About Dayphoto

My name is Linda Brown. I live on a farm on the western slope of Colorado, in the high mountain desert. I’ve lived here all my life, hailing back four generations on my father’s side. Today I blog about our farm, the everyday activities that keep the farm going. I also write about my thoughts and dreams and goals. On Friday’s I always write about TLC Cai-Cai. Our sweet kitty who helps keep the farm safe. And Boo Berry Betty, a breeder dog learning to be a Farm Dog! The lovely thing about blogging it opens the world up for all of us to reach out and meet people from many different cultures and different ways of life. You can find me every day (but Saturday) at https://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com/ Your Friend on a Western Colorado Farm, Linda Brown

The Adventures of Boomer on Friday—A Little Girl from Our Neck of the High Mountain Desert

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Dayphoto

Mom and I have been on the watch for ‘good things’. Mom says it breaks up the long, gray days, and opens us up for more interesting things.

So every day I head out to check things out…sometimes Mom comes sometimes not. Sometimes the pads on my paws just get so toasted I can walk on snow and not feel a thing.

Once out there I look around for all good things—seems like I always find good things, yummy smells, interesting news, barking someone down the long, long lane all good things.

Like Mom says—it’s fun to look for good things. Look at this….

http://www.fox.com/watch/597366851556/7716941568#http://www.fox.com/watch/597366851556/7716941568#/details

Jeneve Mitchell! This is a young woman from way up country of our county, Delta County, in Crawford, Colorado. As you watch you will see Needle Rock, a famous rock in Crawford. Proof of what she says…that she is from our neck of the High Mountain Desert.

Now wouldn’t that be nice if she became the NEXT AMERICAN IDOL!?

Boomer

It IS January After All—Thursday, January 7, 2016

Posted on January 7, 2016 by Dayphoto

We were going to test the corn again today. By that I mean we would gather three ears of corn from each corn field, keeping them in separate buckets, bring them in and shell the kernels off the cobs into their bucket, then run (each bucket separately) through the corn moisture meter tester. If the moisture content was low enough, Terry would then take the three buckets down to the elevator and have THEM test each bucket. (Remember each bucket represents each field).

It doesn’t NOT matter what your moisture tester says, it only matters what their moisture tester says. They buy and store and sell the corn so they know what they want in their silos. We have our moisture tester set to match theirs, but we are always erring on the side of caution. To combine a huge load of corn and have it turned away would be not be a very good thing.

Anyway, that is what we were GOING to do. But not anymore.

It’s snowing again. Snow is a good thing for January. Something we have prayed for in the past, enjoyed when it was here, and just plain understood, that is winter after all.

Until this year…until this very strange year when the corn doesn’t dry down in a normal way and is harvested by late November and/or early December. This year we are eagerly waiting for the snow to dry off (or fall off) the corn shucks; then we go out and hand check the shucks for dryness. If everything is looking just right we get our buckets set up for the next day…and wake-up to more snow.

So for now we wait. Even if the corn is dry enough, the shucks are not, maybe next week. Only time will tell.

As I was hauling in wood to fill the wood stove this morning, Terry was standing at the back door looking out, “Snow,” he mumbles. ” Well, I guess it is January.” Turning around he headed to his spot on the sofa, feet stretched out toward the wood stove; matching Boomer’s four paws toasting on his side of the wood stove. “I guess we wait some more.”

I guess so.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

A Small Warm Up —-Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Posted on January 6, 2016 by Dayphoto

We had a small warm-up yesterday, which was a HUGE help. Finally, Terry and I got the frozen drain working down at the other house.

Terry is still perplexed why the drain froze.

Last night the temperature didn’t drop as terribly low as normal, which was another nice thing.

Today another storm is rolling in. The weather people said we could have RAIN this afternoon. RAIN?!?! What an odd thought for this time of year. I guess we will find out later on today.

Outside everything is quiet, I can not hear the Canada Geese or the Sandhill Cranes. Sometimes I can hear in the far distance cow talking to another cow…it’s too early for calves yet.

There is a sense of ‘hunkering down’ — a waiting.

“Storm coming! Prepare, hole up, stay warm.”

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

A Mixed Blessing—Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Dayphoto

It’s snowing here again. A mixed blessing of sorts. (This is an old photo…from three weeks ago.)

The snow has warmed up the air a tad. Always good.

The gray light across the landscape has lifted the world from night shadows into a soft filter of sun.

The dying night speaks volumes of what our frozen landscape is made up of—

Vast fields of white and, of course, last years [still] standing corn.

A quote says it all…. “there’s just something beautiful about walking on snow that nobody else has walked on. It makes you believe you are special”.—Carol Rifka Brunt, Tell the Wolves I’m Home.

So we move forward, you and I…day five of the year 2016. Searching for those little bits of joy that fill our lives with happiness.

Your friend,

Linda

Discoveries of a Common Kind—-Sunday, January 3, 2016

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Dayphoto

Boomer and went for our walk just as the evening sun started sitting.

Saturday morning had been cold, very cold, but by noon a small melt was in place, the earth was bright and shiny from all the sparkling snow, the air dazzling with dancing sun motes.

