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 Lights (Gifts) of Friends—Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Posted on December 23, 2015 by Dayphoto

Every day and in every way we are given gifts from friends and strangers.

Some timesI receive a comment left on my blog or on my FaceBook Page or a personal email; other times a fun little package arrives in the mail bringing heart felt joy to my walk down the long lane to and from the mail box.

Other times is a simple sharing of someone else’s celebration of happiness…you know those quick little drive-by moments when your soul responds to a strangers boundless joy. A tiny spark attaching itself to you, making the rest of your day warm and lovely.

(Karen Bringol’s photo she posted to my Facebook)

Yesterday my blog comments, my FaceBook post and my email were full of wishes..Thank you so much! You do warm my soul!

Then Jan from the Poodle and Dog Blog brightened my walk back home from the mail box with a beautiful handmade wall hanging. My steps were light enough to carry me over the mud in pixie dust fashion.

That evening Terry and I took a short drive around our small town of 9,000 people looking at the Christmas lights

Cheerful gifts from strangers, for anyone who wished to enjoy!

I am done with all my baking, cooking, planning, and gift wrapping. Today I clean.

Thank you, my friends, each one of you are a gift!

Your friend,

Linda

Yesterday’s Song—-Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Dayphoto

Yesterday, we were married 48 years. 48 years, almost a half-a-century. How wild is that?

A wonderful and dear, dear friend told me (on her 54 wedding anniversary): “When you get to this place in life, and you look back over the years; you realize that there are some wonderful years, some terribly horrible years, some ho-hum years, some “this can’t be happening years”. Then when you bunch them all together. Once bunched together you realize that all the years put together make a very nice life”.

You know she was right!

I so believe that each day we are alive is a wonderful gift—no matter what happens tomorrow.

Thank you, my blog friends, for being along on this ride of Terry’s and my lives here on a western Colorado farm.

With much love and appreciation,

Linda

After a Long, Long Night—-Sunday, December 20, 2015

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Dayphoto

Terry and I helped remove a huge old 1918 stoker an coal furnace yesterday…a four hour intense job. And a dirty one on top it.

Not wanting to cook we all headed out to eat a small bite of food. I think that was my un-doing. I was ever so terribly sick all night long. Still [just] on the verge of wellness today.

It’s snowing all around us. But not right here. It may come in later in the day or blow out, one never knows.

Until then, I think I’m just going to do my ironing and then sit (lay) around the rest of Sunday.

Your friend,

Linda

The Adventures of Boomer on Friday—A Little of This and a Little of That

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Dayphoto

Not much happening here…

It snowed, then it got cold, colder, coldest

The UPS guy arrived…JOY! I didn’t get to bark him in…I was sleeping next to the fireplace, toasting the pads on my paws when he showed up. But I DID get to bark him OUT of the yard and down the lane

Which reminds me…why do I have to sleep on the floor and the cat gets to sleep on the sofa?

I’ve been checking on the squirrel brothers….lots! They like to play in the woodpile, so I hang out there and try to play with them

Sam and I are the only ones who go outside. Sam doesn’t like a litter box and I don’t use one

Mom has the tree up. Monkey keeps taking the ornaments off the lower branches—I don’t even DARE to think about doing something like that!

Cats get away with tons of stuff! Tons!

The days are short, but really they are Long, Longer, Longerer…I’m ready for action!!

Until then…I’ll just sleep by the fire and toast my pads.

Boomer

Corn Report–Thursday, December 17, 2015

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Dayphoto

We ~~pretended~~ decided to get ready one more time,

One field is very, very, close. By our moisture tester is says we are there. But the corn sample Terry took to the Elevator said it was still too high. The second field is still over-the-top wet.

No matter what your corn moisture tester says, it’s what the Elevator’s moisture testers reads.

Today, around noon, we will get different sample from the third field and take it to the Elevator…maybe this one will be good to go. Maybe.

Three fields waiting. We’ve checked them one by one.

December is flying by…what an amazing year for corn harvest. Although, to be sure, we are NOT the only ones with this problem. A few of the farmers have gotten ‘some’ of their corn in, but not many, and not a lot of their fields. Together we all wait.

Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,

Linda

A Frozen World—Wednesday, December, 16, 2015

Posted on December 16, 2015 by Dayphoto

After a day of snow and wind…mostly wind, we woke to snow scattered here and there in small little drifts.

Brown patches of earth scattered in the tattered and bunched snow.

But the sun came up all red and pink and gold, causing sparkles on the snow drifts, the brown frozen earth appears a softer brown than the melted dark mud will appear (if we warm up.)

The wind-snapped and bedraggled corn reflected the morning light, echoing the glow coming over the mountains, wherein lays Gunnison, Colorado, and a wee bit closer, the Black Canyon.

