August 1, 2013

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Dayphoto

Today is cloudy and cool. It is 67* right now…with rain showers here and there around us … nice!

Terry came in this morning and said he found stripped pinto bean pods…a sure sign we will be looking at harvest in a couple of weeks, by the third week of August for sure.

Today is Lammas Day—after Lammas Day the corn ripens as much by night as by day. Although, I think most of the wheat harvest is done here and in the other states next to or below ours. I am also sure that the wheat harvest is moving on up into the northern most states. Maybe it is over for those states also, hummmm.

The last load of hay is leaving today…every bales sold (now) until third cutting.

Boy, is summer flying now. We still need to get 3 more cords of wood, maybe 5 cords. We used 7 cords last winter and still ran out. It sure was a long winter. Geez, I dread winter.

I got all the corn up that I’m going to put up. That is always a good feeling.

Off to do my work for the day…it’s so nice outside I don’t think weeding is going to be much of a chore. All my seeds I planted are blooming now, sure makes me smile.

Have a good one everyone!

Linda

Wednesday April 4, 2013

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Dayphoto

Terry and I spent the morning cleaning out the waste ditches yesterday. Then as I continued getting the rest of the ditches cleaned he came along with the 4240 and the blade making the ditch that carry the water from our field to the farm just below us.

All of our water comes from another farm(s) to us. After we use it then it goes on to the next farm then to the river and onto California.

I was asked how we siphon out of a pipe under ground. We don’t. The transmission pipe/ditch is just that….a huge ditch that brings the water onto our place. Our head gate is on our place but some peoples’ head gates are a mile or so above their place. The head gate is the beginning of the transmission pipe.

We are putting as much as we can under ground so the water stays weed free, seed free–safe from the sun. We still have sections of transmission ditches that are open (pipe is extremely expensive). We use siphon tubes out of smaller ditches, either made of dirt or cement. Then we use gated pipe for the rest of the place. Lots of ways to get water into the fields.

I also was asked if we practice crop rotation…YES we do! 🙂 We were green before green was cool!

Anyway, we always plant corn after pintos, sometimes alfalfa, but alfalfa is a five-year crop so once it is in the field it stays five years until it is old (showing signs of weeds). We plant pintos after corn or maybe alfalfa…always always working toward good soil maintenance. After all healthy soil is the most critical way of having healthy plants.

So moving on so you aren’t bored we heard the water was at Pea Green last night. That is 5 miles from us. Today we will finish the ditches, fix the gated pipe and then mark out the fields. We want to be ready for the water as soon as the head gate is unlocked!

Spring work is here!

Linda

January 16, 2013

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Dayphoto

I am ever so humble by all of the wonderful Birthday wishes! Everyone of you have made me feel very special indeed.

It is still cold here. The back door always has ice on it when we wake up in the morning, ALTHOUGH, it was warmer last night….it only got down to -5*. I’ll take it! The closer to zero the warmer it feels. Of course ABOVE zero is really nice.

The rancher has moved his spring’n heifers onto the farm. The dogs and I have enjoyed these delightful ladies. (a spring’n heifers are female cattle about to have their very first calf. They are first time-to-be-Momma’s).

Since Terry had planted the corn all around the house this is where the cows want to be. They like to sleep in one of the draws at night, then with first light they come walking over to the corn fields.

I delight in their looks of interest as I move around in the house.

At first the dogs tried barking the cows away from the fence…the cows just looked at them as if they were some annoying fly or something. What’s a house dog compared to a coyote?

Come on, now get real!

No more barking, but the dogs do go and sit by the electric fence watching the ‘girls’ as they munch along enjoying the dried corn stalks.

If the weather man is correct…happy dance…we have a warm-up coming by this weekend. Anything around or above 32* will make for great delight for me. I have fire wood to sort, chicken pens to clean and hay to haul in closer to the house. Not doing it in bitter cold will be wonderful.

Then again….do I want to do it in mud!?!?!

YES!

It means I don’t have to wear five layers and a hat and hoodie to ‘get’er done’!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Storms

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Dayphoto

It’s been raining here—lots! Big dark clouds, full of wet stuff, lots of lightning and THUNDER!

BOOM!

CRASH!

CRACK!

Fuzzy is having a very hard time, not because of the rain, or the clouds or even the lightning, but because of the thunder!!!

(Dad had to turn on the water for 24 hours to soak up a piece of hard soil. Dad worked several days on opening up a new field for next spring.)

That’s a big rain storm coming our WAY!!!!

