The Air Smells Like Autumn Now — Thursday, September 21, 2023

Posted on September 21, 2023 by Dayphoto

The signs are every where

It’s Onion Harvest (no, we don’t raise onions, but our neighbors do)

Pinto Bean harvest (we stopped raising beans a few years back) is happening just across the road from us

(The ensilage/silage trucks are thick on the roads)

The third cutting of hay is done or being done even as I write.

(Ours is all cut, baled, stacked, and sold. The last load went out Saturday afternoon—YAY)

(Some of these photos are from my archives—still, everything is happening just as I have written)

The only thing going on now (for us) is irrigation. The alfalfa and grass cannot go into winter dry. And the corn needs to be as full and heavy with water as possible.

Yes…Autumn—our world is full of harvests!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday—Farm Life Series, Chapter 17, The Fourth Season, HARVEST, Friday, March 11, 2022

Posted on March 11, 2022 by Dayphoto

Fall is Harvest!

Harvest is Autumn!

This is the time of year when HUGE! GIANT! Machines come out and roar and rumble on the farm.

Scares me to death!

I run to the house and stay INSIDE!

While in the house I look out the windows at those scary machines.

When they aren’t there…whew! Life is good again.

But…here is the thing…Dad even brings that HUGE scary machine into the yard and works on it at the shop.

That machine is FRIGHTENING!

Well, that is all I know about Harvest. It is all I know about the seasons and weather and stuff like that.

I think the next thing I will tell you about is the wildlife that lives with me, Mom, and Dad on the farm.

Maybe you will enjoy learning about coyotes, porcupines, rabbits, snakes, badgers, weasels, owls, squirrels…you get the picture.

All the animals that live with us on the farm.

TLC Cai-Cai

While the Gods Hoovered Around Us —-Thursday, December 5, 2019

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Dayphoto

“Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons, It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.”— Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

While the Gods hoovered around us, and by us, and even over us

The corn harvest came to a final end, as the draining light fled the sky

Which was a good thing, because last night the clouds came in

Bringing to us chilly rain

a dripping and damp (but clean) earth

Then for a second, as the clouds parted for a wee small moment

Another Sundog glossed the clouds, simmering in rainbow colors. Quickly the clouds slid thickly over and the rains started to pour.

Our roof now echoes with the drumming of moisture.

All is well.

From my world to your heart,

Linda

The Days are Full of Harvest—Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Dayphoto

With great joy and thankfulness we are moving along in the harvest!!

We have two fields done and working on the last one!

YAY!

Where it all bogs down is at the Elevator. Terry’s second load arrived at the Elevator at 1:30 in the afternoon

He was number sixteen! It’s a time of visiting among the drivers, but still…a very long wait.

They dump two trucks at a time. The semi’s take about 45 minutes each to dump, a truck our size take 20 minutes. In between the dumping stops if there is a customer (dairy, feed lot, chicken farm…etc.) who comes in and wants a load of corn.

I went down at five to take him supper and he still had an hour and half wait to go. I stayed there to keep him company. There was one other truck behind him.

The elevator opens at 6:00 in the morning and they stop taking loads after 3:00 in the afternoon. Long hours for the workers at the elevator. Long hours, but (more likely) much appreciated over-time.

Six thirty and we were dumped and heading home!

10:00 this morning he was back in the combine opening up the third field! Hopefully by Monday of next week we will be done!

When we got in, got everything put away for the night it was dark. I looked up into the moonlit sky and saw the most perfect Halloween moon! I just had to share it with you!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

Autumn a Type of Contentment—-Sunday, September 17, 2017

Posted on September 17, 2017 by Dayphoto

We’ve had rain…the days damp and the mornings with a chill

The days warm up nicely.

The pinto bean harvest came to a screeching halt—the bean puller broke…

Then as it got fixed…

The rains came. Which means Terry will have to go out and lift all the plants up out of the soil, (rains smashes plants) before he can combine the two fields—there is still one to pull and let dry and then combine.

I’ve been canning…pineapple candy peppers and

Salsa

Plus we’ve turned off water to the place. Irrigation is done for the year. The only thing left now will be picking up the syphon tubes and flushing out the ditches.

Fall galloped in…complete with wild geese flying over us in the wind!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

The Moon-Filled Night—Thursday, September 15, 2016

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Dayphoto

As I sit here typing way, the windows are opened to the world; our air is filled with the smell of pulled onions. The ensilage/silage trucks are busy upon our country road/the sound of the corn choppers carrying on the breeze.

Terry is out pulling the last field of the pinto beans…Harvest is underway!

Tomorrow is September’s Full Moon—The Harvest Moon. Traditionally the fullest moon closest to the Autumn equinox is the Harvest Moon. Sometimes the Autumn equinox will will be in October, but only once or twice a decade.

