Pouring Concrete, Burning Ditches

Spring is here again (finally!), so it is once again time to prepare for the growing season. This weekend was irrigation ditch cleaning, where everyone that has shares in a given ditch (theoretically) comes out to help clean out the rocks, weeds, trees, and beaver dams that have accumulated in the ditch since the previous year; see last year's irrigation cleaning post for more details.

We're on 2 different irrigation ditches, one at each end of our property. Last year I was elected to the board of directors of one of those ditch companies; my theory is that I'm relatively young, I attend all of the meetings, and seem to have warm blood flowing through me. Well, apparently I still do; I am now on the board of BOTH of the ditch companies. I think it's pretty important to get the next generation of residents involved in the operation of the ditches, since eventually it will be our responsibility to see that they continue to provide what the local farms and home gardeners need.

This year's ditch work day involved more than just cleaning. The headgate of one ditch needed some repairs, including pouring some new concrete to shore up a retaining wall. While most people worked on cleaning the rest of the ditch and Corinne stayed home to work in the field (more on that later), I was assigned to help the rest of the engineer-types to work on the repairs. (I suspect that is another reason that I was a popular choice for board membership - despite the fact that I know nothing about civil engineering!) Before we could successfully pour concrete, though, we had to figure out how to block the flow of water. Thank goodness for the workers of Trout Lake Farm, without whose labor we would have been much more tired - that's a lot of sand bags!

Once the water was blocked, the concrete truck rolled in through a field and along a rocky ditch, which was a sight to behold by itself. I wish I had snapped some photos of the actual concrete pour, but we were so focused on getting the concrete where we wanted it that I missed it. Hopefully with these repairs the headgate will last another 10 years without needing any major repairs.

On the day following the official ditch cleaning, we noticed our neighbors Harry and Judy out burning our lateral. A lateral ditch is used to transport water from the main ditch to 1 or more individual landowners; maintenance of a lateral is the responsibility of the landowners served. Since we share a lateral with our neighbors, we also share the responsibility of maintaining that ditch. A fair amount of dried grass - typically canary grass - surrounds and accumulates in the ditch, and the easiest way to clear the ditch is to do a controlled burn of the dried material. Corinne used to talk about her Dad burning ditches back in Montana, but I had no idea what she was talking about (there aren't a lot of irrigation ditches in NJ, as you can imagine.)

I joined Harry and Judy and spent the next few hours walking up the ditch, using a butane lighter to ignite the grasses, then monitoring the fire and periodically spraying water from a backpack sprayer to control the spread. Ah, country life. Next year we're going to consider buying a propane torch to help the process along.

- Mike (& Corinne)