The afternoon breeze picked up
Bringing in a winter storm,
The wind pushed steadily 
Terry says he gives Thanks often
For a cab on the tractor, with a heater, this time of year.
🙂
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The work goes on.
And on.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
If he missed farming
He said no.
That he still had lots to do out on the outer reaches, the edges of the farm
The pastures are easier to keep and the management of the pastures is much less time consuming, (those little round dots were the bugs flying in the air as we drove through the pasture–I was hoping to get them on camera, but they only showed up as dots.)
But here is a little thing I notice
Ever so often, in a random sort of way
He talks about what he wants to plant next year…
Which fields will hold corn, what field will be a new alfalfa field
So I wonder…is there longing or planning going on.
Either way works for me.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
As I was growing up I used to have dreams of what I would do as an adult, I’m sure all children do.
My dreams were actually very simple
I wanted to live on a farm and be a farm wife and work every day with my husband
I have actually been very blessed and got to achieve my goal.
Yesterday, we started hauling dirt. You see the ditches sand-up and must be cleaned before the water comes in.
So that is what we did….10 dump loads of dirt. Done by two o’clock in the afternoon
Then it was time to get back to work on down-sizing my yard. I had good help. Mindy Cat LOVES to ride in the wheelbarrow
And….although, he thought it was really rather hot, Boomer followed me back and forth, to and fro until he laid down in the shade and slept.
By dark, we were all tired, but a good feeling of accomplishment was had by all!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
We are having rain again today; the air is sharp and cold, there is a feeling of snow just there on the surface of the rain, but not really.
The blessing in everything there is no wind. Although, the wind would take the rain away…just say’n. (I guess I’m being fussy)
Although the moisture was very needed, the weather gods need to slow things down a bit and bring on some warmth and sunshine.
Farming is already three weeks behind and everyone is starting to get extremely worried. Our clay ground needs to have time to be worked up, left to mellow out, before it can be planted.
So here we are waiting…and the rains continue. Maybe soon we will see sunshine and warmth.
Maybe.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The farming season is taking a long time to begin. The earth is still wet; filled with mud, ice and snow lying in the shadows
If it were a normal year, Terry would be out on the land disking in the corn stalks and getting ready to plow—–yes, most farmers still plow here, it’s all about the type of soil on a farm
We are thickly covered in clouds today, although, there is hope for scattered sunshine
And it’s cold. The wind, you know, goes right through a body.
As wet as we are Terry is thinking it will be at least two more weeks before a tractor can get out there and begin…I guess we wait.
There really isn’t anything anyone can do until the weather gods say COME ON SUN, it’s time for Spring to begin!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Terry finished rolling all the plowed fields. (Think of plowed fields the same as double-digging up your garden bed—double digging is deeper than using a rototiller), but then it must be rolled (or raked, if you are in a garden) to smooth out the ground again.
Then after rolling comes leveling (in this case putting a slight grade to the field so the water will run to waste ditch. Leveling is akin to taking a board and smoothing out your garden or the cement on a sidewalk.
As for me….well, I’ve been cleaning up all the winter trash (corn leaves) blown around all the buildings and into my yard
Spring works also includes…getting my yard and the farm yard ready for spring! 🙂
Ethel and Thomas Davis (recently here for a wee visit) have a marvelous website Called FourWindowPress, where delightful poems and other things are published.
Ethel wrote a wonderful poem about their visit to our farm. Terry said she captured the truth about why he/we farm—work and joy together!
You have a good day today…spring is in the air.
I saw my first Robin yesterday!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Bringing forth words to convey feelings, or to describe a scene is sometimes …
A bit hard.
Searching my mind for those exact words which project what I’m seeing, feeling, or hearing
Causes me to pause for I wish to show to you the earth, the sky, and capture the feeling in words that is see, hear, and feel
Looking for that perfect word reminds me how limited my vocabulary really is–
To help you see (beyond the photographs) the wind rippling through the corn stalks, or
Or clouds obscuring the sun in the possible threat of rain
Or the golden leaves being pushed off the tree’s branches as the sap slowly descends to the roots
Readying for the long winter’s night. I always think of this time of falling leaves as trees making haste slowly, every so slowly preparing for rest and a pause in breathing
The canal water is now gone. Turned off to winter in the Blue Mesa Dam or clear up at Taylor Reservoir. The silence of the tumbling churning water is as stunning as breaking glass…
For us our work is slowing, but not stopping. The harvests are all in, paychecks will arrive sometime in December.
A whole season of farming from daylight to sunset and sometimes in the deep of night.
The perfect life for Terry and I—
From your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The work goes on…first light –until way past last light– arriving back in the yard in a flurry of falling stars in the velvet night.
Yesterday Terry worked in the alfalfa field and I finished up raking the whole yard, all the flower beds, around all the outbuildings, and
worked on getting the canal bank ready for the water to come. A huge job.
The fertilizer truck arrived around 7 this morning. So now Terry is
rolling the fertilizer on the corn fields.
Water is supposed to be in the canal any day now. We took a short drive around 5 yesterday afternoon, checking the canals above us to see where the water was…our lives revolve around water.
It’s a busy time of year, but a good time. It gives me a sense of reaching out to something ever so much larger than myself. Our farm, a small, vibrant island of life.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm
Linda
Today is the Ides of March…the Ides of March the date on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting led by Brutus and Cassius. A seer had warned that hime harm would come to Caesar no later than the Ides of March (See Wikipedia).
For me it also seems to be a date when the weather starts to shift. Yesterday we had lots of wind! Huge stiff wind gusts. But today…it’s cold and beautiful.
A update on the farming—
The old alfalfa field is ready to mark out and plant. It will be corn this coming year
Terry finished leveling that field around four yesterday afternoon. Leveling is the last step of soil preparation…
first is disking
then either plowing or ripping depending on the soil and what was grown in that field last year.
Then leveling.
After leveling will be marking, irrigation and then planting.
One field down!
The conversation every evening goes like this: “I sure am tired. I don’t know WHY I wanted to farm again.”
“Well, goodness! Anyone would be tired after eight hours on a tractor.”
“I guess.” he replies…”but I don’t think of hours, I think of acres.”
“Okay…anyone would be tired after acres and acres and acres on a tractor.”
“True.”
Then morning comes——
(Ripping up the old pinto bean field early, early this morning.)
“Well the sun is poking his head up, ♪♫♫♪ guess I’ll head on out. Nothing like a fresh day to get some work done. ♪♫❤♪♫❤ The dirt is calling me!”
Then with a smile and wave he’s out the door, fueling up the tractor and leaving the farm yard in a little puff of dirt.
From our western Colorado farm •❥*◝◟¸* to you!
Linda ❤(smiles)
Life on a Colorado Farm 