Across this country this year, one of the top stories has been about the lack of water. Too little rain and snow and too much need are causing serious issues from the east to west coast and lots of places in between. Here in the Mohawk Valley in NY state we are blessed with lots of water. At times we have a little too much of it as flood warnings and rivers rising are common occurrences after one of our strong storms. As with most things, just because you have something available does not mean one can use it. Or at least easily use it.

We have a good stream on Tiny House Farm. One that we can use to water our plants as long as we don’t get the water actually on the fruit or vegetables. Too much nasty stuff in the water. Most of the stuff is the result of runoff from the local farms. The E-coli numbers are too high to allow us to use it even for soaking our shiitake logs. We know how high the numbers are as we have gotten the water from the main stream and the smaller spring tested on a regular basis. So we can water the plants with the stream water before they produce anything or just the ground around them. The other issue is actually getting the water to our field. We have used several methods of getting water around the farm. Filling big tubs on our wagon resulted in us losing at least half of the collected water before we got to our plants. Once we got the water tank, we filled that but then still had to walk behind the 4 wheeler with pitchers or buckets. Filled those and emptied them on each plant. That was a good way to get all your steps for the day, but it a long process to get each plant watered. Especially as we increased the number of plants we had growing in our 3 acres.

Too many of both the paw paws and juneberries that we planted over the years have sadly, failed to thrive. We planted 40 something paw paws and over half did not survive into the second year. The remaining ones did not grow very well. There are just 4 of them that look as though they might produce fruit in the next year or so. Once these plants had over wintered, we let nature take its course and depended on rain to keep them watered. That was probably a mistake. This year we have ordered more paw paws from Perfect Circle Farm in Barre VT. And another 245 juneberry plants to fill in where we lost ones and finish off the remaining 4 rows. This time we have to water them on a regular basis.

Ron’s new veggie patch and my sunflower garden also need to be watered. That means we need a more permanent and agile way to get water from stream to our field.

Ron’s first attempt was to get more hose and a rolling water canon. Thank goodness we already had the needed water pump to make this work. With this set up he is able to water our lavender and sunflowers. But it cannot reach out far enough to reach our juneberry rows that are beyond the sunflowers. Nor can it reach Ron’s tomatoes and squashes. So another plan was hatched in Ron’s brain. Again he got ideas from You Tube. I really wish I could put a blocking filter on his account. One that would prevent him from watching anything that is going to cost money.

I have to admit that I knew it was coming. Drip tape was going to be the best way to water our assorted patches. Having watched Ron spend hours getting water to his tomatoes and squash plants, I knew the money would be well spent. But I really had no idea how much “stuff” he was going to need, how many trips out to get just one more piece would be needed and how much money it was all going to cost.

So the list of purchases included two water tanks, three, no four water filters, assorted lengths and types of hose, too many connector bits and pieces, another 2 water pumps, and the actual drip tape kit itself. That includes tape, tubing, more connectors, a punch, shut off valves, pressure regulators, staples, end caps and adapters.

Ron set himself up in our living room and began work on the filter system. He had already spent serious time on the internet researching how this should work. Now he just needed to get it set up. I had to be careful during this step. Any time I walked by him, if I paused for 30 seconds too long, he would start explaining the filtering process to me. Again. The idea was to have this attached to side rail of our trailer, where the water tank would sit. He needed to be able to access the filters so they can cleaned when needed. And as this will be set up on our only road worthy trailer, we have to be able to take it all off when we need to. We needed all these filters due to the amount of silt that is in our stream. Even the smallest amount of that getting through would clog up the drip tape.

So this was the end result. You also see part of one more of his purchases, an ICB tote that stores the water we pump from our stream. The whole process does work, but needs serious tweaking. It takes less than 3 minutes to fill our regular water tank from the stream. The one we have been using for years, lost in the great flood of 2017 but was rescued. It takes forever (15-20 minutes) to then pump water through the filter system into the ICB tote. Ron’s goal is to get the water tank filled, connect everything and be able to walk away to get something else done. Right now, he has to waste time waiting for the tank to empty so he can go back and get more water. We have to fill the water tank 3 times in order to fill the ICB tote. Which works out to almost an hour of down time watching to make sure the process of transferring the water going smoothly. And that is before any water actually starts through the drip tape itself.

So once the filter system was set up, it was time to get the drip tape laid down.

One of the first things that had to be done was to “try” to straighten out the tubing. We started out by setting the coil out in the sun to warm and and the Ron and Jo pulled on it. Not a great improvement, but it was a bit straighter. And that did make it easier to work with.

With the tomatoes and squashes growing nicely, Ron and Jo feed the line down each row. The idea behind drip tape is that the water is “dripped” on or just around each plant. This saves water while ensure each plant gets what it needs. So that means that the holes in the tape need to be lined up with where the plant is. This is harder than it sounds. And it does not help that we are dealing with the landscape cloth we used to keep the weeds down. Even though this stuff is water permeable, you still need to get the things lined up correctly.

There were a lot of steps to this project and much fiddling to be done. And a few missteps along the way. We struggled to find a way of getting the connectors into the tubing. No matter what we did, it was not working. Finally we called it a day and headed home. If we fought with it much longer, something rash might happen.

Of course, back at home it with just two minutes on YouTube and Ron had the answer. We were going about it backwards, trying to get the tube over the connector. That was never going to happen as it was not supposed to happen. If we had a better Wi-Fi connection out on Tiny House Farm, we could have gotten the answer there. And if there were actual directions included in the box. Maybe with a couple of diagrams?

Ron does love his Rube Goldberg style fixes. I believe he would be very disappointed with a project that he did not have to come up with a work around on. And he has more work to do on this one. While he has this set up so we can break it all down when we need to use our trailer, that is not very practical. Next year, fingers crossed, we will be vendors again at multiple events in our area. And we will still need to water next year’s crops. So a plan has to be thought up.

When it comes to these type of farm projects, I tend to leave them to Ron and Jo. They have a very good working relationship. Jo listens to the plan, gets clarification when needed and then helps execute it. Me, on the other hand. I listen to his plan, get clarification and then offer suggestions as to another way we could accomplish the same thing. I am sure that all of you know that Ron just loves it when I do this. He welcomes any adjustments to his plan with an open mind. Does not matter if my way would be better or save us some time. Even when I am right, I am still wrong. Cuz this is his plan and that is how we are going to do it. Almost 35 years of marriage and I still cannot help myself. I have to offer my suggestions.