We drive out to his friend’s cranberry farm near the ocean and behind an old barn is a heap of corroded aluminum irrigation pipe, half-buried under a rat’s nest. Allen’s dog chases out the rats and we begin the chore of yanking pipes out of the pile, sorting out the busted ones, and laying aside the pipes that have potential. In the end, there are about 20 pieces to work with, though the pipe threads are corroded on most of them.
But Allen has thought of everything. He pulls a 1-inch pipe tap out of the back of his truck, which we use to re-cut all of the threads for the sprinklers. His friend loans me a handful of other odds and ends that I need to get it all running, then we load up and creep back onto Highway 101 for the trip home. In his rear-view mirror, Allen keeps a close eye on the load; every bump in the road raises a clatter as the 40-foot pieces of pipe bob and wiggle on the trailer.
All of a sudden a shiny new champagne-colored Humvee is tailgating us, practically kissing its grill to the red Mickey Mouse T-shirt we used as a flag tied to the end of the load. Allen eyes it and keeps driving steady. The Humvee stays right on us, even as the pipes slam over a dip in the road.
“Now why in the world would you go hugging the butt of a creaky old pipe trailer like this if you drove a brand new shiny Humvee like that?” he asks aloud, shaking his head. “Who knows when this whole load is going to buck off onto his hood.”
It doesn’t, and in fact we make it all the way home without losing the pipe or the Mickey Mouse T-shirt. Allen helps me unload the trailer and move the pipe into the field — the absolute bottom-rung job on a farm, especially when it’s hot.
“At this rate, Allen, I’m going to owe you my firstborn.”
He chuckles, helps me flush the pipes, and then we turn the valve. Water arcs out across my scorched fields, 20 feet in either direction of each Rainbird sprinkler. The soil goes from dust to dark chocolate while the two of us stand there, grinning.
Zoë Bradbury is a Kellogg Food & Society Policy Fellow. She lives, writes, and farms on Oregon’s southern coast.
