The weatherman is saying that our rain is leaving…which is okay. It’s time to cut the second cutting of alfalfa. Actually, Terry is out there right now cutting the alfalfa so we really don’t need rain for about a week or so.
Still the rain we had was lovely, delightful, and ever so refreshing
Hope our rain makes it to those of you who need it!
Linda
Just in time to cool all of us down, Ed’s assignment this week for Sunday Stills is to remember winter.
Click on the link to see more refreshing winter photos!
Linda
Now as everyone knows, it’s been hot here!
Hot and dry!
Dry and Hot!
Did I tell you it has been very hot and dry here?
Well, it has.
Still the work has to go on.
We are still changing water every eight hours.
Boomer and I LOVE to change water.
We were out with Mom and Dad changing water last evening when Boomer hollered that Pete and Polly were over at the old apricot tree!
I didn’t go see them; the bubbles in the water were more fun.
Boomer said he just barked “Hello” and went on his way…there were lots of things to smell out in the equipment yard:
You know lots and lots of news.
A whole bunch of storm clouds blew in around the two o’clock setting that afternoon.
It cooled down real nice.
Then suddenly the heavens broke loose…thunder, lightning (shudder, shiver, pant, panic) and big wind. Boomer and I headed indoors to be with Mom. Thunder doesn’t bother Boomer at all. Nothing really bothers Boom, outside of some men and some boys in caps and the garage other than that…he is always happy!
While we were inside it rained!!
Yippee! Mom and Dad were so happy they sat outside and watched it rain. Lots of rain, really nice rain! (Oh and when they went outside I (and Boomer) had to go outside with them (shudder) because I am NOT leaving Mom when there is thunder in the sky!!!!
EVER!
Then Mom saw it……
A RAINBOW! Just as the sun was starting to set!
“A perfect ending to a perfect day”, Mom said.
Just then the phone rang….it was Mom-mom, seems that Hank Puff met Pete and Polly.
(Taken with a cell phone)
Which reminds me, we did hear Hank sort of barking and yipping down at his house, but since there was so much thunder I didn’t really listen to him.
I keep telling that boy, he can’t chase everything, nor can he bite at everything.
(taken with a cell phone)
Boomer asked me later, just as we were going to sleep…
“Fuzzy?”
“Hummm?”
“Do you think Hank Puff has learned his lesson about trying to catch everything that walks close to him?”
“I don’t know, Boomer. I really don’t know”
Fuzzy
So far so good!
It’s cooler today! Which is wonderful, by the way. Yesterday we went from 100* weather down to 62* in 6 hours. Lovely!
No fireworks for anywhere in the state of Colorado!
I think that is the first time in either Terry’s or my memory that, that has ever happened!
But better safe than sorry!
The cloud cover over the hot, scorching, drying sun is fireworks enough.
Today is cloudy and nice 69* as I write this. Terry is out cultivating the pinto beans while I sit here playing on the computer 🙂
Oh well, when I get done I must go water my plants and clean out the hen house, so this little break is okay.
Linda
Right after the Zip line tour we headed up to Buena Vista, Colorado. The kids had given us two night stay at the Cottonwood Inn and Spa. Because of the farm we thought we would do one stay in the summer and one this coming winter.
We went from extreme thrill to a haven of rejuvenation.
We had great food in Buena Vista, (the Inn doesn’t serve food) soaked and thought of nothing stressful, slept, got up soaked again. Then headed home.
Linda
We got to Salida to go on our pre-arranged trip on the Captain Zipline tours, but while we were eating it started to rain! RAIN! We have not seen rain in our part of Colorado for months and months and not even a wet snow last winter.
So having this really neat rain was well WONDERFUL! The zip-line tour had to be canceled until the next morning at 9:30, but who cared! Salida got about 60 minutes of really nice rain. They told us this was the first good rain they have had in a very long time.
The next morning we were at the loading dock paid and ready to go…it’s a fifteen minute drive to the mountains and canyons where the zip-lines were located.
I thought I would NOT be able to do this…..attach myself to wire and fling myself off a canyon wall to zip over the wire to the next side of the canyon….but I did it!!!!
What a hoot!
We rode all seven (counting the bunny training line)!
The group we were with was lots of fun and our guides were very good. The whole thing was hugely fun.
I recommend it for everyone…and if you can’t stand heights…well, just keep your eyes shut!
I did for the first two…the last five were incredible!
When we got back into Salida it rained again…for 15 minutes. How delicious it felt!
We called Misty and asked if home got any rain.
No, no rain.
Not even a dark cloud.
While we were in Salida, a fire started close to home. That is the Pine Ridge fire at Debeque, Colorado. (Lightening caused)
Debeque is between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, if you want to check it out on the map.
Many of you have asked how close that is to us…it’s about an hour and 15 minutes away…around 60 miles. Grand Junction is experiencing lots of smoke from the fire, but we are up the way…. East from Grand Junction, so we only see the smoke as it bellows over the mountains and canyons west of us.
Tomorrow I will tell you about Cottonwood Springs.
Happy Monday Everyone!
Linda
We took off Wednesday and headed over to Salida and Buena Vista, Colorado. We were in-between the next set of work on the farm. The only thing having to be done was the irrigation, which Misty did for us — 6 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, 10 at night. Bladen helped.
A little vacation was what we needed!
Three days and two nights.
We only had one spot of road construction going over Serro Summit toward Salida. We only saw one wreck (which was great –and it looked like no one was hurt). Traffic was light.
