Monday, April 22, 2013

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Dayphoto

The 4010 is sick. The hydraulic’s aren’t working very well.

So yesterday, Terry and a good friend of his, started helping the poor old Deere to feel better. This tractor is one of the main workhorses of our small but might fleet. Each one has a particular purpose, with this one being the tractor which has the loader on it.

The loader is another workhorse; used for so many things.

Today is wonderful…it is warm enough I am able to open the windows upstairs (where the rooms get unbearably stuffy and hot). This where I keep my computer and tiny little office.

Just look at the beautiful sunlight shining on the Roubidoux Canyon!! You can see that our mesa, California Mesa drops off and then the canyon starts.

The wind is just now coming up, although it seems to be a warm wind.

My favorite little spring time flower is blooming…I so enjoy these cheerful and bright little ‘weeds’!

Today I’m working in my yard, there are things I have been wanting to do — I’ve just been waiting for a nice day to do them in.

My wish is that this is a wonderful day for you, full of the perfect weather for your area, and you are able to accomplish whatever you set out to do—even if it is to rest. Resting is very necessary; as much as work is.

Best Wishes My Friends,

Linda

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Dayphoto

Finally we are warming up!

Yesterday, Terry and I went to Grand Junction to so some shopping…Sam’s Club, Whole Foods, Michael’s, Hobby Lobby…all the places I save up for so we can do it in one day.

Terry goes to Home Depot, Sears, Western Implement, Sutherland’s ..it’s a busy big day when we make the trip.

Last night was just lovely

And today even better…we plan on getting rid of all the trash today, changing water (always) and getting a few things done that are restful, not huge.

I hope everyone has a peaceful Sunday,

Linda

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Dayphoto

We fought wind and dust all day long yesterday. Sure was a mess!

And of course it had little bits of rain with it…nothing that does any good, just helps the blowing dirt stick to stuff.

Here is one of our windows to give you an idea…that isn’t rain, it’s dirt.

I went to bed thinking I will be glad when the weather settles and I can get the windows and screens washed.

This morning we woke up to this-

Yep! And we still irrigate even though there is snow.

Terry and I were talking about those that have corn seed in the ground ready to ‘water-up’–sort of scary, because this type of moisture will cause the seed to swell and break out roots and a stalk, if the water doesn’t hit them at the right time the seed will die.

That is one reason we water the ground first, wait for it to dry to the right stage of moisture and then plant.

Everyone has their own theory and knows what works for them, but for us this is what and why we do what we do.

Also, this type of weather is a mess for those in the ‘prep’ stage of ground work. You get the soil to the point of being a really nice sponge; it will act like a sponge. In our clay type of soil sponges turn rock hard if you don’t get on it right at a certain point.

As in all things timing is everything.

There is an old saying: “As in gambling so is farming” there just might be more than a grain of truth in it.

Well, moisture is moisture so we will just keep the fire going, the water flowing and know that someday, at some time, winter has just GOT to end! 🙂

Linda, from Canada sent me some bulbs of her Tarda Tulips, last year we were so dry they didn’t bloom, but this year they are lovely.

Of course they are covered up with snow right now, but the photos I got yesterday show you how beautiful they are

Spring time in the Rockies or is it still winter time? Maybe a mix of both 🙂

Linda

April 16, 2013 — The Perils of the Head Gate

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Dayphoto

After a very cold day yesterday, we woke up to thick frost on the ground which quickly melted by 7:30 this morning. It was lovely.

Although…………….

We could see Utah dirt coming in from the Uncompahgre (Un-come-pah-gray .. accent on the pah) Plateau. By 8.30 it was here…nasty wind, full of red dirt.

The weather guy said we would not see this wind until around 2-3 this afternoon (I wonder if harder wind is coming in at that time), then it would change over to rain and then snow and would snow most of Wednesday then blow out of here.

I took a couple of photos of Terry cleaning out the head gate. The Head gate is the out-take gate of the main canal to your farm….our canal, the one that runs by us is called the Ironstone, the water that leaves our place goes back into the Ironstone and into the FNC Lateral…which is a branch of the Ironstone canal.

We are lucky because the head gate to our farm is right at the beginning of our farm…its easy to monitor because it is so close. Some farms have head gates as far as 2-3 miles FROM their farm.

All head gates have to be monitored for trash, dead animals, big garbage that someone up the way didn’t want to deal with…on the most part everyone is really good about NOT dumping stuff into the canal for the next person to have to take of. Sometimes an animal will fall in (or get tossed in) we’ve had skunks, sheep, calves and pigs that have been caught in the head gate. No goats so far, which is good.

I’m heading out to sort firewood, we have some green I need to get into a different pile and I want to do it before the rain starts.

