Our fuel was delivered for the season. Now THAT is a jolt to your pocketbook, believe me.
And the weather held long enough to get the plow on and head to the corn and hay fields.
As you can tell we are small farmers and our equipment is older. We use a four-bottom plow any larger and we would have to enlarge everything else. Four plow shears go down, then the plow is turned over and the other side of the four shears do the work.
Here Terry is setting the plow into the ground
The primary purpose of plowing is to turn over the upper layer of the soil, bringing fresh nutrients to the surface, while burying weeds and the remains of previous crops, allowing them to break down. It also aerates the soil, and allows it to hold moisture better. If the weather is nice (meaning not storming or dropping down moisture) most farmers, in our area, leave the ground to warm up and freeze (that is what you really want) for a week. The repeated warming and freezing makes for a very soft and friable soil.
It is now down.
And off he goes. We are having lots of wind so this soil will be dry faster than a week. Every day the soil needs to be checked, if it dries out too much the soil will turn to clods. Clods are a pain, a real pain.
We should be able to roll this weekend. (and yes I know how to roll).
All of this seems like lots of work, but to us it’s a real labor of love. When you enjoy what you are doing, work is never part of the equation
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 
Looks windy too! The wind got here today! Clods have got to be a pain..in the North Dakota Clay the clods became like cement. Here it is very sandy..so clods are not a problem:)
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Hi Linda,
I’ve just been reading your last two posts. You and Terry certainly are dedicated farmers. I admire you for the efforts you put into your farm. But as you say, when you love what you’re doing it becomes a labour of love. Here, more and more farms are disappearing and are turned into housing or commercial developments. I can foresee that eventually all of our food will have to be imported from overseas. A real shame. But successive governments in Canberra have let this happen.
Have a great weekend.
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We are seeing that over here also. It is one of the reasons I wanted to start a blog…to show that real farms exist and real food does also.
Terry and I are afraid a day will come with so many controls and rules and laws and fees will ruin the farm. When that happens all imported food will take complete control of the food markets. Imported food does not have controls over them nor does it have import fees like ours does to leave the U.S. and to enter other countries. We sure live in scary times.
Thank you for this thoughtful comment.
Linda
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Your tractor looks just like the one we used to have here on the farm. All of our equipment was older, too. Hubby had 2 and 4 row equipment. Took more time but was less expensive than buying new.
Happy plowing!! Blessings!
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Farmers are my hero’s! Glad to see Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods! Tonight the temperature is dipping down to single digits. the old wood stove is still keeping us warm. Yes, we do have” clods” here in Southen Maine.
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Beautiful! Glad spring is really here 🙂
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That may be a small plow as farm standards of today go. But my dad would have thought he has hot stuff to have such equipment. Good for you and your farmer loving the land and caring for your property. It is hard work but when things cooperate it is rewarding.
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We have clods here, too, and you simply can’t do anything with them. Sometimes the ones in the dirt are a pain, too! 🙂
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So interesting—and I’m so proud of you. One part of me wishes I would have had a life like you all have. I know it is physically very tiring and demanding. I certainly do admire you all…
Hugs,
Betsy
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Thanks for this post, I’m sure it feels good to be out on the land after a long winter. Is no-till farming done there? In Iowa no-till is quite popular with new seeds drilled into fields that have last years crop refuse still on top.
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Yes we no-till parts of our land. And there are some others who can no-till larger areas. We have lots of clay here and no tilling only works with former bean ground. Corn stalks and clods make huge problems when it comes irrigation.
Linda
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Being from Western Illinois the details of your farming operation are more interesting than I can describe. The last two years here have been the wettest in history. Barely able to get crops planted up into June last year. Seeing you plowing in March is hard to imagine. Have not seen a moldboard plow here in 20 years. Chisel plow or subsoiler here for deep-tillage. Flood irrigation unseen here. Do appreciate hearing about your farm. Look forward to more daily updates. Thanks for all that you share with us.
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You are welcome. We knew there were lots of no-tilling operations going on in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas, and eastern Colorado but western Colorado is made up of soil that is just not friendly to no-till. Still we do chisel (rip) some of our fields. Mostly the fields that had beans or onions in them. The nature of the crops leaves the soil very friable. Corn and alfalfa is just too hard to chisel.
We are experiencing a very wet winter. It started the second week of October and is still going on. The onion and sweet corn farmers are in a sweat to get the seeds in the ground, but no one is able to move beyond plowing. A few have been lucky to get right on some of the plowed fields and get them rolled, but mostly everyone is stuck waiting for the ground to dry.
We still have one more field to plow, but it is just too wet, the mud sticks to the shears and well, you know how it is.
Thanks for stopping by. Do you have a blog? I would love to follow your farming action.
Linda
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Looks good! Its still a bit too damp here to work the soil. Soon, maybe next week, I can start tilling.
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Plowing is what our land in WY needs….I think. Of course there its not dark soil like you have there. Here at home we have rich black soil that clods easily and they are a nuisance!
I cringe every time hubs says he called the fuel truck….or tells me he stopped for fuel in semi!!! : (
Plow on…..
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Glad to hear you can finally get on the fields and get something done. We never used a plow much in this country…….different ground I guess.
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Farmers are the salt of the earth. Thank you.
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Thanks for sharing your life on the farm. We lived in Montrose for a while and I really miss the area. Seeing your photos allows me to still feel connected.
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Wyatt brought his small plow over and plowed a small garden for us this past weekend. And is coming back in about a week to till it. I feel just like you…but waaaaay smaller ;-). Although I agree, that fuel delivery bill smarts.
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