Finally, after three years, I’ve accepted the fact that the season really gets underway not with the planting of seeds, but rather with the digging of trenches and the laying of pipe.  Yes, once again, we’re laying out irrigation.  Last year we irrigated with a combination of overhead sprinkler and drip.  This year we’ll do the same, but as crops rotate through the fields, so must the two different types of irrigation.

Last year we planted some seed before we had the irrigation all set up.  Luckily, nature gave us enough moisture in the way of rain to get the seeds germinated and up.  But we might not be so lucky this year.  So we’re working hard to get everything planned, layed out, and working before the seeds go in the ground.  Which will be in two short weeks.

As you can see from the picture above, we have quite a bit of pipe buried.  After this recent round of snow clears, we’ll get the laterals hooked up, and connect everything to a set of filters and pressure regulators, and finally to a manifold with electronic valves controlled by a programmable timer.  For the most part, the irrigation cycles will be controlled automatically by the timer.  But we will have to keep tabs on it to ensure we’re not over- or under-watering.