As you might have gathered from recent Facebook pictures, we’re in the middle of some major irrigation work right now.  It’s pretty crucial to get this right and get it done quickly, because my planting is outpacing my watering ability.

For something that every California farmer needs, it’s amazingly complicated to get all the parts and piece together a water system.  We’ve almost collected all the materials, after weeks of orders, pickups, last minute changes, and missing couplers.  Now there’s a lot of arranging, cutting, and gluing to do.  And a few more trips to each of my new favorite hardware stores.  When it’s all ‘done’, there’s the shoveling of all that dirt back into the trenches.  I’m glad I didn’t quite think ahead about all the work this would involve, or I might have been discouraged.  Now that I’m in it, I just plug along.

Hopefully, of course, this is a one time investment of money and time, with only occasional upkeep for years to come.  Please knock on wood and wish us luck with that.

The reason for all this tubing and timers and pump upgrades is the fun part, and probably the only part most people think of when they visit a farm.  The crops!  In addition to the fruit trees planted this winter, we now have a bunch of other plants in the ground (and in need of regular watering).  Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, melons, squash, corn, capers, flowers, and berries are all in, with more to follow.  Even our early summer cover crop of buckwheat is seeded and harrowed.

So despite the exhaustion, I’m trying to power through this and reassure my plants that water is on the way.