DONE!!!!
FINISHED!!!
The last load ground up and sent with the neighbor, Sam.
Supper was eaten at 8:00 p.m.
That was okay! Sam has feed for the winter and we are through with the corn!
YIPPEE!!!
Now we move into the maintenance and repair season…known as winter!
Your friend,
Linda
I thought it would be fun to post a few photos for our very quick train trip. I so enjoyed the train trip….Terry not so much (way, way, way too slow for him). I could do it again, just to see the scenery. It is scenery you never see driving in a car, especially on the interstates. We met people who were traveling from the east coast to the west coast…four days and three nights of travel. Some purchased sleeping cars and some slept in the seats of the regular cars.
The food was good, but extremely expensive. $12 for a hamburger with chips, $3 for a drink, although water, ice tea, and coffee was part of the meal. We only ate one meal on the train, but if you purchased a sleeper all of your meals were included—breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I’m always amazed at the engineering feats of those back in the late 1800 and early 1900. We rode on rails laid at the turn of the 1900’s the skills of those men to accomplish such a feat is stunning.
The trip from Grand Junction to Denver has several tunnels in it…I really can’t remember now – somewhere around 40-50, which is sort of cool. And all of this created way, way back when, when the tracks were first laid.
This is Glenwood Springs, Colorado…the river, the interstate and the pool are all in front of that beautiful building
Going to Denver we went to Granby then on to Frazier and Winter Park. At Frazier and Winter Park we had an hour and a half stop waiting for repairs further on down the tracks. Winter Park and Frazier have really grown up over the last 5 or so years…lots on new buildings, mega mansions, and condos. I was surprised. We also had to stop again for thirty minutes which made the train get in 1 1/2 hours late. Coming home we had no stops and arrived on time in Grand Junction.
Leaving Denver we could see the inversion that had settled down over the area. It was extremely cold in the city. We were there only one night, but since we were right on the 16th Street Mall the cold didn’t stop us from having a special time just for us.
There was snow in Glenwood Canyon on the way back, but it only reached the top of the canyon
To be truthful I enjoyed just looking at the highway and NOT driving on the highway! 🙂 🙂
The corn harvest is starting to wind down today or tomorrow we will be finished. HOO RAY!! The weather has been beautiful the whole time. After the combines messed up and all of you put for your collective thoughts Terry was able to fix the thermostat and move steadily forward.
The motor is now using oil so he will have to change it out or over-haul it. That will be the next project…that and checking fences. Thanksgiving is the beginning of pheasant season…we have NOT had any pheasants for several years now (the DOW planted fox in our area so the ground birds became yummy fox food). But hope prevails as he saw two roosters and a hen while he was combining, we hope they are making a come back.
Even though we post the place there are those who don’t care they arrive leaving open gates and tearing down fences in the hopes of MAYBE finding something to kill. With all that in mind we will head out and check and repair and post signs…sometime very soon.
Your farming friend,
Linda
Way back here I promised to show you the photos and tell you a little bit about the Diversion Dam.
The Diversion Dam is where our irrigation water starts (and out potable water for our homes) out of the Gunnison River flowing through the Gunnison Tunnel. This is the dam and the little house is sitting over all the ‘workings’ that move the water from the Gunnison to farms along the Uncompahgre Valley (Un-come-pah-gray…accent on the pah). We live in the lower part of the Uncompahgre Valley…the irrigation water starts flowing through farms in Montrose, then Olathe and finally Delta. The water is used many, many, many times before it flows back into the Gunnison River on it’s way to California, Nevada, and Arizona. Water in our neck of the high desert is not wasted. Water in Colorado protected by law…we can not even catch rain water as all water must be allowed to flow back into the land. This link will show you other people’s photos of the dam and the tunnel.
Anyway, our water starts at Taylor Reservoir flows into Blue Mesa Reservoir and then starts it’s way down the Gunnison to Delta, through the Black Canyon.
Only a portion of the river is diverted at the Gunnison dam. The above photo shows you the water flowing onward after the dam.
The Uncompahgre Valley Water Users manage the water with senior water rights on the river. This house is where the people live who take care of the Dam and the tunnel on this end of things.
The Uncompahgre Valley Water Users and Delta Montrose Electric Association combined forces to start a hydro project on the canal…
You are looking at the gate that takes the water to the hydro.
Water…always a fascinating subject for me… Since I grew up at the foot of Grand Mesa (my father and grandfather had big orchards) water was always a topic of discussion. After getting married to a farmer we continued the water discussion …the one of — is there enough to farm with this year? Always a concern.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy your short trip. It’s always a treat to take people to see where the ‘water’ comes from, water for drinking and for irrigation in our tiny spot of the world.
