Western Irrigation District Memories: John Timmermans

By John Godsman Times Contributor

John was born at Oosterhout, Noord Brabant, Holland in 1934. He attended school there from Grades 1 to 7, then took four years at an agricultural college.
He served in the Dutch army from 1954 to 1956 before travelling to Canada, first to Manotik, Ont. then subsequently to Rockyford and Rosebud, Alta. working on local farms. On June 24, 1964 he married Donna Mae Heinzlmeir of Rockyford, and they had four children; they now have nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Regretfully, Donna passed on Dec. 26, 2017.
During this time, John worked at Canada Packers/Shur-Gain Feed Mills, before being hired by Western Irrigation District to be a ditchrider, looking after water delivery for up to 80 farms between Carseland and Gleichen. The term ditchrider has persisted to the present day, and describes the practice of riding along irrigation canals, ensuring water is flowing as it should.
One of the perks of being a ditchrider was he and Donna lived in a three-bedroom house, along with a barn and 80 acres of land, near Carseland owned by WID. This house served as the venue for many potluck dinner parties for WID staff, and members of the Timmermans family will still assert to this day that the house, built in 1907, was haunted.
In those days, each ditchrider was provided with a blue Chevrolet shortbox stepside truck, equipped with a gun rack for pest control, rubber boots and a shovel to repair canals. Nowadays, his truck retains many of the same tools of the trade, with a key addition being a communication system, to request heavy equipment to repair washed out or eroded sections.
One thing that has not changed is that the ditchrider still serves as the primary contact between the farmer and WID. This could involve the whole family, because water orders were often called in by farmers while the ditchrider was out, so a family member had to take a message. This was in the day before cellphones. One family memory is of the time John used a pitchfork to ensure farmers spoke respectfully to his wife when calling in water orders.
Additional memories include when John worked at WID-owned Chestermere Lake, watching the transition from a few cabins to the elaborate lakefront homes of today.
John’s view on the future of irrigation reinforces the value of replacing canals with pipelines, thereby reducing evaporation and erosion.
How times have changed.