Category Archives: Life on a Colorado Farm

My name is Linda Brown. I live on a farm on the western slope of Colorado, in the high mountain desert. I’ve lived here all my life, hailing back four generations on my father’s side. Today I blog about our farm, the everyday activities that keep the farm going. I also write about my thoughts and dreams and goals

Look What I Got

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Deb from Tyler Farm http://tylerfarmhomestead.blogspot.com

Sent me a delightful box of goodies over the weekend!  There is just so much wonderful stuff here I have to tell you all about it:

Gifts-from-Deb

First is a pair of fingerless, wool, hand-dyed, and hand-knit (by Deb) gloves that are just perfect.  So much about the gloves are special in that Tyler Farm raises the sheep, the wool is then turned into yarn.  Deb then dyes the yarn with natural dyes, and then creates something warm and sumptuous to use and/or wear. (This was my ‘Pay if Forward’ gift).

Second she makes the cutest cards with her amazing photographs of which I got three.  (I should have turned the one card upside right, but just now noticed that it needed to be turned.)

Because she gets horrible migraines she cannot eat chocolate but has found great recipes to take the place of chocolate and she shared her Blond Brownie one with me.

And she included some Zucchini Lungli seeds for me to try here in Colorado.  “Italian Zucchini-plant as you would regular zucchini-these will grow green and long with a large bulb on the end.  They grow great on a fence.  When they are ripe they will turn orange.  Cook them like winter squash.  WOW!  Seeds from Italy, to Main, to a humble little farm in western Colorado!  I am very excited to see if they grow here.

I THAN YOU, Deb! I am amazed at your generosity!

Summer is Officially Here for Us

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 First cutting of hay (and of course we had rain on it the third day of trying to dry).

Summer-and-Hay-006

By the time the hay is cut for the first time, the second cultivation has occurred in the other crops, everything is up and growing, irrigating is in full rotational swing, and the nasty Canada Thistle is about ready to bloom.

We are there, even though the real first day of summer isn’t for three more weeks.

I love the smell of alfalfa drying and turning in to hay…ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Goat Rescue

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Both-Goats

Last Thursday my daughters rescued two female goats; these poor things were so starved every bone showed and they are stunted in their growth. 

Goat-Kiss

So now we have two goats. 

 The Darlings!

Shannon-and-Goat

I contacted Peggy http://hiddenhavenhomestead.blogspot.com/ and asked her a ton of questions, and then we did everything she suggested.   Today, Wednesday, we are seeing marked improvement, they have a cud, their energy level is improving, and their fur is starting to look a little better.

They are so sweet; the grandchildren love to have them with them at all times, but being on a leash isn’t the best for everyone.

White-Goat

Yesterday was spent goat proofing the horse corral, and then we will expand the horse  goat corral into the calf pens so they will have lots of room.  They sleep in the barn, to be safe from the predators, but most of the time they live under the trampoline playing house and video games.

Delta High School Commencement Speaker

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Speaker-of-Graduation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kelly, our son-in-law was asked, by the graduating seniors, to be their Commencement speaker.  What a neat and fun

honor for their Economics/Social Studies Teacher to have.

Kelly (Mr. McCormick), a teacher, coach and graduate of Delta High School, presented a message filled with personal observations of members of the Class of 2009.

He encouraged the class to always believe in themselves, and to never stop learning.  “Learning keeps you young and sharp,” he said.

“Do not mistake that diploma as a right of passage, it is a gift, and you must always give back.”

He also urged them to never give up on their dreams, and to always stand up for what they believe is right.

Look for good in others and only good will come from you.

Wind and Rain

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What a mixed blessing we are having.  We are still experiencing lots of wind (this sure is an odd year for wind).  And some pretty nice rain, which is good for our semi-arid region. 

The hay is ever so close to first cutting, any day now (that is why we are getting rain ….chuckle  ),

but … sigh..

Rain-and-Hay

Here is what happens with a mix of tall alfalpha, heavy wind, and lots of rain. 

Wind-and-Hay

The alfalfa falls over, sometimes twists on itself, and can even lay flat.

Oh well, we can still cut it, it just takes longer and it a little harder to do.

Have a Happy Memorial Day!      See you on Tuesday.

This Roo

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The-Roo

I guess it is safe to say that I like this bird.  He is trying (TRYING) to calm himself down, but sometimes he forgets.  Sigh.

