Yesterday a very brisk, cold wind blew the clouds out of the way, leaving us with a very, VERY crisp day.
This morning we are in another winter weather storm watch.
BUT…look at this!!!
As the wind was blowing one storm away from us I saw an extremely rare site.
(At least for me in this part of the world)
A winter rainbow in the west…
I was extremely trilled!
Linda
I’m getting a tad tired of all the clouds
Although, there is snow on the mountains and around us.
Dreary is well….dreary!
But today…this morning…I CAN SEE SOME SUN…so I’m heading out for a walk.
Happy Monday!!!
Linda
Grandpa came out to meet us on our daily walk
What more can a Grandparent ask for?
Linda
COLD!!! That is the word here!
Really cold!
But I can see snow on Grand Mesa and the San Juan’s I can’t see the Black Canyon or the Gunnison area because of fog. Just a slight amount on the top of the Plateau. It is supposed to warm up by 10* today and then we go into a slightly warmer period for a few days before another storm hits this weekend.
As long as it is snowing in the mountains I’ll live with the cold.
We have a flock of House/English Sparrows which have decided to make our farm home for the winter…Sparrows and Ring-necked Doves. As these two different flocks of feathered friends have grown all other birds have abandoned us. (We still have the Sand-hill Cranes and the Canada Geese, and the black birds, but they are in the fields, these are right with us in the farm house area.)
They are everywhere. The Ring-necked Doves have the house and yard, the House/English Sparrows have every remaining building and shop area.
The flocks are growing daily. I am not feeding them. They could go down to the feed lot 2 miles away, except the Starlings left (YIPPEE) as these two groups started taking over going down to the feed lot.
I would much rather have what we have than Starlings. I am NOT a Starling fan.
The bushes and the trees are filled with twittering little and big birds…and also the accompanying poop!
Sort of on the rather nasty mess side.
Well, back to my regularly scheduled work!
Linda
Alas, our above normal December temperatures have fallen to ‘normal’.
This is the high yesterday. Which really was much colder as we had a sharp wind with the cold, so the wind chill needed to be factored in.
Even as cold as this was Fuzzy wanted to stay outside, although Boomer didn’t.
Sam didn’t stay in much either, preferring the outdoors, then sitting by the wood stove when he came in, then back out he would go.
Monkey, made a wild dash out the door, only once,
When I went out to do something.
This is what I saw when I came back.
Although, I know cold is relative, this is cold to us
The temperature when I got up today.
And it will only get worse as the days wind down to the solstice on December 21st.
Will that be the end of the world?!?!?
I have know idea.
I do know that after the solstice, the days will start to grow longer again and the temperatures even colder and colder until we hit March.
Which seems like a very long time from now.
Oh, well. Cold like this is really hard on the bugs, which can be a good thing next summer!
Linda
I was excused from work this day.
Told I wasn’t needed.
Said it would go faster now and I could stay at the house and get ‘stuff’ done there.
I didn’t complain.
He was right.
When I went up in the late after noon he was over half-way done.
He thinks he will finish up today…tomorrow at the latest.
Which is good, because we are supposed to have a rain storm Thursday(tomorrow) and snow of Saturday.
If he can get done today the rain will help settle the soil around the pipe and into the trench. After that we will know how much dirt we will have to bring up from the back side of the place to fill in what has settled.
Linda
We have decided that, to ease the work-load for next year, all of the transmission ditches need to be put underground.
Transmission ditches only carry the water from one place to the next place, they don’t have to be open ditches for a person to use siphon tubes to water the actual fields.
The time in managing the open ditch is huge, you have to make the ditch, keep the ditch clean of trash and weeds and deep enough, with enough slant, so the water will flow. It’s an all season job, which sometimes gets away from us. The water, with the weed seeds gets a start and then this is what you get.
A mess.
The mess takes up some of the water for themselves and the sun takes more, so by August how many tubes or gates you get to use starts to shrink.
We have several transmission ditches.
Gradually, every year (pipe costs lots of money) the transmission ditches have been going underground.
The first two years Terry dug the ditches by hand, last year he rented a backhoe and dug it that way. But this year, after putting pencil to paper, we hired Troy Wells to come out and dig this ditch.
(Besides I don’t think – at our ages – we should be doing all the work!)
Terry got everything ready so all that had to be done was the digging.
The work was excellent!
All the top soil (because we are going down a road-the one that goes to our head gate and to the upper end of our place) was put on one side of the trench, the good farming soil on the other side. The sides were squared and the bottom flat…very little hand work had to be done. Just at the top where the transmission pipe connects with the first artery of that system.
And that WAS a job!
The it was up to us. Get a pipe, lay in the trench, get another pipe, glue them together, make sure the fall of the land is still good, if not take a shovel and shovel the spot until perfect, put another pipe in,
(Jump out so a picture or two could be taken. But don’t do it too often or the “Boss” will get upset for goofing off!)
Then…THANK HEAVENS FOR BIG MACHINES…Terry would start dumping the good farm soil back into the trench. Here the test is to make sure the dirt lands on TOP of the pipe, not on one side or the other causing it to roll.
A good job! The pipe did not roll and we did not have to get back in and shovel off the dirt and re-align the pipe.
Thank goodness!
We had lots of help!
I guess you know what we are going to be doing the rest of today and the rest of this week.
Have a great Tuesday everyone!
Linda
We got to go watch our youngest grandchild’s dance recital.
She was so excited that she had to repeat part of the dance routine at our house later.
(That is her Aunt Kimi, watching from behind.)
Some things are way magical no matter if you are 4 or 63!
Linda
The morning sunlight is always a welcome site, when a person gets up before the dawn.
Gradually the sun starts to light up the sky. (The flash of the camera made enough light you can see all the fore-ground ‘stuff’)
As I open up the hen house, feed the chickens, put out new water for them, the sky show more and more light.
By the time I get all the firewood loaded and heading back to the house to start up the fire
The day has arrived.
Then I forgot to go back out and get the sun actually up, because I got busy with the fire and starting breakfast.
What a glorious world we live in!
Tomorrow we start digging up ONE of the transmission ditches and laying down pipe. Should make for a lot easier season farming next year.
(Oh, yes, Terry has decided to farm one more year. Are we surprised? Although, he is still pondering if he should do pinto beans..they take a huge amount of energy (his) at harvest time.)
And, of course, if there is water to farm with!
Have a really nice Sunday!
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 