Everywhere is dry, dry, dry.
Coming back we headed on out of Buena Vista, Colorado, over Cottowood Pass toward the headwaters of our irrigation system…..Taylor Lake.
Wouldn’t you know it?! There was my Sunday Stills Photo Op—-
A twenty minute wait while they blasted through rock while widening the road.
Everything was extremely dry.
While we were there we experienced two rain storms. One lasted an hour and the other 15 minutes. We were delighted!
Also, while we were there we met many people from Colorado Springs who had been evacuated from the Waldo Canyon Fire and others who had come over from Fort Collins to get away from the smoke.
Also, while we were there we found out that the Pine Ridge Fire had started in our neck of the woods. The smoke is terrible in the Debeque Canyon and in Grand Junction. We can see the huge dark plums rising over the mountains.
So Sad! So very sad.
Hopefully the rains will start soon. Those two showers we experienced were just plain delightful!
Anyway, for great photos of roads head on over here and check out the comment section, click on everyone’s name and see some great roads from here, there, and around the world!
We are always wanting others to join us so please do! You will be welcome. Just leave Ed a comment on next week assigment and a link to your website so every one can find you! Then link your site to the Sunday Stills site!
Have a great Sunday everyone!
We don’t have cows anymore.
Nope, Dad sold them.
“This is too bad” — according to Mom, “because we have lots of grass this year.”
Dad said, “Yes, and no fences!”
Oh…that’s right!
Cows eat grass. That’s why ranchers raise lots of grass — because they usually have lots of cows (and sometimes sheep or other grass eating animals).
We live on a farm and Dad kept cows so they could eat the grass on the land that he couldn’t get a tractor on.
Cows love grass.
They eat grass even when they aren’t standing up eating grass; they eat grass when it looks like they are chewing gum. That’s because they swallow their food (grass and weeds) whole and then (this is the really good part) they burp it back up and eat it again and then swallow it again. That’s because they have many chambers to their stomachs.
I would like to burp back my food, but it doesn’t work that way for us dogs. We burp it back up and it just comes on out of our stomachs and mouths and lays there on the ground all wet and gooey. Of course, we eat it again. But it doesn’t work like ‘cud’ does for a cow.
One thing the fire did is burn off all the old grass then the new grass came back nicely.
We got lots of nice thick grass.
And some Sweet Clover! Mom loves the smell of Sweet Clover, the honey bees like it too, so us dogs stay away from Sweet Clover, we just take Mom’s word for it that it smells good.
Dad, Mom, Boomer and I all rode around checking everything out.
Sure was fun.
Crops are looking good!
Beans are getting more leaves…Dad says he will have to cultivate soon, and maybe one more time. After that all the spring equipment will be put away until another year.
Corn is getting tall.
And the alfalfa is greening up starting to grow again after the first cutting of hay.
The wind sure has been bad…hot and windy.
It gets in your eyes and your ears and even up your nose if you don’t lie in a hole. You have to get lower than the wind, ya see!
We have lots of haze here because of all the fires burning in Colorado and Utah …. Everything is just way too dry.
So last evening Dad took us out to the North Delta Ditch…we were all bored…and he drove around on the ‘dobies for a while….Boomer and I loved that!
Really cool smells out there!
Mom says we are officially into summer now…something about the solstices or something like that.
It’s been feeling like summer since the first of May if you ask me!
Fuzzy
I think there are three in there, but Momma and Daddy were so stressed out by me and my big old camera they were hollering all sorts of warnings.
Nothing popping out of the two hummer nest YET!
Linda
It’s horribly hot here (I’ve been saying that for some time)…..
Here is the temps at 11:00 this morning
It gets worse during the day. By 3:00 in the afternoon you and everything else has turned into crispy chips.
Of course the wind blows…that stuff can blow all night, or start around 8 in the morning or wait until after it has lunch to get really fortified… I can’t take photos of the wind so you will just have to take my word for it….the wind is here, and it is hot, and it can get to really blowing.
Still I’ve gotten lots of places in the yard cleaned up and painted. Terry and I have hauled most of the old iron to scrap man,
(we have a couple of old cars to go next), and we have started collecting wood for winter.
That seems so insane with all of this heat right now, but it is necessary.
We are still changing water, constantly, Terry checks every two hours, if the row is through he moves it, by the end of 8 hours if the all the rows are through…they get changed anyway. If the water stays at 50% we will make it, it gets any lower, we don’t know what will happen.
Lots of people are struggling…some farmers have had to disc up crops because the water is so short…others are trying to save what they can for as long as they can…it’s a mess.
The first crop to go is alfalfa….prices are already high…this winter they will be worse. The next crop is onions….they take TONS of water…and their season is long…5 acres fields have been cut in half, as for 10 acre fields….lots of corn hasn’t been planted…the ground is just too dry, the air too hot, and the water too short so those guys are going for pinto beans…lots of pintos should flood the market and drop the price for them.
As of last night 10 fires are in Colorado….not around us, but around Durango, and the mountains around Denver/Fort Collins/ and Colorado Springs. Utah is also having fires. Montana is burning also…go to my delightful blog friends’ blog to see…. then there is Nevada —burning….fires everywhere.
We have lots of haze, I can’t imagine what it is like where the fires are.
These look like rain clouds…they never stay…they ride the wind blowing over fast, with others taking their place.
Makes for dramatic sunsets, that is for sure.
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 