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 Evening Irrigation

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Dayphoto

When I got home from work I found muddy boots greeting me as I walked into the door…first on the outside steps

and then inside;

I guess the ditch bank was a tad bit muddy today after all the rains. 🙂

But I must confess I enjoyed the freshness of the late afternoon. There was still some rain hanging around in the mountains

but it slowly dried up.

As Terry moved the water

and I helped walk the water down the rows

Fuzzy chased bubbles in the ditch

the skies clear somewhat giving us a profound ending to another day.

I am sometimes just plain humbled to know that we have this amazing earth to call our home.

Linda

A Gift of Rainbows

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Dayphoto

It rain, it poured, the wind blew and then hail fell, followed by more rain. That is how late afternoon went, Terry and I came in from irrigating just soaked. Just after supper, when I was getting ready to put the chickens up for the night, the sun came out and a double rainbow appeared.

But if that wasn’t gift enough on the way to work I saw….

After I dropped down the hill I saw this…

And just as I drove into work another appeared.

I feel incredibly blessed and more than extremely lucky! Someday I would like to see a moonbow. I saw a really neat article on moonbows stating that moonbows are really rare for conditions have to exactly right: a clear, dark night, full of heavy mist or raindrops and a particularly bright full or near-full moon shining low in the sky behind you.

In 1879, Mark Twain reported while out to sea “a magnificent lunar rainbow—a complete arch, the colors part of the time as brilliant as if it were noonday.”

I’m sure witnessing a rain-spawned moonbow is matter luck, but maybe sometime I’ll be some place that air pollution and artificial lights can’t ruin and I’ll see one.

At least I hope to,

someday…

before I die. 🙂

Linda

Crops

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Dayphoto

The crops are starting to come along. Everything is really slow because of the cold weather. But finally the corn is poking through the ground in the middle field, and the east field’s seed is starting to soften and sprout. If the weather would warm up and stay warm (corn likes warm weather) the fields will green up nicely.

Terry is watering the bean ground, last set, and then it will dry for awhile before he plants. Here again we could use some warmer weather to dry out the subbed soil enough for planting.

I did get my garden planted this weekend, the garden rows share the same field as the pinto beans, I cut back some, instead of ½ of an acre I shrunk. It’s just too hard to keep everything going at my age and still work at a paying job!!! 🙂

The alfalfa is enjoying the cooler weather though. It won’t be long now before the first cutting, probably in about three weeks.

One thing about being out in the fields the views are amazing. On one side is the San Juan Mountains, the other view shows you the West Elk peaks, and in the north is Grand Mesa, the largest flat-top mountain in the world. But what butts up to our mesa is the Uncompahgre plateau.

Actually the Uncompahgre is more than a plateau it is a mountain range full of cliffs, canyons and mesas 90 miles long. When the sun is just right you can see this amazing geology so full of mystery and wonder.

Anyway, the wind has some good use, besides bringing the sap up in the trees and bushes. 🙂

As long as there is snow up there we will have wind.

Linda

Gates Around Our Place

Posted on May 14, 2010 by Dayphoto

Gates are one of the most necessary items to any farm or ranch. We have a large selection of different types of gates. The above is the gate to the pasture.

They keep critters in, and they keep children safe. This is our yard gate.

This kin can shock you, if you grab the wire instead of the handle. The baling twine (next to duct tape the most useful item on the place) is used to let people know there is an electric fence there. To open just grab the yellow handle and push back the little hook will let go of the fence. If the handle is broken ….you will get shocked.

The gate to the ‘birth’n’ pen is the most rustic on the farm. Our farm was homesteaded and created in 1903. The corrals were place in 1906. Some of these poles were cut and hauled down to farms and ranches in our area from the Uncompahgre Plateau. There is even a mesa on the Uncompahgre called Saw Mill Mesa because of the Saw Mill(s) up there.

Enjoy your weekend! I hope the weather if fine where ever you are!

Linda

Thankful Thursday

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Dayphoto

The rains came last night and cleared up the sky!

