a day of firsts...

Today was my first day as the "church lady" at my parish here in New Mexico.  Thomas and I live in between two parishes that are served by the same priest.  His parents go to St. Joseph's in Springer, which is closer, but holds mass at 8 am on Sundays.  His sister and family go to Immaculate Conception Church in Cimarron, which is worth the extra little drive for mass at 10 am.  I put in a really long day, mostly purging old catalogs and papers.  Still much of that to do, but I will have plenty more time.  At present there is only one desk and computer, and Tuesdays the secretary is in from 9 - 1, and the priest was in noon - 4.  So today I kept busy with the full filing cabinets.  I don't have a boss at hand to tell me what to do, really kind of making it up as I go along.  Should be interesting... And when I got home nearly 12 hours after I left in the morning, the water was here!!  Our first distribution of ditch water.  Thomas and I have been working to get the ditches ready to fill the pond, but I didn't get to see the water come in today.  However, I noticed my father-in-law's truck by the tin shed as I approached on the highway.  Thomas had gone to work three hours earlier, so I hoped there was no calamity.  I parked and ran out in my "professional" outfit to find Mike was digging open the line away from the pond.  Evidently it was full, so he was opening up one line and damming the other with the dirt.  I tried to run down the ditch to see how full the pond was, but it turns out the water seeps into all sorts of little goat paths and what not.  I ended up in water up to my ankle where there was no ditch.  I ran back to the house to change into my overalls and go help.  What fun it was to work with Pop on the line, slogging into the mud and changing the flow of water.  I don't know how long the water will run, but I imagine with the hot dry weather that we have been having, everything will soak up the water really fast.