I’m still working in my yard. I have the sundial garden about weeded and planted, still have the rose bed to get too and one other huge area and I’m planted! That will be a huge relief…getting everything in the ground!
I have a nice supply of toads this year, I’ve found them in just about every place I been. They are my helpers!
Exhausted but pleased with the results,
Linda
The water at Blue Mesa Reservoir is horribly low….Terry says it is down about the size of the length of a football field. Blue Mesa Reservoir is also an extremely long reservoir—20 miles long.
Taylor Reservoir is still frozen over, but starting to thaw. It is low also, but nothing like this. Taylor Reservoir flows into the Blue Mesa Reservoir along with tributaries from other creeks and rivers.
Going back home (on the way up we went through Montrose to Gunnison then to Almont) we took ‘the long way home’ over the rim of the Black Canyon to Crawford, Hotchkiss, and then Delta.
The Black Canyon is the pathway of the Gunnison River, from which our irrigation and drinking water arrives to us.
We saw lots of deer, some elk, but the best was this Cub…wandering across the road.
He/she was heading to the other side, where Momma was probably waiting.
Having a little trip was really nice…broke up the work so we felt refreshed and able to get ‘back at it’; glad to do so!
Off now to work in the yard. I’m planting. I have cut my amount down considerably…two years ago I had 175 containers in 9 beds. Last year I cut down to 75 containers and nine beds. This year….I’m tired. I have 10 containers and the nine beds which at times still seems too much.
Anyway off to plant!
Linda
Last week we had rain…lovely, lush, wet, rain. Four days of rain. It soaked in 1/2 inch giving much needed life to everything.
Irrigation doesn’t stop just because of rain, mainly because the rain doesn’t really soak in far enough to do tons of good.
But in-between irrigating we had lots of things to do-
When I was chopping weeds along the edge of the fields one evening the sky turned amazingly orange as the storm clouds blew away. The color filled the whole sky and even surrounded Terry on the ditch bank and probably me at the end of the field.
I am always so appreciative of this great big beautiful world we live in, I’m sure you are too.
Enjoy your Monday everyone. See you back here on Tuesday.
Linda
Happy Mother’s Day Everyone!
I have had an extremely busy week, this past week. Please accept my apologies for not commenting on your blogs and for not answering your comments to me. I hope to be much more organized this coming week!
I hope your Sunday is just outstanding!
Your Friend,
Linda
Hey, Buddy!
It sure has been good having you to hang with!
You’ve been around for a long time…
You could even talk to Mom…you had lots of human words you could say…’breakfast, Gram-my, things I never even tried to say, but you would and did!
Your the best, Riles! I don’t know what else to say… I’ll meet you someday again over the rainbow bridge!
Riley (Rils) Roo Brown Rezak August 2005-May 7, 2013
(But Mom says I’m not to be in a hurry)
Fuzzy
It is still raining here. I’m still not complaining, just stating a fact. The weatherman says it will be in here until Sunday and then turn off hot.
Even though it is raining irrigation goes on. The water is set morning and evening. Although we have rain the rain has only soaked into — maybe 1/2 inch of soil —so we continue irrigation. I know it seems illogical but that is how it works. Seeds are planted 2-21/2 inches into the soil, they must be wet to sprout and then after that they must have water to the roots, which are even deeper than where the seed started.
So the irrigation continues rain or shine. The ditch banks are sure slick, I fell twice jumping over the cement ditch with a load of siphon tubes, nothing hurt but wet clothes and more mud. 🙂
Fuzzy was really funny when we went to get gas for the 530…we had a tire in the back we needed to take to dump which he delighted in sitting in.
Silly, cute dogie.
Today I am off for a treat! I am going with my oldest granddaughter on a second grade field trip to Pioneer Town in Cedaredge, Colorado. We will ride the bus together, tour the town together, then we eat lunch at the park and ride back to the school in Delta. Then I will get to take her out and we can have the rest of the afternoon together.
Rather cool, don’t you think?
Hope your Thursday is just as fun!
Linda
Third day of rain…not complaining. We come in wearing mud for shoes.
It’s also cold. We had to start a fire again.
Now if it is just snowing in the mountains……………….
Stagecoach Travel Rules
Linda
I know this is rather daffy, but I have certain fields on our farm that I just, well, LOVE! I enjoy the slope of the land, the color of the soil, how the water flows so rapidly without help…unlike the 1/2 mile field which is always lots and lots of work.
We are in one of those fields right now….complete with a dust devil.
