Fuzzy and I have a theory….if Mom takes a photo of you, you get a new home!
Well, NOT Fuzzy and I, but the dogs we walk. (What we do in our spare time)
First there was Red and Gypsy and Helen, then Shorty
and the puppy, now we have Amber.
(She told us that isn’t her real name, just some made up name to make the Shelter people happy.)
We don’t walk all the dogs Shannon walks, or all the dogs Mom walks, but we do walk the dogs that Mom and Shannon think can handle being on the farm and well….out in the open.
Mom says some dogs are so used to town life the big countryside would scare them.
First we walk to meet Shannon, who stops at Misty’s and gets Hank. Then we all run to meet each other….then we all run BACK to Shannon.
If there is another dog to run with…
WHEEEHOO!
Introductions take a little time.
Then off we go.
Houston and I are hounds so we don’t spend lots of time with everyone.
Mom says we miss out of ‘stuff’, but that is just her opinion.
Everyone walked up and saw what Dad was working on, Fuzzy thought about staying and keeping Dad company; he said Dad needed him. But after we got started he decided to come. Mom says it takes Fuzzy some time because he gets tired and has to rest.
While he rested we looked for mice…
Hank thought he found some…
This time Amber came to walk with us. Amber is a Redbone Hound. How cool is that!?! Another HOUND! Houston and I loved having another Hound. She had to stay on the leash though, because, well, because she IS a hound. And she is a coon hound! And we have LOTS OF RACOONS!!!!
Mom and Shannon didn’t want to lose her somewhere in the upper reaches of our property and never find her again.
Fuzzy and I want all you and your magic thoughts to send the perfect family to the shelter for Amber. She is a really nice Hound…
WHO WOULDN’T WANT A HOUND!!
Thank you,
Boomer
I was excused from work this day.
Told I wasn’t needed.
Said it would go faster now and I could stay at the house and get ‘stuff’ done there.
I didn’t complain.
He was right.
When I went up in the late after noon he was over half-way done.
He thinks he will finish up today…tomorrow at the latest.
Which is good, because we are supposed to have a rain storm Thursday(tomorrow) and snow of Saturday.
If he can get done today the rain will help settle the soil around the pipe and into the trench. After that we will know how much dirt we will have to bring up from the back side of the place to fill in what has settled.
Linda
We have decided that, to ease the work-load for next year, all of the transmission ditches need to be put underground.
Transmission ditches only carry the water from one place to the next place, they don’t have to be open ditches for a person to use siphon tubes to water the actual fields.
The time in managing the open ditch is huge, you have to make the ditch, keep the ditch clean of trash and weeds and deep enough, with enough slant, so the water will flow. It’s an all season job, which sometimes gets away from us. The water, with the weed seeds gets a start and then this is what you get.
A mess.
The mess takes up some of the water for themselves and the sun takes more, so by August how many tubes or gates you get to use starts to shrink.
We have several transmission ditches.
Gradually, every year (pipe costs lots of money) the transmission ditches have been going underground.
The first two years Terry dug the ditches by hand, last year he rented a backhoe and dug it that way. But this year, after putting pencil to paper, we hired Troy Wells to come out and dig this ditch.
(Besides I don’t think – at our ages – we should be doing all the work!)
Terry got everything ready so all that had to be done was the digging.
The work was excellent!
All the top soil (because we are going down a road-the one that goes to our head gate and to the upper end of our place) was put on one side of the trench, the good farming soil on the other side. The sides were squared and the bottom flat…very little hand work had to be done. Just at the top where the transmission pipe connects with the first artery of that system.
And that WAS a job!
The it was up to us. Get a pipe, lay in the trench, get another pipe, glue them together, make sure the fall of the land is still good, if not take a shovel and shovel the spot until perfect, put another pipe in,
(Jump out so a picture or two could be taken. But don’t do it too often or the “Boss” will get upset for goofing off!)
Then…THANK HEAVENS FOR BIG MACHINES…Terry would start dumping the good farm soil back into the trench. Here the test is to make sure the dirt lands on TOP of the pipe, not on one side or the other causing it to roll.
A good job! The pipe did not roll and we did not have to get back in and shovel off the dirt and re-align the pipe.
Thank goodness!
We had lots of help!
I guess you know what we are going to be doing the rest of today and the rest of this week.
Have a great Tuesday everyone!
Linda
We got to go watch our youngest grandchild’s dance recital.
She was so excited that she had to repeat part of the dance routine at our house later.
(That is her Aunt Kimi, watching from behind.)
Some things are way magical no matter if you are 4 or 63!
Linda
The morning sunlight is always a welcome site, when a person gets up before the dawn.
Gradually the sun starts to light up the sky. (The flash of the camera made enough light you can see all the fore-ground ‘stuff’)
As I open up the hen house, feed the chickens, put out new water for them, the sky show more and more light.
