Friday, January 4, 2013

A Cotton Farm Tour.

Today we went to a Cotton Farm for a tour. This family does this tour because their access to irrigation water has been nil for the last few years due to the drought in Arizona. This farm gets their water from the Coolidge Dam and the San Carlos Reservoir. But, the San Carlos Reservoir is empty.

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First we go a few live entertainment from the family.

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Then we went for a hay ride pulled by vintage tractors to a very small plot of cotton.

They explained the irrigation, how the land is leveled, how the fields are flooded, etc.

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Don and I picking cotton.

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Doreen Darling out picking cotton.

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In the age before automation, the cotton was hand picked. This the where the migrant workers would stay.

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Then we had a classroom experience about cotton from growing the cotton to the ginny to the fabric mills.

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Cotton Gin in the background with the waste material.

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The owner fired up the cotton picker and showed how it all works.

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The rust colored item makes the cotton bails.

It was a great tour. I learned more about cotton and the byproducts then I expected.

The rest of the day was dedicated to Blue.

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And one last photo of Blue.

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