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 on Friday — Helping Dad Harvest

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Dayphoto

On the way to the bean field …..

FREDDY FOX RAN RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!!!!

Fuzzy and I took off running, leaving Mom in the dust!

He was so close his fur almost touched my nose!

Boy, was I surprised and shocked!

Fuzzy and I IMMEDIATELY took off after him, giving him the good old, HI HO chase clear to the end of the corn field, where we immediately lost him!

That was Amazingly FUN!

Back at the bean field I kept sniffing out Freddy Fox’s former tracks…

he even went through the pipe at one point now that the water is gone.

Mom and Dad got the bean truck all loaded up….they have to wait until next week as the three fields left to be harvested are still drying.

Here is one of the fields.

See how fluffy the beans are…they have to get a lot flatter and drier.

Fuzzy and I go everywhere with Mom

We rode in the back while we headed toward the Beanery.

Dad was in front.

We enjoyed the whole experience.

I even like to ride now. Fuzzy smiles all the way, I don’t smile, you get bugs in your teeth and dirt from the load, but I did have a great time.

We had to wait our turn to be weighed and then we came home.

Dad is over there today with the last truck to unload and then he will be back.

Farm Living is the Life for me!

Boomer

Harvesting Pinto Beans

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Dayphoto

Of course you have to hook everything up to the tractor. Terry likes to use the 730 to pull the beans

That thing on the front is the bean puller…here’s a better photo of it

Then the bean blade

The puller lifts the beans up and the blade cuts them off

Moving down the field everything is pushed together into rows

The rows are allowed to dry for week (unless it rains, then a mess occurs)

All pulling of the beans occurs in the morning, while the dew is still on the plants. If you look you can see how dry the bean pods look. They are very dry. A little dew holds the pods together so they don’t shatter and spill the beans into the ground. If a pod shatters and the beans spill, that is then end. There is not a way to pick up the beans from the dirt.

After a week. It’s time to start combining. Combining is ALWAYS after lunch. You don’t want the plants to be wet and clump in the combine and cause a wad mess. You also don’t want wet beans going into the combine and molding. If you deliver wet beans to the beanery (where they sort, sack, and sell the beans) they will refuse your load.

For a farmer that is money and time lost.

Dry beans for the combine only!

We are not big farmers and our equipment is not new, but it is paid for and Terry knows how to fix it if something goes wrong. He also has a small combine herd of combines that he uses for parts since our stuff is really dated.

Here the combine is picking up two rows of a time and shelling them and putting the beans in the hopper

The weeds and the bean straw is flung out the back

Leaving just the straw behind.

Once the day turns to evening and the cool comes on, the farmer must stop. Lots of time the lights run until the operator just gets too tired and calls it a day.

The hopper of the combine is dumped into the bin of the grain truck

When the truck is full, but no over flowing it will be driven to the beanery about 5 miles from our home. The trash you see in the beans (weed leaves that made through the trasher into the beans) will be screened out. Then the beans are sacked ready for market.

But first….we got to get them there!

After we get done with the pintos our next crop to harvest will be the corn. But that won’t be until the end of September.

Linda

The End of the Irrigation Season

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Dayphoto

This morning at 6:45 Terry called the ditch rider and turned the water off. We are done until next spring.

He is pulling beans as I write this.

Harvest is happening!

Linda

Rain and Rainbows!

Posted on September 3, 2012 by Dayphoto

Although, we are doing pinto beans, we keep having little storms pop-up. So far the rain hasn’t stayed or pushed the beans into the mud.

(Which would be horrible, you can’t get the beans out of the mud so the crop is lost.)

But we have been blessed and only received the the gift of the rain.

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Linda

Sun Rays for Sunday Stills

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Dayphoto

Our next assignment from Sara is — “light and how you use it is one of the most important aspects of photography. Let’s play with some interesting natural light this week. Rays of sunshine can be found during the sunrise, sunset or even just beaming through a window during the day. Of course, if it rains all week, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing for much of the country either ;-) “.

So for my Sunday Stills I give you

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Sun Rays (and one photo of a neat rainbow, although we didn’t get rain someplace around us must have.)

