Moving Pipe

The last cutting of the year is done on this field, but we still need to irrigate.  Irrigation goes on until a HUGE killing frost occurs.  Sometimes fall is very, very dry here causing the hay to be watered until late September and/or early October. 

Moving-Pipe-001

Of course you don’t want the fields to go into winter wet, but you do need to have them go into winter healthy.   The main irrigation water from Blue Mesa Dam, will be turned off the last week in October.  Golly, gee, that isn’t very far away now.

The onion farmers are in the swing of harvest with the cow people starting the silage/ensilage harvest on Labor Day. 

Alfalfa is harder to get wet and to stay wet, so we put (yes, I help) gated pipe in the middle of field to water the rest of the way.  Next year this field of alfalfa will be plowed under and turned into a corn field.  Corn is easier to water so we won’t need to use these pipes.

Moving-Pipe-002

Corn harvest is close now…..very close.  Maybe in October, we will just have to wait and see what the weather brings.

Happy Labor Day!

My How Time Flies

Remember those cute little baby ducks from last July?

 Ducks

Here they are today!

 And those scrawny little goats rescued from the Sale Barn

 Me-No-Me

I can’t ever get a good photo of them, because they are so afraid one or the other might get a cookie and the other one won’t. 

I carry Vanilla Wafers with me at all times, it’s always nice to have a cookie with a friend.

Picking Up Broken Bales

Sometimes the baler ties a string too tight or a knot slips, usually if the hay is too wet from the dew.  When that happens I go out with a wagon and load the broken bales into the wagon.  Those bales will be fed up quickly, either to the grandkids’ goats or our cows.

Terry continues to haul in the whole bales with the stack wagon.  Sometimes we load some of the bales into the loader.

Since Evan has been in New York, Zooker (his teacup poodle) has been taking turns staying with Misty or us.  One thing Zooker LOVES is to ride on the four-wheeler! So even though he was supposed to be with the little kids, I drove down and got him, letting him help us haul hay.

Broken-Bales

A farm dog he isn’t, but boy has he loved learning how to be one.

Smoke Filled Sunrise

Sunrise-and-Smoke-004

With the horrible fires in California and the one on the Uncompahgre Plateau, we are experiencing lots and lots of smoke in the air.

Although, the sunrises are beautiful, how it came to be is horrifyingly sad.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh The Life of a Cat

Sammy-and-the-tree

There are trees to climb, and tree houses to play in

Sammy-the-Cat

Catnip to roll upon

Sammy-Sue

And naps to take.  BLISS!

Yesterday a Summer Rain Storm Passed Our Way

It was a heavy quick storm, the moisture was nice.  It was in town and not on the hay fields!  🙂

Rain

Third Cutting of Hay

Third-Cutting-of-Hay

If we are lucky and the weather holds we will have a fourth cutting. So far no freeze yet.  BUT we have had a killing frost on Labor Day.  It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened.  Time will tell.  Time will tell.

Bittersweet Ending

Summer is going and Fall is approaching. 

Sigh! 

Although, I really do like the warm days and the cooler evenings, it’s winter that I dread.  And it looks like it is coming very early this year.  We only had about two weeks of really hot weather, so I figure we only had about two weeks of summer.

 Other signs are out there, the song birds have flown, the hummers have left, the milkweed is blowing and the cattails are starting to split.  All this started about the middle of August…now this

The-End-of-August

Update, by Honey the Hen

Honey-the-Hen

Well, it happened! My Mom put me, Cluck-Cluck and Nervous Netty back in the hen house. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about this turn of events. 

I rather enjoy my new coat of feathers, I just LLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE preening them.  I can do it for hours and hours, it’s just so relaxing.  I close my eyes and {{ POW}} in my mind’s eye I am the prettiest chicken in the whole hen house.  Just like when Roo lived here.  But I digress. 

the-roo

Last week Mom just didn’t come get us to let us out…we (Cluck-Cluck and Netty and I) hollered and flew at the door, but she didn’t come.  After awhile we decided, Heck this isn’t so bad, and it wasn’t. 

We all agreed having a ‘real’ nest to lay an egg in is really very nice, and the Old Biddies seem to have forgotten they don’t like us.  (We remember though, we remember, and try not to get any of them mad, those girls have VERY SHARP Beaks..   shiver, shiver.)

So life is good once more, we stay in the house, lay our eggs, and then when Mom gets home we get to run around in the garden and on the lawn.  Mom said she was afraid she couldn’t tell us apart, but Cluck-Cluck and I remember Mom and go right up to her and hover around her feet and try to help her weed. 

Back-in-the-Hen-House

Heck, Cluck-Cluck even tried to sit on Dad’s lap.  He was rather horrified and flung her off—said something about poop on his lap as he pushed Cluck-Cluck off.  I really didn’t understand what it was all about.  Geez!

Speaking of weeding, Mom said she was really glad we got our feathers back because she was tired of the scratching we did in all her flower beds, flower pots, and in the garden.  I really don’t see the harm, and the vegetables really do taste better on the vine than in the scrap pot.  We just took a little peck here and there; the stuff was still there for Mom to use if she wanted too.

Mom also said I had to stop being the Guard Chicken.  That the dog was in charge,

Delta Cemetery 005

not me. But I figured I could take over the dog’s job, shoot he is old, 7 to 9 years old, and I am young, 1.5 years old.  I did a good job too.  I took on Shadow Sam the Cat, and Monkey the Cat, man could I make them spin out, claws scratching on the cement. 

sammy-sue

I was really rather surprised to take on Shadow Sam and have him run, for I’ve seen Shadow Sam take on Rottweilers!  But I P.R.O.V.E.D.  that I am the better guard for I wouldn’t let ANY of them come into the shade if Mom and Dad where resting there drinking tea or lemonade.  

monkey-moo

The last time I chased the cats I did hear Dad say something about “that hen can hold her own now; it’s time she stays in the hen house”. 

Oh!

Goodness! 

It was the next day Mom didn’t come to let us out.  

Oh! 

Oh…I see now!

Oh well, it was time, I am a good guard and those old biddies don’t bother me, not now or ever more!!!!!

It’s Time

Bean-Combine

(An off-center photo of the bean combine ready to enter the field)

Beans-2009-006

The beans were ready when we got back from Wyoming and Nebraska. So DH pulled the beans, then rod-weeded them.

Let them dry for a week

Pulled-Beans

Today they are at the beanery, being cleaned and sacked to go to some table somewhere out there. Nothing left but bean straw in the field.

Straw