A Wee Ride—Thursday, September 6, 2018

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One day last week we took a wee ride; after putting the top on the car 🙂

This was the most darling yard in Ouray, Colorado.  I just had to take a photo to share it with you.

As everyone knows, not only is the west burning, we are also in the midst of a terrible drought.  Water has been extremely short this year; areas in the up-country (Cedaredge and the North Fork truly suffering for water.)

Here on the farm, we have made due with 60% or less of our allotment (we have shares of Uncompaghre Valley Water).

The horror stories of the shrinking of our dams prompted us to drive up and see…Blue Mesa is extremely low…extremely

Ridgway Dam so low the boat unloading and loading dock is wayyyyy up there.

Everyone is saying if it doesn’t snow this winter…and snow LOTS!  In feet of snow…there will be no farming next year.

Very scary!

Still, no matter what, I have hope!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

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We are all Members of the Earth—-Wednesday, September 5, 2018

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We woke up to a gray morning, clouds closed down and mist like rain falling on the land

It has rained off and all so far this morning the light gray with the ghostly shimmer of falling raindrops

It’s beautiful.  We are so much a part of the earth that when the earth suffers so do we.  And when the earth is nourished so we are.

A wee ride to the Upper End to set the water in the pasture up there was a tad wet…but ever so joyful!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm

Linda

 

 

As the Days Cool Down and the Light Shrinks—-Tuesday, September 4, 2018

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Autumn has arrived.  You can see it in the fields—the pinto beans are either turning yellow or, as ours are, lying pulled and drying, waiting for the combine.

The land is glittering and bright…as we move closer and closer to winter the trees will turn colors announcing the move from warm into the silvered blanket of cold called winter.

The Canada Geese are back…in droves.

Very early —is this a sign of a hard winter to come?

The little hummingbirds’ numbers are thinning noticeably…I have gone from 2 gallons of sugar water a day to 1/2 gallon every other day.

I will miss these little jewels, but they must leave and hurry.  For the air is thinning and cooling extremely noticeably now.

A large flock of Barn Swallows left our farm yesterday, but the little fledglings and their parents are still here.  Until they are gone I’m holding onto the belief we still have small amounts of summer left. 🙂

Summer work still goes on.  It isn’t time to stop watering the corn; the alfalfa fields must NOT go into winter dry.

Still, change is here, in how the air smells, how the sky feels, and how the earth looks.

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

The Many Wondrous Gifts—-Monday, September 3, 2018

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I was zipping back toward home when I spied out of the tail of my eye a most unusual rock…one I had driven by many, many times, but didn’t notice until just then

Turning back around, and getting off the four-wheeler (telling Boomer to stay)

I saw it was a gift from the gods to me—

A little heart-shaped rock.  I picked it up.  Gave a silent thanks to earth and the rock; brought it home where it now resides in my garden.

Then later on, as I was picking up the garden hose in preparation for mowing the lawn…I saw a Rainbow!

A huge delight!

Yesterday

while Terry and  I were working on the gated pipe—-gated pipe has a tendency to work itself apart

I saw

Another heart-shaped rock

and

ANOTHER ONE!

Three in two days!

WOW!

But that wasn’t all the gifts bestowed on me (or anyone who might be around)

There in the sky…just as the sun was starting to set

We saw a sundog.  In three-days-time, a cool down will arrive.

Magnificent Gifts! Perfect in every way!

From my world to your heart!

Linda

 

 

Contentment of a Misty Sky—Sunday, September 2, 2018

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My inbox contained a lovely surprise from Sara, in Kentucky…

“Finally, a Rainbow for you!:  she announced.

“The first one I’ve seen all summer!”

Now I’m sharing with you…a stunning Kentucky rainbow covering the Equinox farm with lovely grazing sheep!

Thank you so much, Sara!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

The Adventures of Boomer on Friday— For the Birds

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Well, here we are …Dad has pulled and bladed all the pinto beans and they are drying in the field.  Now everything depends on the weather for how long it takes the pinto bean pods to dry.

So that is enough about that!

Now about the birds…. the little Barn Swallows are starting to try out their wings.  Every day they fly just a little bit further than yesterday.