You Western Colorado Friend,
Linda
Occasionally, readers of my blog share with me outstanding photos. That is one of the delightful joys of blog-land—people sharing bits and pieces of their lives with each one of us.
The three following pictures are from Gary E. West (a local boy who grew up and moved to a big city in Texas).
He was back in the Ouray/Ridgeway part of our world in early October where he took these photos.
Owl Creek Pass
Another of Owl Creek Pass
And Sleeping Indian mountains
Although, winter has now settled down on that part of the world we can still see the brilliant colors
Thank you so much, Gary. And Thank you for letting me share them with all of my readers!
Your friend
Linda
P.S. I took French and college and can only remember tiny little bits of the language…you have to use it or loose it, as they say. I wanted to say in French– Ton amitié m’est très précieuse but I’m not sure if I spelled it right or am saying it correctly, I hope I am. For all of your friendship is important to me.
In October 2010 I came to live with Fuzzy and Mom and Dad.
I picked here!! I could tell by the smells this is where I wanted to be.
I liked Fuzzy and he liked me.
Mom fell in love with me first and then Dad.
So Here I am!
I was five when I got here and now I’m 8!!! Eight years old!
Mom asked me what I wanted for my birthday…she said I got to pick
So I PICKED…………………………………
YOU GUESSED IT!!!
SMELLS!!!
Lots and lots of smells!
So Mom took us for a four-wheeler ride and then a walk.
Fuzzy waited for us by the four-wheeler, he said walking is just too hard…so it was just Mom and I.
We had loads and loads of fun! There were smells here and there and everywhere! Wonderful delicious exciting smells!
Oh!
Guess what!!!
MY knee is lots better! I can even run again! Mom put DMSO on it until I smelled like corn. But my knee is healing! (Mom says if it’s good for a horse then it should be good for a beagle—and it WAS!)
I only limp if I’ve been doing way too much. When that happens Mom gets out the DMSO and puts some on. She doesn’t have to do it as much as when we started, actually hardly at all.
WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
It’s fun being a beagle, living on a farm and having a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
Boomer
Terry got the diesel combine fixed…Which is just wonderful! He thought It was the thermostat…he drilled several holes in the old one, made a new gasket and IT WAS! He got a load and headed into town around 2:30, making two loads in one day. I don’t drive the combine or the truck. I could and would drive the truck but that girl is terribly temperamental….Terry says she is a a girl….I don’t know I could apply the same to guys.
He got unloaded and was back at dark! UNHEARD OF!!
If every thing holds together…the corn will be done in 7 more days! I’ve looked at the weather charts and it looks like the weather is going to stay nice for at least that long. Of course it can always change.
Then Tally started draping herself all around the furniture while I was working giving me huge sighs. I asked her if she was bored and she said she was bored and wanted to go to school.
We called her Mom and she said she could come to school (since she wasn’t contagious) which was good. I asked everyone to come to supper last night, so they did. She looked lots better!
My finger is slow. Like most of you have said I will hit in on everything. I do. I wear a finger guard most of the time, but sometimes I take it off and then have to put it back on. The swelling is down so that is good.
Everyone seems to have found the deer so I won’t post where she is. There were two deer there. The one in the hidden pictures was looking at me in the first one, then she was eating.
The other deer was just sitting up on the little hill watching something in the distance.
Aren’t they pretty?
Well, today everything begins again.
I hope everyone is doing well I hope to get around and visit each of you sometime today!
You friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda
Thank you one and all for the magic thoughts, prayers and good wishes for each and every little problem we are experiencing.
Yesterday after the truck was loaded the chain on the gasoline combine’s hopper broke………AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Which means that today Terry and I will shovel out the hopper into the truck, then he will have to climb under and in to remove the chain….go up to Montrose to get a chain (more than likely it will be me and my little sick granddaughter to get the chain) while he tries to fix the diesel combine. When I get back he hopes to be combining with the first combine as the diesel combine is much cheaper to run. If not…he has to figure out which combine will be the quickest to fix, not necessarily the cheapest.
What a harvest this has been!
The bean harvest was just as bad with the bean combine breaking down. The funny thing about our equipment, is it is so old now that the parts a couple of years ago were cheap…not now…and it isn’t because they are hard to find, it’s because collectors have started collecting the equipment that we USE causing the price of the parts to triple in value.
Go figure.
So here we are…old ‘classic’ equipment, old ‘us’, and everything breaking down. Terry says he either needs to buy some newer equipment or stop farming —the last isn’t going to happen my friends, I can’t even imagine it. He says at 69 you could never farm out the cost of the newer equipment so he guesses he will just have to fix what he has.
