I think my favorite thing about summer …are the rainbows. This is my first time to join the Sunday Stills challenge. If anyone visiting would like to join just go here and follow the directions.
Linda
Sunday Stills—Summer
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Author Archives: Dayphoto
Day Trip
In between irrigations Terry and I took off for a little day trip.
We headed to Lake City by taking the short-cut at Sapinero, then on to Creed, Pagosa Springs, Durango and back home over Molas, Coal Bank, Red Mountain and the Million Dollar Highway passes.
Lake San Cristobal (the reason Lake City, Colorado, is called Lake City) is the second largest natural lake in the state of Colorado.
Located on Slumgullion Pass (elevation 11,530 ft) which is named for the nearby earthflow, a gigantic landslide of yellowish soil. The early miners thought it looked like slumgullion stew.
It was here the Alfred “Alferd” Packer became more than famous.
On the other side sits the little town of Creede where the headwaters of the San Juan River and the Rio Grande make thier start.
(Have you noticed I seem to always focus on water…?!?)
I had to cut short the 200+ photos and try to give you the ones that bring out the drama of this little trip.
Along the way you will see
history still standing.
The second you leave Durango you start climbing Molas, and Coal Bank passes.
Then when you start down you travel along Red Mountain Pass and the Million Dollar Highway.
The views are stunning
I never seem to tire of what I see
My mind usually wanders trying to figure out how those that came to settle this area felt…
We made it home in enough time to see to change the water.
Linda
Cultivating the Pinto Beans for the Last Time
Terry cultivated the pinto beans for the last time this growing season. The pinto beans are starting to shoot feelers (tendrils). This will cause the rows to grow shut. The little plants are also blooming; soon bean pods will appear and then fill with the tasty little beans.
Linda
Spider Web and the Feather
A very busy little spider created a very sturdy, but gossamer web next to the sidewalk. Some bird, flying over-head and in no particular notion to shed a feather, did so anyway.
The feather drifted slowly down, through the Rio Grande Cottonwood branches and came to a stop in the home of the spider.
And me….
I saw it and took a photo!
Linda
Busy, Busy, Busy
Our alfalfa has been cut for the second time of the year, once more I’m reminded that summer is half over. Third cutting of hay will occur at the same time as the pinto bean harvest.
We had a huge wind storm come up day before last, knocking down huge tree limbs and in general making a big mess. But after it all I saw….
A beautiful rainbow! Makes picking up branches so worthwhile.
The sunset was pretty amazing also.
My yard is looking good, however very weedy. Between work and farming and life getting to the weeds is sometimes difficult.
Still all in all good things are always there if you open your eyes to them. My daughter’s father-in-law wanted some limbs from the old lilac tree/bush. We were glad to give him some.
Then the other day he brought over to us this
Lovely hand-made pen and pencil set from the lilac bush! A pretty cool gift, I must say.
Linda
The Little Brown Bat
I caught this Little Brown Bat sleeping on the wall outside my office. Why he chose to sleep here, under the roof of a very busy campus is known only to the bat. He only stayed the one night day. So I felt lucky to take his photograph.
Bats are beneficial and generally a gentle species, they can also be a nuisance if they decide to take up residence in your home or outbuildings. But that’s another story for another time.
One Little Brown Bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour. YEA!!!! Mosquitoes are really bad this year, and with the threat of West Nile Disease in our area having Little Brown Bats swooping along eating the nasty little bugs is pretty cool.
Yes, I know bats can carry rabies, but very few bats are ever really infected with the disease — like less than 1% of all the bats in the world get the disease.
Bats also feed on mosquitoes, Gypsy moths, Japanese beetles and other nasty damaging pests.
Bats also pollinate plants such as the Organ Pipe and Saquaro (I hope I spelled that right) cactus in the western states and like birds disperse seeds in the rainforests, encouraging new growth.
Some fun little facts about bats are:
- Bats are clean and like to groom themselves
- More than 1,000 species of bats are known
- Most bats give birth to one ‘pup’ each year
- Bats live around 20-30 years
- And my little friend up there on the wall—Little Brown Bats have a life expectancy of up to 40 years
Pretty Cool, don’t you think!?!
If you would like to learn more about bats contact the Bat Conservation Internation group http://www.batcon.org/ here you will learn how to attract bats by building your very own bat house (or two) http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house.html or maybe buy one to place near your gardens.
Wisconsin and Minnesota are setting the example by working to encourage people to understand bats. Wisconsin DNR offers free bat house design and instruction www.DNR.state.wi.us. Minnesota DNR also has plans and instructions available http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/index.html
Have fun watching these friends of our enviroment. They really are cool little creatures!
Linda
Dog Days of Summer
Fuzzy still like to run beside the four-wheeler as we move about doing chores. I think that is pretty good for a twelve year old dog. Although he does have some days when he is just too tired to go. On those days I give him some baby asprin and let him rest. Other times I take him anyway and let him ride behind me, which he loves (!), by the way.
