This summer I miss the dairyman. This dairyman, down the road, made the summer rain come. If our fields needed a sprinkle of water we would check to see if this certain dairyman had cut his hay fields and if he did, sure enough, a good summer shower would build in the mountains and douse his cut hay. Sometimes damaging the quality of his hay but it offered moisture to the rest of us and our surrounding dry fields.
This dairyman moved to the Elko area, on a spread near the Ruby Mountains, years back. It rains plenty there I suppose, now. Here it is full into hot summer, people and animals are looking for shade from the heat. Before our fields show much heat stress we figure it is near time to open the mountain reservoirs to supplement the West-by-God Fork of the Carson River with a little more irrigation water.
But before we open the reservoir we try the cut-the-hay trick and sure enough it works. We cut on a Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday it rains. The hay is still laying in the field drying. It will work for cow hay. We'll have to wait and see if it dries good enough for horse hay. Cows can eat almost any hay having four stomachs to digest it with. Horses need quality hay and can bloat fast looking at rich alfalfa or moldy hay. Not having much in the way of horses, this hay fiasco is not going to be too devastating for us. And on the bright side, when we went up to check the reservoir it was close to full.
The drive to the reservoir decades ago use to be a grueling event. Just two tracks cut into the side of the mountain, dusty and slow. Rare sightings of cow calf pairs would come from the sound of cowbells hidden among the aspen trees.
Large rocks in the road caused my jeep partner to explain on one trip up the mountain that the trick to four-wheeling was to try to avoid the rocks, not hit them, as I was managing to do.
The road to the reservoir used to be desolate, blocked by boulders cabled together. Tree trunks and branches had to be maneuvered around. Now the Forest Service has acquired most of this mountainside and the public is invited to enjoy it.
Green open gates replace cabled boulders. Evidence of grazing cattle can only be seen in the short grass. The road is more defined, flatter now, with less boulders protecting the way. Forest Service markers indicate which turns to make to Scott Lake.
On this last drive up to the reservoir a handful of campers in trailers were seeking relief from the heat in the mountain shade. A TV satellite dish hooked up in one clearing for a camper concerned me.
Television camping? I understand the risk of open flames and the need to limit fires. But has the nighttime glow from the summer campfire been replaced by television screens in this more civilized time and if it has, how sad for all of us. Mountain summer nights are meant for watching real stars.
Marie Johnson is a Carson Valley rancher.