Sigh.
Soooo anyway….here we are…Terry is at the elevator with the second load waiting to dump (he has been there since daylight) and I have a sick grandchild sleeping on the sofa. In light of all that I thought something fun would be perfect for the post today.
CAN YOU FIND THE DEER
When we were up at the Diversion Dam I took a couple of photos of a deer in the trees, thinking we could play a game…sort like these two posts awhile back——-
If you can see the deer tell us and also let us know what the deer is doing!
Have fun!
I’ll post the answers in a couple of days!
Your friend,
Linda
Terry started the corn harvest
The day was cold and cloudy, but not windy. He waited until noon to see if the promised rain/sheet/snow was going to come. Since it didn’t he began.
About the time he got half the truck loaded the diesel motor started getting HOT! Stopping quickly (we both hope the motor is okay)…and some long flustered and frustrating minutes he dug out the gasoline combine.
That machine hasn’t ran for years. About two hours later (including lunch) he got it going and was able to finish one load. We parked the truck and covered it for the night just as the wind picked up. (Terry is at the elevator right now waiting to dump the load–he says it will be a long wait — he thinks he will be back around lunch or 1:00 p.m. A four to five hour wait.)
Late in the evening as the wind blew and the rain pelted he was able to get the thermostat off hoping that is the problem, if not sometime this after noon he will work on the water pump…let us hope it is the thermostat and not the water pump or worse yet…Not the whole motor! Please send Magic thoughts for a easy and non-costly fix! What a start to the harvest.
Over night the wind blew, the rain turned to sleet/snow and we woke-up to ice everywhere.
The snow isn’t staying, which is good, although the wind is still bitter and nasty. The weather person says this will blow out of here today with the next 6 days really nice!
That would be great…if things could hang together maybe we would be done in 6-10 days.
Anyway, life goes on. Sometimes the days within are a little brain stretching but we always make it.
I must go now and go pick up a sick granddaughter and take her to the Doctor’s Office, an ear infection. Another request for healing for this little girl so she can go to school her ‘most favorite thing in the whole wide world to do–even better than playing with My Little Ponies’.
Your rather frazzled friend,
Linda
Thank each and everyone of you for your good health wishes! I am doing much better today. It was a little rough with a tremendous headache and an accident with my ring finger on my left hand.
The accident happened when I dropped a large chunk of firewood on my finger against some metal. The wood shattered the fingernail in five pieces, broke the nail off, stabbed the broken nail into the bed of the finger (under that nail). The bleeding wouldn’t stop for ever so long. There is no way to clip off the nail to stop the bleeding…just a mess. The next morning the finger had swollen enough that it pushed the nail pieces upward which relieved the bleeding problem.
I was feeling really sorry for myself when Terry and I went to the store to get a finger guard…a huge necessity…but I can’t wear it because the pad is damaged on the other side…just a mess.
I’m stopping here to tell you a story from my past, so I can finish the story from above.
My mother was born in Texas but grew up in Corona, New Mexico (I don’t think there is much there now). When she grew up it was a pretty nice little town, the railroad went through and lots of people came and went.
Before the Great Depression hit and before the Dust Bowl Days descended, when Momma was still very young. She got it in her head she really wanted some white shoes with a strap across the foot that she had seen in a store window when the family went to Roswell on a shopping trip. She wanted those shoes so bad she even dreamed about them…so she took to pestering Gram and Granddad for the shoes. Day and night she asked. She prayed for them at the table anything to ‘get her point across’.
But Gram and Granddad kept explaining there isn’t enough money for something of that nature, you know the story. But she wore them down and got to go back to Roswell to “GET THE SHOES!”
On the way to the store they meet a man on a flat board scooting along, without any legs or feet!
Seeing the man without any feet made her stop and turn to her parents and tell them she didn’t want the shoes and why.
She said she got some really big hugs and they went and had a Coke at the drugstore then came home.
(She told this to me many times …. so I would understand that what you have is really enough.)
Okay…so here I am really feeling sorry about my finger when (at the check stand) we meet a young man who had two of his fingers all bandaged up. In the conversation we find out that he got his hand in hot tar at his work. Even though he quickly peeled the tar off all the skin was burned from his hand and fingers.
My broken and shattered nail and damaged finger tip was nothing to compare! So I told myself to just plow forward it can always be worse.
And it can!
If the storm doesn’t come in we will start combining either later today or tomorrow morning. Finally!
Once more Thank You so much for your concern!
Your friend,
Linda
Sorry, sick the last couple of days. I hope to be better tomorrow.
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 