The tangible evidence of last years crops still standing silent and snow covered gives proof nature is always in command on a ranch or farm.

But standing at the edge of two corn fields, as the sun sets or rises, feet warm and toasty in winter boots, listening to the secret murmurs of the dry leaves and corn stalks—walking further on, past the now harvested pinto bean field, up to the dried alfalfa field, then onto the rocky point…the whispers of the chico and sagebrush, the rabbitbrush and last year’s cattails tell me that my mind, body and soul is firmly in the grip of the land.

I love reading the books by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas… here is a quote from her, by which I totally agree:

“I saw that animals were important. I saw that plants were even more important. I was also to learn that compared to many of the other species, we weren’t important at all except for the damage we do. We do not rule the natural world, despite our conspicuous position in it. On the contrary, it is our lifeline, and we do well to try to understand its rules.”

Today has dawned cold and clear, but with a promise of warmth around noon. A small joy–but a perfect joy.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

The Adventures of Boomer on Friday—Happy New Year 2016

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Dayphoto

Priceless is a buried bone found again!

Mom, Dad, Sam the cat, Monkey the Cat and I Boomer the Beagle Brown wish all of you a Wonderful New Year

Boomer

What a Wonderful World—Thursday, December 31, 2016

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Dayphoto

Here we are…the last day of December in the year of our Lord 2015.

Tomorrow we start a new year, 2016. A.D.

What an amazing time to be alive!

Sometimes I get over-whelmed by the scary stuff going on in the world, then under-whelmed at the cruelty and desire to hurt and maime, with seems to also abound.

Still—here we are time to think about how we are going to make the next year better, how we are going to help ourselves and our families, add depth and good things into the lives of friends and strangers—-Resolutions for some, goals for others. A chance to have a clean start—to start over, so to speak.

For myself I have lots of little goals:

I want to downsize all my ‘stuff’, it’s time to get rid of my antiques and collectables. I have no one in my family interested in my ‘junk’, so I will be finding others who would like to add my things into their things.
I want to write very good, descriptive blog posts—posts by which my readers can related .

And above all—

I want to enjoy each and every moment of every day I have left in the rest of my life. This is my most fervent wish of all time. I do believe for me—time is short. Time might end 20-30 years from now, but that is short compared to the years I’ve had—66, and in 15 days 67. So much can happen in a year…so very much. But if I can Live each moment with true wonder and joy what a great blessing I will have experienced.

With wishes for a wonderful year for you,

Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,

Linda

Winter Fun, Even if it is Snowing Again—Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Posted on December 30, 2015 by Dayphoto

It’s snowing again. We won’t be doing corn until the year 2016. What a mighty unusual year this has been. We are NOT the only farmers in our area having this problem, everyone is having the same problem. There are a few loads of high moisture corn going to the elevator, but only if the elevator calls and asks if you can bring some down.

We have two of the grandchildren for the week. Our oldest granddaughter is staying with her BFF for a couple of days, she will be with us this afternoon. Our youngest granddaughter has been enjoying Aunt Shannon and Romeo. Although, rides don’t happen often they do occur frequently.

We had a BFF of our youngest granddaughter come spend the afternoon with us — we went down to feed Romeo carrots, pet all six dogs, and the two cats…pick up and love on at least 4 of the eight chickens — Aunt Shannon asked if they would like to go for a ride on Romeo.

So from down at Romeo’s house, clear around a couple of the corn fields, and down the lane to our house they got to ride. Two very excited little girls. Shannon left them off at our house and trotted back home. The highlight of the whole afternoon, I can assure you.

This afternoon our daughter in Craig and our grandson should arrive. For the New Year we will have all our grandchildren—a neat way to start out the year.

All this snow would be a really nice thing, if the corn was just out. But, it is what it is, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

Still no Harvest—Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Dayphoto

I loved these two photos from FaceBook; thought I would share them with you. The header and this one.

Still no corn harvest…Terry will check tomorrow to see where the corn moisture is…he and I are hoping with all this cold the corn has dried it down enough we can begin. What a strange, strange year for harvesting.

Hope you have a good one today!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

Christmas Blessings—-December 27, 2015

Posted on December 27, 2015 by Dayphoto

We loaded up the car, took Boomer to Shannon’s and WENT TO CRAIG, Colorado for Christmas!

Even though it was snowing here. What’s a little snow when there are grandchildren at the end of the drive?

I drove…that is saying lots, since I do NOT like to drive on bad roads. Terry drove home…it was much, much worse then. But we caravanned with our son and our son-in-law and daughter from Grand Junction so that helped.

We had a great time. I went with Linkin to see the pigs (then Uncle Evan went with Linkin) the pigs had lots of company off and on for Christmas. 20 inches of snow and -18* with a high of 12*.

The photo up above shows Linkin walking on her ‘short cut’ to the house from the pig barn…’Come on, Grammy! I have a trail, just follow in my foot steps.”

“Okay”, I replied. First step into the trail I sunk up to my knees…I’m just a wee bit—tad bit–a HUGELY bit bigger than an eleven year old. We both had a good laugh.

The grandkids and their Dad built a snowman around the mailbox…a surprise for the mail man. I thought it was cute!