He was feeling extra frisky the other day, much to the hen’s dismay.  Some just put up with him, others ran away, and I would yell “ALL RIGHT! THAT’S ENOUGH”, when I thought he is getting carried away, while I was working in the yard.

But for some reason, that very same day, he (the rooster) decided that Evan didn’t need to be on our property.  What a goofy bird. 

Our son is a B.I.G. guy, retired Army, (Saudi War), truck driving, logger, heavy equipment operator, you know the kind.

Anyway, Roo kept trying to attack Son, and he did so once too often. 

Suddenly Roo understood what the U.S. Military means when they say they turn boys into men.

The results were…..

anyway….

I still have my rooster, the rooster still has his life, complete will all of his wings, feet and neck, but it was touch and go there for awhile.  (So far the bird seems to have CALMED down, waaaaaaaay down. But I still don’t trust him).

I had to tell you that story so I could tell you what happened that evening.  Because everyone got so stressed out in the hen house, I figured I wouldn’t have very many eggs the next day unless I distressed all of them somehow.

Having one last bottle of flower Essences called Five Flower Formula (sometimes called Rescue Remedy) I thought I would go out a spray the hens and the rooster to see if that helped in the egg production.

Well, the time was about dark, they were all on the perch, with Roo in the middle between two of his very favorite hens (their backs prove it) and as I walked close enough to spray them, one of the hens flapped her wing over the top of Roo’s back, just like she was trying to protect him.

I must say that the whole episode made me stand in awe at the care and the concern for this former (I HOPE) bad boy, Roo, the rooster, by the girls.  Amazing.

Wildlife and the Back Pasture

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In the winter the cows have the run of the whole farm, all the ditch banks, the shorn off crop fields, the fields we have not farmed in years because getting the irrigation water over to them is just too hard, and the ‘upper end’.   (This is what we call the back of our place.)

Cow-Pasture

Come calving season the cows come to live in the corrals.  We have lost calves before to the coyotes, and our sheep raising neighbors and the dairy about three miles above us have lost animals to mountain lions.  (We sometimes see the mountain lion footprints on the ditch banks, but that is another story).

A cow in the middle of birthing a calf is a very vulnerable animal, and the calf is even more helpless. 

Then when farming starts and all the calves are born, several weeks old and able to run fast, the cattle get to go back to the upper end. 

The upper end, the old alfalfa field, all along the fence lines, we have wild animals.  Most of the time they live with us in harmony and the cows don’t seem to mind them at all.

Red-Flower

Every year, we scatter corn seed for the whole slue of wild birds to eat (and stay away from the growing plants) and every year we see rows of corn becoming food for the deer and the skunks and the raccoons.  We try to make sure there is enough for them and us.

Bird-Tracks

Still there are rules, the wild things stay out of the yard and we won’t bother their hidey holes.

Planting Beans

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Well, we didn’t go anywhere.  The bean ground became ready so that was that. 

We took two little day-trips, one to the city to buy Gluten-free products, and one to the Uncompahgre Plateau (called 25 Mesa by the locals).  And I finished planting the gardens.

Nucla-Road

Anyway, if any of you ever buy Red Donkey Pinto Beans, you just may have bought some of our beans!  It is for sure that you will have purchased beans from Colorado, for the beanery is just four miles from our house.

Red-Donkey-Beans

Everything we plant is now planted and Terry even got the beans Mormon creased today.  The oats are up, and soon the new alfalfa will be showing its baby leaves.

Oats-are-Up

Once we start cutting alfalfa we will know summer is here.  Not long now.

The New Bike and it is Green, of Course!

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New-Bike-001

But it isn’t pink, nor does it have a basket and the toys are still missing, but still….it is new!

 

We are going away for a weekend holiday! We are leaving tomorrow for ….I don’t know, but someplace overnight.

This is unheard of; never in all our years of farming have we EVER left for a holiday in the middle of spring farm work.  But we are now!

Since Evan is home (no he doesn’t live with us) and he knows all about what the farm needs, and it’s a few days to early to plant beans, AND the alfalfa isn’t quite ready to be turned into hay, we are going to go someplace!

I don’t care where, to a tractor junkyard, or a tractor dealer in Nebraska, or Kansas, or Oklahoma.  Or a trip to the Indian reservation, I’m not picky – some place different, someplace to see how the farms are fairing, someplace to just relax and not think about what I need to be doing now. 

Summer is just about upon us, that means weeds, mowing the lawn, moving water, you know.  So I’m taking this holiday as the gift it is meant to be!

See ya on Monday!