In the heat of the High Summer day,
The second cutting of the alfalfa
Has turned into bales of hay
Which is (even as you read this)
Is being hauled into the hay yard!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The heat wears on, (which is alright by me); the skies stay bright and clear
So I thought, just maybe, you would like a wee ride to the Upper End
Off we go, past one of the cement ditches, reflecting the brilliant sun and shifting clouds and the tubes themselves
Onto the road to Upper End
Where the pastures are full of lush growth and chirping insects
We see lots
and 
Lots of rabbits
Now we move on past the pasture onto the Road to Back Forty
Then we start traveling toward the Rocky Hill
Where we finally get to the top!
The land in the Back Forty is rich with green
A favorite place of all of us.
Back Home —- SHHHHHHHHHH I saw this from a distance
Through the cornfields
Heading into the cool shade
A quick little ride, from here to the Upper End and the Back Forty,
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Although, the days are extremely hot (100-106*f–up to 41.11c)
The nights cool down, way down to 59*f or less (15c)
The sun hot and baking during the day
The cool nights
(plus watering) 
keeps everything growing gently
The constant hot afternoon wind rustles the corn stalks, causing the developing ears to be pollinated
Everything enjoying
The move from the rays of the sun
to the cooling
Shadows
Of the shade.
Shade—
bringing a soft and welcome
break — bringing a
Softness to the air.
Hot summer days
Growing crops
Shade giving comfort to beasts and man alike
Rich, flourishing Summer
Making full and happy hearts
Good morning, My Friends!
From my world to your Hearts,
Linda
Chapter Five
“MEOW!”
“MEOW!”
“MEOW!”
“MEOW, MOM/DAD I WANT IN!”
I’m done with all this waiting.
With that, Mindy stomped off the cement step, down the cement sidewalk, across the red bricks, back onto the cement sidewalk.
WAIT!!!
WAIT!
I think I need to take a little break here and …………….ummmmmmmmmmm enjoy myself for a spell.
Meanwhile—
“Henny lets go see what sitting on the cement step is all about.”
“Sounds good, wait just a minute, Penny, let me catch up with you. We will stand and peck at the door together.”
Peck, peck, peck
Peck, peck, peck
“This is dumb, Penny. I have better things to do.”
“HAHAHAHAHA” I bayed at those silly hens.
“There is no one home.” Chuckling to myself I took off to do a little checking around.
I looked over here and sniffed out the news. Nothing.
Then I went down the road a spell,
Humm, Raccoons. In the night. Late.
Then I walked back to the lawn…nothing passed through here late last night, or early this morning, or after lunch.
“Hey, Mindy! Do you want to do something like anything…
I mean SOMETHING? This is BORING without Mom and Dad.”
BAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
HOWLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
“COME ON MINDY! MOM AND DAD ARE HOME!”
A wee tiny bird (I think might be a Starling) is living out it’s beginning life, in a hollow of a limb of the tree in our yard
At the Upper End, we have pheasants. Delightful birds
Over by the equipment area, I saw a fun courting couple
Then on the back road going to the Back Forty twice,
I ran across this pretty handsome feller
Our days are in the 100*s now. That is 37.7c.
At the peak of the heat in the daytime, the little songbirds rest—such wise little creatures
Or come to our chicken yard and try to grab a snack or two…
I’m sure they are thinking “get some food while everyone sleeps, then no one will ever know.)
The hawks and other raptors silent shadows slide over the warm and bright land
The blue sky is alive with life
As so is the earth
Ah Summer so
Full Life
Full of Joy
Full of Daily Adventures
To me
The most perfect time of the year!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Although, the heat simmers across the land, often times the night sky is cloudy
But, delightfully, the setting moon’s sky is clear
Shinning large and bright glowing over the Uncompahgre Plateau
Then quickly sinking as the glowing sun wakes up the day.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Now that the corn is in the silk, the deer migrate back to the farm.
So I sat up a couple of game cameras to see if, and when, they had arrived
Deer are notorious for eating the silk off the little corn ears.
Corn has lots of predators—
Bugs, humans, skunks, raccoons, and DEER!
Yep…Here they are. 🙂 We love seeing them. Terry worries about the corn loss, but we don’t do anything about it. Some for them, some for us, is our thought.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
For some reason, I always feel like July 4th is the Middle of Summer
I don’t know why I feel that way, but I do.
The dew burns off fast this time of year
The growth of the corn is increasing hourly now
Overnight the tassels have started to shoot upward into the deep rich blue of the sky
The soughing wind will soon
(see the tiny ear starting to form 🙂 )
Cause the pollen to float down onto the silks making little kernels of corn—- growing there in the dark green shadows of the protecting leaves.
Knee-high by the 4th of July…I do believe we have made it!
Happy Summer, Everyone!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
When the world has these, who requires much more?
Good morning, Linda. It’s been a while since I’ve said hello. So Hello!
(That was from this past Monday.)
I hope this brightens your day.
Take care.
What a perfect way to start anyone’s day!
Thank you ever so much!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Chapter Four
“This helping Mom is — well, boring, don’t you think, Mindy?”
“Actually, yes” Mindy replied. “I think I have things to do.” With that, Mindy climbed onto the heart log
Stretched out her claws and had a very good scratch.
“Mindy Lou-Sue,” Mom exclaimed. “You are such a cute little kitty.” Mom walked over to Mindy and gave her a really nice rub down. Then Mom picked her up and gave her a kiss on her little face. Mindy was purring so loud I could hear her from way down by Mom’s feet.
Mom put Mindy down. Mindy rubbed up against my legs and told me she needed to go do something.
With that, she was off.
I followed her for a bit,
then I got worried
I wouldn’t know what was happening
with Mom so I headed back.
It is very important to stay close to Mom,
who knows something bad might come charging out of the farm and get MOM!
I sat next to Mom for a very long time. Long enough I started to pant. Finally, Mom said: “Let’s take a break, Boomer. I’m hot, your hot; we need to cool down.”
It was HOT! Very hot. Mom and I headed toward the shade. Mom sat down, I sat right by her, then I got a BELLY RUB!!! OH! MY WONDERFUL! BELLY RUB! My back leg started scratching as fast as it would go! OOPS! I got Mom’s hand.
O! Well, that was the end of the belly rub. I jumped up and hid.
“Come back here, Beaglie. You didn’t mean to do something bad.” Mom called me back over to her for MORE PETS!!
I AM IN HEAVEN!
Just then Mom and I heard.
MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! VERY LOUD!!!
Mom and I got up and looked to where the sounds were coming from.
“Mindy! You have a mouse!” Mom exclaimed!
Mindy ran over to Mom with her mouth FULL of mouse!
“MOUSE, MOM!” Mindy announced. “Just for you! I brought you a present.”
“What a good kitty you are,” Mom petted Mindy all over her head and backbone. “You are such a good mouser. Thank you so much, Min-Min.”
Mindy gave Mom kitty love eyes, then sat to work eating—– you guessed it MOUSE!
This day as turned out to be a really good day. When Mindy started snacking on the mouse Mom went into the house and got me a yummy piece of Dog Chicken Jerky.
O! The JOY!
I gobbled my stick of chicken jerky in three bites (I didn’t want Mindy to get any) then headed toward the lawn.
Flopping down I gave myself a good roll this way and that way, squiggling my back all over the grass…
This Feels good.
This feels very good.
I looked up to see Mindy right by my head.
“We sure have a good life, don’t we, Boomer?”
I looked her square in the eye, then gave her a big slurp on the top of her head.
“WE DO!” I shouted.
After that, we both ran off chasing each other on the lawn.
Life on a Colorado Farm 