By the time I get all the firewood loaded and heading back to the house to start up the fire
The day has arrived.
Then I forgot to go back out and get the sun actually up, because I got busy with the fire and starting breakfast.
What a glorious world we live in!
Tomorrow we start digging up ONE of the transmission ditches and laying down pipe. Should make for a lot easier season farming next year.
(Oh, yes, Terry has decided to farm one more year. Are we surprised? Although, he is still pondering if he should do pinto beans..they take a huge amount of energy (his) at harvest time.)
And, of course, if there is water to farm with!
Have a really nice Sunday!
Linda
Yesterday was the day from hell!
Always the most miserable day of my life!
IT WAS THE DAY OF THE GROOMER!
I would MUCH rather go to the VET’s than the groomer’s.
As the vet’s I’m told to get on the scale…sit, Good Boy, have a cookie.
Follow Mom and come in here.
Then Mom puts me up on the table and the Vet comes in and feels all around, she does poke and prod but I can handle it. Then Mom takes me off the table and the Vet gives me another cookie. Sometimes I get a shot, but they never hurt.
Then out the door we go. Not bad, not bad at all.
I don’t mind the Vet, mostly because MOM IS WITH ME!!!
At the groomer’s we – Boomer and I go in – we have to sit in a cage. BUT AT LEAST IT IS TOGETHER!!!
The first time they tried to put me in a cage by myself I screamed and cried and howled the whole time. If Boomer is with me I just shake and wait in the farthest reaches of the cage until MOM COMES BACK!!!!
The groomer gives me a bath and the ‘squeeze’ (which I don’t mind) then I get a blow dry, (which I don’t mind) then I have to get the brush and cut (which I don’t mind) and go back in my cage and wait while Boomer goes through the whole experience.
What I do mind and what makes me so worried is—WHERE IS MOM?!?!? Once she comes back (THREE HOURS LATER) I’m so excited I peel out and run for the door. Mom leaves the car door open for me so I run through the groomer’s door and head right into the car.
I don’t mind waiting in the car…I know MOM will be there shortly!
Yes! I am a Momma’s Boy and Proud of IT!!
Fuzzy
Bladen and I are born in January, one week apart. We are both gaining a year this coming January!
He is a delightful little boy, but growing rapidly now. I can see huge changes in him. The changes really started in the fourth grade, but now he is in the fifth grade and the changes are immense. Next year will be the 6th grade and then onward to Jr. High and High School.
The years are going by.
It makes me really sad to see him growing so fast, but it is also really exciting to watch him developed into the young man he is going to be.
He is always willing to come over and help me with really hard yard work, or to help Grandpa with some sort of chore.
For instance when we were putting the roof on the house he helped scrap off the old shingles and then helped pull the nails that were left after the shingles came off.
Having grandchildren close by is full of lots of good, for them and for us!
Linda
I know we are giving the grandchildren memories. I so remember both sets of my grandparents.
As I grow older I have even clearer memories.
Like our grandchildren we lived just up the orchard from our mother’s parents and a mile from my father’s mother and her second husband.
The small things are the real joy…they are memories that stay forever.
Linda
Tommy!
Tommy is a Royal Palm Turkey!
Isn’t he beautiful?
Tommy is also a rescue turkey.
He isn’t my turkey, he belongs to Shannon. Our oldest daughter that has the two Rottweilers and Princess Houston the Mountain Cur.
Shannon also volunteer’s (with me) at the Animal Shelter as a dog walker. Although, she has been known to be a kennel cleaner and a vet runner. She likes to be there to just love on the dogs and cats so winds up doing many other things. (She does have a full-time job, just to let you know)
But this is a tale about Tommy.
One day, when Shannon and Buddy were driving around in the countryside they saw a sign that said turkeys for sale. Not ever having a turkey (or three) they thought a cool thing would be to get a live turkey.
There were many turkey’s , you could pick out what you wanted, pay for it and go. As they were looking around they saw Tommy and two hens in a very tiny, itty-bitty wire cage. It was so tiny they were stacked in there together–hen, tom, hen. The feathers were wore off of Tom and his chest was bare of all feathers, the hens were scrawny.
When asked why these three were in such a tiny pen, they were told there wasn’t enough room for all of the turkey’s so he had them in this pen until he could make room for more birds.
So….for a price– the cage and two hens and Tommy came to live in animal heaven with the three dogs, two cats, 8 hens and just found rooster-Jethro.
Sadly the hens didn’t make it. But Tommy did!
What a wonderful turkey he is. I have been around very mean turkey’s, but Tommy isn’t one of those kind. We all pick him up, carry him around, the little kids pet him, and he even walks over into the onion fields and drums from the workers over there.
We do have to go get him and bring him home because Tommy is never destined to be on someone’s table.
So, as you can see, he is now a completely healed and a very magnificent bird!
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 