Unknown's avatar

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

Lavender and a Fence —-Thursday, July 10, 2014

Sun riseGosh, summer is flying by.  It wasn’t too long ago (around the Summer Solstices) the little birds were waking up at first light…singing sleepily to the lightening day.  For us here (it’s all relative I know) that was 4:40 in the morning.  Today I wake before the first cheep of the day, which occurs around 5:11 a.m.   The Sunrise: 5:56 a.m.; it now sets at 8:39 p.m.  Our Day length is fourteen hours and fort-three minutes.

On the Summer Solstice the sunrise was 5:48 a.m. and the sunset at 8:41 p.m.  Making our day fourteen hours and fifty-three minutes. It doesn’t seem like much because the days are warm and lovely and long.

Pinto-Bean-FieldI’ve been weeding in the pinto bean field.  I do it every evening.  I’m 3/4 of the way through. I need to hurry as the pinto beans are starting to bloom and to shoot feelers.  (The mosquitoes and hoards of other biting flying insects are having delicious time with me out there also!)

Once the rows grow shut the weeds will get to party.  (Then Terry and I will just have to ignore them.  It’s sort of hard because the pinto beans are planted in front of the house this year.  Not only will we see the weeds, but so will everyone else driving down the road 😦 )

LavendarMy lavender is just lovely!  I had to share it with you!

Lavendar-2The joyful sound of bees working with each blossom fills the summer air. When you move past the lavender plants the smell is of heaven. (I’m sure heaven must have a smell…don’t you?

Block-fenceMy contribution to this weeks Good Fences and Gates over on Teresa’s blog is a decorative cement block fence going up Third Street Hill in Delta. This house was originally built by a really good Physician in our town.

For more fun and unusual fences head on over to the Run *A* Round Ranch and check what others have posted.  It is surprising how many unusual fences and gates are out there in the big wide world.

Orange

Your Farm Friend on a lovely July Day,

Linda

Birds in the Yard— Wednesday, July 9, 2014

I need some help….I have this cool little bird(s) that loves to come and check out the Hummingbird feeders.  If anyone can tell me it’s name I would be delighted!

Linda Brown's at Delta CO

But first I thought I would show you a darling little Calliope Hummer.  We have the Calliope and the Black Chin again this year.   I’ve counted five pair of the Black Chin and five pair of the Calliope.

We also have four pair of the Bullock Orioles.

in-flightI was extremely excited to see one pair of Rufus Hummingbirds!

Rufus

He is sort of hard to see in the above photo, but look closely he is there.

What-kind-of-bird-1But what is this little bird?  I was thinking it was a finch of some sort, but my finch food is untouched.

What-type-of-birdOf course it is terribly shy…not letting me near it at all.

Little-Brown-BirdThis little darling comes for a drink often…or is it just curious?Little-Brown-Bird-2You can’t see the red here so now I’m wondering if this is a different bird.  Anyway, any help on identifying this bird or birds will be appreciated.

Twilight

Your friend,

Linda

 

 

Tuesdays with Friends — Fog Bows—Tuesday, July 8, 2014

I’m a tad late today as we had to do some stuff before it got too hot to breathe.   We had several weed trees (Chinese Elm) that had taken root in my tiny orchard  and sprouted to enormous proportions–some dead branches in the ancient (95 years old lilac tree) and some low hanging and dangerous limbs (Rio Grande Cottonwood) and a nasty branch (Colorado Blue Spruce) which kept scraping my neck as I mowed the lawn which all needed Terry’s expertise with the chain saw.

Awhile back I asked if anyone had cool rainbows or other really neat photos that they would love to share with me and with the readers of my blog.  If they would send them to me I would put them on my blog and give the appropriate credit for the photo gift.

double fogbow

Leenie from Side Trips sent me two photos of Fog Bows.  I have never seen nor heard of a Fog Bow so this was a real treat!

fogbow in field

The Side Trips folks stopped by not long ago on their way from Telluride to Grand Junction, Colorado.  How cool was that!

Gordon and Eileen camping

Leenie is an amazing watercolor artist.  You might take a look at her Esty store to get and idea for a neat gift or two.

Well, off now to get the lawn mowed, the edges trimmed and the hedge clipped.  I need to fertilize some of my lagging plants so I best get on the move.  The day is heating up…which I LOVE!

Your western Colorado Farm Friend,

Linda

 

Dance of the Veils— Monday, July 7, 2014

VeilsOur second daughter and third child, loves Middle Eastern Dance.  She has been doing this for years…I’m not sure how many years….maybe around 15-20 years.  I’d have to sit down and figure it out, but probably not going to.  🙂

She is the one closest to us in the red, with the royal blue veil.

Veils-2There!  That’s a better photo.

