Chapter 8

JAMES' STORY:

By 1895, we were beginning to see strong effects from the reduction in the water supply. Our crop yield had started to fall off and we were considering having less acreage under cultivation in an effort to gain as much advantage as we could from the available water. Our neighbors were having even more trouble with water decline.

On top of that, our produce shipments were again being harassed. These attacks were not on the scale of those a few years ago, but the ambushes were enough that we felt the need to reinstitute the sweeping maneuver we had used before. Arturo and Julio resumed leading the guards as they protected the produce wagons. So far, none of the York employees had been hurt, but we were all frightened at the potential injury or death of someone.

All of the attacks had been with just two or three attackers, more in the class of snipers, but we were concerned that the attacks could escalate at any time. We simply didn't know what to expect.

Sam's rheumatism was becoming a serious problem and he was beginning to talk of retirement and turning over the foreman's job to Bill. Sam had experienced many accidents while breaking the horses and these accidents were catching up to him. We expected a smooth transition from Sam's management to Bill's. Of course, Sam would remain in a consulting capacity (just try shutting him up!).

Both Bill and Sarah now attended our regular meetings of the "executive council" for the ranch, and both were contributing new ideas which were a big help. The full council now consisted of Sarah and me, Sam, Bill, Carmelita, and Diego. Jesus and Juanita were occasionally brought in to the meetings as the need arose.

I was very concerned about the water situation. Sarah said that it had become an obsession for me. She was probably right. So much depended on us being able to get enough water. I was sure that there was enough water, we just had to figure out how to get it to where it was needed. The small river only a few miles from the house surely could supply all of the water we required if we could only find a way to harness it. I still thought that the best way to harness the river was to dam up that valley and have a large reservoir which we could tap as we needed to. Also, I hoped that the resulting reservoir could also supply water to our neighbors. I needed an engineer to tell me what was possible!

SARAH'S STORY:

I had become very concerned about Daddy's health. When he told us the full story of what he had learned from the doctors in Minnesota, I was devastated! There was nothing I could do to help ease his pain, but I wanted to do something. I decided that the best way to help was to take as much as I could of the day-to-day drudgery of running the ranch from him onto my shoulders. That way, he could enjoy some of the pleasure of living on a beautiful ranch with loving people who adored him. I began to feel the pressure that he had felt, but I was determined not to let it run me down.

One thing Daddy was concerned about was finding me a suitable "boyfriend." I tried to tell him that he should not worry so much about me, but, of course, he didn't listen. I explained over and over that I was not worried; I was certain that the right man would eventually show up. We both just had to be patient. I was sure that my argument was a bit too optimistic; after all, how many suitable men showed up at our ranch? Nevertheless, I really was not worried.

I dearly loved Daddy, but I tried to steel myself against his eventual death. He might live for a very long time, or he might die in the next few weeks. I knew, intellectually, that this could happen to any of us, but I really felt it toward Daddy. He had told all of us the symptoms of acute kidney failure and we were all on the lookout for them. We knew that, as soon as they showed up, he had only a few weeks to live. I tried not to act depressed, but my emotions oscillated back and forth, sometimes in the same day. I had to control myself to keep him from being depressed.

JAMES' STORY:

We got through the second harvest season in good economic shape, but our neighbors were not so well off. We had to find more water (there's my obsession showing again)! We had reached what I was told was bedrock. There was some possibility of reaching more water if we could drill through that, but how thick was the bedrock? There was no point in going very deep, because our pumps were limited in how deep they could draw from. The conversations I had with knowledgeable people suggested to me that present technology limited us to a practical 100 feet. Beyond that, it made no difference how much water there was, we just couldn't pump it out of the ground economically.

I looked into diverting some of the water from our river to the fields, but that would gain us very little since the best wells were located close to the river. We were caught in a bind: we had extra water where we didn't need it and not enough water in other places. We didn't have a good way to move the water to where we needed it. I even considered hauling water by wagon, but that was also not practical because the wagons would weigh so much that we would have trouble getting over the low hills covered by our fields. If we had pipes, we could pump the water, but pipe was too expensive for very long runs.

Sarah and Diego came up with an idea which could help some. They proposed making a water wagon by constructing a special wagon having a water barrel 6 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. This wagon could carry nearly 140 cubic feet of water weighing a little over 9000 pounds. This was a very heavy load for a wagon, but it could be pulled by four or six draft horses (we would have to experiment) over a hard-surface road. This hard surface could be achieved by scraping away the sand to reach the hardpan. The road would have to be routed around the hills, but that should be feasible. The wagon would also carry a small windmill which would pump the water from the tank to the crops through canvas hoses. These hoses would be permeable to the water which would leak out through the canvas and irrigate the plants. They proposed that we try this on a small scale next year. The executive council agreed that the experiment was worth while.

That winter, two such wagons were built and 2000 feet of canvas hose was ordered. As labor became available, a road to one of the dryer fields was constructed and we waited for spring to test the idea.

This irrigation scheme became more labor intensive than we had expected. A man was required every 10 feet along the hose when it came time to move it. We hadn't expected so many, but, when wet, the hose was heavier and floppier than anticipated. There was no trouble getting the water wagon to the designated field once we assigned eight draft horses to the job; there were more undulations in the road than we had visualized. The pump was attached to a manifold with four hose connections. Four 500-foot sections of hose were attached to the manifold and the pump was started. The far end of each hose was capped so that the pressure inside the hose could be controlled. The two water wagons had been built so that one could be traveling back and forth to the water source while the other water wagon was in service irrigating the crops.

To everybody's great delight, the experiment was a physical success! Now, we only needed to learn if it was an economic success. We would know that when we sold the first harvest. Diego did see some minor changes he wanted to make to improve the control of the water flow, but nothing required a major rebuilding. It looked like the only ultimate limitation on the system was that it required a road directly on the hardpan. This was possible unless we had to dig too far to reach the hardpan.