Wednesday, June 18, 2008


Irrigation

Oil on board, 6" x 6"
$125.00 + $6.00 shipping in US.
SOLD

This is the "dry side" of Oregon, but still there is so much more water than in the southwest, where we lived for years.

When we first bought acreage in Oregon many years ago, I was thrilled to find the land had water rights dating back to 1886. The older the right, the more valid is an owner's claim to irrigation water.

Usually, there's plenty of water to go around and the local ditch district meetings are boring affairs that you can't drag people to. But when a dry year comes along, the meetings are standing room only, and neighborly conversations over water sharing sometimes get pretty heated. That's when I discovered that many other landowners had water rights going back as far as 1861, and my 1886 right put me a long way down in the pecking order.

Those Oregon Trail pioneers were no fools. Apparently, the first thing they did when they arrived was jump off the wagon and file water rights!

13 comments:

Pablo said...

Hi Don! I´ve just discovered your blog and I´m astonished of the quality of your works.

I´m going to add you to my links ;)

Don Gray said...

Thanks a lot, Pablo.

Steven P. Goodman said...

Great job with the light and brushwork.

m collier said...

Beautiful !!

Brendy Vaughn said...

I noticed this right away on the DP site - beautiful!

Don Gray said...

Steve, thanks for coming by. I've been enjoying your recent posts a lot.

Don Gray said...

Hi M--thanks a lot!

Don Gray said...

Thanks Brendy--much appreciated.

Frank Gardner said...

Great painting and design. Very loose.
Water rights? Man, they thought of everything.

Don Gray said...

Hey Frank, nice of you to say--thanks!

John K. Harrell said...

Don, thanks for the welcome and this painting ROCKS!

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

Beautiful!

Don Gray said...

Thanks a lot, Mary.