Most of the time we are in the house with Mom, because Fuzzy turns into this shivering, nervous, wreck of a dog!

Sort of amazes me. That loud noise doesn’t bother me at all.

But if Mom isn’t home and the thunder comes crashing around us Fuzzy always runs off into the corn field.

He says he feels safe in there.

I don’t know why—it’s still wet, and loud, but we are surrounded with the corn. Fuzzy says that helps.

Now if DAD is home and Mom isn’t Dad doesn’t let us come in a hover with him until the rain is over. Dad says he really doesn’t like a hot, panting dog crowding up on him when he is trying to do bookwork, or something important (like watching TV). So he tells us to go into the garage!

We don’t, you know, we head to the corn field!

We sit out there until Mom comes home and we hear the four-wheeler start up and she comes to look for us. She has to go to ALL the corn fields as we don’t always go to the same one all the time.

After a while ( we don’t come out right away, Fuzzy wants to be SURE the thunder gods have passed before we venture out of the safe corn field) we come out and head home.

Mom tells us to stop doing that, if Fuzzy was to have a heart attack out in farm some where she wouldn’t know where to find him. She says PLEASE GO INTO THE BARN!!!

But, of course we don’t.

Mom is always really glad to see us and we are always glad to see MOM! Dad is okay to see also, but we know with Mom there is a big warm old blanket to dry us off and we GET TO GO INTO THE HOUSE until Dad says: “Okay, that’s enough panting the storm is over you dogs need to go outside!”

Which we do! (Mom always takes us out with a really nice dog cookie and lots of hugs and petting).

(The things I put up with…..Linki made a face on a tomato and said it looked like me!!!)

I don’t get the thunder thing, but I always go with Fuzzy.

He would be very afraid if he was by himself. Fuzzy is my bestest friend.

What is it that Tallen calls Aunt Shannon?

Oh, Yes!!! I remember!

BFF….Fuzzy is my BFF!

Boomer

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Helping Dad Harvest

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Dayphoto

On the way to the bean field …..

FREDDY FOX RAN RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!!!!

Fuzzy and I took off running, leaving Mom in the dust!

He was so close his fur almost touched my nose!

Boy, was I surprised and shocked!

Fuzzy and I IMMEDIATELY took off after him, giving him the good old, HI HO chase clear to the end of the corn field, where we immediately lost him!

That was Amazingly FUN!

Back at the bean field I kept sniffing out Freddy Fox’s former tracks…

he even went through the pipe at one point now that the water is gone.

Mom and Dad got the bean truck all loaded up….they have to wait until next week as the three fields left to be harvested are still drying.

Here is one of the fields.

See how fluffy the beans are…they have to get a lot flatter and drier.

Fuzzy and I go everywhere with Mom

We rode in the back while we headed toward the Beanery.

Dad was in front.

We enjoyed the whole experience.

I even like to ride now. Fuzzy smiles all the way, I don’t smile, you get bugs in your teeth and dirt from the load, but I did have a great time.

We had to wait our turn to be weighed and then we came home.

Dad is over there today with the last truck to unload and then he will be back.

Farm Living is the Life for me!

Boomer

Crop Update

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Dayphoto

This has been the most unusual of years!

Terry is planting the pinto beans right now. He is taking his time — only planting one field, watching how the water is acting and assessing if he wants to get several more acres planted , if there isn’t enough water that would be foolish on our part.

He has left the 20 acres of alfalfa for later on in the year…hoping for more water. When the sweet corn and the wheat starts to come off, those farmers stop watering that field and the field sets until next year.

(Since we do NOT irrigate from an underground aquifer, but from reservoirs, all the water that is used on a farm passes on down to the next farm below it. This is how all farms from Montrose, Colorado, to Grand Junction, Colorado, are irrigated. Nothing is wasted and all is put back into the canals so that eventually the water ends up in Arizona, Nevada and California. That is where our water comes from….we get our water from Blue Mesa Reservoir and the Ridgeway Reservoir….people on the Surface Creek Bench get theirs from Grand Mesa)

The water from the sweet corn and wheat fields should allow us to have enough water to plant the alfalfa. We just might not get the acres we had hoped for into pinto beans, we will just have to wait and see. The decision to plant the rest of the pinto beans will be made by June 1st. after that it will be too late to plant the seed.

The other strange part of the farming this year is the heat…we build heat up until we are smothering around 90* during the day –with 20-25 m.p.h. hot winds ( the heat is very early for this time of year) and then cooling down in the high 30s or low 40s at night, making the corn turn purple. The purple color is leaf injury, although it doesn’t kill the plant.

