The Meaning of Dog Days and a Happy Fourth of July

Posted on July 4, 2013 by Dayphoto

To explain the meaning of the statement of the ‘Dog Days of Summer” — The Old Farmers Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3rd and ending August 11th, coinciding with (at sunrise) the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. The days are associated with very hot weather. Sirius is the “Dog Star” because it is the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (Large Dog). Sirius is also the brightest star in the night sky. I know so little about the stars but I learned this long, long ago from my maternal grandfather, William Hobson Thomas. He didn’t use the fancy terms naming the constellations, my curiosity lead me to find that out in high school, but he did tell my brother and I about the Dog star. I could probably do a Google search, but this will have to do.

Our corn is more than knee-high (by the Fourth of July) which is always a good sign. The weeds are growing rapidly also!

Thank-you everyone for the gentle comments about our story on the back page of the Delta County Independent. It was a lovely surprise when Pat Sunderland called and asked if she could do a feature about us.

Anyway, here is hoping that everyone has a great Fourth of July!

Sincerely,

Terry and Linda

Fuzzy and Boomer

Sam the cat and Monkey the cat who never goes outside

July 3, 2013

Posted on July 3, 2013 by Dayphoto

Hummmmm!

Today the Dog Days of summer begin and won’t end until August 11th. I can’t imagine getting any hotter, but I guess we can.

I also was very mistaken about the Orioles not like the humming bird feeder

Robins are one of my favorite birds…I rejoice when they return each spring and feel a loss when they leave us in late summer early fall.

The night camera caught a feral cat that lives on the farm…he/she is extremely wild, but we do see it here and across the road and down at Misty’s.

Sammy doesn’t much care for this cat so I figure it must be a tom.

Heading out to weed, they are growing faster than my plants.

I hope you have a lovely start of the Dog Days!

Linda

July 2, 2013

Posted on July 2, 2013 by Dayphoto

We hit 100* again yesterday…I looked at the long-rang forecast -the next 10 days shows no relief in site.

Please send your thoughts and prayers to all of the grieving families who lost a firefighter in that horrible fire in Arizona…my heart goes out to everyone.

This morning we woke to scattered clouds…which means that the morning starts out a little cooler.

Blade is trying to learn to ride Terry’s unicycle (Terry is multi-talented)…he was suitably astonished at how very difficult it is to balance yourself and GO FORWARD. That is Kelly, Blade’s Daddy, helping Blade.

I still have the 6 hummers (three pair) at my feeders. I had wondered if I would get more, but the territories seem to be set now.

The Orioles have their own feeders (now) so they are not interested in the hummer feeders. I haven’t been able to get anymore photos of them as they seem to be shyer than the hummers.

Once more we had almost a rainbow as the storms played out in the heavens, nothing dropping to the earth since the air is so hot.

Have a good Tuesday everyone, I must get back outside before the heat sucks my energy flat!

Hugs,

Linda

July 1, 2013

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Dayphoto

HAPPY CANADA DAY, to all of my Canadian readers out there!

We were a shade cooler yesterday it only got up to 97*. 97* sounds hot, but not as hot as 105*. It actually felt cooler, once in awhile a cloud would skuddle across the sun giving us a sun break while it was there.

The clouds would randomly look like a few drops of rain might fall, but didn’t. This time of year we have to worry about hail…hail is NOT something you want ever, but to have hail now would strip the leaves from all the growing corn and pinto beans. That would be the end of the crops. Therefore, we watch the sky and pray for rain and wish hail away.

So far we have NOT had hail, which is wonderful.

They are saying this intense heat (which is terribly abnormal) is here for at least another week, the cooling ocean breezes that would move the stagnate air is also stagnated off the west coast…so we wait.

A little gift from the heavens last night was a slight rainbow.

The promise of hope!

Linda

June 30, 2013

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Dayphoto

Still in the blast furnace stage of heat — 105* yesterday.

By 8 in the morning we were roasting, but I didn’t turn on the swamp cooler until 9:00 a.m. I was trying to keep as much natural air in the house as possible. After that we just couldn’t do it.

