Sunrise and Sunset

Irrigating is irritating! I got home at 4:00 pm and put down the gate. The water was slow, because people upstream were irrigating. As the water was slowly building up, I cleared the bamboo out from in front of the culvert. I cut my little finger, rather deeply, on a bamboo stalk; then I discovered my glasses fell out of my pocket at some point this afternoon and I haven't found them.  The first irrigation of the season was not off to a good start. As if I weren't having enough problems, the folks at the top of the road opened their gate, reducing the pressure on our ditches until water was released from upstream. 

About 8:15 pm the water started coming in really well. I raked the leaves out of the ditches, the water was flowing fast, and it looked like I might  finish irrigating by 10:00 pm. When I went out at 9:00 pm to check the progress, the water wasn't moving. The folks up the road had shut down their gate and lifted the main gate, completely ignoring the fact that my gate, only about 8 feet from their gate, was still up. I had to close the main gate back down, the water had to build back up, so now it will be 11:00 pm, maybe midnight before I'm done watering.

I got to work at dawn this morning and the low clouds were striped in red and yellow with the higher, wispy clouds colored a soft pink. The sunset tonight was similar with more yellow in the low band of clouds and grayish pinks in the higher clouds.

While I was waiting for the water, our neighbor's horse was watching one of the Wagner's plowing the field to the north. I saw a black butterfly hanging around by the roses, but by the time I got my telephoto lens, it flew off. As I was walking around looking for the butterfly, the kitties were following me around, rolling in the dirt, all preparing to bring loads of dirt in the house. Guildenstern decided to take a break and lay on Laurie's legs, so I got a photo of a dirty black cat instead of a sleek black butterfly.

Farming

Guildenstern taking a break from bringing loads of dirt in the house