The last two nights we were warm enough (48*) that this morning we saw the crown of the plant starting to green up, which is a welcome sign.

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Well, hope I didn’t bore you…farming is a huge part of our every day (and sometimes worry at night). Often times people get to thinking it would be easy to be a farmer…just get some land, plant some seed, harvest the crop and make money.

I wish it were so easy.

Still those people are right in lots of ways—it is a good way of life. At 68 and 63 years of age Terry and I can’t think of anything else we would have liked to do (although we both worked in town in really fun jobs to support this way of life) and we can’t imagine doing anything different for the rest of our lives.

Thanks for stopping by….

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Water (Predicted to Shrink)

Posted on May 12, 2012 by Dayphoto

The irrigation water sure has Dad and Mom worried.

They don’t have to go out every eight hours right now because the water is in the corn and the old alfalfa field. See those fields have their plants up and growing so they don’t take as much water, but when the water gets BACK to the pinto bean field they will be back to the eight hour change No Matter What!

Dad is planting the very last of the corn today…this morning in fact. He has given up on planting the new alfalfa field.

He will start planting the pinto beans on Monday. Outside of the alfalfa field (alfalfa seed is like buying gold at today’s prices, so he is not going to chance losing the crop because of the lack of water) he will have everything planted. (Dad will plant the alfalfa seed after the sweet corn farmers start harvesting their crop. Once the sweet corn is gone, more water will be in the canals. Hay is a nice cash crop to have.)

Water is extremely short…they are working with 70% of 100% right now—as they move into the middle of summer the ditch riders have told everyone that water is going to be moved lower and lower until it gets to 40%. That will be a 60% loss of water.

Everyone is hoping 40% is as low as it does get!

We hope so too!!!!

So the race is on!

All the farmers HAVE to get the seeds in the ground, watered up, and growing well ….BEFORE…the irrigation water drops to 40%.

As the water levels shrink the nightmare, of keeping everything wet, will just get worse. But the critical stage is getting the plant UP.

Boomie is doing better about coming when he hears the four-wheeler start…Mom talks to him as soon as we get to the field…”Boomer…you can play, but when you hear the four-wheeler start, you HAVE to be back here ready to go home or you will have to run home by yourself!”

He has done real good, even coming back to check on us once in a while.

But the last evening he said he was clear over in the wet lands smelling out the birds and things when he heard the four-wheeler start. Everything was just getting really interesting so he decided he would run home.

That’s a pretty long run, let me tell you!

We had everything put away for the night when he came dashing in just as fast as his Beagle legs could carry him.

Worked out for me really well, as I had the whole four-wheeler to myself!

Fuzzy

West Texas Cotton Harvest

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Dayphoto

As I understand it….. ( have so many photos I’m having a hard time picking out just a few 🙂 )

Cotton is not PICKED in this part of Texas—it is stripped. Which means the whole plant is picked all at once with a stripping machine. The machine works just like most combines, picking off the bolls (and the leaves and any other part of the plant) selecting the cotton and spitting out the trash…leaves, sticks and the dried boll.

The deep south the cotton picking machine only picks the ready bolls and then they come back and pick the bolls that are ripe again, doing this until all the bolls have bloomed and picked.

When the hopper gets full a cotton buggy comes and picks up the load.

This is the cotton buggy. It is not full at the time of the this photo. It will be too the top when full.

Then the cotton buggy takes the load back to the module maker.

Here the buggy is dumping into the module maker.

The module maker smashes the cotton balls into a tight fitting well pack module.

When the module maker is good and tight– a tarp is put over the top of the module to keep the cotton from blowing away and seal it off from rain. Here Terry is helping Roy, the farmer, and his helper get the tarp ready for this module.

Here is another module being covered. The module maker is pulled away and the tarp is pulled on. Pretty slick, if you ask me.

Finished! They are tying it on at this point.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about the cotton gin.

Our corn is ready for harvest. Moisture content is 14.3% so we start tomorrow.

Today we have to put in a new hot water heater as ours went out last night. 😦 Sigh.

Linda

Sunday October 2, 2011

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Dayphoto

Even though the days are nice and warm the nights are chilly, dropping into the high 30s. Gradually the trees are pushing off thier leaves, scattering the last of summer onto the paths in my garden.

The evening light through the corn also speaks of turning leaves.

Corn harvest next, but it has to freeze first. For now I’m going to enjoy these beautiful warm days and cool nights. Getting through the bean harvest is enough for the moment.

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.