Our home is on a judicial ditch. These ditches drain the county to make it livable. The homesteaders used the ridge trails to get around the county, but this left large areas inacessible. So the county board bonded the county to pay for a ditch system for a level of drainage and transportation into the land that became farm land, to making it livable and useable by lowering the water table.
As a ten year old, the judicial ditch in front of our house became a swimming hole. With every rain a new batch of clean water would be there to get wet and swim in.
One time after a large rain, I got my Dad’s sheep water tank and a shovel for a paddle and went for a ride in my new found canoe so to speak. It was a real ride as the water current was about four miles an hour and I went for a wild ride in the water tank with a shovel for a paddle. Fortunately for all of us kids, Dad came home and had to put the sheep water tank back in th e barn. So my sister and I and neighborhood kids were back in the ditch splashing to stay cool on a summer day. In my day, kids had to improvise a bit in having fun.