Thursday, April 21, 2011

Ditch Meeting

Today was the annual ditch meeting, in which any troubles with the irrigation ditch are brought up, discussed, and hopefully, decisions are made. This marks our first full year as part of this community, in a pretty profound way. We seem to be two of only eight people who care about what happens to the irrigation ditch that serves something like 100 families. But last year, there were only seven, so things are looking up!

Actually, that's not completely true. I'm sure there are lots of other people who care about the ditch, who use the ditch, who want the water to come to their fields, pastures and lawns, but just don't want to be involved with actually doing the work that makes that happen. Not even the work of coming out one Thursday per year for less than an hour.

I think that's interesting. What do you think would happen if the ditch suddenly disappeared? Yeah, me too.

It's so easy to take for granted that "someone else will do it" and "it's someone else's job" and "i'm busier than other people", and a thousand other excuses that all really mean "nobody else is as important as me", and somehow simultaneously "nothing I do really matters". I've been guilty of this myself, that's how I know! But the older I get, the more I realize that every little piece, every tiny little thing, matters enormously, if only because it's a little push in the right direction. As it says on a despair poster, "it only takes one harmless flake to unleash an avalanche of destruction".

But enough philosophy. The ditches are in good shape this year, and there will be plenty of water, which isn't always true. I think I finally understand what an inverted siphon is---at least I have a picture in my head, although I have yet to work out the physics to my satisfaction. And I know that the ones that Squirrelly put in on this property were never going to work in a million years. But at least I know what he was TRYing to do, and that's a comfort. I'm also developing a richer understanding of the whole system of head gates, flapper valves, boxes and culverts that makes the whole thing possible. It's a little shocking that the whole system was dug by hand more than a hundred years ago, and we're still using it today, albeit with tractors to help dig out the cattails... Last year, we remarked that we couldn't believe that it's still all done by hand---that we have to walk a mile up the road to drop a head gate and a bunch of 2x4's, and then trudge through a neighbor's yard, 4 houses down to drop another gate, and then drop our own once we've taken our share so Bill and Nancy can get theirs. This year, I don't know. I'm looking forward to it---to late nights under the stars, watching the water come down the ditch, and hoping the skunks have moved out of the culvert. It takes as long as it takes, and it can't be rushed. It's a meditation of gravity and water and time. Of nature doing her own thing, shaped and steered by man, but running under rules that have been in place since... Well... Very nearly (but not exactly), the beginning of time.

Of course, by August, I'll be complaining about it! But that's human nature, and by September or October, it will come to an end, and I'll be glad. Until spring...

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