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 Fuzzy and Boomer—As Good as it Gets

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Dayphoto

You know there are just some things that are way out there funny!

Well, at least Boomer and I think so.

You see there has been a sort run on the farm with the raccoons. None of us really do anything about them-Heck Boomer and I like to sniff their tracks and try to guess what they are up too. Mom and Dad just make comments to each other… “Oh look, the raccoons have been walking down the gated pipe”!

Sometimes the raccoons will come in the yard and try to find dog food to eat, but Mom always picks up all the dog food every night. If we sleep outside Boomer and I bark at them, but if we don’t sleep outside all we can do is, well, sniff their tracks.

Any hoo…Janson wanted to catch a raccoon….I don’t know why…I never heard, but he wanted a raccoon. Dad told Jason he could put a trap up by the equipment area and see what happens. Dad said he knew there were lots of raccoons up there because of all the signs.

Every day for three weeks Jason and Shannon went up to check the trap, morning and evening….nothing.

Every day.

Morning and evening.

For three weeks.

Nothing, nada…zipp!

On the third week one evening Jason decided that it was useless so he would just go get the trap and take it home.

Up they went.

Back they came.

Then THREE hours later…..Boomer and I had a huge laugh about that!!!!

Mom sent the photos over to Jason and Shannon, who could resist showing it to them!!

HAHAHAH those raccoons are pretty darn clever, don’t you think?

Fuzzy

Behind the Fence–Good Fences Thursday–September 18, 2014

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Dayphoto

After Terry’s Dad passed Terry’s Mother came over one day and said: “Here these are your’s now. I’m sure no one else would want them”. Then she handed the titles to Jack’s two farm trucks to Terry.

He was a little bit stunned thinking that she would much prefer selling them and pocketing the money. But no she didn’t….she said she just couldn’t sell them. Would he please come and get them and move them over to our place.

So we did.

Two years ago a man showed up wanting to buy one of the old trucks. Terry and the man looked the truck over, walked up and down talking about the truck, then he offered a price.

My Dear Husband just couldn’t sell either—after the man left he came in the house and told me that he couldn’t let the truck go; they spoke way too loudly about his Dad, the work on the farm, and the dairy those trucks had accomplished.

So they sit here, gracing our corral fence line…a constant reminder of good days gone-by and the man who stood taller than anyone in Terry’s life.

A good thing, don’t you think?

For more Good Fences head on over to Teresa’s Round*A*Round Ranch and check out all the other cool fences and gates from around the globe. Today she has some pretty nice looking cattle behind her fence photos.

Hey, while you are there add your fence or gate…it’s always fun and interesting!

Your farm friend,

Linda

I Give to You a Perfect September Day—Wednesday, September, 17, 2014

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Dayphoto

A perfect ghost of a summer day in the middle of our farm between two corn fields!

It would be very hard to ask for anything more!

Your friend,

Linda

Two Photo Gifts from Two Different Friends—Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Posted on September 16, 2014 by Dayphoto

One year, I think two years ago, Cully Ray sent me a delightful Christmas Present; a photo of her dearly departed Australian Shepherd, Robert.

Here is what she wrote: ” I have to tell you Fuzz really looks like my line of Aussies – and I am partial to the plain tri-colors (Red or Black). Everytime you post a picture of him, I just want to kiss his face! LOL

I am attaching a picture of my boy, Robert (I lost him two years ago – I know he’s waiting at the Rainbow bridge for me)…

Have a wonderful Holiday!!

love and hugz and Blessings!

Cully”

She is so right. Every time I look at her Robert I do see Fuzzy. It’s really nice to know what type of dog he might be—My vet says Border Collie and Chow-Chow, another vet told me he was part Sheltie and Border Collie.

Fuzzy really is a very good dog!

Sometime ago OneFly sent me this photo: “This is not a great picture by any means, but it shows a coyote that was almost on top of this hurt elk.

The photo was taken just south of Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

The magpies are just waiting for their chance after the coyote.

My bud, Kevin, who works right there said the elk survived at least enough to move on.”

I’m glad the elk was able to move on. I hope it made it. I am NOT a fan of coyotes…sorry! If you are that’s fine, as for me–-I’m not.

I thank Cully Ray and Onefly for sharing with me photos of their lives, and allowing me to share them with you. This wonderful world of the internet has given all of us an tremendous gift of friends both near and far! I appreciate each and everyone of you!

Remember if you have have a photo that you would like for me to share with my readers I would be delighted to do so. It might not be immediately as I have several waiting to be posted. I posting every Tuesday in the order that they arrive to me.

I WILL post them and I WILL link back to you with credit for your photo. 🙂

Your friend,

Linda

All Through—Monday, September 15, 2014

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Dayphoto

Thankfully the pinto beans are at the Beanery (this is the name of the elevator that cleans and stores the pinto beans in our area—the Olathe Producers is another elevator which does the same thing).

At the elevator the pinto beans will be cleaned and sorted and culled…any broken (splits), discolored beans, and green pintos will be sifted into the proper pile to be sold.