I was glad that Tally was with us…she loves music and sparkles and glitters and singing and dance.

We both (Tally and I) agreed that seeing the beautiful women dancing and twirling was really sparkly and fun!

Your friend,

Linda

 

 

 

The Long Weekend–Sunday, July 6, 2014

What a silly thing to say…a long weekend!  Terry and I are retired and we farm (we retired from our paying jobs, but kept the farm job 🙂 )

All that this means we we either have long weekends constantly or we never have a break…who knows.

Anyway…right after we got all the water set for the day, we loaded up in the McCormick van and headed up to Paonia Cherry Days to watch our second daughter dance. (I will post this in an up coming post)

Coal We watched a coal shoveling contest, (vintage and classic cars, lots of friends, Visited many booths of yummy food, and looked at many things to purchase.

BladeBladen stood in line for over an hour to get a ride on the bungee jump.  He said it was FUN!!!

A much braver soul than I….even if I were his age!

TheHome again, home again…it’s always nice to be home again. We got the water set as the sun was going down.  Nice and tired after a break from the day to day.

Your farm friend,

Linda

 

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday—Happy 4th of July!

Cleaning-out-the-mud(Cleaning the mud out before the water gets there.  Weeds grow fast in the mud and suck up the water and slow the water down.)

Clouds-4Today is the 4th of July!  Fuzzy and I have puppy feet today! First thing we did a go change the water…Dad has water here and there and everywhere!

Mud

I jumped into every mud ditch I could find—heheheheh—makes Mom have to ride with a muddy paws and a muddy belly Beagle!!!

Almost-Late

HAHAHAH!

I just give her a great big grin and waggle my tail back and forth in very happy bursts.  (When I do that she never gets mad at me!)

My-JobMom put Fuzzy down for a spell, but he said he really wanted back up on the 4-wheeler so she put him back up.  He told me the air is better up there…he can smell the breezes and get all the news.

Sickle-MoonThere is a sickle moon right now!  Mom was out taking photos of it, she said she would like to take photos of the moon in all its stages.  Hey, whatever works for you, Mom!  Fuzzy and I are up for anything…well just about anything.  Fuzzy says he isn’t up for going to the groomers.

Tail(That’s my tail—that white spot in the field)

Dad’s alfalfa has really grown…it’s taller than I am now, just my tail gives my position away, it won’t be long when I can get news in the alfalfa field and Mom and Dad won’t be able to see me!  Chuckle, snerk!

No-MY-job(This was me in the field two weeks ago)

We had thunder storms roll in yesterday afternoon.  Fuzzy was in a panic…THUNDER!!! Crack!  THUNDER!

Mom and Dad sat outside under the tin roof and let the hot air cool around them, then the rain splattered down; the thunder rumbled. Fuzzy and I laid right at Mom’s feet.  Fuzzy must have felt secure enough because he went right to sleep.  When I noticed he was sleeping I got up and moved over a short ways and took a little snooze myself.

Pinto-Bean-FieldLater, after the storms moved on, Mom and Fuzzy and I took some photos of the bean field.

Pinto-Beans(And not a weed in site!

Knee-High

(Yep the corn is going to make before frost–it more than ‘knee-high by the 4th of July”_

Then the little family came over and Mom got our annual photo of the corn.

Fuzzy and I didn’t want to get in the corn with Hank and everyone; we sat right by Mom as she took the photos. Even though Dad and the kids called us we didn’t want to go into the corn.  Dad doesn’t like us in the corn until it starts to tassel out!  We were told that enough we BELIEVE it…………….DO NOT GO IN THE CORN…you will break the little stalks!  And there they were….all of them IN THE CORN!!!

Once it tassels out Dad doesn’t care — then I run down all the rows checking out the new, but NOT NOW!!!

Nope not now!  So I stayed with Fuzzy who always stays right with Mom.

Anyway!  Fuzzy and I, Sammy-Sam the Cat, and Monkey the Cat, and yes Mom and Dad wish all of you a HAPPY 4TH of JULY!!!

JobBoomer—Reporter at Large!

Thursday Fences and a Look at the Fields–July 3, 2014

White-fenceI was sitting at the stop light waiting to turn right when I realized that right there!!! Why right there in front of me was a cute fence with colorful roses sitting off it’s charm.  Quickly I pulled out my camera, took a shot just the light turned green and drove on by.

Looking at the photo later I still thought the fence was charming.  It off-sets the family home (which you can just see the corner of the porch roof) and the Antique Shop on the other side of it!

