Water in my irrigation ditch after I cleaned out the cottonwood leaves so the water flowed freely. I cleaned out the ditches and dug out the places where the gophers had filled up the ditches a couple of weeks ago, but the wind blew a lot of leaves back in the ditches, so I have to follow the water with a rake pulling out leaves for the first few waterings.

Every year about this time I do a post about the first water, when I start irrigating after the winter break. Then there are tales about battling gophers, playing with porcupine, and dodging skunks while enlisting the help of La Llorona and Chupacabra. However, one aspect of irrigating and the acequia system that I have not explained in the past is that the acequia system in north-central New Mexico, including the acequia system I have used all my life, is not only the oldest public works in North America, but the oldest continuously used public works in North America.  While Spanish colonists brought their engineering know-how to build acequia systems, and Spanish laws governing the acequias when they settled in north-central New Mexico over 400 years ago, many of the Pueblos had basic irrigation systems, so the acequias as public works where in place hundreds of years before the Spanish arrived.

The Spanish acequia system is based on communal water sharing. Traditionally, each system or community elects a mayordomo who allocates water to the ditches for irrigation based on available water and need. The acequias in the Corrales, Albuquerque, and valley south of Albuquerque have been governed by the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District for years, and they employ "ditch riders" who act as mayordomos for the sections of the main ditches they work. 

Two methods of allocating water are used by mayordomos: the Syrian and the Yemenite. The Syrian method allocates water based on the proportion of irrigated land, and the yemenite is a fixed amount of water for each piece of land based on a set time to irrigate. In practice both methods are used depending on water availability. In times of ample water mayordomos will allocate water using the Syrian method, but when water is in short supply, which is normally the case in New Mexico, they use the Yemenite method and allocate water by fixed amounts and times to irrigate. Spanish laws concerning acequias were adopted by New Mexico territorial law and then written into the State’s constitution. The practices and administration of the acequia systems have changed little over the past 400 years in New Mexico.

I let the water in under the watchful eye of an almost full moon that had just risen over the Sandias.

The main gate on the acequia madre backs up water and creates pressure to push water through the smaller, private ditches.

Water falling over the main gate.

The main gate on the section we use along the main ditch.

Cottonwoods reflecting in the water.

View of the trees, Sandias and rising moon standing behind our gate on the main ditch.

"What's wrong with this camera?" I asked as I listened to the shutter click off at different speed settings. "It's broken!" Ray replied as I opened the back and watched the shutter drag into place, and snap across the opening every time I cocked the film advance lever and pushed the shutter release button. "Everything seems to work fine to me." I told Ray. "Does it have tape across the bayonet mount with red X's on it?" he asked. "Yes!" I replied. "Then it's broken, but I don't remember what's wrong with it." I dug around in the broken lens box that was sitting next to the broken camera body box, and found a decent looking broken lens that fit the body, pulled off the red X'd tape, attached the lens, and ran the camera and lens through another round of testing. "This broken camera and broken lens seem to work pretty well as far as I can tell." I told Ray. "The light meter probably doesn't work then." Ray replied sounding a little exasperated. "If you want them I'll add them to your order for only a few dollars more." He told me. "Deal!"

The broken camera is a 1972 Nikon F2 with a DP-1 Finder. The lens is a Vivitar 28-210mm zoom lens with macro focus. I put batteries in the camera after I got home, and the light meter seemed to work just fine, as well, but there was no telling how accurate the meter or shutter speeds are without running a roll of film through it. I had and old roll of C41 (color process) 400 ASA B&W film that I ran through the camera. I dropped off the roll of film for processing at Camera & Darkroom and told Ray that we would soon see how the broken camera and lens performed. When I picked up the negatives and prints, Ray looked through the prints with me, and told me "There must have been something wrong with that body. I won't sell them as working unless they are really clean." The photos came out quite well considering they were done with a broken camera, broken lens, and a roll of film years beyond its expiration date.

White in yellow crocus.

Since a sunset happened yesterday, preempting flowers, here are today's flowers.

Color change daffies are almost pink.

Another fancy daffy.

Spunk and crocus,

Popcorn flowers

Thirty minutes before sunset, the sky was completely overcast with thick, dark clouds. I started preparing photos I had taken of flowers earlier in the day when the sun was shining; however, a few minutes before the sun went down, the clouds broke up and a sunset happened.

Loki

Lola

Marble

Najar

Sasha

Silver

Spunk

It was 77º F (25º C) when I took this icy photo.

Sunset from last night.

The color change daffy was orange today.

Many meows and three and a half years later, Spunk's tail is still one of his favorite toys. He uses his tail to tell us a tall tail tale almost every night. We put his tail in a basket filled with other toys in the kitchen, and through the night he brings us various toys with announcements, pronouncements and some long meowy stories. His tail is almost always the first toy he gets out, and we never know where we will find it. We often put it back in the basket more than once before we go to bed, so he can get it out again carry it to the other end of the house, and tell us another story. Many times he just brings his tail in and quietly leaves it in an ominous spot without an announcement, pronouncement or tall tail tale. This morning I woke to find Spunk's tail on the lamp on the nightstand on my side of the bed.

If you want to see Spunk playing with his tail in the early days, visit the following posts from 2014:

The Tail's Tale (this one has a video)

https://photoofthedayetc.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/the-tails-tale/

Spunk, Sprouts, a Tail

https://photoofthedayetc.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/spunk-sprouts-a-tail/

Peaching.

Three of the frilly yellow daffies opened and turned to a frilly peachy color.

Daffy not open is still yellow.

Almost fully peach.

On the edge of peach.

On the beach at 7:13:19 pm, 03/17/2018. A sliver of dusty pink on the Sandias as the sun started slipping behind the horizon.

Wild clouds in pink and gray danced and swirled to the north at 7:14:23 pm.

Western skies at sunset. 7:15:05 pm.

I made my way through the bosque to the levee to see what colors were on the horizon. I discovered mostly blue/gray skies and a Great Blue Heron perched on top of a cottonwood when I got to the top of the levee at 7:19:19 pm.

As I walked south toward the heron, the sky changed to a kaleidoscope of clouds colored in pastel shades of pink and blue, purple and red, orange and gray behind the cottonwoods from my new perspective at 7:19:44 pm.

The heron directly west of me. 7:20:01 pm.

Now that I was closer to the heron, he started to shift his position. 7:20:14 pm.

The heron straightened up and took a quick look around. 7:20:17 pm.

"!Hasta la vista!" The heron flew north as pinks faded to blues, blues faded to gray. 7:20:23 pm.

As I looked at the thumbnails of this series of photos, the timestamps stood out. While I was in the middle of photographing the changing skies and fleeting light on the river, in the bosque, and on the levee at sunset, seven minutes was like an eternity in an instant as the drama unfolded before my lens. 

Tiny daffodil in the catio.

As macro season continues to rev up, tiny daffodils are blooming in the catio. I made a County Apple Pancake from a recipe in an ad in the April/May 2018 Fine Cooking. Lots of red tulips are in full bloom along the west side of the walk to the front door, and color change daffodils are just starting to open on the east side of the walk. One lonely, purple crocus managed to fight its way through the yellow crocus.

County Apple Pancake with coconut milk from a recipe in an ad for Andre Prost Coconut Milk.

This yellow daffodil will change to peach once it has fully opened.

The blackberries turned red in the oven.