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 — Holes

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Dayphoto

I’ve been thinking….

We need to talk about holes!

Fuzzy and I like holes!

We use them for resting in!

We use them when it’s too hot to breathe!

We use them when we are bored.

But….

Sometimes when it is over the head HOT, we look for other cool places to lay…

Fuzzy likes under the pickup. I’ve tried to lay under there with him, but he gets all grouchy and snaps and growls at me so I don’t go under.

I like this spot…

Especially after Mom has just watered

This beats Fuzzy’s spot all to pieces, but I won’t tell him, he will make me move.

Boomer

P.S. A bear came down and visited. We were DELIGHTED. We barked lots and lots. He stayed the WHOLE night and left around the gray of morning light.

Cool! Neither Fuzzy or I have EVER seen a bear before!

Boomer

June 19, 2012

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Dayphoto

About 3:00 yesterday afternoon the ditch rider came by and locked our head gate down more holes…we are now at 50% of the 100% of water we pay for every year. We will still pay the 100%; there just isn’t water in the mountains. Snow pack was only 4 feet last winter and is gone now, accept for a few tiny drifts here and there.

And it isn’t even July!

What is July going to bring? An even worse thought…what is August going to bring!?

We are back to changing the water every 8 hours. 6 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 10 at night. At least we got caught up and the ground is starting to hold the water. Less water and less rows we can set.

To give you an idea…say at 100% you can set 35 rows, at 70% you can set 23 rows so now we are looking at 15-18 rows. This is just an approximate, a general idea. Each field is different and sometimes each row is different.

IF this heat continues and the hot, heavy wind (we had 40 m.p.h. gusts yesterday) ….. let us not go there. Worse thought yet, is what if there isn’t any snow in the mountains this winter…!!!?

Okay, okay.

July could/can be a wet month–typically that is our monsoon month, with moist air moving up from the Gulf of Mexico…this would be good! RAIN!

The middle of July starts to see the Winter Wheat being harvested and the sweet corn crops going into to market. (The sweet corn harvest starts in July and ends the second week in September.) As these fields are harvested the farmer does NOT continue with water on the field. This reduces the strain on the canal. So if these two things come together…rain and crops being harvested the rest of the crops in our area—onion, shelling corn, hay,and pinto beans all the farmers in the area should make it.

We will just have to wait and see.

The hummers are back!

This year instead of one soft tiny nest in the tractor shed we have TWO! I tried to climb up on the tractor to see if I could peer into the nest, but it was just too far up there for me.

At least I can see the nests, maybe if I keep checking I will see the baby hummers!

Sorry about the worry/rant…sometimes I think farming very stressful.

Linda

Weeds the Bad and the Good

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Dayphoto

We have weeds, just like each and everyone of you have weeds.

We have all sorts of thistle, from the bull thistle to the Nodding Thistle,

we have common weeds and we have weeds that some sort of use –like Scour Weed (this weed was used by the pioneer’s to scour out their pots)

But I think my favorite weed is the Milkweed (not the poisonous kind).

The Milkweed of Monarch Butterfly food.

There are others the Monarch Butterfly likes for food — Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and Butterflyweed (Asclepias Tuberosa) —but the tall and stately Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).

The Monarch butterfly female lays her eggs on the underside of a milkweed leaf, and the larvae feast on the leaves. Milkweed is the ONLY food these caterpillars eat, though adult butterflies will sip nectar from many other flowers.

The University of Kansas and director of Monarch Watch (http://www.monarchwatch.org) have stated that acres and acres of milkweed has disappeared from the fields, side roads and byways across our mighty land.

And just because we had that huge and nasty fire, and the ugly invasive Russian Knapp Weed and the Canada Thistle have squatted down in great comfort, along has come these beautiful weeds, food of the Monarch Butterfly.

A monarch is that heroic butterfly that flies as far as 2,000 miles from thier northernmost range in the eastern provinces of Canada, down through the Undited state clean to the Transvolvanic Range in central Mexico, where they cluster by the millions in the oyamel fir forests.

(Wouldn’t it be a huge delight to see this…all those millions of orange and black butterflies in the forest? It is something I would delight in seeing!)

So even though we are having a huge heatwave/drought, along with parts of Oklahoma, Texas and Mexico and other places in the west/southwest/south–when the Monarchs start their trip in late summer and early fall…our milkweeds will be here. And the little Monarch that I hope are living on them can take up the same flight feeling full and nourished for the long, long trip!

Linda

Sunday Stills—Clouds

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Dayphoto

We just have teasers of the potential of rain.

But it does make for a great cloud photo or two!

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I wonder if anyone remembers how to do a rain dance?

For more Sunday Stills go here and click on the comment section!

If you would like to join us, please do!! We are always looking for more people to take part. And if you have cool ideas to photograph, let Ed know about your ideas, then he can issue the challenge to all of us!

Happy Photographing!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — What is a Farm

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Dayphoto

When I first got here I didn’t know what a farm was, I didn’t know what a ranch was, and I didn’t know how to ride on a four-wheeler or in the back of a pick-up.

See I had always lived in a house and when they were gone they put me in a garage. I didn’t like the garage! I still don’t go into ANY of Mom and Dad’s garages…..they can have the doors wide open and be in the garage and I still won’t go in there.

I didn’t make any noise when I came here either. The vet told Mom that was weird because a happy Beagle likes to express him/herself.

I also don’t like some men or boys with caps on either….I get very, very fearful and try to run away from them.

Now that I’ve been here TWO years…TWO REALLY WONDERFUL YEARS…I can ride on the four-wheeler with Mom, or run beside them, I love to ride in the back of the pick-up, and I talk…..lots!