Thank each and everyone of you for following and/or commenting! I always appreciate how wide spread the world of blogging is and how diverse our worlds are; yet how very close blogging makes us. I am most grateful for this blogging world and for getting to know so many people from around the world.

Sincerely,

Linda

Monday, April, 15, 2013–Packing the Rows

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Dayphoto

Terry packed rows last night and this morning!

Our soil is rather strange….if it rains (and we have had a nice 1 inch rain) the water stops going down the furrows.

Weird, but true.

Even though the rows were packed BEFORE the rain, he had to go back out and do it all over again.

Terry like to use a Mormon Creaser, which is a tool that helps square up the row and packs down the walls and bottom of the furrow so the water can flow on through. Sometimes he just drives the tractor up and down the rows, it depends on what the furrow looks like when he gets there.

(See the tractor turning around? The tires mess up the rows so the irrigater has to make sure and dig out those furrows by hand or a flood mess will occur. Also, right at the gate – the siphon tube – the furrow has to be dug out so the water understands which row to head down)

The wind is kicking up a fuss today and it looks like there are storms in the mountains and canyons surrounding us…storms made of water is a very nice thought. It’s also cold. The weather man says we have a huge winter storm coming in complete with 45 mph winds and bitter temperatures. By Wednesday we should see snow, or at least as snow and rain mix.

We will not stop irrigating even if the rain and snow come in—another weird but true fact of farming in our part of the high mountain desert. (the secret is High and Mountain and Desert…)

The little rain here freshened up everything, even if it slowed down the irrigation. We will just keep on plodding along.

Some of the farmers are going to ‘go for the gold’ and plant 70% of their acres, but we are staying with the 60%, we would hate to lose a crop just because we tried to bluff our way through. By the middle of May we will know if we want to go ahead and add another 10% of our acreage. It’s a toss up if we plant pinto beans or alfalfa…it all depends on water — how much and for how long or if there will even be any.

Heading out now to do some things, I hope all of you have a good Monday.

Linda

Opening the Fields

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Dayphoto

We opened the fields Friday — which means we started water. This is a big job as all the ditches have to be flushed, the weeds cleaned out.

Hank enjoys helping the water move through the mud at the bottom of the ditches. He gets the mud packed into his nose. Such a goofy dog! (said with love)

Then the water is set in the proper fields.

Boomer only likes the water to get a drink out of, most the time he is out scouting around!

The day started out cold, warmed up, and then cooled down again. Of course when you are working you warm up fast!

We had help, Misty and Tallen, Hank, Boomer, and Fuzzy.

Fuzzy didn’t want to get off the four-wheeler so I just let him stay up there. This is not normal for him as he loves ‘chasing water’. I guess, he has decided he is just too old now and will opt for directing the other dogs on what to do. The patriarch of the dog pack so to speak.

I would set him down and he would hang out in the shade, go over and get a drink and then head back to the shade. Sort of sad really, but at least he still like going with us.

Tallen really does help…we gave her a row of her own and she truly worked at getting the water down it.

These little grandchildren may never live or work on a farm, but they are getting a good taste of what it takes to make a row crop farm go. 🙂

This photo shows you the gated pipe at work. The little gates are nice in some ways, in others not so nice….like having to clean the trash out of them. You have to reach clear inside and pull the trash out, lots of bending over and getting your hands and fingers wet.

The end of the day we were all back out there.

When you open a field every end of the row has to be dug out so your water goes down the row it is supposed to be in. Corn is watered every other row. Lots of digging when you first open a field, lots of digging after you plant and after you cultivate.

Terry always waters the corn fields first so he doesn’t have to worry about cold weather coming along and causing the VERY EXPENSIVE corn seed to rot.

We will soak the fields, let them dry, then he will plant.

In the beginning your winter body doth protest loudly, by the end of the season you are ‘fit as a fiddle’ — as my beloved maternal grandfather would say.

Terry packed rows ahead of us so we didn’t have to walk the water through the field, sometimes packing helps sometimes not. Yesterday and Friday it worked great!

I hope each and everyone of you have a really nice Sunday…a day of just doing whatever you feel like doing!

Linda

The Next Day

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Dayphoto

Well, yesterday was yesterday. We are still having winter weather. All of the apricot tree fruit that was in bloom stage froze. I don’t expect many apricots this summer, but there just might be some, one never knows until later on.

I have decided that if most of my stuff dies I will start over—it is a good way to try out new and different plants without ripping up the ones already there. I have a hard time doing so, so this will just help me out.

If they do recover then I stay with what I have. 🙂

As Momma said…’time will tell’.

It’s still cold and snowing off and on, another fast moving storm came in early this morning.

I hope it snowing where we can use the water! Snow in the Gunnison Mountain ranges!