The world is all shiny and new again and Utah’s dirt is meshing with Colorado soil.

Still cold here, but with the wind and the dirt settled I’ll take cold.

Linda

Cold Front Moves Through

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Dayphoto

(Taken at 4:00 p.m. on my way home from work)

A horrible, high wind/cold front hit here yesterday morning bringing with it freezing temperatures and high winds gusting 45-50 m.p.h., the temperatures only getting to around 58*.

The mountain behind our place is the Uncompahgre Plateau, which borders Colorado and Utah. Therefore, whenever we get high winds we get dirt from Utah.

I felt really bad for Terry because he was still planting corn in the bitter cold wind. Planting doesn’t stop just because a person is cold. Anyway, as you noticed the tractor he plants with doesn’t have a cab so not only does he have to work in the cold he has to work in the dust.

(This is Grand Mesa…I keep waiting for the snow to go. Not yet.)

The wind was amazing. When I was helping him irrigate (once water is started it is never turned off until harvest) we would sometimes be almost knocked off our feet. I truly understand the term ‘being blown over’.

(Dust from Utah, the sky was a brownish red.)

Night time temperatures only dropped to 38* but today is not much better for warmth only getting up to 61* and dropping below the freezing point tonight.

But I’m ready.

The frost cloth holds temperatures steady and will protect down to -35*.

Looks like this thing will blow out of here by Thursday night so Friday should be good once again.

Then the weather map says the heat from Arizona will replace the cold front from the Pacific Northwest and we should hit 81*.

I’m ready!

Linda

Field Corn

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Dayphoto

Terry is planting the last field of hard-dent corn.

Hard-dent corn is what is used for corn bread, corn meal/flour, cereal grains and grits for people food. It is also the corn that is mixed into other grains to feed cows, sheep, pigs, and chickens. Either white or yellow, dent kernals contain both hard and soft starch that become indented at maturity. We plant yellow dent corn.

We do not plant sweet corn. Sweet corn is primarily eaten on the cob, or it can be canned or frozen for future consumption.

Planting season is about to end. The pinto beans will be planted in about two weeks. Of course the work hasn’t ended. Just the planting. And only after the pinto beans get in the ground.

Suppose to snow here again. Geez, what a mess this spring as been. I hope it goes around us, or stays in the mountains.

Linda

Here Comes the Sun and Always Shut the Gate

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Dayphoto

Little Darling, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter

Little Darling, it feels like years since it’s been clear.

Here comes the sun…

And I say, it’s all right! —George Harrison, The Beatles- Abbey Road, 1969

The alfalfa is looking good. First cutting should be in about 5 weeks.

While we were out there checking the water I got the bright idea of showing you what our gates look like.

They are horrible to open if the wire is too short/tight not too hard to open if you just sqeeze with all your might hard. (Boy, have I heard that line before. HA!)

Anyway ……

To open put your left arm around the big post and grab the little post with your hand, then lean your body against the little post and push the little post toward the big post and take your right hand and lift off the top wire. Be prepared to really push as the wires are very tight. Lift the little post out of the holding loop at the bottom of the big post, then walk straight out (so you do not twist and tangle the wires) and lay it down out of the way. (I’ve twisted and tangled a few in my lifetime and it’s a pain to undo.)

Drive through.

Pick up the gate, keep everything straight, do not let the barb wire tangle, walk back to the big post, put the bottom of the little post into the looped wire at the bottom of the big post. Now lean your body against the little post, pushing with all your might toward the big post. Grab the wire on the big post and slip it back onto the little post.

Good job. Well done.

Law of the land….if the gate is shut when you get there, you shut the gate when you go through.

Always!!!!

No exceptions!

EVER!

Since we have all these furlough days (and it looks like there may be more coming up) I always get a three day weekend. Three days in a row, at home, to do whatever a person may want to do, but one day a week less pay.

I can’t decide if I’m cursed or blessed. 🙂

Have a nice weekend!

Linda