There are lots of fires around us, one is up by the Silver Jack Reservoir near Cimaron. I would say, maybe 30 miles from Montrose. If memory serves me right it was lighting started.

You are looking at all the smoke around us.

I wish the forestry service (or whoever makes the decisions) would cut down all the dead and dying trees. They really need to get rid off all the fuel for those fires.

When we went to Yellowstone last fall the forests there were clean…nothing dead or in a dying stage. I saw new trees growing in lighting started fire burns, which was really nice to see.

It isn’t just humans that loose their homes or perish in these nasty fires animals do also and then many times they lose their lives.

When I was a child the lumber jacks would find a disease tree — go get the forest service ranger, show him the tree…it was marked…then the loggers could come back in and remove the tree, put it in a separate pile, tests were run on the tree to see why it was sick and what to do about it, then the tree was headed to the mill.

That doesn’t seem to be the case now. It looks like the trees are allowed to die so the bug or disease finishes off the tree — jumps to another tree and proceeded to decimate all of the lovely old trees setting up perfect fuel for a fire.

In talking to a ranger a while back and relating what I just said, he told me that the idea (I may get this a little off) is to let the forest take care of itself —so to speak. If one species dies then the fire will clean the land so new can grow. That maybe so, but watching these lovely old trees (here in Colorado it takes a long, long, long time for a tree to grow) die is really sad to me. (If any ranger or forest manager is reading this maybe you could leave us a comment so we can understand—understanding often helps.)

Anyway, the following is an older photo of where the Silver Jack Reservoir resides…beautiful country up there and extremely rugged.

We had a slight rainfall last night. Really nothing to speak of lots of wind and a few splatters then it blew on leaving us behind.

But it left us a touch of a rainbow! My first of the summer!

Well the day is waiting and I must get out there and get my watering done before the horrendous heat saps me and everything else.

Hugs,

Linda

June 27, 2013

Posted on June 27, 2013 by Dayphoto

When we were up at Lee’s Reservoir a few days ago I took a photo of this beautiful old tree.

I’m really not sure what type of pine tree it is, maybe Ponderosa or possible Yellow pine

There was just something about it…the gnarled old trunk…the top, which was damaged at some point as it grew…that spoke to me.

I just have to share it with you…

It sure would be a lonesome world without trees, wouldn’t it?

Linda

June 26, 2013

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Dayphoto

Our sour cherries are ready. I love those things! (Not just me, but every bird in a 5 mile radius….I have to be quick to get what I want as the birds are thick in the trees.)

Not only are the sour cherries good for pies; but sour cherry juice is good also. I boil the juice down until it is a thick as I can get it. Then I bottle it up waiting for the time I make Sour Cherry Ice Cream!!!

This ice cream definitely has a tart cherry flavor, not a sweet cherry, not a maraschino cherry. It’s got depth of flavor and cherry pucker to it. Some people will not like it at first then ask the next year if you will make it again. 🙂

Here is my recipe:

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup of sugar

1/4 cup instant vanilla pudding

3/4 cup cherry juice (you can also find cherry juice concentrate in the grocery stores)

2 tsp vanilla

Combine the cream and milk in a large bowl

Add the sugar and instant vanilla pudding. Beat until no lumps remain.

Add in the cherry juice and the vanilla.

THE SECRET —- Refrigerate the ice cream base for at least two hours, or up to overnight.

THEN Freeze in an ice cream maker.

When the machine finishes, scrape the ice cream into a one quart container and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours to ripen and finish hardening.

Yield: 1 quart

Yumm!

Hope you enjoy!

Linda

June 25, 2013

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Dayphoto

Years ago I was a florist …I enjoyed working with the flowers and providing a bright spot in someone’s day.

This winter I started making fabric flowers — what a fun little hobby it has turned out to be.

Then on Friday I got a request to make a hat for a cancer patient…something fun, elegant, but not over the top and could be worn everyday, if necessary.

Here is the finale result.

The lovely lady called yesterday delighted and so surprised with the hat. She even cried.

My heart goes out to her, losing your hair is so hard, going through the treatments even harder, and staying positive, so you can heal, extremely difficult.

I am so glad this brought a tiny bit of happiness in her life.

Linda