Watering the Corn

It's a summer Saturday tradition. Watering the corn. It's a wet, muddy business, but someone has to do it or there won't be any corn. And this is not the kind of corn you can buy. This is the kind of corn that only hard work, water and sunlight can produce. It's super sweet and super tasty. Once you've gotten accustomed to garden corn (the kind the in-laws grow - not just any variety of corn will do) you can never go back to store bought corn. It just doesn't work. All other kinds of corn are vastly inferior and suddenly don't taste nearly as good. It's a curse, really. But it's such a blessing to have such nummy corn!!

All of the watering work seems to fall on Grandpa. He's a good guy though and waters the corn every Saturday during the summer so that we can enjoy good corn all year round. Watering the big garden (where the corn is grown) is a messy business. Boots are required. Here's how it works (at least in my mind, I could be wrong since I've never actually watered corn - just watched others do parts of it): Water is acquired from the canal. The canal is a stream of water from Provo River that the settlers dug so they could have water in these here parts for farming and drinking and other water necessities. Water is turned 'off' and 'on' at a box in the middle of canal that diverts water down the ditch. All the people along the canal that use the water have a box or an equivalent, and their own ditch. The box for this ground is on the other side of the rail road tracks. It's a hike, or a mini drive with the 4 wheeler. Once the water is turned on and heading down the ditch, it gets turned to head into the garden. Then the hard work starts.

During the planting phase of corn growing (and much field work, really) you dig furrows in between the rows of corn (the tractor does most of this work). The furrows allow water to get to the roots of the corn without washing out the seeds.

So, as the water is heading into the garden, Grandpa digs out an opening for the water to head down the first few furrows. Once the water hits the bottom of those rows (about an hour later), he closes up those furrows and digs openings for the next few furrows. This process takes most of the day, and is a lot of work digging in wet dirt.

The kids love going with him, just to make more work... And he is really good about letting them tag along.

Grandpa leading the way to check to make sure the water is all the way down. Ethan, Jason and Shelly are following.
This is the bottom of the garden. The water is already down some of the rows and is heading to a drain that takes the extra water to the pasture across the road.

Jason and Shelly are both stuck (Jason is almost to his knees! Hilarious!). They are not used to walking in mud and thought the water was the smartest place to walk. I'd love to say they learned quickly, but the next few pictures would prove me wrong, so there's no point...

Grandpa helping Jason.

And then Shelly

Emily wanted to come, so we got her boots on too. It took longer than the others, and I walked up with her. I was in flip flops. Can I just warn you guys and let you know that flip flops in tilled and/or wet dirt is not a good idea...

Just missed the best part of that adventure! Emily trying to cross the stream all by herself.

She made it, but she came out much wetter and dirtier than she started.

Jason's stuck again... And we haven't even made it to the top of the garden yet!

Heading up to change the water.

Crossing the row to get to the other side. :) (I just cracked myself up! I need help.)

I'm trying really hard to not get loose dirt in my flip flops.

The kids aren't the lest bit worried about dirt... Shelly did not get that from me.

Emmie Sue needed help getting across.

These kids sure had fun.

They found a shady spot to sit and relax and play while Grandpa did all the heavy lifting (of the wet mud! :)



Thanks for all your hard work Grandpa! We appreciate all you do for us! (not least the corn we get to enjoy all year round!)