water

We live in the desert.

If it were not for irrigation of one form or another, we would not have enough water to wash a car. So far this year our rain has been about 5 inches, and will go up another few by end of the year -- we hope.

So if you have a big garden or yard it can be a problem and challenge.


The county is laced with canals and ditches to deliver water from the dams on the Boise River. We all get charged for that water, even if you live in a sub division where the water is not available.

My charge is about $90 a year, and if I “forget” to pay, they can and do take houses!

My garden is irrigated by the most advanced system I know of and that is drip irrigation. It uses less water, puts it where you want it and keeps weeds down by keeping water from them.

But my drip system runs on city water, you know the stuff you drink when the refrigerator is empty. That is more money, several hundred dollars a year.

So my neighbor and I have come up with a system that uses my pump on my land but powered by electricity from his place. The pump takes water we run down a ditch from the canal (all legal) and pressurizes it.

Neighbor uses it to water his lawn. He has a huge, beautiful lawn. I have been using it for overhead watering for my back yard and garden. In the process I give up using my wonderful drip system and instead go for the cheaper, but less efficient over head sprinklers.

Those are the kind of dilemmas that drive our world, I guess.

This week I even figured a way to water the back yard of our house which is the far side of the “creek” that runs through the center of our place. I had to run 250 feet of garden hose to pull it off, but I did it!

So, now I will drink drinking water, and irrigate with irrigation water, and I hope to save a few bucks along the line.

My veggies liked the drip system, but my lawn really likes water any way it can arrive.