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

July 7, 2013

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Dayphoto

I have a pair of birds (of which type I do not know) who have made a delightful little nest in the lilac tree.

They used lots of different things to make the nest including pieces from one of the old tarps we have out by the grain bins. 🙂

I always have to smile when I walk by and look up.

They don’t…both Mom and Dad scream alarms and take off swooping and flying to hurry me on by.

Next week Terry should cut our second cutting of alfalfa… sometime around the 12th or so!

The summer is flying by. Only one more cutting of alfalfa here and then it will be fall.

I am hanging onto every day for I really dread WINTER!

Today is lovely so we are off to see some ancient Indian dwellings. I’ll have photos for you tomorrow (I hope)

Have a good one!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — In the Good Old Summer Time

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Dayphoto

I LOVE SUMMER!

I don’t even care if it is HOT!

Summer and I go together no matter what… there are things to do outside always!

Heck, I don’t even sleep in my dog house in SUMMER!

I sleep out next to the dog house in the cool, cool dirt!

We do lots of stuff in the summer…every day is FULL!

There is helping Dad irrigate … we ride up on the four-wheeler with Mom and then while they set tubes we help stir up the mud in the ditch so it washes away!

Our dog cousins like to hang out in the canal…Boomer and I NEVER go in the canal it would wash us away, away, away.

The little kids play in water also…Boomer, Hank and I have never been invited into that water, but I’ll bet I WOULD LIKE IT!

We always help Mom when she works outside…I like to rest my eyes while she is working. Lots of times Boomer keeps watch to see when Mom moves from one garden to the next garden.

(I have scared Mom a time or two because she says I sleep ‘like the dead’. I’m not sleeping! Hurampf, puff, puff I’m just resting. I always wake-up when Mom touches me and asks if I’m okay. OR GO!! I AM ALWAYS READY TO GO!)

Mom says I have to change sides with Boomer on the four-wheeler because I’ve fallen off twice. On the side I now ride on I can lean on Mom’s back to hold my balance. You see I always Stand UP and sometimes my legs get tired. The way I liked to ride on the other side I just would NOT lean on Mom when I got tired. Now I do.

It has taken Boomer and me a lot of getting use to these other sides, but Mom says We Have to switch so we are learning.

Then when Mom goes inside we go in also. Cool air is really nice when the days are too hot. We are having humidity with our heat now—panting isn’t always cooling ENOUGH!

That is how it is in the Good Old Summer Time!

Fuzzy

The Meaning of Dog Days and a Happy Fourth of July

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Dayphoto

To explain the meaning of the statement of the ‘Dog Days of Summer” — The Old Farmers Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with (at sunrise) the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. The days are associated with very hot weather. Sirius is the “Dog Star” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). Sirius is also the brightest star in the night sky. I know so little about the stars but I learned this long, long ago from my maternal grandfather, William Hobson Thomas. He didn’t use the fancy terms naming the constellations, my curiosity lead me to find that out in high school, but he did tell my brother and I about the Dog star. I could probably do a Google search, but this will have to do.

Our corn is more than knee-high (by the Fourth of July) which is always a good sign. The weeds are growing rapidly also!

Thank-you everyone for the gentle comments about our story on the back page of the Delta County Independent. It was a lovely surprise when Pat Sunderland called and asked if she could do a feature about us.

Anyway, here is hoping that everyone has a great Fourth of July!

Sincerely,

Terry and Linda

Fuzzy and Boomer

Sam the cat and Monkey the cat who never goes outside

July 3, 2013

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Dayphoto

Hummmmm!

Today the Dog Days of summer begin and won’t end until August 11th. I can’t imagine getting any hotter, but I guess we can.

I also was very mistaken about the Orioles not like the humming bird feeder

Robins are one of my favorite birds…I rejoice when they return each spring and feel a loss when they leave us in late summer early fall.

The night camera caught a feral cat that lives on the farm…he/she is extremely wild, but we do see it here and across the road and down at Misty’s.

Sammy doesn’t much care for this cat so I figure it must be a tom.

Heading out to weed, they are growing faster than my plants.

I hope you have a lovely start of the Dog Days!

Linda

July 2, 2013

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Dayphoto

We hit 100* again yesterday…I looked at the long-rang forecast -the next 10 days shows no relief in site.

Please send your thoughts and prayers to all of the grieving families who lost a firefighter in that horrible fire in Arizona…my heart goes out to everyone.

This morning we woke to scattered clouds…which means that the morning starts out a little cooler.

Blade is trying to learn to ride Terry’s unicycle (Terry is multi-talented)…he was suitably astonished at how very difficult it is to balance yourself and GO FORWARD. That is Kelly, Blade’s Daddy, helping Blade.

I still have the 6 hummers (three pair) at my feeders. I had wondered if I would get more, but the territories seem to be set now.

The Orioles have their own feeders (now) so they are not interested in the hummer feeders. I haven’t been able to get anymore photos of them as they seem to be shyer than the hummers.

Once more we had almost a rainbow as the storms played out in the heavens, nothing dropping to the earth since the air is so hot.

Have a good Tuesday everyone, I must get back outside before the heat sucks my energy flat!

Hugs,

Linda

July 1, 2013

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Dayphoto

HAPPY CANADA DAY, to all of my Canadian readers out there!

We were a shade cooler yesterday it only got up to 97*. 97* sounds hot, but not as hot as 105*. It actually felt cooler, once in awhile a cloud would skuddle across the sun giving us a sun break while it was there.

