Sometimes life is like moonlight
Filtering through lovely puffy clouds
Sometimes life is simple Magic— sitting right there on the edge of excitement
Or the sound of a motor within the chatter of bird songs
Or the enthusiastic sound of rushing water in a ditch
More times than not, it is the small everyday things
Which add up to joy.
And the overwhelming daily work
Which is always accomplished
in willing happiness
Happy 76th Birthday! You are amazing!
From my heart to your world,
Linda
The air flooded with light
Shadows rippling through the brilliance
Shadows growing deeper, while all the time sunbeams glitters
Each day we live in sunlight, glowing through leaves, and blossoms of lace.
From my heart to your world,
Linda
On Sunday we were also gifted with a fun adventure to the Uncompahgre Plateau
Brett and Marianne asked if we wanted to drive to 25 Mesa on the Uncompahgre Plateau for a small little trip.
Off we went…again 6 feet or more distancing…they in their jeep and us in our pick-up
We drove until we came to a weather station… a wee bit of a surprise.
Very interesting to see.
Then while the dogs sniffed and played, the wind enjoying a day off, I explored a tiny bit myself.
I found a tiny, teeny cactus, a tad larger than a quarter…blooming it’s little heart out.
I couldn’t find the type of the cactus, maybe you know and can tell me. Here is a link to some cactus found in Colorado.
But this one didn’t seem to be there.
Anyway, short little breaks of happiness in the daily work on the farm,
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING
“Hello”
“Hi! This is Glenda, what are you and Terry doing Monday?”
“Larry and I would like you and Terry to come up EARLY Monday morning and go with us to see the snow before it melts…Spring has sprung on Grand Mesa!”
After finishing all our early morning chores we loaded up and headed to
That amazing world where the old Gods live in those very ancient groves of tall standing trees
Larry and Glenda were most generous to take us to this magical world.
The snow was crisp when we started out, all sparkly and winterish looking
Then by Noon…the lakes started having large water holes opening up where cold water swirled
the snow and ice on the lakes had become mush!
Then home again, home again.
What an amazing, generous, incredible gift we were given: special distancing (of 6 feet and more) staying in compliance with the virus, precious friends, and to see the power of winter sacrificing itself to Spring.
I stand in awe.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Here we are with the fields starting to green up
There is new growth of mid-spring flowers
Freshness to the day and to my yard
The new leaves hazing the sky
With birds ever so busy in the generous sunshine
Their songs, like laughter, their flights like a dance
Little nests being built and plumped up in softness for the new life lifting all our hearts.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
We are moving forward here…
Summer is on the horizon…almost here…temps raising to warm, hot and dry
In just weeks it will be time to harvest the first cutting alfalfa turning it into hay
The work goes on…Spring work
is constant and consistent
Terry just finished planting some of the grass fields, (he has alfalfa still to plant and one more field of grass) and he has all the cornfields planted, but one—and that one will happen on Monday.
And through it all…the irrigation goes on and on and on.
We are a tad busy, as you can see…but, Terry and I agree, It is the very best of life and of living.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
I got trapped in Mom’s flower bed
Well, Not Really
FOOLED YOU!
I also went for a walk with
Boomer and
Mom
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!
Yesterday, I chased off another cat. Mom saw me. She told me not to chase that kitty it was Aunt Shannon’s. Then Mom called out “COOPER! COOPER! Come here! MINDY STOP!”
I didn’t. I chased Cooper all the way to the cross-over ditch!
I AM GOING TO BE THE ONLY CAT HERE!
Oh…just so you know…BOOMER CAN RUN AGAIN!
Well, not perfectly run, but he can HURRY UP WALK and Mom and I think
THAT IS A GOOD THING!
Mindy Kit-Kat Brown
(Yes I stop work to snap photos—Terry is used to it 🙂 )
We are planting grass now…yes it is a ‘we’ 🙂
This is where the little seeds come out of the planter…rather neat I think
In the early morning, as the sunlight spilled over the edge of the world, we planted the newly created pasture (from last year)
Then, back down to freshen up the wore out alfalfa field ( adding in grass seed so the cutting becomes a mix of grass and alfalfa) we worked on into the dazzling (calm) sparkly morning the sky full of a few puffy white clouds in the north and east.
Here is a fly for you. These are hard to capture on camera, the click is often way too slow.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
For those who are interested, and have asked to know more; to understand our irrigation system
This is a wee blog post about the dams…see those straight lines in the cement ditch. Those are wedge-shaped dams…blocking up the murmuring water so the siphon tubes can be dipped into the water and quickly flung over the side (going downhill) to start sucking out the water and into the fields.
Terry does a complicated sort-of insert on some of the dams (see the one closest to us) half tipped up straight, one side down crooked. This allows the water to fill up and spill over so the next set of tubes has enough water to siphon.
As you can see we haven’t set the tubes closest to us yet. We are waiting for the water to fill back up to the ‘wet’ line. Then we will set the tubes
Here is the very last dam…we are allowing the aggressive water to flow over in a mini-waterfall
so the next field can have enough water we can set tubes in it. You can see the dam way, way down there. It will stop the water and start it to back up and start filling up the cement ditch
Once it gets full enough (and before it spills over the side) we will set the siphon tubes. The cornfields require two tubes per furrow, skipping a furrow,
while in the alfalfa we set one tube in each and every furrow
Each furrow must have the top dug out by hand so the tube can set in the perfect little slot and the water rushing and tumbling down the furrows STAYS IN the FURROW it’s supposed to be in.
Here you see the result—goals accomplished—in one of the corn fields. Water making it all the way to end and subbing across so everything is nice and wet. Once this ground dries out to the proper moisture…Terry will plant corn.
There you have it… a tiny wee blog post about dams (and water, and furrows, and siphon tubes); the heartbeat of farming in the high mountain desert of western Colorado :)!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Grand Mesa lives on the northern side of our farm. Well, It lives an hour away, but the Dancing beauty of its weather, clouds, and the spreading sunshine is there for us to see every single day of our lives
The opposite in we have those stunning San Juan mountains, framing our siphon tubes in one of the cornfields
Over in the East…just straight across from us are the Paonia Mountains, crowding the horizon and sheltering the sun and the moon until they can rise high enough
Directly opposite on the west side of the farm is that very long Uncompahgre Plateau, full of mesas, knolls, and very secret canyons
Our storms come from Utah over the Uncompahgre Plateau to rain or snow on our farm. (You are looking at the Roubidoux Canyon just a few miles from the edge of our soon-to-be-planted cornfield.
Then there in the North East are the Ragged Mountains…
And in the South Eastern side the Black Canyon (where it is snowing when I took this photo)
And the SawTooth Mountain Range
This is that same storm over the Black Canyon with the SawTooth beside it
All around us..are the whispering echoes of magnificence and the overwhelming beauty of an ancient form of art. Still alive today.
From My Heart to your world,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 