Green pinto beans will be thrown away along with any chaff or weeds or weed seeds. The discolored beans has a very small market for animal feed….cows love pinto beans. The splits will go to a factory to be made into smashed canned pinto beans ready for your taco.

The other pinto beans…the really nice ones will be sold at market value for whole pinto beans to be used however the buyer wishes. The whole pinto bean market is what a farmer strives for…that is where the most money is to be made—right now the market is extremely volatile/unstable. Terry will talk with the owner of the Beanery sometime today to see if they can sell the beans for us and for what price.

Then Terry will decide if we hold them for a spell or sell. Mostly he likes to sell because a truly fresh pinto bean is liked by most people. If you have ever eaten a truly fresh pinto bean you will be stunned at the difference in the cook time, the flavor and the size of the bean.

There isn’t pay check until the beans are sold!

Oh, for the record….I’ve been asked several times if we take subsidies for farming.

NO! NEVER! Neither did my parents or grandparents and neither has Terry’s Dad or grandfather. If we can’t pay our own way we don’t do it. That is why we both worked in town…and why we have old equipment…if you can’t afford it you don’t need it…has always been the mantra on our farm.

ENOUGH of that ….since Terry got Linkin a new compound bow, we thought it would fun to take Tally shopping. She wanted a “REAL COWGIRL HAT”. Not a fake one made of plastic.

Off we went to the Davis Clothing Company where she picked out a black hat…no pink one for her, Thank you Very much! It was really nice to shop at the Davis Clothing Company, Rena, Mr. Davis’ daughter, let Tally try on several different colors—then she steamed the hat so it was the perfect COWGIRL shape, and took her to the special three-way-mirrors so Tally could see which one was just right for her. The experience was very nice.

Later, at home, Tallin wanted to practice with Terry’s longbow and her ONE arrow, of course wearing the COWGIRL hat! What a hoot!

Well, the two big harvests are out of the way (the hay and the pinto beans), and the irrigation is about done— now we wait until the end of October or later for the harvest of the field corn. A little break in the farming before the next big round of hard work.

All is good and right with the world!

Your friend on a farm

Linda

And So It Begins….Sunday, September 14, 2014

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Dayphoto

The weather is nice, although it is starting to be cold at night. We woke up to 40* this morning. Autumn days do warm up nicely.

About 10:30 Friday morning Terry started the process of combining the pinto beans.

The pinto beans are being picked up and run through the combine. It always amazes me that a bunch of plants can go through a huge machine and come out whole.

It is a simple as that, but it does require concentration….if the driver goes too fast the pinto beans will be cracked and therefore unsellable, if you go too slow the plants will wad up and bind somewhere in the first part of the combine. Once again you will lose all your sellable pinto beans.

If your field isn’t dry you will get wads in the combine and will have to stop.

Wads always have to be dug out by hand. 😦

Yesterday was a good productive day…the field was dry, the combine driver (having 50 some odd years of driving a combine 🙂 ) knew what he was doing so could make steady headway.

Since the dew was extremely heavy on Saturday he wasn’t able to start until 1:00 in the afternoon.

Harvest…what we work for all year!

Friday night we had company drive in….Misty and the two little girls! They are only here for the weekend because Linkin has a birthday party with her BFF.

Grandpa and I feel really lucky. They will head home today sometime after lunch. But first the little girls get ride in the bean truck to deliver the pintos to the Beanery!

Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer—a Great Find

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Dayphoto

I’ve been helping Mom. I help Mom ALL the TIME!!! Sometimes I’m so close to Mom she trips over me… 😦 Not good! Mom doesn’t yell at me but she does say: “BOOMER!!! You have to stop being so close! You are going to get us both hurt”!

I just smile at her and wag my tail. I won’t get us both hurt! Shish! Mom is such a worry-wart.

Anyway we forked up all the loose hay the day before the big rain fell. It sure was hot that day. WHEW! I don’t know how Mom and Dad did it…I just had to ride on the back of the four-wheeler and the sun baked me into a huge Boomie Chip!

Then the rain came. Huge amounts of water fell from the sky. Fuzzy and I stayed inside with Mom, Dad, Sam and Monkey…to tell you the truth being inside while the rain chilled everything down and turned the soil into a giant bog hole was………………………..NICE!!!!

After the rain left then the house seem pant, pant, pant…HOT!

Anyway, back to what I found…yesterday the sky was beautiful – full of big soft fluffy clouds and lots of warm sunshine (although the nights are very chilly. I think Mom said it was 45* this morning. Fuzzy and I sleep inside when it’s cold so we weren’t cold…but I digress.)

So here we were up at the alfalfa field…it’s now and alfalfa field the hay field is gone since the hay bales are in the hay yard. 🙂

Okay, Mom, Dad and I were in the alfalfa field setting the water for the last time this year (maybe the last time—for sure the next to the last time). Fuzzy dididn’tant to come. Fuzzy really only likes riding in the back of the pick-up anymore. He says someone really needs to stay home and watch the place.

