LADCO meeting

When we moved into this neighborhood, we found out that we had a shared neighborhood well. It's divided up between 12 families and we each get water from the well to irrigate our pastures 2 days per month from May through September.

It's not enough to do anything like grow hay or a crop, but it helps to keep things green and the water supplements our pasture so the horses have something to eat through the summer months. I don't even know what LADCO stands for, but that is the name of our little water association and we have yearly meetings and a "ditch day" where everyone meets to clean and prepare our ditches for the water use during the year.

Our President is the neighbor behind us - White. This year the meeting was at his house. It was us (Furry Husband is the Vice President), our favorite neighbors in the whole world Barista and Pansy, 85 yr old George who is married to Laverne (who has had both hips replaced and can no longer attend ditch day), Waverly Forge (the resident farrier married to the horse vet we use), the grumpy neighborhood accountant and the Secretary/Treasurer who is also a guv'ment worker like me.

The meeting went a little like this:

• discussing raising current fees from $25/acre to $30/acre


• current REA electric fees the association is charged to run the well


• buying more irrigation pipe to line the ditches


• deciding the pipe in the ditches is still good and we'll patch any holes we find with corregated black pipe - grumpy accountant has a bunch of the black pipe


• buying a junction and T pipe to assist people using the well so they don't have to go through such wild gyrations to switch the water over into the ditch that runs past their place


• listening to George tell us a Vietnam story involving a gun pointed at someone's chest who had just been hit by a car in the war


• the neighbor who keeps feeding Bart, Waverly Forge's cat


• that same neighbor puts hamburger out in her irrigation ditch for the foxes


• the date everyone can make it to ditch day and a rain date


• grumpy accountant talking about how the current officers of LADCO have it easy and he can remember when they used to have to stand in line to get permits to use the water


• needing to buy oil to keep at the well house so we don't burn the well motor out


• Barista growing pot in the back yard in college and then George who can't hear hardly anything thinking Barista is growing pot in the back yard currently


• charging a fee for those who don't show up to ditch day


• George saying he will show up to ditch day and can haul things around as well as anyone even if he IS 85 and Laverne can't come to ditch day and he better not get fined


• election of new officers


• everyone agreeing that the current officers do a fine job - yes, a fine job


• meeting adjourned

The same people come to the meetings as show up on ditch day. The same neighbors always skirt ditch day and always get fined and never pay.

This year's ditch day is Saturday the 19th with a rain date of the 20th and a follow-up rain date on the 27th. Usually everyone stands around the well looking at it and drinking coffee for the first 30 minutes before anyone begins to actually DO anything.

See y'all there - be sure to bring your check to pay annual dues, wear gloves to clean the ditches/patch pipe, make sure water reaches everyone by doing a test run and jumpin Jesus on a pogo stick, make sure the coffee is nice and hot!