Here is the corn all in a row,
The tassels are up; the cobs below.
Dad’s in the combine making a dust,
Harvest is continuing all in a rush.
The corn is all gobbled and spun out to fly
Leaving a cob all empty to dry.
Monkey wants to hunt mice with me
But I have the Nose you see
Off you go Monkey don’t wait around now
If there is something interesting I set up and Howl!
Your Poet at large ( TEE HEE!)
BOOMER, The Handsome!!!
The Sandhill Cranes are starting to make our area more and more their home. Three miles away is a slough they have found and grabbed as their own (although, they seem to be sharing very happily with some ducks)
I tried to take a decent video but….well, you see. Still it gives you and idea of their calls.
This is a close-up! Beautiful birds…but VERY SHY!
We have a few in the pastures at the upper end
And hiding in the harvested corn stalks!
Here they are getting ready to land in our corn field Terry harvested first!
Aren’t they beautiful? Lucky, lucky Us!
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda
Looking out my kitchen window this morning I saw the crossed trails as two jets winged their way to places I can only imagine.
Looking further down the sky I saw the mirids or Canada Geese flying in to spend the day with us. Quickly grabbing my camera and coat I slipped out the back door….carefully, carefully so that little Boomer dog would stay inside by the fireplace. (I didn’t want a delighted baying to set in and scare away the birds! 🙂 )
The mist was heavy on the corn fields surround the house so the shots aren’t as clear as I wanted, but you can still see the bounty of Canadian Geese we are enjoying.
Carefully I crept along the fence line…careful, careful…one, just one odd sound and they will rise in a great mass honking in alarm.
The sky and the earth was over-flowing with the joyful sounds of the geese!
As the day brightened, and the mist lifted, even more Canadian Geese arrive…so many it looks like leaves off that wild plum trees.
They stayed for two days then moved on up to another field about 1/2 mile from us…but lucky for me…I was home when they chose to grace the next door field.
Somethings just must be shared…the bounty of beautiful geese is one of those things!
Your friend,
Linda
I’m late today! Very late!
But we have been up and at’em since 5 this morning. What a joggle of a day.
The brakes went out of the LOADED grain truck —this time the booster. This time the truck stays parked until the brakes can be fixed. (This is exactly WHY most people do NOT want to deal with old equipment…but I digress!)
Thankfully the truck was in the yard and parked under the car port…blessings abound!
We covered the completely full truck up with a tarp and tied it down. Then while Terry ran over to a neighbor who works on semi’s, to see if there were parts he could get to fix the truck, I got the house straightened up ready so we could go get the other truck. Hines said Terry could use one of their trucks to finish up our fields (two to go—well, really 1 3/4 to go). If everything holds together we hope to be done by next week…fingers and toes crossed and magic thoughts and prayers…even a knock or two on wood!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I have two beautiful photos from a long-time blog friend, OneFly...the first is a stunning rainbow he sent awhile back
and the second is a photo when he was going to San Jose…he loves the tropical places and travels somewhere warm and lush every winter. (This was taken in 2012—I thought it was fun to share it today, being how it is winter and brown and drab here 🙂 )
This winter he is in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico where he shot this stunning photo of a very magenta dragonfly! How Cool is THAT! 🙂
I thank each and every one of you who send me photos to share! What a joyful gift these photos are, brightening my life and those who read my blog!
Your Friend,
Linda
When I was a child many years ago we had a lesson in the 4th Grade about space and light and the distance it took to travel from here to the moon. My teacher tried to illustrate light years by using a flashlight and pointing it into the heavens at night (anyway this is what my memory is telling me today). If a person were to turn the flashlight on and point it toward the heavens (at night) then turn the light off…the light from the flashlight would still keep going and going and going until it would hit a solid object. Then it would disperse.
*****
Every evening Daddy would bring home the Daily paper, my brother and I were NOT to touch the paper until he was through reading it. Mother wasn’t very interested in the paper, but Dad was…he read everything, including the ads. The second he was done one of us got the comic section —if it were Christmas time–the other of us started with the serial Christmas story until the comics were available.
About the same time as the lesson on the flashlight and the thought that light traveled until it hit an dense object I started reading a serial space comic about an all white woman who came down to earth to do great harm.
