Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Dayphoto

The storm is here! Yesterday we had extremely warm temps–57* by four o’clock, then by midnight it was raining. Three in the morning rolled around complete with a ground blizzard and tiny specks of nasty biting snow.

That is pretty much where we are right now…side blowing snow with gusts around 20-30 mph full of little stinging flakes of snow. The trip to the chicken house was fast!

Terry has an appointment he needs to keep so has been struggling if it will be worth the drive. Blizzard conditions are never good. Our oldest daughter had to drive to work in Grand Junction and she said it was horrid. Our daughter that lives in Grand Junction and works for CDOT says the roads are a mess everywhere.

Terry called the man he was supposed to meet with and was pretty much told that the man made it in…geez.

Well, it’s up to him.

Your friend in a blizzard,

Linda

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Dayphoto

The storm is supposed to start here any minute now. It’s supposed to be a huge wild one…with rain, then snow and blizzards in appropriate places.

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN GRAND JUNCTION HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND LOCAL BLOWING SNOW…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO MIDNIGHT MST WEDNESDAY NIGHT. The WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

THIS AFTERNOON. SNOWFALL WILL INCREASE IN COVERAGE AND INTENSITY THIS EVENING AND OVERNIGHT. SNOW WILL THEN CONTINUE THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING
* SNOW ACCUMULATION…4 TO 8 INCHES…WITH LOCALLY HIGHER
AMOUNTS UP TO 12 INCHES AT CERRO SUMMIT.
* WINDS…SOUTHWEST TO WEST 15 TO 20 MPH WITH LOCAL GUSTS TO 30 MPH THIS EVENING OVER EXPOSED HIGHER TERRAIN

We are ready. (Although, we still don’t have a furnace, we do have lots of wood 🙂 )

(This is what the sky looks like, day after day, after day.)

( At least we have a tinge of a sunset…nothing for a sun rise)

What I will be glad about is sometime after the snow leaves the SUN RETURNS!!! We have been without sunshine for over a week now. Beautiful sunshine. Threecollie wrote a wonderful post about sunshine, which so speaks for me also.

Yes, I know that the temperatures are going to plummet to way below the normal for this time of year, dropping to 7 or 3 or even zero Fahrenheit, but I can handle it if there is sunshine. These gray days are horrid.

Anyway, if you are in the path of this monster storm and arctic air mass

I hope you stay safe and warm and dry!

Thinking of you and sending you warm magic thoughts,

Linda

Monday, December 2, 2013

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Dayphoto

I have a little hawk…he/she is an extremely friendly….

He/she sits very close to me looking for mice hanging under the firewood

I’ve never had a hawk be so…hum…NOT shy. But this one is.

He/she even let me go into the house, get the camera, come back and take his/her photo. Of course the wild birds have fled…I would too if I were potential dinner. 🙂

As for the mice…he/she can have all that can be eaten.

Hauling wood is an even most pleasant chore!

Your farm friend,

Linda

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Dayphoto

Well, here we are! The last month of the year. The older I get the faster time goes…flying by, as they say.

Terry got both hydraulic pumps fixed on the 4010 –over $2,000.00 later and lots of his own man power the tractor is back to work. Sometime this week he will put the loader back on and be good to go with that tractor.

There is always something it seems. Our furnace in the house is now requiring repair. Whew! If and when we get through this repair cycle it will smooth sailing for a while. The nice thing about the furnace is it is just a back up…we heat with firewood, as you know. Still there are times (if we take off for a short trip or the wood burns too fast while we are in Grand Junction) that having the furnace click on if the temperatures in the house drop below 40 is a good thing. Frozen pipes are not a good thing!

A strong cold front is due in here —

(AN ARCTIC COLD FRONT WILL BRING BIG CHANGES TO THE WEATHER STARTING TUESDAY. STRONG SOUTHWEST WINDS WILL DEVELOP MONDAY NIGHT INTO TUESDAY AS THE COLD FRONT APPROACHES FROM THE NORTHWEST. VALLEY SHOWERS MAY INITIALLY START AS RAIN BUT WILL QUICKLY TRANSITION TO SNOW AT ALL ELEVATIONS BY TUESDAY NIGHT. SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL IS POSSIBLE THROUGH WEDNESDAY FOR ALL THE MOUNTAINS OF EASTERN UTAH AND WESTERN COLORADO. THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL VALLEYS MAY ALSO SEE SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS. SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS COULD CONTINUE INTO THE WEEKEND. FRIGID AIR WILL POUR IN BEHIND THE FRONT. AFTERNOON HIGHS MAY NOT BREAK THE FREEZING MARK FROM THURSDAY INTO THE WEEKEND. MORNING LOWS COULD BE WELL BELOW ZERO IN THE MOUNTAINS AND NORTHERN VALLEYS.)

So having the furnace as a back-up would be nice. It’s not going to happen for sometime yet, but Terry does want it in place if and when we go to Nebraska for the combine motor.

It is lightly snowing right now. Anyway, all things come to an end-once we get through this break-down/fix-back-up period I’m sure we will be good to good for a long time.

Your friend that loves December,

Linda

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Dayphoto

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We have reached the place whereby all our gardens are now put to rest,

the freezers are filled and the cellars full,

firewood is stacked in huge piles by the door

as the fire heats the house in a warm cherry glow.

Although, this year has brought tragedies untold,

It has also brought friends through the internet bold,

I thank you all both near and far for the magic of Friendship

Is a one of life’s great blessings on this busy little farm!

