Hi Folks -
Is it possible to have a traditional pasture in southern Arizona without having flood irrigation? A year and a half ago, I was sure we could do it with golf course-style turf sprinklers -- after all there are miles and miles of artificially greened surfaces on which people in orange plaid knee-pants smack with sticks at white puffs that in other times and places might be gone-to-seed dandelions. But now I don't know. I am coming to the conclusion that the amount of water spent on golf in Arizona might erase the national debt if it were applied to that end instead of to the sticks and dimpled balls game.
We talked to a "pasture consultant" (who knew?) on Saturday and his firm opinion was that it all came down to water (well, duh). First he said we obviously had too much and I had visions of a welcome retreat from last summer's triple digit water bills. But after digging in the dirt where there is no grass and encountering either silt or stone-hard clay, he decided sagely that perhaps, after all, the problem wasn't enough water. After an hour of further talking, we are going to pour water on the pastures for two weeks and see if we can get something more to grow and then at least we will have site-data either for or against the water idea. But water in Arizona costs the very earth. If you are lucky and have flood irrigation is isn't so bad, and if you are really lucky and own a golf course you can use reclaimed water which hardly registers (and for which, in a perverse way, you get "I'm Going Green" points), but in our situation all we can do is use city culinary water. On the up side, if we continue to water at the rate suggested, we won't erase the national debt, but we may erase any lingering debts the Town of Queen Creek incurred as a result of the real estate bust.
Thinking of Ewe-
The Shepherd
No comments:
Post a Comment