Water is flowing

One of the biggest challenges this first year of farming has been building all the infrastructure required to start a small farm.  We are leasing one acre from our neighbors, and in order to make farming possible, the minimal amount of building we had to do was a deer fence, a small hoop house, and somehow get water down to the field.

I was originally planning on using NID (Nevada Irrigation District) water which is a network of agricultural irrigation ditches that run throughout the county, and can be a big expense depending on how much water you use.  Luckily for us, our neighbors showed us a gushing spring which comes out of the hill above the farm and runs all summer long.  Because the legacy of mining is all around us, we had to get the water tested for arsenic and other heavy metals, and it turns out the metals in the water are low enough to be drinkable.  We were able to build a very simple irrigation system by digging a small pond right below the spring and use gravity to feed it through 2 inch PVC pipe to the field.  It works amazingly well, is clean water, and completely free.  I feel so grateful to have this abundance in a time of potential water rationing.

Today was the first really warm day we’ve had, and I can feel spring gearing up in full force.  We got a bed ready for our peas, and the soil at the top of the field is beginning to dry up enough to start planting in earnest…. that is if it doesn’t rain this weekend!

Pictures will follow soon of the pond etc, but here’s some general photos from today.

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