Happy Day of Thanks Everyone!!

Your friend in Western Colorado,

Linda

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Dayphoto

The snowman is about gone

The only spot of white left on the lawn

His stone eyes and wooden arms picked up and carried away.

Leaving only cherish thoughts of that other day!

Happy Wednesday! I’m sure everyone is busy cooking and cleaning today.

Your friend,

Linda

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 — Change

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Dayphoto

When my brother and I were small our Dad owned and operated a Sinclair bulk plant and gas station in Delta, Colorado. (we also lived on a huge fruit orchard–lots of work on both ends for everyone in Eckert. But that is another story for a different time.)

As far as my memory can go I think I was about 10 and my brother about 7, when this photo was taken

Terry said he thinks he was around 15, so this may/might/could possibly be about 1959 when Delta had one of their huge spring floods. (No longer does this happen because of extensive work along the Gunnison River.)

The arrow is right on top of my Dad’s business. The water had crossed the railroad and had risen to the top of the little rise where his business was located.

The town proper of Delta is higher than the river so it was spared, but North Delta wasn’t-the flooding water reached way back and touched upon lots of farms.

If I could show you this area today you would be amazed…the land across the river from my Dad’s business now houses City Market Grocery, Ace Hardware, Tractor Supply, McDonald’s and many other businesses, plus the Rec Center.

The other side of the road, where the most extensive flooding occurred has even more businesses.

Please go to this site to see an even older photo of a time when Delta flooded.

Sometimes change isn’t a good thing, change just for the ‘heck of it’ is never a good idea, but change to improve, to make better, to stop destruction—well, that is always a good thing.

Today we do not have floods, which is good. I so remember the real fear and concern my parents felt in this really large flood of around 1959.

When our children were little we had another flood, just as big and just as damaging. It was at this point the City Managers and the Army Core of Engineers said “ENOUGH”.

Thank heavens!
Your grateful friend,

Linda

Monday, November 25, 2013

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Dayphoto

Yesterday it started to rain. It rained and rained, taking with it the lovely snow.

It rained and rained and rained…very miserable with a stiff nasty wind.

By nightfall we had nothing but mud

So we have gone from snow to mud in just one day! That is always the bad part of snow…mud season!

I would have walked out to the fields to show you this, but I had to go upstairs and try and get some decent photos for you

This is one of the corn fields from this summer

We have lots and lots of these huge wonderful birds (and bird poop).

Last year I used to see them flying overhead and holler at them inviting them to come land on our farm—please come! We will be good to you, the dogs don’t chase birds (unless it’s Hank) and I only want to take your photo! “Please come!” I would shout as they flew over my head.

Here is a very short video of the sounds they make (they are extremely noisy birds). I took it while the grandchildren and I were taking a walk one cold winter day. You can hear my voice and one of the grandchildren.

Now if the mud will just dry up…..

It’s still nasty and drizzly. But we have BIRDS to entertain us!

Your friend on the farm,

Linda

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Dayphoto

“The first fall of snow is not only and event, it is a magical event.

You go to bed in one kind of world Winter-1

and wake up in another quite different, Winter-2

and if this is not enchantment Winter-4

then where is it to be found?”

J.B. (John Boynton) Priestley

Through the eyes of child….

The excitement and wonder fills your soul

Really, who could ask for more?

Your friend,

Linda

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Dayphoto

Our storm arrived….bringing with it the most delicious, gentle, kind drizzle of rain you can imagine. It started just after sunset with tiny sprinkles here and there.

By 8 o’clock in the evening Terry came in from working on the 4010 and announced the skies were weeping! I went to see, both dogs following, then choosing to stay outside. (It was a warmish evening and Fuzzy wanted to be outside…Boomer doesn’t like to be somewhere Fuzzy isn’t)

All night the delicious gentle rain fell causing a mist to surround us and all the trees and bushes and plants. This morning we were wet, but not so wet it was miserable. The dogs came in and laid down, Fuzzy by me and Boomer as close to the fire as he could get. It wasn’t long before they were panting but reluctant to go back outside. It’s hard to do something when everything is dripping.

Gradually they went out…first Fuzzy and then Boomer…WHEW! The fresh air must have felt good for them.

Today I will be helping Terry put his hydraulic pump back on the 4010. He fixed the back pump first and now we will do the front one. We had to wait for a pump to be delivered from Abilene, Kansas, which came yesterday. It will take both of us…and a jack and other things for those pumps are are heavy, heavy, heavy.

Sometime after we get this fixed we will take a very fast trip to Bridgeport, Nebraska to get a motor for the combine — the one that he cobbled together by drilling holes in the thermostat.

It’s been a farming season of things breaking in a huge way, then having to be fixed…the 4010 with the hydraulic pumps, the bean combine with the auger, the diesel combine’s motor and the gasoline combine’s major chain under everything, which not only broke but ripped up the bottom metal and sucked into the loading chute. Once these are fixed we should be ‘good to go’ for several more years…anyway that is what Terry is saying. 🙂 🙂

I found the sky amazing last night…that long strip of …whatever … shows up close as a spot in another cloud.

The storm is here until Sunday…with rain supposedly turning to snow tonight. I guess we will see in the morning won’t we. The mountains all around us are showing snow…it can stay up there, which would be perfect.

Off now to help with the tractor and the hydraulic pump,

Your sometimes mechanic’s helper friend,

Linda