The clouds would randomly look like a few drops of rain might fall, but didn’t. This time of year we have to worry about hail…hail is NOT something you want ever, but to have hail now would strip the leaves from all the growing corn and pinto beans. That would be the end of the crops. Therefore, we watch the sky and pray for rain and wish hail away.

So far we have NOT had hail, which is wonderful.

They are saying this intense heat (which is terribly abnormal) is here for at least another week, the cooling ocean breezes that would move the stagnate air is also stagnated off the west coast…so we wait.

A little gift from the heavens last night was a slight rainbow.

The promise of hope!

Linda

June 30, 2013

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Dayphoto

Still in the blast furnace stage of heat — 105* yesterday.

By 8 in the morning we were roasting, but I didn’t turn on the swamp cooler until 9:00 a.m. I was trying to keep as much natural air in the house as possible. After that we just couldn’t do it.

There are lots of fires around us, one is up by the Silver Jack Reservoir near Cimaron. I would say, maybe 30 miles from Montrose. If memory serves me right it was lighting started.

You are looking at all the smoke around us.

I wish the forestry service (or whoever makes the decisions) would cut down all the dead and dying trees. They really need to get rid off all the fuel for those fires.

When we went to Yellowstone last fall the forests there were clean…nothing dead or in a dying stage. I saw new trees growing in lighting started fire burns, which was really nice to see.

It isn’t just humans that loose their homes or perish in these nasty fires animals do also and then many times they lose their lives.

When I was a child the lumber jacks would find a disease tree — go get the forest service ranger, show him the tree…it was marked…then the loggers could come back in and remove the tree, put it in a separate pile, tests were run on the tree to see why it was sick and what to do about it, then the tree was headed to the mill.

That doesn’t seem to be the case now. It looks like the trees are allowed to die so the bug or disease finishes off the tree — jumps to another tree and proceeded to decimate all of the lovely old trees setting up perfect fuel for a fire.

In talking to a ranger a while back and relating what I just said, he told me that the idea (I may get this a little off) is to let the forest take care of itself —so to speak. If one species dies then the fire will clean the land so new can grow. That maybe so, but watching these lovely old trees (here in Colorado it takes a long, long, long time for a tree to grow) die is really sad to me. (If any ranger or forest manager is reading this maybe you could leave us a comment so we can understand—understanding often helps.)

Anyway, the following is an older photo of where the Silver Jack Reservoir resides…beautiful country up there and extremely rugged.

We had a slight rainfall last night. Really nothing to speak of lots of wind and a few splatters then it blew on leaving us behind.

But it left us a touch of a rainbow! My first of the summer!

Well the day is waiting and I must get out there and get my watering done before the horrendous heat saps me and everything else.

Hugs,

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — The Heat Shimmers

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Dayphoto

We made it to OFFICIAL summer!

And it is HOT!

Not just any hot, but HOT, HOT, HOT!

It was 107* in Grand Junction yesterday and 102* here.

The heat shimmers off the land – even the crops look wilted and tired. On top of all that we have HOT—I MEAN HOT wind.

Although, when the wind stops no one can breathe….yesterday the wind stopped, that is how I know. Why even the chickens are panting. (Have you ever saw a chicken pant? The pant just like a dog…while their mouth is open their necks move instead of their tongues).

Fuzzy and I pant and pant and pant. Mom and Dad irrigate and Fuzzy plays in the water. Mom even picked me up and put me —! ME! — In the water.

I hate water.

But…gosh…it was well…NICE!

Then we rode on the four-wheeler and dried off.

After that we had to go to town so Fuzzy and I begged and begged and begged so WE got to go with Mom and Dad.

The heat is rather wearing but getting to go for rides

PRICELESS!!!!

Not only is it HOT, it’s also DRY!!!

Thanks for stopping by …. This coming week is the 4^th of July…(Fuzzy hates the fireworks) but we just might not have some here as there is a fire ban going on….Mom said we will have to call City Hall and find out.

Everyone have a nice and safe and fun holiday!

Boomer

June 27, 2013

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Dayphoto

When we were up at Lee’s Reservoir a few days ago I took a photo of this beautiful old tree.

I’m really not sure what type of pine tree it is, maybe Ponderosa or possible Yellow pine

There was just something about it…the gnarled old trunk…the top, which was damaged at some point as it grew…that spoke to me.

I just have to share it with you…

It sure would be a lonesome world without trees, wouldn’t it?

Linda

June 26, 2013

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Dayphoto

Our sour cherries are ready. I love those things! (Not just me, but every bird in a 5 mile radius….I have to be quick to get what I want as the birds are thick in the trees.)

Not only are the sour cherries good for pies; but sour cherry juice is good also. I boil the juice down until it is a thick as I can get it. Then I bottle it up waiting for the time I make Sour Cherry Ice Cream!!!

This ice cream definitely has a tart cherry flavor, not a sweet cherry, not a maraschino cherry. It’s got depth of flavor and cherry pucker to it. Some people will not like it at first then ask the next year if you will make it again. 🙂

Here is my recipe:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup instant vanilla pudding

3/4 cup cherry juice (you can also find cherry juice concentrate in the grocery stores)

2 tsp vanilla

Combine the cream and milk in a large bowl

Add the sugar and instant vanilla pudding. Beat until no lumps remain.

Add in the cherry juice and the vanilla.

THE SECRET —- Refrigerate the ice cream base for at least two hours, or up to overnight.

THEN Freeze in an ice cream maker.

When the machine finishes, scrape the ice cream into a one quart container and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours to ripen and finish hardening.

Yield: 1 quart

Yumm!

Hope you enjoy!

Linda