There were more photos for April 29, the first day of irrigation with the new system. I started this story this morning. To continue:

I needed a strategy to keep track of what I was doing. This was partly because the ryegrass was so tall I couldn’t even find the valves at first. Then I wanted to remember what I had opened and closed and be able to tell Dan how it was going. I decided to write on my photos. By the way, there are 7 valves across the north end of the north field near the blackberries. This photo shows the south end of that north field and the top of the lower pasture. There is a pipeline all the way across this one from west to east.

So this photo shows that at 5:30 p.m. there was water all the way down the north pasture and I had opened the first 6 earlier. At this time #1 on this field was finished and I turned #7 and #8 on.

At 7:30 p.m. this is the status. I opened 9, 10, and 11.

At 8 p.m. I opened 12, 13, 14, and 15.

I had been marking the valves with the white plastic stakes. Now I don’t remember if the sideways posts indicated On or Off.

At 5:30 a.m. the next morning I closed #7-15 and opened all the rest.

This shows the last valves, #16-20.

At 7:30 I noted that #20 was finished.

This is how I figured out that I could report back to Dan what was going on. I think I can make sense of this photo now. There was water 100′ from the south border in #17, 90′ in #18, and 50′ in #19.

I’ll be doing this all over again in the morning and I think maybe I should number these in the opposite direction. If I am at the house or barn and “read” from left to right then Check #1 should be on my left (the one next to the road). I guess I’ll figure that out tomorrow. Maybe I need to paint numbers on the south border posts so I can keep track of where I am.