Dodder

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Dayphoto

This nasty weed fascinates me! Not that I like it, but because of how it grows.

Dodder is a noxious weed! It is also a parasite. Unlike mistletoe, which has green leaves and extracts water and food from the host plants, Dodder takes out all the carbohydrates.

Like all parasites it is very hard to kill once you get it, you have to kill the host. This nasty vine grows 3 inches a day. Of course nothing like kudzu!

We work really hard to NEVER let this get started on our land, but roadsides are another story. These two photos are by one of the stop signs on my way home from work.

Another rather interesting fact is Dodder usually starts showing up in August and this is July.

I hope it isn’t a sign that we are headed into another LONG winter!

Linda

Double Yolks

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Dayphoto

The first two are large sized eggs, the last two have double yolks….YIKES!

There is something just so cool about going out everyday and gathering the eggs. Once in awhile you get bonus eggs. Double yolk eggs are mostly from young chickens.

Linda

Predators!!!

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Dayphoto

We got the skunk!

We also had an adventure early this morning (3:00) with something….something fighting for its life right outside the bedroom window. Two huge brown fur masses fighting, growling, rolling around and hissing at each other!

Made me so mad! Terry tried to scar them off, but they just took it on out to the tile house and my bean gardens, then that upset me more, because they were tearing things UP! So I took off after them with a flashlight, in my nightgown, and Terry following behind as he was getting the gun.

The most horrible of rack they made HORRIBLE, loud sounds like metal scraping on metal. And a huge ball of fur that I couldn’t make out what or who was doing what!

The mass of roiling anger and fear fled up the canal bank to the top of the pig pen, where I stayed on the other side of the canal but equal to the fight. I started yelling and shone the light right on them, getting one of them right in the eyes. It caused everything to stop! Suddenly!

The victim jumped into the canal and started swimming downstream toward Terry, but it was too dark to make out what it was.

The other one, fell into the canal when the victim dove, I saw what it was, but I have no name for it—-the head was like a little bear, the body long, at least three feet in length with a bushy tail. As soon as it got on shore it ran into the cornfield to not be seen again.

I have no idea what I just saw, but it was NOT going to get my chickens again! I just got three new ones from our daughter Shannon to replace the other ones!

Now that its daylight I wonder what I would have done if that animal had decided to swim the canal and jump onto the bank next to me!?! Oh, well! It didn’t!

The following photo has absolutely nothing to do with the text, but I thought it would be fun to see where the grain used to be stored when we were just starting out 41 years ago.

We don’t store grain anymore; we sell directly from the field. Still the bins are pretty cool reminders of a time not so very long ago.

Linda

Sunday Stills—Summer

Posted on July 18, 2010 by Dayphoto

I think my favorite thing about summer …are the rainbows. This is my first time to join the Sunday Stills challenge. If anyone visiting would like to join just go here and follow the directions.

Linda

Day Trip

Posted on July 16, 2010 by Dayphoto

In between irrigations Terry and I took off for a little day trip.

We headed to Lake City by taking the short-cut at Sapinero, then on to Creed, Pagosa Springs, Durango and back home over Molas, Coal Bank, Red Mountain and the Million Dollar Highway passes.

Lake San Cristobal (the reason Lake City, Colorado, is called Lake City) is the second largest natural lake in the state of Colorado.

Located on Slumgullion Pass (elevation 11,530 ft) which is named for the nearby earthflow, a gigantic landslide of yellowish soil. The early miners thought it looked like slumgullion stew.

It was here the Alfred “Alferd” Packer became more than famous.

On the other side sits the little town of Creede where the headwaters of the San Juan River and the Rio Grande make thier start.

(Have you noticed I seem to always focus on water…?!?)

I had to cut short the 200+ photos and try to give you the ones that bring out the drama of this little trip.

Along the way you will see

history still standing.

The second you leave Durango you start climbing Molas, and Coal Bank passes.

Then when you start down you travel along Red Mountain Pass and the Million Dollar Highway.

The views are stunning

I never seem to tire of what I see

My mind usually wanders trying to figure out how those that came to settle this area felt…

We made it home in enough time to see to change the water.

Linda

Cultivating the Pinto Beans for the Last Time

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Dayphoto

Terry cultivated the pinto beans for the last time this growing season. The pinto beans are starting to shoot feelers (tendrils). This will cause the rows to grow shut. The little plants are also blooming; soon bean pods will appear and then fill with the tasty little beans.

