As far as the camera can see
washed in sunlight and heat
It takes 45 minutes to get a full load
But I …have the best part
I have help!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
I Work in my Delight—Wednesday, July 29, 2015
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Tag Archives: hay
Catch a Falling Star — Thursday, July 23, 2015
After Terry cut the alfalfa and I stopped painting for the day–meaning after supper, we went out and worked in the pinto bean field.
WE FINISHED!!! The pinto beans are free and clear (for a spell)
There will be weeds appearing again, but for Terry and I— we are done. The pinto beans are starting to shoot the feelers. These little vines will grab onto to each other and cause the rows to grow shut.
The sun had set and we were heading back home, when I noticed something flashing and twinkling in the late evening sky.
Drifting down, down, down we saw it land gently in the upper part of the pinto bean field. Hopeing it would NOT get away I hurried to the upper end of the pinto bean field, to see a helium balloon shaped like a star resting among the pinto bean rows.
A fun little gift from the heavens!
I nestled the star on the four-wheeler, laying a large rock on it’s string, tucked my weeding knife securing under the bars and brought the falling star home.
Your friend on a Western Colorado farm,
Linda
Summertime—July 13, 2015
Summertime and the liv’n is not as easy as winter. Tee Hee
This Terry coming in from making ditches…that’s the ditcher on the back.
I’ve been painting the outside of our house. It really needs it. Last year I painted down at the other house, but this year I MUST focus on this place.
Our corn is getting close to tasseling out! What a joy that is–the too wet and cold spring, followed by smashing heat gave us a wonder if the corn was going to pull through.
Here Terry is staking a load of hay…I am in charge of getting the stack stable…think poles and such holding up the stack…not a hard job, but a necessary job. We are already getting hay customers, which is a very good thing.
Of course there is always water to change, several times a day. If not change at least check.
I would really like to wash my windows, but we are being gifted with afternoon thunder and rain storms…I think I will wait a spell. 🙂
Boomer and I go out to scatter the corn once a day. This is old corn we keep around to feed the deer, birds, raccoons, whatever or whoever wants some—it keeps the critters OUT of the corn fields.
Life is busy. To be honest with you I really don’t want it any other way.
Off now to keep painting — I just about have one side done. ( We have a two-story house…I sure dread the 2nd story 😦 )
I still need to do the eaves on the west side, which is going to be time consuming.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Racing Against Time—Wednesday, June 24, 2015
I am sorry about not being able to post yesterday…the internet was down. Sure was frustrating!
Anyway, it’s back up today, for which I rejoice greatly!
We are racing madly here. Everything came together all at once—the pinto beans needed watered, the corn needed fertilized and cultivated, and needs water —the hay needs hauled in from the last field, and the water sat on it. (Not to mention weeding in my yard –two more huge beds to go—helping a tad down at the other house…clipping hedges and other yard work–ironing and straightening up my house, mundane things but necessary.)
The days are just not long enough 🙂 🙂
Although, we get up at 4:15 and then finish around 10 at night, there always seems to be something more needing done.
Don’t read bad into this —————— I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT!!!
We hauled hay until too dark…Boomer and I picked up the loose bales and broken bales and Terry hauled in the loads.
It was miserable hot yesterday…my car said it was 111*f (43.89c) when I ran to buy groceries for the month. That’s HOT!
Around 8:30 or 9:00 p.m. it looked like a hail or rain storm broke over Peach Valley. It was just too hot not to develop some sort of activity in the heavens.
Today we are still in the same race…although, we are gaining on the pinto beans (the beans are up! YAY!) with the water, the small corn field is wet, and cross all fingers, Terry will get the big corn field fertilized and cultivated today-then we start water on it tonight).
Two more days of hauling hay and that will be over. Then, if it rains, all is well.
Although, we are busy; it’s a good busy!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Socked in- Sunday, September 28, 2014
A HUGE rain storm rolled in last night complete with rolling thunder and stunning flashes of lightening. By 9:00 in the evening we were wet. The rain hasn’t let up since the storm rolled in. On one hand the lovely drenching of all the parched and dried spots in the lawns and fields is a very good thing—on the other hand not so lovely. It’s harvest here. Not for us. We have finished our harvest of the two first crops and are waiting for the corn to dry down before we start the third and last crop –corn.
