Good morning everyone!After two days of heavy gray clouds blocking the sun and sending life-giving moisture into our rather dry soil, we woke-up this morning to a very beautiful day.

Another blessing in the storm is it  stopped our work on the removal of the wood from the two trees we had cut down.  I think that was a good thing.  It’s better to have a break in the work than to break something on your body (all three of us, Terry, Scott (our neighbor) and myself are over 65–just saying.)    If the weather stayed nice we would not have stopped…we needed to stop. A three day rest is a good thing (we always rest on Sunday, only the things that MUST be done is ever accomplished on Sunday.)

Our neighbor is taking the wood for his outside furnace so we don’t have to haul anything far.  The wood from the front tree is way too wet to burn this year, but the wood from the lightening struck tree is dead.  This is a win-win for Scott as he has dry wood to finish out the heating season and wood to start the next heating season.  It’s a win-win for Terry and I because we have help cleaning up the mess AND we know that the wood is being put to good use instead of just dumped at the Upper End.  The GIANT logs we are taking to the Upper End to make hollows for fox (or whomever)  have a place to hide.

Scott and Terry both have tractors, Scott has forks on his and Terry uses the bucket.

This leaves me to do all the brush work, rake up all the chips, and to chain up the logs.  We are making huge headway.  As soon as the ground dries enough we should be able to finish up next week.

We better finish up next week, since Hank stopped and said he was going to be bringing in his first year heifers and his second year cows probably around Thursday.

I just about have the chips and bark and branches out of the corn field gate, which is a good thing…I wouldn’t want any of the cows to get something stuck in their hooves.

If we can get the big stuff and the field stuff done before the cows we can finish up the back yard after the fence is built.  Lots of pressure right now to get stuff done.

THEN I told Terry it will be time to put the new roof on the tile house, after which we will be close, if not already started, on Spring farm work.

I think the time of February is going to fly by!

Many of you have emailed asking me to post a photo of the skyline with the trees gone.  I shall…I want to have all the trash cleaned up before I do.  Surprisingly (so far) it doesn’t look bad down there.  Misty wants us to keep the lightening struck stump in the back for Kelly to build something for the kids to play in, so we will.  Kelly built a tree house for the kids in one of the other trees; having something cool in this one will add to the fun of the back yard.

The front tree will be gone…I’m thinking I might put a planter where it was and fill it with something colorful.  Maybe.  It all depends on how it looks.  I might just fill in the spot with grass.  Grass is always nice on the eyes.

Look at this sunset last night as the storm broke up and left us!  The colors are amazing for this time of year!

Thanks for stopping by!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda