The New Sprinklers (Still Hard Work)

I will never forget the year we had the new sprinklers put in. This was going to make watering the fields so much easier and be much for efficient. I was so excited to be getting one on the farm, it was going to be so much better then flooding the fields. I had been watching them go in all over town and even had a job moving them back and forth on other farms. They were so nice and easy to use that I knew we should get one to. The day came that dad informed us that we would be getting one installed on the farm and that the pipeline would run along the south end of our property and that all we had to do was tap into it. The plan was to run our line from the south to the north along the corrals and when it got to the north fence it would split and go east and west, the line that went west ended there but the line that went to the east turned again and went north. All in all it was about 150 to 200 yards of pipe (correct me if I am wrong on the length). This was a great plan and was going to make our lives much easier. No more walking the the head gate to turn the water our way, no more building dams over and over again and no more filling in prairie dog holes to keep the water out of them.
The day finally arrived and the backhoe brought the line along the south end of our property and continued on by. That is when I realized that we had to dig our portion of the trench. It fell on me to dig it by hand. Day after day I spent in the sun digging and digging this trench that was to cross the entire property. My hands hurt and so did my back but I was making progress. Ten feet turned into 15 and 15 into 20 and soon I was nearing 30 feet and only a week had passed (what! the ground was hard)but I was determined to get it done. Then one day as I labored under the heat of the sun I saw dad pull into the drive followed by a backhoe. The job was done that afternoon. I thought to myself "what was all of that work for?" then I realized I had a great tan and was much stronger. So thanks dad for helping me look great that year at the lake.