Still coming back to sleep in that very crowded nest at night.  FOUR little ones in one nest!  Beats me how they do it.

Sleep in the nest, I mean.  When I look up there they look C.R.O.W.D.E.D!

 

They aren’t big enough to go out on their own…the mom and dad birds are still feeding them. 

Even when the kids are sitting on the rooftop.

The hummingbirds are becoming less and less here.  Makes Mom sad, but she told me (while petting all over my belly); “They have to leave, Boomie or they could never make it through the winter.  Winter is coming.”

 

While out doing the ‘stuff’ we always do on the farm

I ran into a couple of pheasants!  Boy! Those birds sure can scare the heck out of me…if I run into them they squawk really loud, flap their wings and fly right up into the air.  Sometimes it scares me so bad I lose my scent on the ground!!!!!

Oh.

That reminds me.  I saw Quade the Quail yesterday!

Quade was checking out the neighborhood on top of one of Dad’s pieces of equipment. He didn’t run off or jump down or anything, so I stopped by and we had a wee chat.

Quade agrees with me…. Fall is here!  Quade also predicts a hard winter.  I asked him if that means lots of snow…he just shook his head and said Hard.  Very hard.  Then lifted his wings and flew way up into the nearby tree.

Well, I guess hard is hard.  Either too dry or too much snow.  I guess only time will tell.

Boomer Beaglie Brown

The Music of the Sky—-Thursday, August 30, 2018

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A couple of days we had storm clouds scudding across our skies….sometimes with winds of great magnitude.

But right here…right where we live

The rains didn’t fall. Although, we heard of other places close by having rain

Still, for us, we received just as much joy

For we were wrapped in the arched color of rainbows

The sky teeming with a myriad of colors as the storms moved ever eastward

Standing still in the silence of the rainbows I heard the raindrops ring out like small bells.

From my heart to your world,

Linda

Finally We Have Begun—-Wednesday, August 29, 2018

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Here we are…on the third day of the pinto bean harvest.

First the pinto beans are pulled and gathered into a row.

Then Terry will go back in and run a blade under the row, lifting up any plants still attached to the soil.

After which we wait a spell…it all depends on the weather…sun, heat, wind, or rain

After which he will go back in and combine the now dry plants.  Once he combines them (shelling the bean pods and putting them into the hopper; loaded onto a large grain truck)


The loads of pinto beans will be hauled to The Beanery where the beans will be sorted, cleaned, bagged and sold.  Afterward we get our paycheck for the year!

Here is where we are in our farming process—-all the alfalfa is sold, the pinto beans are in the beginning of the process to completion…we are still irrigating the corn.

(Plus we are still irrigating the alfalfa fields…it would not do to have the alfalfa fields go into the winter dehydrated.  IF that were to happen there would not be any alfalfa to turn into hay next year. 🙂

So that is the big excitement here….the first steps of the pinto bean harvest!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

 

Drops of Sunlight—Tuesday, August 28, 2018

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I find it ever so much fun to turn on my computer each morning and find within a email message from a friend.

There one was….From Kate: in that land of the Kiwi—

“Hello
We just had a 15 minute shower of rain, our first for 2 months. It didn’t last long, but it was long enough to produce this:”  Kate
There hanging in the stormy sky of indigo clouds; sparkled a rainbow!
A perfect way to start my day!
Thank you so much, Kate!

From my world to your heart,
Linda

 

Faintly, Yet Noticeable— Monday, August 27, 2018

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Each day is now crowded with signs of fall.  It’s in the very air we breathe, the wee chill in the early part of the day

The desperate clinging of the flies to the screens and their mad dash to crowd into the house as fast as the door opens  😦

We saw a huge flock of geese land in the pasture below one of our little mesa’s, scattering and honking as they rustled and settled into a favored spot for the night

The air as we sleep has a crisp feel to it…sounds carry from further distances…a dog barking a mile away seems it is right across the field

But most of all fall is on the land…the plants bespeak loudly; summer weeds have gone to seed, and fall bloomers bursting forth in the slackening heat.

Summer is gone echoing sorrowfully in the core of my soul…for after Autumn comes winter.

From my world to your heart,

Linda