So when those men and boys with caps come on the place (I never bark at Dad), but I will Blade IF he has a cap on….I BARK! I bark warning barks! I bark until Mom comes out and pets me. Then she feels me trembling inside and gives me lots of hugs and love.

Anywho….

A farm is not a ranch. Nope, No Sireee.

A ranch grows grass…lots and lots of grass and has animals that eat grass living on it.

A Farm is crops.

A farm is ground where the soil is worked up to hold a seed, then the seed is watered until it becomes a plant, and then the plant is watered until it produces something eatable to someone or some animal.

Here on our farm (YIPEEE I LOVE LIVING ON A FARM!!!) Oh, hum, well, yes, I got sidetracked a bit— Here on our farm we grow alfalfa to turn into hay for people who feed it to their animals, we grow corn —the kind that is ground into chicken and cow feed…it could also be ground into meal for people if you wanted to have some, and we grow pinto beans.

Dad does all the ‘tractor’ work, but Mom and Fuzzy and I help Dad water the seeds, then the plants until harvest time.

I LOVE IRRIGATING! That’s what we call watering. If you live in town or just have a house and some yard, you water, on a farm you IRRIGATE!

That is so much fun.

We ride (sometimes I run alongside) out to the fields on the four-wheeler —with Mom. Dad always makes us run long side.

Fuzzy doesn’t go with Dad any more, he says he will wait for Mom.

I know it’s because his joints don’t work like they used to, that’s okay. I sometimes stay with Fuzzy; I would never want to hurt his feelings!

When we are out there, I check out the burn area….everything is still burned, but has lots of weeds growing. The guy who started all three farms on fire just keeps saying he’s sorry, but he really doesn’t know what to do. Dad says the guy will stall everyone out and never fix anything so he will get away with ‘lighting fires’.

Makes my people rather sad, I know how they feel. I was always sad when I had to stay in the garage and got in trouble for talking.

Dad says we will have to fix fence this fall before the cows come, and the bad man will just have to live with his conscience, whatever that means.

Mom’s been painting stuff outside…she said everything was starting to look old and tired, like her! HA!

So what once was blue is now white.

Fuzzy and I and Sam the Cat hang around while she paints. Monkey the other cat stays inside all the time so she misses out on lots of cool stuff.

Mom’s friend, Robin, stays close, but not too close when Sam the Cat is laying around next to Mom. (But still there).

One of the cool things out irrigating are the smells…I learn soooo much! Like what the birds are doing, we have three new ground squirrels and there is nest of Killdeer, not to mention all the bunnies living next to the equipment.

The coyotes have moved someplace else…which makes all of us happy. The fire did that to them, now they could come back……

But we hope not.

Oh and a Momma Skunk has a nest next to kids barn down there…Hank found that and told us about it.

Mom told HANK “You stink, Hank!”

Hank said he thought he smelled really beautiful!

Anyhow….sometimes I forget to come when they call (I always think I have time before I have to leave my smells) then I hear the four-wheeler….and I know it’s too late.

Since I have to run in any way I go ahead and finish reading the news…then I

RUN

IN!!!!!

Hope you have a GREAT DAY!
Boomer

Moving Pipe

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Dayphoto

We had to replace two broken sticks of pipe (5 feet long) in one of the fields.

That is the bad thing about the plastic pipe, the sunlight finally gets to them and they start to crack.

They never break at a ‘good time’, nothing ever works that way does it?

So Terry turned the water out and then we pulled apart the sticks, ran them over to the broken pipe pile, ran over to the stash of good pipe and put them back together last evening. (We waited until it cooled down some since this was rather hot work in and of itself).

A little quail was singing to us at the broken pipe pile—he was up in a tree, which I thought was rather cool.

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Around 8:30 p.m. we got everything back together and the water back on.

This morning everything is working good!

Happy Wednesday! We are in the middle of the week!

Linda

Tuesday June 12, 2012

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Dayphoto

Somewhere there is a huge fire…

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We only saw this for one evening, but it sure made us stop and ponder.

Please be careful, everyone…all it takes is a tiny spark to create a HUGE problem!

Linda

On a Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Dayphoto

We went to the tractor pull

141% of the tractor’s weight!

Linda

Sunday Stills This Week–All About the Numbers

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Dayphoto

I had to really think about what and where I would see numbers…on a farm, miles from town.

Then it dawned on me!!!

I am surrounded by numbers

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When I started to get more than 10 photos I thought I had better stop!

So here’s my collection!

Tractors!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Dear Diary

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Dayphoto

Dear Diary—

I finally have a few minutes to write a few notes to myself! Boomer and I have been extremely busy this week.

The water is finally starting to work right. It took a while. The ground was so hard and dry and the air so full of hot wind and dirt, oh, yes, and the amount of irrigation water so slim, we had to go change water ALL the time.

But everything is coming together now.

Dad goes out and checks the water often, but we only have to CHANGE the water twice a day, which is normal.

That is because the ground FINALLY got wet. That’s how Dad and Mom talk when they talk about the water…they say: something, something, something now that the ground is Finally wet.

Dad wastes nothing with the water. He sets up a series of dams so nothing is wasted.

The water at the end of the field goes off our farm and back into the canal so then next farm below us gets our water, it goes on like this clear to the Gunnison River.

Pretty cool!

Sometimes Hank goes with us; he likes to check the tubes for mice.

Boomer is off smelling the news somewhere….he reports back what he finds when we all get home.

Me!?

Well, I help the folks out.

I stay right with Mom and make sure the water is the right height in the ditch, (I really like catching the water bubbles, but I don’t tell anyone, they would probably not let me get in the ditch if they knew)