Boomer and I took our walk a little early last night…I really don’t know what the time was, by the silence upon the land said all the equipment, the workers, and the farmers were home. I loved the moon as it broke free of the mountains and filled the leaves of the willow tree with light. My little camera doesn’t take moon shots very well, but I think the leaves helped bring it into focus.

A thundering sunset had faded away and the night was upon us. I love to walk at night, with Boomer…there is no worry or fear of the future, no terror’s of the evil being done in the world to people who don’t deserve such treatment…it all falls away…just Boomer and I and the silence of the night.

We are about done with the huge load of firewood. It’s a relief! We are all tired of it. Terry and Evan cut and I load. Two pick-ups to stack and fill. I am the stacker and the filler of the pick-ups. Sometimes I get behind and they have to stop and help, but not often. I guess I’m proud, of that little fact,…I can keep up with the chainsaws.

Two more days…the end has appeared!

My mother, my brother, and I used to walk down to our grandparents most evenings, in the summer and fall, (when I was young) and Momma would sing “Shine on Harvest Moon” us as we walked, if it was Autumn. I loved that song!

I still do. I sing the words, to myself silently, remembering those days, as we made our way past the orchard to our grandparents house, where we would all sit outside on the big front porch and enjoy the last of the good weather.

From my world to your heart,

Linda

The Light Flooded Around Me—Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Dayphoto

Yesterday evening, Terry, Evan and I finished our load of firewood for the day and headed home. We actually got done in an hour. We are doing one load a night. The pile is shrinking—thankfully. And growing larger at each of our houses. Maybe by Saturday we will be done. We sure hope so, all of us are getting tired of the cutting and hauling of firewood. 🙂

(Wild turkeys)

Storms rolled in again in the late afternoon, cooling the skies and bringing rain. Still the pintos are doing okay. By tomorrow the rain is supposed to gone for several days. We will begin again in earnest after the storms get out of here. (I would like to share with you a little secret….although it doesn’t look so: Harvest is grueling work–and dusty—and worrisome. Most of all worrisome)

(more wild turkeys)

Terry and I had to finish up some stuff back out on the mud ditch last night, after the firewood.

The sky was stunning.

Darkness rolled up from the canyons, trying to fill the air with shadows. But the light of the setting sun had other ideas.

The deepening shadows turned red and glowed in an amazing splendor behind and through the racing clouds over head.

Terry headed back in, with his load, but I stayed out there. Letting the light flood around me. The silence fell in waves; the minutes with Boomer, myself, the light, and the coming night passed by uncounted for. It was a stunning

From my world to your heart,

Linda

Step Three/Pinto Bean Harvest—September 12, 2016

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Dayphoto

The pinto beans are harvested with a pinto bean combine and pinto bean header.
This is how it works, gently lifting up the rows and moving them through the combine, where it breaks out the pinto beans and put them in the hopper

The trash—everything that is NOT a pinto bean is thrashed and left behind. Now if you have cockaburs, sunflower seeds, or Canada Thistle seeds they will also be combined and flung into the hopper with the pinto beans.

Once there they all go into the truck and hauled to the Beanery, where we are docked for trash in the beans. Therefore, now you know why we always hand weed our fields–the cleaner the beans the more money we bring home. (You can see some of the ‘trash’ [in the back of our truck] which wasn’t cleaned out in with the pinto beans…this is also trash, which will dock us.)

The other problem, with those seeds, is when the pinto beans go over the shaker at the Beanery, they are the same size as a pinto bean and shake right with the beans. If you have too many and have to have the pinto beans triple cleaned….well you get the picture.

A storm is coming in…I hope it stays far way. If it rains we will have a mess with the pinto bean harvest in the field that is pulled. 😦

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

Corn Report–Thursday, December 17, 2015

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Dayphoto

We ~~pretended~~ decided to get ready one more time,

One field is very, very, close. By our moisture tester is says we are there. But the corn sample Terry took to the Elevator said it was still too high. The second field is still over-the-top wet.

No matter what your corn moisture tester says, it’s what the Elevator’s moisture testers reads.

Today, around noon, we will get different sample from the third field and take it to the Elevator…maybe this one will be good to go. Maybe.

Three fields waiting. We’ve checked them one by one.

December is flying by…what an amazing year for corn harvest. Although, to be sure, we are NOT the only ones with this problem. A few of the farmers have gotten ‘some’ of their corn in, but not many, and not a lot of their fields. Together we all wait.

Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,

Linda

Getting Close–Thursday, September 25, 2015

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Dayphoto

We are getting close (now), to being done, with the pinto bean harvest. Tomorrow should see the end!

Prices are low. They are low on the corn and the hay also. But storing something doesn’t always produce a higher price later on.

I always find this so odd…the farmer get a small amount, but the retail in the grocery store is extremely high…too many middle people along the way, I guess.

We are still irrigating the alfalfa field. It’s a big field and takes a long time to get across, but we should finish with the irrigation by Saturday.

After that we wait.