It is middle’n in size, I call it the Middle Field. (it’s a 1/2 mile also, but different) Terry doesn’t like it because it has lots of short rows, (hard for turning the tractor and equipment around in) places where there is gravel, (the water wants to sink instead of flow) and a shallow place he can never get level.
I don’t work with the land/soil like Terry…I work with Terry and the water.
Still there is just something about this field, maybe you can see it with me. Part of the enjoyment is the water is always heading west. Why that appeals I can’t tell you, but it does.
The other hay field has the same layout but not the same feel to it.
Ah, well, I can’t explain why I like this field so much, I just do.
The setting sun was just perfect to show up the Black Canyon of the Gunnison…I hope you can see the canyon.
This was the route the early settlers took coming in to settle Delta…. they started in Gunnison and then drove their teams and wagons along the rim of the Black Canyon arriving in Peach Valley then across the waste land to the the fertile valley by the Gunnison River, now called Delta. (Not as easy as it sounds, but that is for another day.)
I must be off, Dear Friends, as I need to make a run to the gas station for gas for the 530 John Deere…this little darling of a tractor doesn’t use diesel fuel.
Your Friend,
Linda
(And of course, Fuzzy and Boomer)
I was asked a question of whether we have loss of seeds to the birds…no, not really. Since it is very important that all the seeds take –we take extra precautions. Pheasants, Quail, other birds and anybody else that might like to dig up and eat a seed, such as mice and squirrels, raccoon and skunks, we provide a lunch buffet near the end of the field and in selected spots around the edges of the field.
What we do is take any old corn that didn’t make it to market….spread it out by the bucket fulls along the edges. With that much food available we just don’t have hungry critters hitting the rows and digging up the seeds.
We DO have trouble with Deer, Raccoon and skunks went the corn ears get to the ‘just right to eat’ stage. Deer love the silks and the ear, the others love just the fresh ear of corn.
That is where the dogs come in handy. We have had enough trouble just before harvest that we have used a boom gun before…it runs on propane and shoots off a huge SOUND every thirty minutes. The neighbors that don’t farm always get upset at that, but it isn’t a real gun, only a sound and we only have to do it for a week. Then when we see damage we do it again for a few days until the corn is too dry for the animal to chew up comfortably.
Please remember we do not raise sweet corn, but corn for feed and for meal….corn meal. Sweet corn is picked and then rushed along to market at just the perfect stage. Our corn keeps growing until it dries way down in the fall.
So, no we really don’t have trouble with the birds taking the seed out of the ground. The Redwing blackbirds that are following us right now are bathing and playing in the water furrows. They are having a great time!
Thank you, Dear Readers, for your questions. The nice thing about this wide, vast blog world is we are all learning how each of us live in our little spot on the globe. Its all extremely fascinating.
Linda
I wish to THANK each of you for sending wishes of returned health for Riley. Kimberly says he is having some good days right now…with all of your Magic thoughts (and special medicine) we all hope he can turn the corner . We are going to Grand Junction today to see him…and his parents.
Nothing really new here. It’s cloudy today with thunderstorms predicted in the afternoon, those usually play around on the Plateau; sometimes they come in and we get drenched for a few minutes.
I was able to a take a photo of a Western Meadowlark singing…I enjoy their really cool little song.
The Swallows are back…I left the nest up from last year. They seem to be interested in doing some maintenance and redecorating. I see long strings of back horse hair, new feathers and other exciting bits of ‘stuff’.
Another bird I really enjoy and love hearing their songs are the Red-winged black birds.
(This is a horrible photo as I had the zoom out way too far; they fly off if I get too close.
They live over in the Back Forty, but have lately taken to following us as we irrigate. They stay a short distance away, but still rather close playing and ‘dipping’ in the irrigation furrows. Boomer doesn’t chase them (I don’t think he knows he is a beagle) and Fuzzy is too interested in the water to even notice.
It looks like a Robin pair have built a nest in the cottonwood tree (at least I think it might be a Robin’s nest.) I haven’t seen the birds in action, just one day it was there.
The little Hummers are back, but very, very shy of the camera I hope I can get some photos of them this year…a goal of mine.
(He is using the 530 to plant with)
Terry decided to go ahead and plant a new alfalfa field, at this precise point we are 100% planted. But it won’t stay that way as he is taking the old alfalfa field out of production …therefore keeping us as the same percentage. The old field is just too old to produce well, water is just too short to waste on a field of low production.
Well off to chase water!
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 