The water came…in the midst of all the nasty wind and blowing snow… I didn’t take a photo of it until yesterday when everything calmed down.

You can see the moisture from the storm has really greened up the banks. Then having the canal water all the time will help make everything along the edges grow quickly. Grass doesn’t seem to mind cool to colder weather.

Terry will call the ditch rider early tomorrow morning (way before 7) and see if the head gate can be opened so we can begin.

Neither rain or sleet or snow will stop us once we flush the ditches and set the rows!

It’s all rather exciting. Snow in the mountains, water for the rest of us.

Well, off to do some things …like mopping the floor. Pretty mundane, but necessary!

Here is a photo of

Delta’s Main Street, looking south, in 1893. The Delta House is far right; the Delta Area Chamber is center (Delta County Bank in this photo). Note that Main Street was lined with trees, (Cottonwood Trees), even way back then. Those trees have been removed and we have shorter growing trees now.

Linda

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 My Poor Gardens

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Dayphoto

What can I say—

January arrived last night in April…

We woke up at the crack of dawn to this…..and, of course, not complete with out wind chill.

Really sad. I don’t remember this ever happening in all of my married years…

Everything is frozen and turning black as the sun rises.

Sigh,

Linda

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Dayphoto

We had RAIN!!! last night! Not lots, but enough the tractors can’t get into the fields.

We also had wind…lots and lots of wind. My house is covered in mud…dirt, wind, rain…makes for a sort of adobe house. 🙂

(Dirt in the air)

Now it is cold…39* with a very sharp wind.

I am hoping lots of snow is being dumped on the two reservoirs-Taylor and Blue Mesa! 🙂

This tiny bit of rain we have here is nice…although, it isn’t even a inch into the ground it is moisture. The trees, grasses and other things have a nice shiny look to them. Even the corral poles look washed off.

Tonight it’s supposed to get extremely cold, just as the sun dog said would happen, then we gradually start warming back up.

I should say that this is rather typical for spring…two or three steps forward and then one giant step back. By Mother’s Day we should be settling down real nice.

Linda

Monday, April 8, 2013

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Dayphoto

We finished up the gated pipe this morning. Terry talked to our ditch rider at 6:30 a.m. and he said they are flushing the Ironstone Canal (that is ours) tomorrow morning. By Thursday we should have water.

Of course a huge winter storm is supposed to come in here by mid-night tonight. We have high wind warning starting at noon today. The storm is fast moving, very cold and wet with lots of rain and snow for two days and nights. Anyone with fruit trees in bloom have been warned to start the wind machines and/or the smudge pots.

My family made a living in the orchard world up in Eckert. Anytime I hear freeze warnings I always think about the stress that produced for my parents and my maternal grandparents.

Our Apricot trees are blooming, but some of the blooms are already into the fruit stage so they will survive, the other blooms that aren’t are okay by me. We don’t make our living on these trees and the summer fruit can be a mess.

Local Weather Alert

Winter Storm Warning for Central Gunnison And Uncompahgre River Basin, CO (we are the Uncompahgre River Basin)

… WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 6 PM MDT TUESDAY…WITH FREEZE WARNING UNTIL 9 AM WEDNESDAY

* TIMING… RAIN WILL CHANGE OVER TO SNOW LATE TONIGHT AS TEMPERATURES PLUMMET TO BELOW FREEZING.

* SNOW ACCUMULATION… 4 TO 8 INCHES OF SNOW WILL BE POSSIBLE. SNOW AMOUNTS WILL BE EXTREMELY VARIABLE FROM LOCATION TO LOCATION. EVEN SO… AREAS THAT ARE LIKELY TO RECEIVE HIGHER AMOUNTS OF SNOW INCLUDE MONTROSE AND CERRO SUMMIT AND MUCH OF THE UPPER GUNNISON VALLEY.

* SNOW LEVEL… LOWERING TO THE VALLEY FLOORS BY LATE TONIGHT.

* WINDS… BECOMING NORTHWEST TO NORTH AT 15 TO 40 MPH.

* VISIBILITY… LOWERING TO LESS THAN 1 MILE AT TIMES IN MODERATE SNOW.

* IMPACTS… HIGHWAYS WILL BECOME WET AND SLIPPERY WITH SLUSHY ACCUMULATIONS POSSIBLE. LOCAL AREAS… LIKE CERRO SUMMIT… WILL BECOME SNOW PACKED.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS AND BLOWING SNOW ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR IMPOSSIBLE.

In spite of all this the water will still come on. Terry is getting ready to pack the rows so if we get rain and snow it won’t hurt the ground (cause it to turn into a huge clay mess so we have to start all over) so when the head gate is unlocked we can begin.

Well, my break is over, I’ve enjoyed sharing it with you, but I must get back to work the spring storm is putting a huge rush on things.