Author note:

WET BACK and WEAK MIND

The "wet back" comes from the fact that the field work is hard work, especially in record-breaking heat, which leads to shirt-soaking sweating; the weak mind is the result - at least on a temporary basis - of doing the field work under the boiling sun.

There are three major kinds of work with which I help, in part because the hired hands are not always reliable or are otherwise employed: changing the irrigation wheel lines, fence mending and weed control.

The irrigating is done with a wheel line system, which is a system of connected pipes - each section of which has a large wheel in the middle. Sprinklers are spaced along the pipes in such a way that large sections of a field can be fully watered for each set. The wheel line, typically, has to be changed every twenty-three hours.

If all goes well, it takes about a half hour to turn the water pressure off, to allow the pipe system to drain completely, to disconnect the pressure hose, to move the line to the next setting, to add or subtract sections of the pipe depending on the width of the field, to reconnect the pressure hose and to re-start the system. Since there are two lines, if all goes well, about an hour - more or less - is required each morning. That is, if all goes well. Often the motors that move the wheel lines do not start without a lot of pulling on the starter rope, adjusting the gas and "cussin' and swearin'"! Also, sprinkler heads have to be cleaned, adjusted or replaced. Sections of pipe have to added or subtracted. Etc, etc, etc. One day, it took over four hours.

At the last set at the top of each field, the whole systems have to be "motored" back to the bottom set, where the process begins all over again. That increases the change-over time considerably.

Horses are among those animals for which "the grass is always more succulent" on the other side of the fence. They strain over the fence, doing damage to it - but not often enough to themselves; hence the continuing need to repair the fences, of which there must be "miles and miles" surrounding the pastures. (I exaggerate, of course.) The fence lines have to be walked with the repair tools and staples in hand. Sometimes, new posts and wire are required.

Weed control, mostly, consists of walking through or around the fields with large, plastic bags. Weeds are dug out or pulled and put in the bags. Or, in the case of weeds that "head out" (such as mullein), the head is cut off and put in the bags. Full bags are transported to and emptied into a weed trench and buried.

These are the major tasks that I help with. The place consists of about 184 acres, most of which is foothill pasture. About 40 acres (divided into two fields) is in native hay. It is the two hay fields that are irrigated on a constant, rotating basis. Ideally, the sprinklers run for 23 hours and the changes take about one hour. As you can tell from the above narrative, the ideal is seldom "the reality."

My "learning curve" has taken some time and has added to the timetable. This is the kind of hot, sweaty work that I have not done nearly enough of (except for yard and garden work) since I worked on a hay baler for four summers and on the farm before (and briefly after) my military service. It is - believe it or not - exhilarating in some ways!

Afternoons and evenings are spent reading in the (air conditioned) Loveland library (or in the CSU library) and visiting with family and friends. It has been a "fast month"!