It was also in April that irrigating began on the five hundred acres of bottomland Henry had acquired only five years before, to add to the seven hundred acres he and his wife Annie already owned. The seven hundred acres that came with the ranch, when they bought the place five years before that, was mostly rocky scrub with some good grass, but not much. It was also criss-crossed a number of times by a mostly dry, shallow ravine that hardly had enough water in it for the stock to drink out of, unless there was rain and plenty of it. As a result, the seven hundred acres were fine for grazing stock, but not at all useful for growing hay, which was what the five hundred acres of bottomland was for.

Like everything else on the ranch that spring, irrigating was a time-consuming process for Henry. The entire bottomland sloped gently to the south, and Henry would lay dams made out of blue plastic tarp in the irrigation ditches so water would back up behind them and eventually start to flood the acreage below the ditch. After a few days, when the area was sufficiently saturated, he would then set up another dam farther down the ditch, remove the previous dam, and then begin to saturate that area as well. This process would continue until the entire five hundred acres had been irrigated sufficiently. There was a total of twenty ditches, which meandered their way for miles, and changing water—or moving the dams—in and of itself was nearly a full time job.

Of course then there was the branding, doctoring, ear tagging, castrating of bull calves, de-lousing of the entire herd, sorting then moving the herd to their respective summer pastures, and hauling steers to market. On top of that there was the fencing that needed to be done, along with the repairs on tack and equipment, all of which was never-ending.

Because Henry and Annie’s place had always been more of a subsistence ranch than a real money maker, the vast majority of the work was always done by either Henry, Annie, or both, along with their twelve-year-old son Josh. Hiring help, even just day help, was simply out of the question. In fact, things had been so tight recently that a couple years before, Annie took a job in town, working part time at the local market as a checker. It was terribly difficult for Henry to swallow at the time—the fact that the ranch wasn’t making enough money to support his family. But then, times were tough for nearly everybody, and more than one ranch wife found a town job to help supplement income.

Annie, on the other hand, while understanding how difficult it was for Henry to see her take the job, actually enjoyed her time at the market. Ever since she was a little girl she had always been very social and outgoing and while she loved the ranch and the life it provided, she found the market a welcome distraction from its solitude.