Linda

Spider Web and the Feather

Posted on July 14, 2010 by Dayphoto

A very busy little spider created a very sturdy, but gossamer web next to the sidewalk. Some bird, flying over-head and in no particular notion to shed a feather, did so anyway.

The feather drifted slowly down, through the Rio Grande Cottonwood branches and came to a stop in the home of the spider.

And me….

I saw it and took a photo!

Linda

Busy, Busy, Busy

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Dayphoto

Our alfalfa has been cut for the second time of the year, once more I’m reminded that summer is half over. Third cutting of hay will occur at the same time as the pinto bean harvest.

We had a huge wind storm come up day before last, knocking down huge tree limbs and in general making a big mess. But after it all I saw….

A beautiful rainbow! Makes picking up branches so worthwhile.

The sunset was pretty amazing also.

My yard is looking good, however very weedy. Between work and farming and life getting to the weeds is sometimes difficult.

Still all in all good things are always there if you open your eyes to them. My daughter’s father-in-law wanted some limbs from the old lilac tree/bush. We were glad to give him some.

Then the other day he brought over to us this

Lovely hand-made pen and pencil set from the lilac bush! A pretty cool gift, I must say.

Linda

The Little Brown Bat

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Dayphoto

I caught this Little Brown Bat sleeping on the wall outside my office. Why he chose to sleep here, under the roof of a very busy campus is known only to the bat. He only stayed the one night day. So I felt lucky to take his photograph.

Bats are beneficial and generally a gentle species, they can also be a nuisance if they decide to take up residence in your home or outbuildings. But that’s another story for another time.

One Little Brown Bat can eat up to 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour. YEA!!!! Mosquitoes are really bad this year, and with the threat of West Nile Disease in our area having Little Brown Bats swooping along eating the nasty little bugs is pretty cool.

Yes, I know bats can carry rabies, but very few bats are ever really infected with the disease — like less than 1% of all the bats in the world get the disease.

Bats also feed on mosquitoes, Gypsy moths, Japanese beetles and other nasty damaging pests.

Bats also pollinate plants such as the Organ Pipe and Saquaro (I hope I spelled that right) cactus in the western states and like birds disperse seeds in the rainforests, encouraging new growth.

Some fun little facts about bats are:

Bats are clean and like to groom themselves
More than 1,000 species of bats are known
Most bats give birth to one ‘pup’ each year
Bats live around 20-30 years
And my little friend up there on the wall—Little Brown Bats have a life expectancy of up to 40 years

Pretty Cool, don’t you think!?!

If you would like to learn more about bats contact the Bat Conservation Internation group http://www.batcon.org/ here you will learn how to attract bats by building your very own bat house (or two) http://www.batcon.org/index.php/get-involved/install-a-bat-house.html or maybe buy one to place near your gardens.

Wisconsin and Minnesota are setting the example by working to encourage people to understand bats. Wisconsin DNR offers free bat house design and instruction www.DNR.state.wi.us. Minnesota DNR also has plans and instructions available http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/index.html

Have fun watching these friends of our enviroment. They really are cool little creatures!

Linda

Dog Days of Summer

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Dayphoto

Fuzzy still like to run beside the four-wheeler as we move about doing chores. I think that is pretty good for a twelve year old dog. Although he does have some days when he is just too tired to go. On those days I give him some baby asprin and let him rest. Other times I take him anyway and let him ride behind me, which he loves (!), by the way.

I’m really glad we still have him.

Tallen is delighted that Zooker is back home. I think she would just keep him if Uncle Evan would let her.

Zooker and his summer hair cut

The cats are bigger than this dog! He knows he is small tiny and very careful to keep out of everyone’s way.

It’s hard to get a photo of Bella, she is NEVER, I mean N.E.V.E.R. still, EVER! What a high energy dog.

Lightening started a fire somewhere on the Plateau. Not good, but it does make for a dramatic sunset.

Not much happening here, work, work and more work. Second cutting of hay is started today. That’s really good as the first cutting has all been sold and we still have standing orders for the second and third cutting. Terry was saying he has to be careful and be sure and keep some for us.

The corn is growing rapidily. If you stop and listen you can hear the pops and snaps as it grows. I think that corn is possibly the only living thing of which you can not only see growth, but hear it happening as well.

Mountain Fresh sweet corn will start picking thier sweet corn this weekend, with Olathe Sweet sweet corn starting Monday. Watch for it to hit a grocery store near you. When you find some know that it came from our area of the world! 🙂

Once the second cutting of hay happens I know we are half way through summer. I guess I had better not be sad, but glad there is still more to come. I love summer! But then again I like spring and fall also.

Linda