I’m really glad we still have him.
Tallen is delighted that Zooker is back home. I think she would just keep him if Uncle Evan would let her.
Zooker and his summer hair cut
The cats are bigger than this dog! He knows he is small tiny and very careful to keep out of everyone’s way.
It’s hard to get a photo of Bella, she is NEVER, I mean N.E.V.E.R. still, EVER! What a high energy dog.
Lightening started a fire somewhere on the Plateau. Not good, but it does make for a dramatic sunset.
Not much happening here, work, work and more work. Second cutting of hay is started today. That’s really good as the first cutting has all been sold and we still have standing orders for the second and third cutting. Terry was saying he has to be careful and be sure and keep some for us.
The corn is growing rapidily. If you stop and listen you can hear the pops and snaps as it grows. I think that corn is possibly the only living thing of which you can not only see growth, but hear it happening as well.
Mountain Fresh sweet corn will start picking thier sweet corn this weekend, with Olathe Sweet sweet corn starting Monday. Watch for it to hit a grocery store near you. When you find some know that it came from our area of the world! 🙂
Once the second cutting of hay happens I know we are half way through summer. I guess I had better not be sad, but glad there is still more to come. I love summer! But then again I like spring and fall also.
Linda
Knee High by the Fourth of July
The corn is looking good! The old saying is ‘knee-high by the 4th of July’ and you know the corn is going to produce!
Thanks to everyone who posted comments while my internet was messed up. I have a new signal thinge so I can do emails from home or work again. YEA!
I’m so far behind now, I’m not sure if I can get caught up. But I plan on visiting everyone’s blog starting today!
Linda
The Middle of Summer
Terry finished cultivating the corn and the pinto beans.
He likes to use the 730 because the clutch is a hand clutch and not a foot clutch.
There will be one more cultivation of the pinto beans, but the corn is too tall now. As soon as the bean shoot feelers all tractor work is done until harvest. The only thing left (on tractor work) is making alfalfa into hay.
Of course we will continute to irrigate, changing the water every 8 hours. Water is short, with reports that it could get shorter.
It’s hot. But we are having some moisture flowing in from Mexico after noon.
We cool down when it comes in which is really nice.
But we heat back up after the storm moves on.
That’s summer for you in our part of the high mountain desert!
Here’s how I cultivate! 🙂 This hoe never seems to leave my hand…I have it my yard, in the garden, and helping remove Canada Thistle, Star Thistle, Sticker Weed, Nodding Thistle, and other nasty stuff, which gets between the bean plants. Once the beans shoot feelers I won’t have to be out there, but until then….
Summer is lots of work, but I would rather have summer than winter. Terry, now, he would rather have cold, dark, dreary, drab winter. Oh, oops! I think those are my words.
The Fourth of July is tomorrow. (and then by Tuesday they should have the part to fix my internet receiver! YEA!)
Happy 4th, everyone!
Linda
More on the Nature of Things
I’m having internet problems…hopefully they can be fixed by Tuesday. That’s the date to have it fixed anyway. I can randomly blog, but I can’t send emails. It’s driving me crazy.
Anyway, I lost a chicken last night to a nasty skunk!!!! I heard the chickens hollaring around three o’clock in the morning…off I ran to the hen house, filpped on the red light and there the nasty thing was ———–Right in the process of chomping down on one of my hens!
Made me so mad I threw a stick at him. (I didn’t want sprayed) Then I ran in and got Terry and he came with the gun. By that time I was back out in the hen house, the other hens flew outside or into the run. Quick count told me I was missing one. Which meant the nasty bugger got one hen already.
How he got it would have to be dealt with in the morning, in the meantime the problem was to get the darn thing OUT of the hen house.
We could have shot it in there, but then the skunk spray would distroy the hen house and I didn’t want to have to rebuild a hen house.
So long story short…the skunk got away!
I only lost one chicken, I have a damaged hen, but I think she is going to recover, and I’ve set a trap for the skunk. He will be back… they always do when they know there is easy pick’n for food.
Which reminds me, a neighbor who lives a few miles from us on the Plateau lost 3 goats to a bear one night, the bear returned the next night and got three more. The government man gave them permission to shoot the bear if it returns. (Yes you have to ask permission.) He returned, the bear hide left with the government men, the rest of him was buried with a backhoe on the property.
A ride on the Uncompahgre Plateau showed us that the nasty pine beetle has made it’s way into our woods The Ponderosa and Yellow Pines are dying off just like the lodge pole pines from here to Denver.
I hope you can see all the little holes in the bark, that is where the beetle bores into the tree. I wonder what it’s going to take for something to finally be done to save the pines? It takes years and years and years for a tree to get this big.
I guess I had better stop now, this post is really rather negative.
Sorry,
Linda
