Yesterday the girls and I went out with Andrew to check on and unplug the sprinklers in the solid set. Solid set hasn't been put out in the fields for many many years on the farm, but it is a major part of my childhood during the summers so it was kind of fun to see it out in the fields again. My Grandpa Russell invented the idea of making stakes out of potato digger links , attaching a sprinkler head to the top and a T connector to screw hoses on to connect the water from stake to stake. Kind of a genius idea as a substitute for aluminum pipe. It was also quite the process in putting it up, they would hire a bunch of teenagers and use one of our old tractors with the hoses and stakes attached to the sides. The kids each had a job of putting up the stakes, taking out the hoses and then screwing them into place. When I was really little I would go out just to ride on the hundreds of hoses that pulled behind but as I got older I got the job of "steering" the tractor, I didn't drive it because once it was set in gear I just had to make sure we drove down the trenches in the potato fields, I think I was only about 10 when I did that. Once they decided to stop growing potatoes back when I was in high school the solid set was stacked away, until this summer when they decided to pull it all out and set it up in between the pivots in the field behind our house. So anyway that's what we went out to do, the pictures will help make more sense of the solid set.
A line of aluminum pipe is laid down the side of the field and then the hoses lead off of that to the stakes. Here is Andrew trying to fit a 45 degree angle connector between two pipes.
Here he is unplugging the old sprinkler heads with a very important tool, an old piece of wire. :) He says that the holes are usually plugged up with tons of bug parts. Gross!
I wish I could make a recording of the sound of many sprinkler heads spraying at the same time, it happens to be one of my most favorite sounds. It means it's summer!
The grain is growing taller and taller and it is so incredibly green, I didn't alter the color in these pictures at all!
The girls always have a good time when they get to go out with Daddy. I love going out too and I can tell Andrew enjoys having us tag along.
It sure is fun to live on the farm and can't wait to bring another little one into this amazing lifestyle! We sure feel blessed.
4 comments:
Yes, the sound of lots of sprinklers in the field is a great sound,sprinklers spraying in the wind break is good, but the best sound is that of a running ditch in my front yard. That's a sound I miss most of all in the summer. No more babbling brook. I need a water feature in my front yard so I won't miss the ditch so much.
And I remembered a pretty funny incident involving Whitney, irrigation pipe and mud. All in good fun, Whit!
It sure looks Summery and green. And the girls look as healthy and happy as ever. Glad to hear all is going well.
Oh the memories of solid set . . . :)
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