I am completely unable to keep up with writing about what I have been doing. Most of the time has been about scurrying ahead of large earthmoving equipment to prepare for its passage and to direct where next to pass as we clean several miles of acequia that hasn't had this kind of a cleaning in too long a time.
Trees and brush have to be cut so they don't break the windows of the machines. Fences have to be removed and routes planned to get the machinery past obstacles like the many bridges that the landowners put over the acequia to get their farm equipment over.
Today we dug out a sand trap and water gate that hadn't functioned for years, a devise built to ensure that a 100 foot section of 3 foot diameter steel pipe that bridges a canyon doesn't get clogged up with water-borne debris.
I am learning how to operate this device without an operating manual, coming to understand the intelligence at work behind the various features that control the flow of water through this 7 foot wide canal that extends 7 miles along the valley.
So the point of this will be to finally open it up within the next week and turn the water loose to the farmers. We made great progress this week, and have a few days remaining to complete the cleaning. I already have water flowing through the first 1/2 mile of the system, using the water's flow to sweep out an accumulation of sand through strategically placed gates that turn the flow back into the river, carrying the sand and gravel that had been brought in from the river back out, so it won't be carried down the acequia.
I have a helper who carries the 40 pound cast iron wheel that turns the screw that opens and closes the main water gates up at the dam that diverts the Pecos River into the acequia. We hike in about 1/4 mile past where we can get a 4wd vehicle to get to the dam.
This is one of the better adventures of my life; I had no idea what I was letting myself in for when I accepted this position. I really wish you could be here to grasp this in its elemental entirety.
Further input this morning: go watch this video clip of a teacher ranting, if you haven't already.
On the water-bill collection front I mentioned a week or two ago, there has been movement in the form of a community member stepping up to the task. Some of the women in this community are awesome in their grit and determination to rise above the poverty and ignorance that can trap people in this rural ghetto. She was the prime mover about 17 years ago in hustling up the grant money that rebuilt this system back in 1996, and thus still has enormous cachet in the neighborhood, even though she hasn't been involved in running the system in about a dozen years. She just called me up and volunteered herself for the position, and she'll come by later this morning to get the paperwork. We (3 of us who are the functioning Board of Directors, the ones who show up for meetings) have decided to offer her a percentage of the delinquent accounts she can recover. She has offered to do it for nothing, and we feel she should get something for her efforts.
Now that the rusted-out pipe has been replaced, and I feel the water pressure from a full tank, I realize that the problem had been developing for several months before I finally snapped to it. I have to pay closer attention.
So there are about a dozen of you with group access to be posting and hosting the Saturday Morning Home Repair sessions, and I would be just delighted to find something queued up for next week, if one of you can figure out something interesting to post.
And yes, this IS the place where we talk aboyt home repairs and improvements and might even have a useful bit of advice if you are dealing with such issues yourself.
Thanks for visiting.