Irrigation Day (June 19, 2009)

“Irrigation is coming on Friday! That’ll be fun so the kids can play in the water!” This is what I heard when I arrived to Saint Johns. Coming from Washington, I have never heard the word “irrigation” unless it was used in a history book. I have heard of irrigating vegetation fields and things like that, but never used for anything else.

The little town of Saint Johns has its own watering system. In Washington, we use sprinklers, like normal people to water our lawn. Water down here does not come so easily, so they have to have a lake provide the water they need. Every 8 days water will fill the ditches out in front of the houses, and overflow into the yard and basically “water” them.

I was interested to see how this would actually work. I could not even think of the front yard being filled with water. As I was waiting for the water to come, I dressed Caden in swim shorts. I was thinking that these people are crazy, to let the kids play in some little puddle in the front yard. “He doesn’t need swim shorts to play in a little puddle!” This is what I thought, but my mother in law assured me he would need them on. So I agreed, and we went outside to wait.
The magical time came at 2:30 pm. Water started trickling in through the ditches, and I was like “oh this is neat!” Well, the water kept coming and coming. Soon it started to flow into the front yard, and I was impressed. But the water just kept coming and coming! Soon enough the kids were running around in about half a foot of water, if not more! I have never in my lifetime seen anything like this!

I thought that only yards filled up like this when floods came. No, this happens every week! I enjoyed myself while watching my son play out in the water. I don’t even have to invest in a swimming pool, because I’ll just wait until Irrigation comes and then stick Caden outside! This is one of the many interesting things I will discover in this town. It was a good day, and we all enjoyed ourselves.