The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — The Earth Ditch

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Dayphoto

Fuzzy and I have been helping Mom and Dad.

You can tell it was really windy the last few days by looking at Fuzzy’s fur.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh……really Fuzzy helps…I like to run around and see what I can see and sniff what I can sniff and eat dried out milk duds and well…

I (harrumph) I have LOTS TO DO!

We had snow and cold and wind for two days, in fact it is still cold! Mom is having us sleep inside, although Fuzzy really doesn’t want too….BUT I DO!!!!!

Mom told Fuzzy when the nights warm back up we can go back out to our covered and snuggly warm dog houses, but until then she would prefer old arthritic dogs and thin-furred dogs to sleep inside.

SO WE GET TO SLEEP INSIDE!!!

YIPPEEE!

Oh.

Well, while Mom and Dad have been busy and Fuzzy has been in charge of the four-wheeler I’ve been checking things out.

The hay is starting to look nice…Dad will mark it out and start water when he gets done with the corn ground (soon).

The trash has been horrible in the ditches and in the canals…

Here is the trash at the head gate

Dad cleaning out trash in one of the ditches

And piles of trash already cleaned out along the canal

Wind does most of the trash and winter…winter knocks down lots and lots of weeds that the wind loves to carry here and there.

Dad started water in the earth ditch. We have more than one earth ditch, but this is the biggest and the longest and takes the most work

Dad uses siphon tubes in the earth ditch…works just like siphoning gas out of a car tank….just saying. Dip the tube in the water, hold the other end closed, pump several times, fling the tube into the just dug out little furrow and BAM!

Water!

Works every time…unless Mom is doing it and she has to work at it a bit longer than Dad. Earth-Ditch Just saying.

I saw a killdeer…he wouldn’t look at me, but at least he stood still. I was really good and didn’t chase it…I don’t chase things, not even rabbits.

People say I’m a weird Beagle, Mom says I’m perfect!

(SMILE 🙂 )

The sun set last night flinging color all over the San Juan Mountain Range…pretty cool.

Well, Fuzzy and I are off to go check out the yard and bark HELLO over to Hank…I see he is outside his fence now. (Hank stays in the house most of the time with the little kids).

I want to find out what is happening with him!

See Ya!

Boomer

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Dayphoto

Terry is leveling the fields. He will plant only two fields this year. These two fields with the alfalfa field will be our crops.

The Uncompahgre Valley Water Users have cut the amount from 60% to 50% of your allotment. (Although, we will still have to pay for the 100% allotted to our farm–as does everyone else who farms. Doesn’t seem right to me, but that is what it is).

If–-IF — there is more water (which we all doubt) by the end of May, he will plant, possibly, some pinto beans. We just have to wait and see.

We would like to plant more alfalfa, depending on the water, maybe we will and maybe we won’t.

I guess, Dear Readers, you are in just as much of a quandary as we are. As my Mother used to say: “Time will tell.”

And so it shall.

Thank you for all of your magic thoughts and your concern…we are moving forward in faith and hope and with a little luck we will make it to harvest!

Linda

Third Cutting of Hay

Posted on August 29, 2011 by Dayphoto

Terry finished cutting the last alfalfa cutting of the season. (We get three cuttings here.)

Gosh, this summer sure has flown by! I guess it went so fast because it was my first full summer without having to go into work everyday. I had worried that I would miss the excitment of registration and then all the students coming back, but I HAVEN’T!!!! I guess I was ready…time to retire and let others take over the reins.

Both grass and alfalfa and mixed ( part grass and alfalfa) hay is leaving our area by the semi-loads. People are coming up from Texas and Arizona to get hay to feed thier critters! It’ really sad. I wish rain would start falling in the south! Days and Days and DAYS of over 100* temperatures without even a cloud in the sky is horrible. Our news here said that Texas has beaten it’s own record for the longest amount of over 100* temps…something set in the 1980s or thereabout.

Unless Terry decides differently we changed the last set of water in one of the corn fields last night, we will finish up the rest of the corn this week.

We are just waiting now, for the ground to be really (bone) dry so the pinto beans can be pulled and rowed. They will dry in the rows until all the stems and leaves are brittle, then we will start combining the beans.

The corn has dented or is in a stage of dent. Once reached that will be then of the irrigation of the corn. After that we wait for the whole stalk to dry down and then we will combine.

The largest field of alfalfa will be plowed up next year so we will be done with the irrigation of it, but the smallest field will still need water. The field must go into winter with enough green leaves to not die over the winter.

So in away the work is ending, but will pick up for several weeks of harvest then the 2011 farming season will be over.

Gosh, that seems to have gone fast!

Linda

http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com/

Weather a Mixed Bag of Blessings

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Dayphoto

It rained last night

My yard is beautiful and green, the dust is settled and the drying alfalfa is wet. Just one more day in the heat and then a day to bale and haul and it could rain.

70% chance for the rest of the day and night today, Tuesday with more storms for Wednesday.

I still love the rainbows the storms produce.

Linda

Delta County Historical Society–latest post

Second Cutting of Hay

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Dayphoto

We are hauling the little field now. Up before dawn and out in the field by 5:30. Get the water set and start on the hay. By 7 it’s already hot and the bugs are biting.

If the weather holds, (it’s suppose to bring in more thunderstorms today at noon), the largest field of hay should be ready to bale tomorrow morning. We hope tomorrow morning, if not then Wednesday. Everything is a race against the weather.

At least it is hot drying weather (100+*) and if the thunderstorms stay in the mountains everyone who is doing hay will get done fast. Hot weather helps the alfalfa dry into hay.

Linda

Do you remember

Evening on the Ditch Bank

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Dayphoto

Another storm is blowing in

The wind is terrible 35-60 m.p.h., making trash in the ditches next to impossible to keep out.

The trash collects and starts to dam up the rows. After starting about 22 tubes, we then walk the water through each row, making sure all the trash is removed.

Just before going in at twilight we check the tubes and trash cleaners one more time.

A strong cold front is supposed to hit here this evening with temperatures plunging into the high 40’s and low 50’s.

Another worry is that the alfalfa will freeze. A mature stand is fairly sturdy, but too much cold weather can harm it.

Some Days Just Do NOT Seem to End

Posted on May 8, 2009 by Dayphoto

Getting-Ready-to-Plant

(This is a grain drill)

Yesterday the new alfalfa field was planted,

Hay-Seed

(Alfalfa seed)

Grain

(With oats as a mother crop)

Dirt-Ditch

marked out and water started on it.

Smiling-Talli

Talli came for supper

Bending-Pipe

Then until 10 pm we worked on making more siphon tubes

Making-Pipe

This weekend looks even busier with the planting of the garden. Spring is my favorite seson, but I do get tired at the end of the days, what with the farm, animals, and my ‘paying’ job.

Still it is better than the dark, long, cold days of winter!

The New Alfalfa is Doing Well

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Dayphoto

Terry should get one cutting off this new seeding this year. Next year we will have more hay for all the people calling. The price of hay is high $4-$7 a bale for small bales. Some years a person can only get $2.

Baby Alfalfa

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Dayphoto

The tiny little seeds are growing and doing well! By this time next year the plants will look like they have been growing there forever.

Planting Alfalfa Seed on a Bitter Cold Day

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Dayphoto

The Alfalfa seed is being planted. Alfalfa seed is one of most expensive seeds to purchase-$200 a bag. The seed is very, very tiny, smaller than a mustard seed; so it takes lots of seeds to cover the field.

Once the seed takes hold, a farmer can get from 3-5 years harvest of hay, but the first year is critical. We won’t see any harvest this year, except maybe one in the late summer or early fall.