Terry is going out to check the corn, thinking maybe this cold has driven down the moisture. While he is doing that I will go sweep out the bed of the grain truck, then with the bed facing the rising sun we are hoping the wood will dry.

If this all comes together, maybe, just maybe…harvest can begin.

What a crazy time of the year to [still] be hoping to get the corn in.

Oh, well, it is what it is.

Wishing you a good one today,

Love,

Linda

It’s Snowing Here—Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Dayphoto

We woke up to a dark covered sky this morning. But as the day woke-up, the sky lightening into a white canvas, the snow has started falling.

Doing my chores the snow whispered around me and my footsteps silent in the crisp breeze.

They say once this snow has stopped the air will turn chillingly cold. But until then…..

I must admit I take a childish delight in being able to walk in virgin snow.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

Time, Passing, Moving Forward, Always—Sunday, December 13, 2015

Posted on December 13, 2015 by Dayphoto

All of my life, even as a small child, I have felt there is something I am meant to do. Something. Not big, not amazingly over-the-top, but something.

To be honest, everything I tried didn’t seem to be whatever the ‘it‘ is. Although, I have enjoyed many, many things.

Here I am, almost 67 years old in one month, and I STILL don’t know what “it” is.

But I must admit that ‘it’ nags at me, causes a sorta ‘need to know.’

Terry and his family are all super talented, it seems there isn’t anything they can’t do or create or achieve. My brother and my family, also seem the same way, except for me…for some reason I can’t figure out what draws at my heart–what I am supposed to be doing —- while alive on the face of this earth.

Something that is niggling at the back of my mind saying: ‘time is starting to run out’. It will not belong to each of us forever. So I have decided if I haven’t figured out this—whatever it is—I’m probably not going too this late in the game.

Instead I’ll just enjoy each day that is given to me. My greatest and strongest wish I have is to experience joy in every fiber of my being, my mind, and my soul for whatever time I have left to me. And to do that…all I have to do is enjoy each and every moment of every day I have left on earth.

A great big sundog appeared in morning sky today. A major cold front is coming toward us. The weather people say it will be here Wednesday…yep, right on time. Sundog portends a cool down in three days.

Sometimes I look at the sky and wonder…most people only see the emptiness of the sky, for the those things that live upon the earth clang and jar with sound and the trials and troubles of everyday living, plus people thrum with their own energy; their own lives.

But if you will stop and listen you can sense the procession of time on the earth and in the sky–something is going on in that great silence beyond our own knowing.

With much love, your friend,

Linda

The Adventures of Boomer on Friday—A Walk with Monkey the Cat

Posted on December 11, 2015 by Dayphoto

Every day, Mom, myself, Monkey cat and sometimes the really old, old cat, Sammy-Sam —Sammy is 15 that is ancient for a cat! —go for a walk.

Sometimes we go far, far, far, and sometimes not so far. Mom doesn’t like to walk far, far, far, with the cats, because cats can become FOOD! Also, Monkey doesn’t stay with Mom and I, she is here and there and everywhere. If we walk by the corn field, she runs into the still standing corn field.

Mom says the still standing corn field is a dangerous place for cats… fox like to live in the still standing corn field and the coyotes hide in the still standing corn field. Therefore, we don’t ever walk by the corn field if Monkey is with us. Sammy usually doesn’t walk as far as the cornfields anymore anyway, so Mom doesn’t worry about Sam.

Yesterday we all went for a walk…Sammy stopped by the equipment shed saying he was going to hang around there and search for mice. We all waved our paws good-bye, Mom gave Sam some really nice body rubs then we were off again.

This time we walked along the, now, dry canal…Monkey LOVES the canal. She likes walking in the canal looking for mice and other interesting things that hide in the grass.

I sometimes hop into the canal with her, but I much prefer sniffing along the bank and down the canal road.

We usually walk all the way up to the Cross-Over Pipe. Up there Mom lets us play on the pipe that crosses over the canal from one field to another field. I walk very, very fast over the pipe my toe nails clicking the whole way…I try to move fast, because, well, toe nails and metal make for some slippery sliding times.

Sometimes Mom walks over and back with us. We all laugh and have a great time. Monkey runs across and doesn’t even think a think about it.

I try to sniff in the pipe holes, but Mom and Dad always cover them up so the skunks, raccoons, fox and other critters who like to den up can’t hunker down in the pipes. Still I sniff, it’s interesting to see if anyone has tried to live in one of the pipes.

Then we walk back home, sometimes fast (if it’s getting dark and colder) sometimes we take our time. Either way, it works for me, and Monkey, just being outside with Mom is always fun.

Boomer

Storm Coming In—Thursday, December 10, 2015

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Dayphoto

They tell us a winter storm is coming in. With temperatures dropping to single digits.

It must be so. The last of yesterdays sunlight caught like cobwebs in the corn. The sky gradually filling with clouds from the west. Our storms always come from the west.