9:30 in the Evening….The Day is Ending
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Author Archives: Dayphoto
A Black Hole
When I was taking a photo of our mesa a very strange cloud went by…a cloud with a black hole in it.
I have never seen such a thing before! And no it is not a flaw in my camera!
Chickens are Just Like People—Sometimes They are Just Plain Mean
Hi! My name is Honey. I really didn’t have a people name, until my human Mom was badgered by Misty….does that make Misty my human sister?!?!
Anyway, I now live at the house, with the dog. Who would have ever thought THAT would happen. I mean, really the DOG!!!! He usually chases all of us chickens away from his dog house, which is right by the front door. But he doesn’t me.
(Between you and me, the DOG doesn’t really like me, but he gets in trouble if he chases me. Sort of sad all in all, I agree with him I should be in the chicken house.)
I used to live in the chicken house; I was the favorite of Roo. Roo was a dashing rooster, so just WOW. He did rather wear me out, my human Mom had made me a new little coat to wear, but I didn’t like it, so I wasn’t being very good about wearing it. She kept saying that it would protect my back.
Anyway, one morning we woke-up at the crack of daylight and Roo was gone. Just gone, mine you. Not a feather of him anywhere. Everything stayed pretty much the same for about two weeks, but then the ‘other brides’ of Roo’s harem started catching on that Roo wasn’t there. This meant that they could do anything they wanted to do, and one thing they wanted to do was take their jealousy of Roo and I out on me. Sigh! Deep long SIGH!
Anyway, the up-shot of everything, is those girls drew blood and wouldn’t let me eat so my human Mom brought me to the house (I have a dog house to live in) and told me I could live here until I grew back all my feathers, put on weight, and could hold my own in the flock.
My human Mom counts my feathers every evening, so I think she wants me to go back to the flock. Sometimes I really want too, but this IS pretty nice, my own food, water, a cantaloupe or watermelon, sometimes a cookie (that’s my favorite).
The dog doesn’t like it, but … oh, Well.
Four-Wheeling
One of our favorite places to go four-wheeling is Ouray, Colorado. http://www.ouraycolorado.com/Jeep+Road+Conditions
This lovely little mountain town is 1.5 hours from our house. Not only do we like to soak in the naturally occurring hot springs pool, but we love to travel the old mine roads.
Sunday we took off, hoping to climb Imogene Pass and end up in Telluride over Black Bear Pass. Imogene Pass is the second highest pass in Colorado. http://www.traildamage.com/trails/index.php?id=80
We didn’t make it because of a huge thunderstorm the made the trail a morass of mud.
But we are going back Monday! I hope to have lots of cool photos for you next week.
You Know You Are a Redneck When…..
You take the goats for their nightly walk,
and they don’t need a leash!
The Heat Has Finally Arrived
Arizona’s heat is here. Hot and growing hotter and hotter. Here is where we worry that the red spider mite takes the corn. (worry, worry, fret, fret).
Ladybugs are not the enemy of red spider mites. Red spider mites live in the grasses along the ditch banks and pasture just waiting (sort of like a tick) for the corn to get hot and dry and stressed. The MOMENT they figure out the corn is in the right stages they attack, hoping on and sucking the life blood out of the candy called corn.
We are cutting hay, two fields down and one more to go. We try not to get all of them in the same stage of processing, first one field, and wait a few days, then another field, and the last field about a week later from the first field. This allows for better crop management with the possibility of no crop lost.
The heat is fun for the grandchildren; many hours are spent outside playing with the ducks, and in the duck pond. (The drainage ditch from our fields)
This works for the kids and the ducks. And for Mom-mom who has to keep her eye on all the activity.
This and That and a Little Bit of Everything
One of the reasons we went to Dove Creek was to see a collection of antique tractors. Although, I took lots of photos I thought everyone would enjoy this one.
Not your typical tractor, that is for sure!
We are ready for the second cutting of hay; the alfalfa is just starting to bloom, so maybe tomorrow we will do the swathing.
The oats are headed out and starting to fill with milk, after much pondering we are going to cut them for oat hay, instead of harvesting them as oats.
The pinto beans are shooting feelers so the last cultivation for all of our crops is officially over.
We have been having so much rain that the irrigation water is a red/chocolate color. This water is like a thick coffee causing the irrigation tubes and the gated pipe gates to plug up. As the water moves through the opening the mud collects and stops the tubes, or gates from taking anymore water. We have to check every 2-3 hours to make sure everything is running and in good order. OTHERWISE, the plants suffer, and the ‘escape’ ditches fill up and flood.
What an odd read this has been.
I took most of these shots just as the sun was sitting (9:30 p.m.) The spots you see over the oats are bugs that were caught the light of the flash.
Another odd thing is we have lots, and lots, and lots of ladybugs this year. A blessing to people who do not like to use chemicals on crops!
Have a nice weekend!
Weather — Whether Here or There
The weather is always such an interesting subject. I suppose it is because we all live so close to the land that weather is part and parcel of what we do every day.
We are still having rain. Some days just a down pour or two, some days lots of rain, or just a gentle rain that goes on for days. Anyway it is more rain than normal…. we are also experiencing signs that an early fall and a hard winter are on the way. (Sigh. Double Sigh)
Weirdly the milkweed plants are already setting seed pods, weeds that never show up until late August are blooming wildly right now and there are other signs.
I dread winter!!! I love spring, summer, and fall, but winter drags on me. Just plain drags and to think of one that comes early and lasts long….oh, I don’t even want to go there.
So here is a photo of the down pour three days ago. With an afternoon thunderstorm predicated for today. The sun sure has been nice! And it IS July so I have several months before I have to worry, now don’t I?
Celebrating Corn
Our corn has grown amazingly well this year.
On June 30th it was Linki size
then on the 4th of July it was Bladen size,
and today it is showing signs of tasseling out.
Tasseling out is one of the most critical stages of corns’ development. What a farmer is aiming for is a large kernel number per ear on each stalk of corn. In other words a full ear of kernels! Most corn ears have about 12 to 16 rows of kernels, but if the conditions are just right you can sometimes have rows of upwards to 20! Now that is cool and helps with the tonnage at harvest.
I won’t go into tasseling and silking and pollination at this time. But suffice it to say, the corn is definitely ‘knee high by the 4th of July’!
Part of Our Vacation was a Tractor Pull
Not one of those really fast tractor pulls, but just your plain farm tractor pull.
Both Evan and Terry drove. Terry had the 530 JD and Evan drove the 730 JD.
The pull was based on how much weight the tractor could pull, Terry did 170% of his tractors’ weight
and Evan did 174%.
No I don’t know what the tractor weighed. My job is to sit there and film the pull and remember the weight. The rest is up to them. 🙂 Works for me! I just have to remember to switch from video to still and sometimes I don’t get that part right.
