Irrigation for a Workshop

IRRIGATION SCHEDULE — WORKSHOP, GROUND FLOOR
Kept by E. Marsh, cobbler. Posted by the door. Do not take down.

Read it the way you'd read a watering plan for a field: every zone gets
what it needs, on the day it needs it, for no longer than that. Water
runs off if you give it more than the ground can hold. Under-water and
the zone goes hard and will not take the next watering at all. The whole
trade is in the interval. Keep the interval.

Pressure at the tap reads low before nine. Do the far zones first.


ZONE 1 — THE LEFT BENCH (last, awl, the good light)
  Interval ......... every day
  Duration ......... 40 minutes, morning
  Method ........... sit at it, work one pair through start to finish
  Seasonal ......... do not skip. Skipping Zone 1 dries the rest.
  Note ............. this zone holds water well. It always has.

ZONE 2 — THE FRONT WINDOW¹
  Interval ......... every day
  Duration ......... 10 minutes, light
  Method ........... clean the glass, turn the two display pairs a
                     quarter so the toes face the street
  Seasonal ......... water lighter in winter. It sulks in winter.
  Note ............. the window is shallow soil. It shows everything.

ZONE 3 — THE STOCKROOM SHELVES
  Interval ......... every 3 days
  Duration ......... 25 minutes
  Method ........... count leather, count thread, count nails by the
                     handful not the box
  Seasonal ......... skip the first week of August (the supplier shuts)
  Note ............. runoff here is fine. Let it run.

ZONE 4 — THE KETTLE CORNER²
  Interval ......... twice daily
  Duration ......... as long as it takes the kettle
  Method ........... fill for two. Pour for two. Drink one.
  Seasonal ......... no change. This zone gets watered all year.
  Note ............. do not reduce to a single cup. The schedule was
                     written for the corner as it is.

ZONE 5 — THE BACK STEP
  Interval ......... every 6 days
  Duration ......... 15 minutes
  Method ........... sweep it, sit on it, let the customers find you
                     out there if they come
  Seasonal ......... skip in heavy rain (obvious)
  Note ............. low priority. Has survived neglect before.

ZONE 6 — THE SECOND BENCH³
  Interval ......... none
  Duration ......... none
  Method ........... none required
  Seasonal ......... skip in all seasons
  Note ............. this zone is dry. It has been dry since the spring.
                     It needs no water and takes none. Walk past it.
                     Water Zone 1 instead. Always Zone 1 instead.⁴

ZONE 7 — THE LEDGER⁵
  Interval ......... weekly, Fridays
  Duration ......... 30 minutes
  Method ........... enter the week's repairs. Add the column twice.
  Seasonal ......... no skipping. The figures must stay current.
  Note ............. a dry ledger is the first thing a creditor sees.

ZONE 8 — THE DOOR AND THE SIGN
  Interval ......... daily, on opening
  Duration ......... 1 minute
  Method ........... turn the card to OPEN. At dusk, turn it back.
  Seasonal ......... no change.
  Note ............. small zone. Forget it and the whole field looks
                     abandoned from the road, which it is not.⁶


GENERAL NOTES ON THE SYSTEM

Total watering load is heavier than it looks. That is intended. A
workshop is not kept alive by its busiest zone but by the number of
zones still on the schedule at all. Lose a zone and the schedule gets
easier, and an easier schedule is a warning.⁷

If you are reading this and I am not here, keep to the intervals. They
were set carefully. They were set by someone who thought about it.

— E. Marsh


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¹ She liked the window. Said a cobbler who hides his work in the back is
  ashamed of it, and I was not ashamed of it, so I moved the bench up.
  Ten minutes is enough. The glass does not need me. I need the glass.

² It was always two cups. I am not going to write down why two. A man
  can fill a kettle for two and call it a habit and leave it at that.

³ I am putting the truth in the small print because the small print is
  where I can stand to put it. The schedule above is correct. Everything
  above this line is true and would keep a workshop alive. None of it is
  what I sat down to write.

⁴ This is the zone. The second bench was hers. She sat the far side of
  it so the morning light crossed both our hands. She has not sat there
  since the spring and she is not going to, and the schedule says skip
  it, skip it, water Zone 1 instead — and I have. I have skipped it
  faithfully. Forty minutes at the left bench every single morning,
  competent, on time, the awl going in and out, and the whole forty
  minutes is just me not looking three feet to the left. You can build a
  schedule precise enough to walk a man past the one dry place in his
  own life eight times a day. I did. It works. That is the trouble. It
  works.

⁵ The figures really are current. I checked them twice this morning so
  there would be one thing in here I did not have to feel anything about.

⁶ It is not abandoned. I want that on the record, in the body of the
  document, in the competent part: the workshop is open, the sign turns,
  the trade goes on. Only one zone is dry. Only the one. A field can
  carry a dry zone for years. I have read that it can.