Perfect!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Fuzzy Plays a Trick on Boomer

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Dayphoto

It’s fall here!

Thank Heavens…June and July has been hugely unpleasant…searing heat, brutal winds, lots forest fires and No rain.

Lots of colorful plants starting to show up, and the rain! Plus now we have mosquitoes. That isn’t good, but we will take it.

But that’s okay; Boomer and I are really enjoying ourselves!

Although, I have to admit, when Hank shows up, or any of Shannon’s dogs, Balou, Rock (two Rottweilers) and Huston (the most beautiful dog in the world) Boomer sorts of forgets what we were doing and goes off with his head cut off, so to speak.

Let’s see by his self, Boomer is intelligent, courteous, and resourceful, but when others show up, simple things, like going for a walk to the upper-end turns into a five-hour energy drink.

First Boomer and Hank, and Balou and Rock have to pee on everything.

And I do mean EVERYTHING… their Mom and my Mom have to make sure they move quickly through the yard, past all of Dad’s equipment, the sheds, the tires on every piece of vehicle and the grain bins.

I don’t know what is worse…tires or the grain bins for being pee magnates.

I’ve tried to keep up with them, but my leg doesn’t raise real high anymore so I have to settle for a shot in the dark. Sometimes that’s not good…I miss. Where I’ve been aiming I sometimes get myself. 😦

Mom told me I don’t need to keep up with everyone and just walk with her, then I don’t have to ‘raise the leg’ all the time, so speak.

Mom says all the dogs’ together act like a pack of boys—joking, poking, wrestling, and laughing. Only with us dogs, it’s sniffing, running into the corn to follow a sent, jumping into the canal (only Hank, Balou, and Houston like to jump into the canal). But they make a huge splash when they do it.

Boomer and I don’t jump in and neither does Rocky…Rocky’s hip hurts so jumping into way-over-your-head, very fast running water is not something he likes to do, then climbing out a grass covered slick, steep side of the canal isn’t fun either.

Boomer doesn’t like water.

I don’t even get in the irrigation ditches anymore, it’s for sure I won’t do the canal. My 40 pounds wouldn’t last long in that thundering mess.

Then Boomer and Houston (she is a hound breed also) take off baying and following who knows what. Sometimes they forget how far they travel and we have to wait while Mom and Shannon holler until they come back.

Walks like that are Bizarre!

The ones I like the best are the ones with just Boomer and I and Mom. We find lots of stuff to look at; Boomer has learned to travel off but not go too far as he might miss out on something.

At the end of all our fields are waste ditches…these are the ditches that take the water, which is running through the fields, back into the canal.

I really like these ditches…they are just right to jump in and chase bubbles and cool your feet off.

So yesterday I was doing just that as Boomer was sniffing around to learn what he could learn. At the culvert I decided to play a trick on Boomer…I stuck my head into the culvert, came back out, looked at Mom and barked like something really neat was in there.

Mom threw a little clod of dirt into the water so I barked again…Boomer had to come running to see what was up…

Mom threw a clod at the other end of the culvert…

Boomer stuck his head to see if he could see something really cool.

So I barked real loud and scared Boomer.

He jumped as high as Mom’s knee….

We all had a great laugh…even Boomer…he rolls with everything! Boomer is so much fun!

After we walked home, Mom, Boomer and I cut the sweet corn stalks from the garden to take them to Mom-mom’s goats!

Oh, yes…and Mom saw a RAINBOW!!

Make it TWO rainbows!!

Fuzzy

Nearing the End

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Dayphoto

We are nearing the end of the irrigation season. The water for the pinto beans has been stopped, the alfalfa field has been watered and the last round of two is now in the corn.

Terry will start pulling the pintos either today or tomorrow morning, depending on the dew. The pinto beans MUST be pulled in the dew so the pods do NOT shatter and the beans fall to ground to be lost forever.

Last night the dogs and I sat 23 rows of siphon tubes while Terry was at a meeting.

The sky was lovely.

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Linda

When Walking the Shelter Dogs

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Dayphoto

When walking the shelter dogs, yesterday morning, these returning birds made a great landing and settled in for the long winter stay.