From that point on I was terrified of the darkness and space and being outside alone IN THE DARK!!! (shudder)
When all that changed I really don’t know. But the fear is gone, and has been for many, many years. I love walking at night, even late, late at night. To walk in the silver moonlight seems to fill my soul with it’s shimmery light. To walk without the moon, just a canopy of brilliant stars on a crisp and cold mid-night is … refreshing.
Today I wonder if the people of the world are pulling away from the call of land, sinking into technology and losing contact with the earth. It’s a fleeting wonder, for it’s not something I can do anything about.
As for me…I enjoy the internet and it’s gifts of friendships flung from here all the way around the world. But the land and the sky call to me the most and the longest and loudest—I hear the music it sings.
Your friend,
Linda
Friday night…no wait!!! Early Saturday morning –3:30—neither Terry nor I could sleep…worrying about getting the corn in…the brakes went out of the grain truck…everything was wet from the rain…just stuff. The kind of thing that bothers you at night but doesn’t in the daytime.
Around 4 o’clock Terry said: “Let’s get up and go to Craig and watch Blade’s basketball tournament.”
“Sounds good to me. If we leave here at 4:30 we should make it to the gym by 7:30. Blade plays at 8:00—won’t he be surprised when we walk in?”
So we did.
The drive was beautiful..randomly we could see the moon, but mostly it was cloudy, traffic was light (not many people up at that time of day), the deer, elk and antelope stayed somewhere safe for them and for us. Right at 7:30 a.m. sharp we walked into the gym…there he was! Lined up with the team…he saw us! A smile and a tiny wave let us know! Around 7:55 the rest of the family came through the ticket booth … huge smiles all around…it was a great surprise. We enjoyed this so much.
In-between Blade’s games we went up to see their Christmas decorations and to then to see the pigs, Linky is ‘sharing’ with their neighbor. (They are his pigs, but this very lonesome for the farm little girl, was asked by Mr. Chapman if she would like to help him gentle down and take care of his latest pigs). Every day she trudges up the hill to the pig barn and plays with the three little pigs–I forget their names. When she gets tired of them she then walks along and pets and brushes down all the other pigs in this very clean and friendly pig barn. There is no smell in this set up because of how the pigs are fed and taken care of…they have their own pellet stove for the winter and nice fans for the summer. These are special pigs raised only for showing…all the little pigs are sold only to those places that want show pigs. It’s a great life for a pig!
Then back we went to watch the basketball hustle. Bladen is a good basketball player! it was ever so much fun.
The only sad part in the whole day was Tally lost her backpack—hopefully someone found it and will return it to the school or to Kelly or Misty. One can always hope, I suppose.
We were heading back home right after the games, but the kids asked us to stay for a bite to eat and a short visit. We did…it was nice.
We made it back home just as the sun was going down around 4:30 or so. It was a very fast trip but a very nice trip.
Now we prepare for another week of harvest (we hope) only two more fields to go. It sure would be nice to be done before Christmas!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm
Linda
A HAY CUSTOMER IS HERE!!! DAD!!! YOU HAVE A HAY CUSTOMER!!! BARK! BARK! BAY! HOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWL!!!
Hi, Ya, Sam! Been catching any mice lately?
Your fur is getting messed up Monkey? A bit windy out here for those of you with long fur!
Oh…look here is Mom.
What’ up, Mom! What cha go’na do?
“Are you up to putting the farm to bed, Boomer? Come on…we will go on out and get started, Dad will come up when he is done helping loading hay.”
Mom reached down and picked me up and sat me down behind her on the four-wheeler. (Mom has to pick me up and put me places ever since I blew my knee out. My knee is healed now, but neither she nor I want it to get hurt again—so she always picks me up and puts me behind her—or sits me in the back of the pick-up or on the pick-up seat.)
“WAIT!!!!” Monkey yelled…..”I WANT TO GO!”
“No, Monkey—git! It’s too far up there! SCRAM!”” Finally Monkey ran back to the yard.
Up we went to gather all the siphon tubes and stack them so the cows won’t stomp on them and destroy them. Cows are like that ya know…if it’s interesting they like to walk on it to see what it will do. Cracked siphon tubes in hooves is not a good thing, nor is it something Mom and Dad want to deal with either.
It was hot work…even if the sky acted like it wanted to rain, we all worked up a sweat…Mom even took her coat off…I’m glad I didn’t have a coat like thing on, I was already hot!
Up one field, down another we went, picking up dams and tubes and straightening up anything that might get in the way of the corn combine…then I SAW IT!!!
HALOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Looks like the coyotes got a Big Bird…sniff, sniff..snuff…
“Boomer what you got there?” Mom asked, as she walked up the last of the dirt ditch.
“Oh, sometimes nature is so cruel…my, that was a big bird, I wonder what kind it was.”
Dad arrived about that time—“Coyotes! They’ve gotten very brave again…I saw evidence along the equipment area yesterday.”
Yeah, Dad….Mom and I can hear them when we walk at night. Mom and I think they are hanging out down around the other house. They wouldn’t be at that house if Hank still lived there, but since he doesn’t they aren’t afraid!
And we see scat everywhere…coyote poop! I sometimes stop and pee on it. Makes me feel…GOOD!!! Tee hee.
“Coyotes…never a good thing. You stay close by, Boomie, even if it’s daylight you don’t need to be scaring up some coyotes in their den” Mom admonished me.
Not to worry Mom. Since Fuzzy isn’t here I try to stay within eye-sight of you…I know you don’t have anyone to protect you now. I can still get the news, but I’m the only dog now, so I know you need me to take care of you.
‘Come on, Boom, let’s go.
We got done faster with Dad’s help. A nice little ride on the four-wheeler will cool you down.
Then we need to go check all the water traps for the mice…the mice seem to be rather bad this year also.” Mom lifted me up, started the engine and off we took right behind Dad.
Wind in your ears and cool air on your fur………………priceless!
Boomer
The moon is rising late in the day,
It’s not a completely full moon yet, but it’s getting there.
By six in the evening it’s dark here, but the moonlight casts beautiful silver light illuminating the corn field. Boomer and I don’t even have to use a light to drive back home from the combine. 🙂 A gift from nature.
I got these photos on Monday. I was hoping on Tuesday I could get better ones since the moon would be fuller by then. Of course high thin clouds started drifting in–by three in the afternoon the high thin clouds had turned in to thicker heavier clouds that promised rain or snow. CROSSED FINGERS —-go away moisture…go away…we are just getting good and started —hiss, hiss!!!
Anyway, I was glad I got a photo of the moon on Tuesday!
Your friend,
Linda
The first thing we had a small set back…the starter failed. (Well, not the first thing, the first thing –just before light–Terry took the corn down to the elevator. Arriving back around 11 a.m. was the first time he could get back into the field!)
That is what happens when you use old equipment, although Terry does keep them in good working order you just never know when some part is going to break. The kids laugh because we have a ‘herd’ of combines. That ‘herd’ comes in handy every now and again! 🙂 🙂
Boomer and I went out to help him…(it’s one reason he keeps other combines around…for parts). My stead…just incase he needed me to pull start him. Usually I go out on the four-wheeler, but with something broken down you just never know. The loader is also a good place to carry parts and chains (if you have to pull, say—a combine.)
Then an hour later…every system was go! The second load of the day left at 1:30 for the elevator. Gradually, gradually this corn is GOING to turn into a paycheck!
Keep on smiling…two more weeks to go!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm in the middle of corn harvest,
Linda
Thank you so much! All your magic thoughts and your crossed fingers (and toes) and prayers have worked!
We are underway! The corn measured 14.6% with the first load and 13% with the second load! YAY!
The line wasn’t too bad; thirteen trucks when he showed up the first time and only 6 the second time. When he called this morning there were 8; it’s good to be close to the front of the line when you first drive in. Very good!
It only takes two hours to load the truck, but four hours to unload. 🙂
This time of year this type of corn is all used for animal feed, although it is the same corn that can be used to make cornbread or breading for corndogs. Our elevator is strictly for animal feed—dairy cows, chickens, sheep, beef cattle and hogs. Although, there are different mixes that go into feeding each type of animal.
The sweet corn…the kind that you buy in can (tins) is harvested from July until the first of September. This corn—sweet corn is also the corn that is eaten fresh right off the cob.
For us, our corn harvest is our main crop of the year…we have the most land tied up in the production of this crop. Corn prices are dismal this year, so next year Terry is thinking of raising more pinto beans and less corn. If he does that the Pinto Beans will become our major crop. (if he continues to farm…every year he says he is done, every spring the itch to get out on the land drives him back. Every year I wonder if it is going to be the last year…the reality is I really don’t think he can give up the farming—but we will see.)
For this year, and for now, the corn harvest has truly begun!
Thank you so much for your support!
Your friend,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 