There are others, neighbors and friends, who are in the middle of onion harvest, or their pinto bean harvest, or getting in the last cutting of alfalfa turned hay.
Moisture like this is not good for harvest. 😦
This weekend found us in Craig, Colorado, to watch our grandson play Middle School football and take
Ellie up to play with Linky for a spell. Of course, we also got to enjoy the little Cowgirl and her REAL Cowgirl girl friends.
Craig is home to Tri-State Generation plant. My Dad worked at the station right after it was built- until he retired. Daddy started work for Colorado Ute—now Tri-State–at the Hayden plant, then was promoted to this plant right after it was built.
My parents moved to Hayden, Colorado, the year I was pregnant with Evan. They stayed they for over twenty years, Daddy retiring from Colorado Ute (Tri-State) and Momma retiring form Peabody Coal.
It’s sort of ironic that our youngest daughter and her family are now back in the Moffat/Routt County area don’t you agree?
Anyway we are back to a decidedly very wet fall day. It has the feel of a huge weather switch coming…I wonder if a killing frost will follow all this moisture; I would not be surprised.
It’s all most October…a killing frost is just around the corner, if not imminent.
Your friend on a farm,
Linda
Summer’s Gifts—Tuesday, September 2, 2014
It is cold here this morning. 49*…a light jacket was in order to change the irrigation water.
As a gift to me I was sent several photos of those beautiful little flying jewels of summer. Kagedog lives in Cedaredge, Colorado and is a regular visitor to our little blog. She knows how much I enjoy the Hummingbirds so sent to me some very nice photos. She also gave me permission to share them with you. 🙂
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
We still have lots of Hummingbirds here. I don’t know if they are the regulars or if they are moving through. This morning they were fluffed way up as they drank from the feeders. Although, it is cool in the mornings the days still warm up nicely, as much as 89*.
I hope your Tuesday is a good one. It’s time to put the bean puller on and finish work on the combine. We are still waiting for the alfalfa to turn into hay. Hope the rains stay away for a least two or more weeks!
Your friend on a western Colorado Farm,
Linda
Stretch Marks, Labor Day, Monday, September 1, 2014
It’s that time of year….
(Third cutting of alfalfa)
When all of spring and summer come together
Third cutting of hay is cut and drying…Terry is raking and turning the rows even as I type away.
Soon, very soon…maybe tomorrow or the next day…it all depends on the weather, he will pull the pinto beans.
The corn has passed the blister stage, moving into the dough. After that it will be ready to ‘dry down’.
We are on the last little bits of irrigation. No more changing water on the pinto beans, only one more good soaking of the alfalfa, after the last bale has been hauled and stacked (possibly two if the fall is terribly dry—alfalfa can’t go into the winter dry or the crop will die.)
All that is left is watering the corn, by the end of September (in 30 days, maybe a few more, but not many-maybe even less) the irrigation water will be turned off to our farm.
We will be done.
After that we wait…until the last of October or the first of November when the harvest of the field corn begins. Those that have ensilage or chopp’n corn, or silage (it’s all one in the same) will start filling the silos this week.
The stretch for harvest has begun!
Then winter’s silence will descend.
But not for awhile.
Not for awhile.
Not just yet.
The gift of the spring and summer’s work will be collected. The work is has begun!
We will stretch ourselves thin, eat on the run, get up before dawn and settle back down way after dusk. It will look easy to those driving by—people who have moved to the country to get away from the crowds.
I suppose it is, after all these years…it’s because we practice all the time. The continuing education credits come when this year’s paycheck comes in. (We are paid once a year for pinto beans and corn. The hay brings in small checks as the bales are sold.)
Harvest! It is what we work for— the accumulation of the year.
Your friend on a farm in Western Colorado,
Linda
Crop Report—Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Second cutting of hay is stacked and some is sold. Terry is delivering 60 bales to Delta Elevator as I write this. One more cutting and we are done for the year. Golly, summer is flying by.
