New Contour Ditch

Here are some photos of the new contour ditch. I will get some photos of the refurbished ditch on the west as soon as I put some boards in. Without them it is pretty much useless right now.

The contour ditch was done very well. When water runs over the western edge it splits north and south and fills the ditch. There is some hand work to be done to even out some elevations in the ditch, but those only affect low water flows at the moment. It looks like small furrows will be needed to move water around the high spots west of this ditch and the old 1' ditches will need to be sandbagged to move water properly.





One can see that this field is a mess. I still havent figured out how to split the field in half, there is a maze of furrows and ditches in it. I am thinking the Waterman Hydrant and the 6" pipe from the Bath Field should be put to use here.

Kings Water Woes

I decided to check out Kings Canyon Creek because the flow looked really low over the weekend and found water where it is not supposed to be - out of the creek. I am unsure at what point the water comes out at since I didn't want to startle a mother and son feeding their horse above were I shot the photo. (02/23/09 08:25:25)



It appears half the water is being diverted out of the creek upstream and whatever amount is making it below the above photo is rejoining the creek. The problem is this overflow is not making it back into the creek as can be seen from the following photo. One notices a bit of erosion at the fence post flowing north towards King's Canyon Road.



Since it just rained I was expecting a bit more water than this in the creek.

Ash Water Woes

I was wondering why we were getting so little water down at the ranch so upon investigation I found this. The creek hasn't been dammed but the north side of the weir has been closed. So looking at this setup one would assume 50% of the water goes east to the ranch, and 50% of the water goes south. Upon a longer observation one also notices that the north half of the weir spills less water than the south side. Here is a photo from February 10, 2009 at 13:55:27.



It appears that this side of the structure is not necessary... (02/10/09 13:56:15)


Here is a photo from today with the same setup not receiving the allotted water. (02/23/09 08:02:23) with all gates in the weir open. Again assuming a 50-50 split in water rights.