Good morning.
I had been hearing about this stuff they call "rain", which is, allegedly, water falling out of the sky, but I guess I had to see it myself to believe it. Given the time and energy involved in getting water out of the river, or out of a hole in the ground, and spread around to nourish acres of thirsty plant beings, it seems like a miracle to have it just fall out of the sky for free on everything.
It was just a spattering, mixed with a bit of small hail; enough to "settle the dust", as they say, right where we are, and enough upstream to pay concern to not overloading the acequia with a surge of runoff. There was a moment, just as darkness was falling, when I rushed out to crank open a "valve" (one of the "desagues" that return flow to the river) and reduce the flow that had risen right up to maximum on my reference point as the acequia flows through my yard.
There is one place, about half a mile downstream, where the acequia flows through 700 feet of concrete lining to get it past a particularly fragile edge.
Overflow at this location could quickly wash out what little ground exists to support the concrete and cause it to collapse, closing down the supply to 100+ farmers downstream who would be very upset if this occurred. So I scurried right out there in haste to make sure that didn't happen. At first light next morning, I was out again to close the valve and continue the flow at a safe level.
Busting the acequia would be the ultimate catastrophe for me as new Majordomo. As the monsoon season approaches (we hope), a new dimension to my duties emerges: making sure the precious acequia doesn't overload when the floods come down the river from upstream rains, as they surely will. When the big flows come, I'll have to go all the way up to the dam and close down the main gates, pronto.
The river CAN surge, within an hour, from 100 cfs to 5000 cfs or more, the legendary "flash flood" often spoken of in the Southwest. When it does, the roar of the water flowing over the dam can be heard from a mile away.
Given the extremity of recent weather events elsewhere, I have some concern that we could experience our own disastrous extremes here. We are somewhat sheltered from big wind events, unlike the great flats out east, but big water events do happen.
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So I need some help for the SMHRB for the week after next and the one following, as I will be gone off to the NN11 gathering in Mpls (Sat June 18) and then off to the Hearthshire reunion in NoCal (Sat June 25). All of you who have joined the SMHRB group have posting privileges to queue up a diary and schedule it without my input, so please indicate what you can do while I am away. Thanks much for all your help and generous input towards keeping this Shop open, useful and vibrant.