Ah, the terrible high desert!
There is nothing quite like flowing water in the landscape, especially in a land where it might not rain for months. Add shade trees and a grassy sitting area–this is actually where we hang our clothes to dry–and you’ve got something pretty special. The apple blossoms are hard to see, but they’re there. To pick the apples from this tree, I have to reach out over the acequia and pull the branches to the bank, and I always lose a few that bob on down the stream.
Once I found a mashed-down place in the tall grass that had to be where a bear had slept (one was in the neighborhood at the time). No bears now, just raccoons, skunks, coyotes, chipmunks, squirrels, and rabbits. And the birds, of course.
You’ve seen this view before, but not a vertical orientation. Just sharing a little of my world…
UPDATE: A commenter from Oklahoma mentions “parciantes” or “parcientes,” as it also seems to be spelled. For those of you who don’t know, parcientes are landowners on the acequia who contribute labor and/or a fee toward maintaining the traditional irrigation ditches.
Colloquially, the acequia is the “ditch,” although many of these have trees and such right up to the banks and look like natural streams. Well, sort of. It hardly matters, though. Having the water there simultaneously electrifies and soothes. (If you live in a humid climate, at least half of that sentence doesn’t work.) It’s even sacred: the water brings life. In the winter, the acequia is empty. Life, death, life and death as one. The ditch is symbol of the edge that binds the whole: KA-POW!
At least in our back yard, and for a whole lot of other people, too.
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I bet it is interesting to watch the workers clean the acequia?!? I KNOW it MUST be terribly hard work….but the history and dedication the “parciantes” contribute to this annual affair is unique and remarkable to me……Just ANOTHER reason I LOVE Taos….and all the cultural lessons to be learned or absorbed by living with their ever present gifts…..(as Yogi Berra said….”you can observe a lot by watching”) …. and your lawn chair would be the perfect spot to watch and learn…..Not to mention just to be able to ENJOY “BEING” !!! Let the waters flow…………(and fresh picked or even “stolen” apples ALWAYS taste the best! HA….Thanks John
Those guys move through pretty quickly! I’ve done it twice myself, once with a crew in San Cristobal and once just across the valley in Talpa. That time I was subbing for a parciente–it seems to be spelled both ways–who paid a standard set fee, $50 I think.
Hmm. I need to add something to this post.
Thanks for the further info and details John…..From what I have read…working the ditches can be HARD ASS WORK! And I like your comparison of the acequia with Life – Death…..Water DOES equal Life !! Especially in el Norte!! Great symbolism!
(and thanks for ‘hippin’ me to the correct or appropriate spelling….I LOVE learning….wish I had when I was younger….”I could have been a contender” !! Or something……!
I don’t know the “correct” spelling! Googling each of them gives a bunch of hits.
I have more acequia info I may post soon…
Check out the book Acequia Culture: Water, Land, and Community in the Southwest by Jose Rivera. Learning about its history somehow eased the actual hard work of cleaning the ditch, at least for me. Has anyone noticed the acequia that runs over a ravine through a hollowed out ponderosa log near Truchas? You should be able to spot it from the road.
make that Trampas, not Truchas.