The Forest Service is doing a controlled burn on the Uncompahgre (Un-come-pah-gray with the accent on the gray) Plateau—two days and two nights so far and heading into the third day.
The late western sun creates many stunning colors along the horizon, here, where we live the shadows are long and deep and dark, while in the forest the fires rage. 😦
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
We went down to see how much fire damage happened on Davis’ Ranch, in the bottom of the Robidoux. Here is where the fire started…where the campfire was.
What a mess. Acres and acres of scorched land.
Since that time we have had some rain…not bunches, but some, so I’m thinking it will start to green up again. As for the loss of the trees….well, not much can be done about it, but cut them down for firewood.
Mr. Davis was up talking with Terry yesterday; all the animals were gotten out of the way in time. “Sure is a sorry mess,” he said.
I agree.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Here is the loud, roaring (we can hear it two fields away), scary (to me) headgate.
See all the trash the comes down Terry takes it out several times a day!
Here Terry is opening the chute so we can get water onto our place. It’s measured in holes. Only so many feet of water (holes) goes with our place. I don’t like walking across the little board (which you can not see) to get to the little chute — I get dizzy and want to topple over into the roaring mass of water. It takes lots of concentration for me to get there, clean the trash out, adjust the boards (the boards are laying across the cross over board from one cement wall to another, and get back. Terry just walks over like it’s dry land.
My pear trees are just stunning.
Today the plum trees burst into bloom even though it terribly cold, with a nasty wind. And a freeze warning for tonight and tomorrow night. I guess I won’t have to worry about thinning the fruit again this year. A mixed blessing.
Terry and I were working on setting water when we saw five fire trucks speed past our place so we jumped on our four-wheelers and headed off to the Rocky Point…sure enough. The neighbor, who almost burned us out a few years back, had set another fire that got away from him. Thank heavens for quick response…the fence line you see is our property. Scary! But they got it out so all is well.
We have to check the water around mid-night or one, because of all the trash coming down the canal. Trash backs up the water and causes floods, or breaks through or over dams or ditches. This time of year the trash is the worst…wind, opening up of farm ground up above us, and opening canals that feed into ours. By the first of May or so, we should be okay. (No mid-night walks for Boomer and I, but mid-night rides and water checks instead. 🙂 )
In spite of how all this must read. Please believe me this is a very good life! I can’t imagine any other.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
It’s BURN season!
Neither Terry or I get this rather new practice of farmer’s burning off their farmed ground.
The quality of air is just not there. For at least three weeks.
We see it everywhere…all around us.
We are old-time farmers;Terry and I. Terry still disks the stubble back into the fields; (I do the same thing in my gardens) adding rich nutrients into the earth, creating a better growing environment for earthworms and our crops.
“Why do they do this?” I asked Terry, as we watched one of the huge plumes of smoke on the horizon.
“I don’t know,” his puzzled voice came back to me. “Maybe burning off the fields helps it dry faster. I just don’t know.”
I don’t know either.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
We woke up to snow this morning! Although it IS melting, it’s still snow. Sure seems early this year.
Terry and I worked on the fire roads. We have one that is a pain in the ….well, you know what.
Yep, Terry is stuck…that’s a chain, whereby I’m pulling him out. This particular spot is a real struggle. Twice a year we clear and clean and create making it safe to get to the rest of the farm.
Fire is a mighty and very scary thing.
Boomer worked right along side of us, up and down, back and forth…over and over again.
Right now the wind is blowing, sharp and cold; pushing the clouds toward the north and the east, mud is appearing where the snow once was. Work on the fire roads has ended for the year.
Your friend on a very muddy western Colorado farm,
Linda
Terry and I spent yesterday sprucing up the fire roads. We lived here for years and years and never had to have fire roads, but in 2012 all that changed.
Our neighbor two miles from us started a fire on one of his fields and left for lunch. Didn’t check or stay with it or, well, anything. From 11 in the morning until around 2 in the afternoon he didn’t even know what the fire was doing.
We did! We knew! And so did the other people in the path the fire. The whole thing was frightening. It took several fire departments to put out the blaze, which didn’t occur until evening…in the process we almost lost a barn and all the farm equipment. Thankfully, Mr. Davis’ cows and calves were okay. It was a nightmare day.
Guess what…the next year he sat his fire again…I just don’t get people who use fire to clear the farm ground….put it back into the soil…it’s better for the soil and the air. Not to mention safer.
After the first fire we built fire roads, because you see, this man STILL burns off his land every spring, he says he likes the results better. 😦
This is the tractor I drive, it has the loader. The loader and Terry’s has the blade, we make a good team. After years and years of hand signals, I think I am FINALLY figuring them out. 🙂
While up there we checked for calves, nothing yet. I think those girls are going to all pop at the same time! One day we will look out and see 60 babies on the ground. There are 80 cows out there, but surely not all 80 will lay down a calf as the same time. 🙂
Off today to look for a wood chipper and log splitter. I would like the wood chipper for the two yards for mulch and Terry is tired of splitting wood by hand. We may not find one we like but at least we will start the process of looking!
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm
Linda
It’s cloudy, grey and chilly again here today.
I’ve been sick.
Well, actually I got sick the week before Christmas and seem to not be able to get well. I have a good day here and there, but nothing that lasts.
I’m taking the day off…resting by the fire.
I hope this finds all of you well.
COME ON SPRING!
Linda
We finally made it through March, well almost made it; we are at the end anyway, just one more day to go.
Mom thought we ought to hop onto the four-wheeler and ride over to see how the fire-burned area is doing.
Most of it is still burned. Nothing really green there yet, but when we got to the hill pasture 
WOW little sprigs of green showing up everywhere.
Mom said she is not surprised about that since the hill pasture is a mixture of grasses; the fire there just took off the dead. (It also jumped the road and ran through the corn field toward the house, and it also jumped into the alfalfa filed that burned right up to Mom-mom and her family’s barns. But I didn’t remind Mom of that, she was still a little sad to see the whole mess.)
We then headed on down to the back forty,and then over to the west field, then the upper end.
Still pretty black!
When we got to the south end Boomer got off and hiked around a bit
while Mom wrote down the fence post count in a little book she was keeping for the insurance guy.
Mom told us dogs that Dad wanted to NOT have to build fences anymore and look at what he has to do now—the whole west side of the place, the ditch company took out the whole north side and the whole east side. He will have lots and lots of fences to fix now. Although, there is a possibility that maybe the west side will be fixed with help.
The Ditch Company will probably NOT do the work on the north and east side so Dad and Mom will get to do those fences.
Building fences are not easy, it isn’t stringing the wire that is hard, and it’s digging the fence post.
Of course, us dogs get to go help. We really enjoy helping out there, we really do!
Almost back home I wanted off. Boomer found some deer tracks and bayed at me to “come smell.”
So Mom helped me off.
We sniffed around for some time. Mom got tired of waiting and went back in. I came back after I checked out all the news out there.
Fuzzy
We were over at the equipment hillside when we saw smoke coming from the area where our house is
Since one of our neighbors caught part of our place on fire three years ago, the smoke made us hoof it over the old corn field rather fast.
Then we found out it was the ditch company getting the canal ready for water.
What a relief!
