near which is the best time of year here in NM. Great article!
LikeLike
Thanks, Juanita. We’ll be having an apple picking party, and you’re invited. I’ll keep you posted.
LikeLike
What kind of apples do you guys grow yb? Do you grow them to sell or for home use and to share with family and friends. Are they organic or do you need to use pesticides?
I grew up with all kinds of fruit trees…My Dad used to graft all kinds together on one tree. Some lady called me last year to tell me she had a tree in her backyard with 5 kinds of avocados growing on it! She said he’d worked on it for her for years! He was a wizard with that stuff. He invented a miniature Hibiscus for Hines Nursery years back. He was so humble, I almost never found out about it!
Did Jim come from a farming family or did he learn it all on his own? It’s a very good thing…to work with your hands, watching things grown and knowing you had a part in it. It’s hard work, but rewarding and good for the soul.
I have a Grandnephew, my Father’s namesake, who has his own garden at 4 years old. His Mother and he grow watermelon, squash and tomato’s. I think that’s a great way for them to spend the day together. I hope your girls get a chance to work with their Dad and learn from him. He sounds really wonderful!
LikeLike
Jim grows good chiles too. I can picture Farmer Jim and his Willys pick-up off to the growers market with bushels of fresh green chile.
LikeLike
Jim took some great photos.
It sounds like you have some great lifestyle choices… wonderful to have that control over the direction you take your life. Wonderful, too, to have that option to touch base with Mother Nature.
LikeLike
We’re still learning what kinds of apple trees are in the orchard. There are a lot of apple, a few pear, a handful of peach the previous owner planted about three years ago. Very underdeveloped, those ones.
There is Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, something that looks and tastes like a Jonathan. No Galas or Fujis; our are all old trees. They need a lot of work — pruning, especially. Many of our neighbors have told us that the previous owner had stopped irrigating because his ditch area had become so overgrown.
No spraying, no way. Jim had a chile garden for a few years, sold at the growers’ market. He also grew ornamental bells and pear tomatoes. Basil and other herbs. But this is a new place for us, we’ve only lived here since Spring, and there was so much work to do just to be able to irrigate.
Heather, your father sounds dear. And capable. No wonder you miss him. Oh, and to answer your question, Jim’s family had an orchard of heirloom apple trees, and Jim was the caretaker of that orchard.
LikeLike
Thank you for letting us peer into this window. 🙂
LikeLike
ybonesy, tell Jim the ditch and apple photos are out of this world. He’s got a good eye. I can picture him, out on your land, putzing and growing, and irrigating. There is something very grounding about working on the land.
I think that’s why I garden (and hundreds of other people, too). We don’t all have the land to grow and farm. But doing the little gardening thing keeps us connected to where we came from. It seems like ancient flood irrigation connects to the roots.
Sometime in another life, I remember talking to some 20 something colleagues of mine. They were corporate climbers and loved that they lived in an apartment right off a huge freeway access and only had a five minute drive to work. They never wanted to be outside – car to work to home.
When I mentioned that I got away to Montana or up to the North Shore of Minnesota every chance I could, they just didn’t *get* why in the world I’d want to be outside and on the land. It gave me great insight into the direction we’re headed. If the land isn’t valued, it won’t be preserved.
It’s good that your kids are exposed to different ways of walking in the world – technology and computers and corporations and farming and irrigating and living on a wild patch of land in New Mexico. It seems like a good balance. 8)
LikeLike
I’m a bit of a country mouse and city mouse, in that I would love having a downtown loft, yet I love living on lots of land. Jim is all country. Once we get our girls out of high school, we’ll probably move to something much more remote. But for now, this *is* a good balance.
jason: thanks for the comment. I was looking at your blog the other day. My niece just moved to Pennsylvania and has been exploring the rural parts of it. It sounds lovely. I hope to get there before she moves back (she misses NM horribly).
LikeLike
This is a great post, I like the comment about the beauty of a farm being proportional to the bend in the farmer’s back, not only are too many of us too far from the land but we’ve forgotten that true beauty needs the type of effort that bends backs
LikeLike
Thanks. That is so true about true beauty needing effort. True of beautiful writing, also, I think. It needs practice, daily work. Glad you stopped by. I visited your blog. It’s a good one.
LikeLike
I am looking to find out where in RGV the orchards are so that I can come for a visit and enjoy the orchards and the people who make them happen.
Please let me know how I can find out details.
I am an engineer in high tech industry and love to connect with nature.
LikeLike
Tim, our orchards are not open to the public, but there is a great spot in Albuquerque’s north valley that is. It’s called Los Poblanos, and it has orchards, lavendar fields, and a lot of other plots. They supply a lot of local restaurants year-round, and I know they also host a few days in the Spring and Summer where folks can come and pick-your-own. But, you can go there any day of the week or weekend — there’s a cultural center, and I highly recommend it for a weekend, as there’s also an inn.
Here is the link: http://www.lospoblanos.com/.
I grew up down less than a mile from this place, and it’s wonderful.
The other one I would recommend in the fall is Dixon Apple Ranch in Cochiti. It’s also Rio Grande Valley, but very different looking since it is right below the Cochiti Dam. No website that I could find, but there is this map: http://wikimapia.org/1904546/. If you go in the fall, make sure to go early. They sell out of apples fast.
Also, just a word since the irrigation has already started — we irrigated over a month earlier this year. (Last year we didn’t move in until end of May, and then we had to clean the ditch, etc., so it was a LATE irrigation start.) We irrigated twice already, and before that my husband pruned the trees. Well, they were all in bloom and guess what?, a freeze that was hard enough last week to kill most of the blooms. So, not sure that we’re going to have apples this year. Hopefully there will be more blooms on the trees.
LikeLike
[…] of water, Jim irrigated earlier in the week and ever since, a hundred or so Mallard ducks have been frollicking in the […]
LikeLike
You should try to tour the ancient Spanish acequias high up in Northern New Mexico. You would probably have to go with a Native New Mexican who knows exactly where to look and what to point out, as parts of them look like fallen trees.
LikeLike
Anita, thanks for stopping by. ybonesy, your irrigation ditch is considered an acequia as well — is that correct? Has anything changed with the regulation of your ditch since you did this post in 2007? And how are the apples this year?
It’s interesting to think about water regulation across this country. Is it communal water or is it owned? What if it runs through your property, do you own it? I wanted to read more and went to the New Mexico Acequia Assocation (LINK). It said their mission is: to sustain our way of life by protecting water as a community resource and strengthening the farming and ranching traditions of our families and communities.
Water is a precious resource. I think I mentioned (in another comment on another post) that the governors of the states bordering the Great Lakes formed The Council of Great Lakes Governors (LINK). Their mission: To encourage and facilitate environmentally responsible economic growth through a cooperative effort between the public and private sectors among the eight Great Lakes States and with Ontario and Québec.
I saw a show about the Council once, maybe Bill Moyers, and they were talking about regulating the flow of water out of the Great Lakes, even to small towns near the lakes. These small towns were upset that they didn’t have access to water in a Great Lake only few miles away because it was being regulated by the council.
So even in parts of the country where water is more abundant than the Southwest, it is being carefully watched and regulated. It’s controversial. Will we someday not have enough water? What happens if communities start to dry up? So many questions about water!
LikeLike
[…] to posts This Time Of Year, Irrigation Day In The Rio Grande Valley and haiku 2 (one-a-day). Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)lifeline — rio grande […]
LikeLike
[…] weekend Jim taught me the ropes of flood irrigating our land. It’s no easy task. I have a new admiration for the work he […]
LikeLike