The whole feeling is of a bit of whimsy as a person is sitting at the stop light waiting to move forward with the day.  (The Antique Shop is pretty neat also—one has to remember that we are a fairly young state so the antiques here will not go back to the beginning of America–like you would find in the original Thirteen Colonies! 🙂 )

Corn-Field-1The corn is looking good! (I forgot to get a photo of the pinto beans…will try to do that today.  It should be a no brainer as all I have to do is walk out the front door 🙂 !

AlfalaYou saw the Alfalfa the other day.  I’ll get a photo of the pinto beans so you can see how fast they are growing.

Our days are nice an hot.  Not so hot it is hard to breathe but nicely hot.  We are still have wind in the afternoon…and THAT is a hot wind.  Still it only lasts for four hours then dies down.

For more fences head on over to Teresa’s blogspot!

I’m off to go buy my monthly amount of groceries…lots of nice sales right now because of the up coming Anniversary of our countries Independence from England!

See you in the comments,

Linda

 

 

 

A Perfect Day — Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Up-a-TreeOur grandson, Bladen, loves soccer.  He has played soccer ever since he was in the first grade.  Since the world cup has been on Blade rides his bike over and watches the action with Grandpa. If Blade’s Dad is home he comes over and watches also.  It’s a rollicking good time!

At least once or twice during the day Blade rides his bike through all the fields then stops by to let Hank Puff (their dog) cool off in the canal.  Sometimes he stops by and visits with us, or stays for lunch, or rests on one of the chairs outside.

Next year he will be in the 7th grade.  Next year he will be in Craig.  😦

Up-High

Tally will also ride her bike over, but it is a long, long way when you are only 6 and you have to peddle LOTS to get your little bike from home to here.  Once she is here she wants to watch a cartoon, or play on Grandpa’s IPad.  But her most favorite thing is playing in the tree!

The-Heart

(My two hearts sitting in the garden)

Arrows-2Yesterday, Linky asked Grandpa if he would shoot with her.

(After school was out Grandpa gave Linkin his long-bow.  Earlier, Kelly-their Dad–had made Linkin a long bow from an Russian Olive branch. She adored it!  But being a branch it finally broke…in steps Grandpa with a gift of his Long-bow. She adored it! She practiced every day, getting better and better.  So for her birthday we bought her a bow and some arrows, a wrist guard and a quiver.

Twang She continued to practice.

Yesterday when Grandpa took Bladen home –after the US lost their bid for the World Cup in Soccer and after Grandpa showed Blade how to put a new tube in his bike tire….Linkin asked if she could come up and spend the night and shoot arrows with Grandpa.

BeginningHer smile says it all.

They pretty much tied with the hitting of the target!

EastIt won’t be long now until they move to Craig, Colorado.  By the end of this month.

Blessed we are, Terry and I.  All these days are priceless.

Your Friend,

Linda

 

And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood — Tuesday, July 1, 2014

I am very bless!  Most assuredly I am!

John Myerson recently wrote me to tell me he has added my site to his Family Farmer Support  resource page.  How cool is that!?

Hi,
I recently added your site as a family farmer support site  to my resource page at www.familyfarmer.org
Thank you,

John Myerson.

You can find your site listed here:
http://www.familyfarmer.org/blogs-by-family-farmers/

Kate also sent along these following photos from the Kingdom of Chiconia (smile)

Rainbow-by-KateA rainbow

Rain-cloudsRain clouds

Sun-in-the-cloudsNot just one beautiful sunset

Sunset-in-by-Kate

 

But TWO beautiful sunsets!
I have some other great photos that have come in over the past week, but I think I’ll save them for next Tuesday.

Photo gifts from sea to shining sea!

We’ve started July!  The early summer days.  Hot weather and (continuing) hot winds!  BUT I AM NOT COMPLAINING…I know what six months down the road brings — and it isn’t just my birthday.  😦

Alfala

I’ll leave you with a shot of the alfalfa field…two more weeks and it will be haying time again!

Your Western Colorado Farm Friend,

Linda

 

Warmth for Winter — June 30, 2014

Terry and I have been hauling wood for winter fires.

Heart-4We have three more large box pick-up loads to go then we should be set for those dreary, long, miserable, horrid, nasty, bitter, ugly cold months. (I guess by this sentence you get the impression that I hate winter. 🙂 )

We are hauling pine beetle killed trees…nothing alive, only downed or standing dead tree.

We gather the firewood on Friday’s, which pretty much zonks me for Saturday.  We were both wondering, after this last load, if we can keep this up for several more years or not.  I guess we will just have to have it delivered, if and when that time comes.

(Although, NOW we do have the propane furnace fixed so we have a very expensive back-up if we need it.)

Heart-3

While tossing and sorting I happened to look up and see a very cool site!

Heart-2

A HEART!  I’m going to save this little gift of love and put it some place rather cool in my garden!

Clouds-3A gift of love from nature!

Your friend on a farm!

Linda