These Canada Geese picked Confluence Lake Park to settle in and rest up a bit. Later in the morning they will head to Confluence Lake.

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It won’t be long now when we will see them in the harvested sweet corn fields.

They will have to wait for the feed corn and some of the pinto bean fields to be harvested, but they can settle down in some of the onion fields as they are going to market.

Hummm, I forgot…pinto bean harvest has started here for some of our neighbors. If the weather holds (no rain for two weeks) our pinto beans will be harvested and at the Beanery ready for purchase.

Linda

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Dayphoto

We had a very busy and exciting day yesterday.

By 7:30 in the morning we were headed to Ouray, Colorado, to watch the Hard Rock Drilling Contest.

Ouray was first known for all of it mining, way back when, and that mining was for gold and silver. Hard Rock Mining. As far as I know there is no coal in ‘them thar hills’.

Today there are very few mines operating….although, there is still ‘lots of gold’ in the mountains surrounding Ouray. Mostly Ouray is now a wonderful place to visit, hot springs, good food, and outstanding scenery.

The drillers come from all over.

Yesterday, was the second day of the contest, we didn’t stay for every thing since we had been invited to our daughter and son-in-law’s place that evening for a yummy supper.

The above photo is of the bootleg jack contest

The last contest we got to watch was the mucking machine

This guy was so sure and steady that his dirt never spilled out of the cart and he filled it in record time.

Cliff got a smoker for his birthday this year. He invited us down to each smoked BBQ Pulled Pork and Turkey. Chef Cliff did a great job!

Photo stolen from Cliff’s FB page! THANKS! CLIFF!
Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Insects

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Dayphoto

Just like all of you everywhere, we have insects…big ones, little ones, ones who stink, ones who just crawl on you and make your fur have icky feelings, some which bite…like spiders and some with stingers!

Where we live we don’t have scorpions, although they do have them in Peach Valley and I saw one once. They sure are pretty creepy to look at….that tail thing that swings up, up, up….just as I was about to give it a good sniff Mom got there and pulled me away. She tried to stamp on it but it scuttled real fast under a log.

For shear creepiness there are centipedes ….Boomer found a couple of those under a log in the canyon. He even yelped and ran off a tad then barked at the log, making Mom think he got stung, but he didn’t he was just was letting Mom know some creepy critter was under the log.

There are some HUGE centipedes in the canyons around us, Mom says, but Boom and I haven’t seen any.

Which is real good!

There are black widow spiders and brown recluses here also. A friend of ours, died from a brown recluse bite. She was a real beauty of a German Shepard. We still miss her.

There are the honey bees, of course, they have stingers. But they pretty much leave Boomer and I alone, we aren’t sweet enough for their tastes.

But the ones I don’t like are the Yellow Jacket Wasps. I snap at them if they get too close to me and my sleeping spots…my dog house, for example.

Boomer usually just tucks tail and tries to run away from them.

Now Yellow jacket Wasps really like houses, they set up their house anywhere they can along the eves of our main house. Mom is really steady about keeping them off eves and out of any holes and cracks she can find. Sometimes those angry bugs even try to make a home in the ends of the pipe holding up the clothes lines…they don’t last long there either.

For the first part of summer and the second part of summer those yellow striped winged stinger bugs pretty much mind their own business. But come AUGUST they change. They start getting pretty darn serious about figuring out where they want to spend the winter and they get MEAN about it.

This means — THEY STING!!

Mom sometimes put vinegar on our noses (or other places) or a paste of baking soda and water, but if I snap at one and I get stung in the mouth…well, there doesn’t seem to be much Mom can do for me.

Yellow jacket wasps are everywhere right now. Mainly because they have to hurry as fall is coming on and coming on fast. I don’t care if the calendar says it is still the third week in August and the heat is supposed to be sitting heavy on the land, the land itself is saying it’s fall…late September early October…somehow we missed August.

Maybe we had July and August all at once…it sure was hot enough for such a thing to happen in July.

Mom took the following photo yesterday so you can see how much fall is on the land.

LOTS!