That’s okay with Mom and me, after giving Fuzzy lots of pets and lovings Mom and Dad and I headed up the alfalfa field.

I decided to check out the news in the field, Fuzzy is just like me and really enjoys the news. I looked around…Dad was carrying one of the big metal dams and walking down the ditch, Mom was bent over picking up the white syphon tubes and dunking them in the water and then setting the tubes down in the row…Good they are busy.

Tralalalallalal….sniff here and sniff there…hummmmm raccoons…four of them. Sniff, snuff….sniff…

SWOOSHH!

Oh, my heavens! WHAT WAS THAT!!!?

Quail! How neat is this….Oh, calm down Momma Quail I’m not going to do anything to your 8 little chicks! Tee Hee, laugh, giggle….Boy, are you cute!

Got ‘a go now!

Sniff, sniff, snuff!

WOW!!! NOW THIS IS COOL!!!!

“BOOMER!! BOOMER, what are you doing?”

Oh, heck! She would call me just as I found this stuff. Oh, darn…here she comes…do I dare….

“BOOMER!!! Don’t you DARE roll in that you hear me?”

Geez…Mom got here just as I was about to flop over…sigh.

“Yuck, Boomer! Don’t do that! Do you want another bath? Stop!”

Oh, okay…I won’t. But LOOK MOM it’s HUGE! We have a HUGE deer eating in the alfalfa field!

“Come on, Boom, let’s go. Maybe we will be lucky to see the buck that dropped this mess. The deer always come on the farm when hunting season starts.’

******************************************************************************************

Hey, Fuzz! I found some cute quail and a GIANT DEER POOP! The best part of starting the irrigation water was the GIANT POOP!!!

POOP! Lucky you Boomer. I know we have deer that live here year round, but finding GIANT poop means we have a GIANT DEER!

Yeah, Fuzzy…it was giant for deer poop! Next time I hope I can get a good roll in it so you can have really nice sniff!

I hope you do too, Boomer. My eyes and ears might not work well, and my legs are wobbly, but my nose is just fine!

I promise you this, Fuzzy, the next time I’ll bring you back some good poop smells!

You’re a good Buddy, Boomer a real good Buddy!

Ah, thanks, Fuzzy! You are welcome.

Boomer

Helping Each Other Out, (also Fences), Thursday, September 11, 2014

Posted on September 11, 2014 by Dayphoto

A long-time friend of Terry’s needed a part for a piece of equipment. This friend had been down to see if Terry had anything that Terry could part with and he could buy.

Later on we drove up to Paonia, Colorado, to see if the part worked out and well…just to have a short visit. Terry’s friend was right in the middle of cutting hay, but that didn’t stop the two from having a nice visit.

While they talked I hiked around. There is just something about a huge ranch that lends itself to the wonders of living. Terry’s friend and his sister own over 1,000 acres with several grazing permits on the hills surrounding his ranch.

He and his sister do all the farming, irrigation, ranching, and the taking care of their 223 head of cows and several bulls.

His father bought the ranch, taking care of it for 6 years then died. From that point on Terry’s friend and his sister have been the ones to move the ranch forward. Old fences speak volumes of the way things were; new fences tell the story of how things are presently!

Head on over to Teresa’s blog to see many more fences and gates from around the world. While you are there join in with some photos of fences or gates you have in your area!

Your friend on a Western Colorado farm

Linda

Rain and a New Bow, September 10, 2014

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Dayphoto

The header is a photo of the sunrise after our amazing, extremely wet, rain storm.

Thankfully the storm is moving on today and warm dry weather is predicated for at least seven more days. The above photo is the rain socking us in; some places got as much as 3″ in an hour! Our canal is clear to the brim; swollen with water.

It’s for sure we are wet.

The hay is covered and safe, but the pinto beans are…in the mud!

What happens now? We wait until eveything dries back out. Then Terry will go in with the rod-weeder and lift the pinto beans up out of the mud and dirt and fluff up the rows again. Then we wait until they are dry. After that he should be able to combine.

Terry gave Linkin a new compound bow. She is just getting the feel of it here. Proper form is to have your hand close to your cheek and your other arm level with the hand next to your cheek.

She LOVES it! We had to go out first thing this morning (even in the mud) to give it another go at using it.

She and her Momma will leave later on today!

The visit was a nice treat,for this Grammy and Grandpa, in the middle of a very wet week.

Your friend,

Linda

Beauty in Quiet Places–Tuesday, September 8, 2014

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Dayphoto

Tom–OneFly sent me this positively wonderful photo of a small lake above Sheriff’s Reservoir which is located just below Dunkley Pass and at that time there were fish in it. Not anymore. He said this is the natural color of the lake. Stunning isn’t it!?

We got all the hay covered and one of the augurs into the combine before the rain came. Sigh, but at least we were able to get all those things done. Now if the rain will just go around us …..

Your friend on a farm in Western Colorado,

Linda