⁷ So I am not going to take Zone 6 off the schedule. It needs no water
  and it gets none and the honest thing would be to delete the entry —
  but I am leaving it. A zone you have stopped watering is still a zone.
  The day I shorten this list is the day the workshop is smaller than it
  was, and I would rather keep watering everything around the dry place
  forever than admit the field got smaller. Keep to the intervals. Do
  not delete Zone 6. That is the only instruction here I actually

灌溉时刻表——工坊，一层
鞋匠E.马什记存。张贴于门旁。不得揭下。

像读一片田地的浇灌计划那样读它：每个灌区得到它需要的，在它需要的
那一天，一刻也不多给。水给多了，超过土地能含的量，就会白白流走。
水给少了，灌区会板结，下一次浇灌根本进不去。全部手艺都在间隔里。
守住间隔。

九点以前龙头的水压偏低。先浇远处的灌区。


一号灌区——左侧工作台（鞋楦、锥子、那片好光线）
  间隔 ......... 每天
  时长 ......... 四十分钟，上午
  方法 ........... 坐到台前，把一双鞋从头做到尾
  季节 ......... 不得跳过。跳过一号灌区，其余都会干掉。
  附记 ............. 这一区涵水好。一向如此。

二号灌区——临街橱窗¹
  间隔 ......... 每天
  时长 ......... 十分钟，轻浇
  方法 ........... 擦净玻璃，把两双陈列的鞋各转四分之一圈，
                     让鞋尖朝向街面
  季节 ......... 冬天浇得更轻。它在冬天闹脾气。
  附记 ............. 橱窗是浅土。什么都藏不住。

三号灌区——库房货架
  间隔 ......... 每三天
  时长 ......... 二十五分钟
  方法 ........... 点皮料，点线，点钉子按把数，不按盒数
  季节 ......... 八月第一周跳过（供货商歇业）
  附记 ............. 这一区漫出无妨。让它流。

四号灌区——烧水的角落²
  间隔 ......... 每日两次
  时长 ......... 水壶烧多久就多久
  方法 ........... 按两人的量加水。倒两杯。喝一杯。
  季节 ......... 无变化。这一区全年都浇。
  附记 ............. 不得减为一杯。这份时刻表是照着角落
                     原本的样子写的。

五号灌区——后门台阶
  间隔 ......... 每六天
  时长 ......... 十五分钟
  方法 ........... 扫一扫，坐一坐，顾客来了就让他们在
                     那儿找到你
  季节 ......... 大雨天跳过（不言自明）
  附记 ............. 优先级低。从前被冷落过也活了下来。

六号灌区——第二张工作台³
  间隔 ......... 无
  时长 ......... 无
  方法 ........... 无需
  季节 ......... 四季皆跳过
  附记 ............. 这一区是干的。打春天起就干了。它不需要水，
                     也不吸水。从它旁边走过去。改浇一号灌区。
                     永远改浇一号灌区。⁴

七号灌区——账本⁵
  间隔 ......... 每周，星期五
  时长 ......... 三十分钟
  方法 ........... 录入本周的修活。竖列加总两遍。
  季节 ......... 不得跳过。数字必须保持最新。
  附记 ............. 一本干涸的账本，是债主最先看见的东西。

八号灌区——门与招牌
  间隔 ......... 每天，开门时
  时长 ......... 一分钟
  方法 ........... 把牌子翻到“营业”。黄昏时翻回去。
  季节 ......... 无变化。
  附记 ............. 小灌区。忘了它，整片田从路上看就像
                     荒了，而它没有荒。⁶


关于这套系统的总注

浇灌的总量比看上去要重。这是有意的。一间工坊活着，靠的不是它最忙
的那个灌区，而是仍然留在时刻表上的灌区的数目。丢掉一个灌区，时刻
表就轻省一分，而更轻省的时刻表是一种警告。⁷

如果你读到这里而我不在，请守住间隔。它们是仔细定下的。定下它们的
人，是想过这件事的。

——E.马什


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¹ 她喜欢那扇橱窗。说把活计藏在后头的鞋匠是以它为耻，而我并不以它
  为耻，于是我把工作台挪到了前面。十分钟够了。玻璃不需要我。是我
  需要玻璃。

² 从来都是两杯。为什么是两杯，我不打算写下来。一个人可以按两人的
  量烧一壶水，把这叫做习惯，就到此为止。

³ 我把真话放进小字，因为小字是我承受得住放它的地方。上面的时刻表
  是对的。这条线以上的一切都属实，也足以让一间工坊活下去。但没有
  一条是我坐下来要写的东西。

⁴ 就是这一区。第二张工作台是她的。她坐在台子那一头，好让晨光同时
  照过我们两个人的手。打春天起她没有再坐过那儿，以后也不会坐了，
  而时刻表说跳过它，跳过它，改浇一号灌区——我照做了。我忠实地跳
  过了它。每一个早晨在左侧工作台前的四十分钟，称职，准点，锥子进
  进出出，而那整整四十分钟，不过是我在不去看左边三英尺的地方。你
  可以造出一份足够精确的时刻表，让一个人每天八次绕过他自己生命里
  唯一干涸的地方。我造出来了。它管用。糟就糟在这里。它管用。

⁵ 数字确实是最新的。今天早上我核了两遍，好让这里面有一样东西，是
  我不必对它动任何感情的。

⁶ 它没有荒。我要把这一点记录在案，写进正文，写进称职的那一部分：
  工坊开着门，牌子照翻，生意照做。只有一个灌区是干的。只有那一个。
  一片田可以带着一块干区撑上好些年。我读到过，可以的。

⁷ 所以我不会把六号灌区从时刻表上拿掉。它不需要水，也得不到水，诚
  实的做法是删去这一条——但我留着它。一个你已经停止浇灌的灌区，
  仍然是一个灌区。我缩短这份清单的那一天，就是工坊比从前小了的那
  一天，而我宁可永远浇灌干涸之处周围的一切，也不愿承认这片田变小
  了。守住间隔。不要删去六号灌区。这是此处唯一一条我真正