The pinto beans have grown shut! See that corn stalk! Grrr! Corn is NOT good in pinto beans. Corn kernels and pinto beans are the same size so they go through the combine together and make a TARE on the pinto beans. Meaning the beanery has to sort the corn out, which they dock the farmer for the time and labor to do so. I am going to have to figure out how to get out there and get that stalk before harvest!!!! And NOT smash or harm the pinto bean plants in any way. 😦
The pinto bean plants are now setting pods and the ‘new crop’ of seeds starting grow in the pod. You can see the seeds developing.
The field corn is starting to grow kernels. The brownish/red silks are showing that the little hairs have been pollinated and the cob is starting to grow the seed. (We eat the seed in some form…ground up for corn meal, boiled on the table, or for animal feed). The white silk shows that the ear has not been pollinated yet. As the wind, or birds, or animals move through the corn the pollen from the tassels will float down and pollinate the silks. Then we wait for the kernels to grow and swell and develop.
We have one row of sweet corn along side the field corn. Sweet corn is shorter than field corn. I picked 2 ripe ears of sweet corn yesterday and we had them for lunch. Yummm!
The raccoons and the deer and the skunks like the sweet corn also. 😦 I try to watch my crop closely to grab what I can before they get it. Most the time they beat me.
We heard that there were bears in one of the commercial sweet corn fields two nights ago. Bears think sweet corn is yummy. I hope they don’t come down here..I only have the one row …..
Our rain has moved on, although, they are saying there is the possibly of thunderstorms this afternoon. Still the day is fresh and lovely.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
From the Past—August 22, 1913
From the Past
Compiled from Delta Newspapers by the Delta County Historical Society
251 Meeker Street, Delta, Colorado, 81416 (970) 874-8721
From the Delta County Independent
August 22, 1913
During a heavy thunder shower accompanied by frequent flashes of lightening in the Cedaredge district last Thursday evening, one of those sharp flashes connected with stacks of hay on the farm of Dr. H. K. Gibbs and soon all was a solid mass of flames.
There were spectators to the lurid scene, it is reported, but nothing could be done to check the blaze and in a very few moments 110 tons of hay, one or more sheds and considerable fence, was in ashes. The loss is conservatively estimated at between $800 and $1,000.
The residence and other buildings on the Gibbs farm were at sufficient distance from the fire to escape unscathed. Mr. Gibbs many Delta county friends and acquaintances will regret to learn of his misfortune.
This is something we rarely hear about anymore. Although, when I was a child I remember playing in our front yard when our neighbor across the road had one of their three haystacks burst into flames.
Everyone close by rushed to help Mr. and Mrs. Shock put out the fire, but nothing could be done to save the three haystacks. By the time the Cedaredge Fire Department arrived all three stacks were on fire. Cedaredge is a good 20 minutes from where we lived so the time it took to call the operator (yes we still had telephone operators back then) have her alert the volunteer fire department and personnel, for everyone to arrive at the station and then drive down there a goodly amount of time had past. A goodly amount of time.
Momma watched with my brother and I while all the men did what they could. When questioning her “WHY?!?!” She explained that the hay stack had gotten so hot inside that the fire started, which was a amazing thought to a small 6 or 7 year old.
Gradually I began to understand that when hay is stacked up still wet (or too fresh or too green, however you like to think of it) the heat will build until a fire will self-start. A fire like that is called spontaneous combustion.
It was an amazing site and one that still stays with me even now. Terry is very, very careful to never put up hay that is too wet for just this reason. Also wet hay can mold, which is not good for animals to eat causing many air born and other illnesses. It’s a matter of timing for good rich hay complete with the little leaves still attached to the stem. The little leaves are the rich source of protein perfect for maintaining good health in animals.
Today is groomer day for the dogs…I’m sure Fuzzy isn’t going to appreciate where we are going. But he will enjoy the ride (until we get there, that is!:))
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Bean Harvest
Bean Harvest! Dad and Mom sure have been having a hard time getting all those pinto beans out of the field.
First the belt broke on the auger (day one) so the hopper had to be emptied BY HAND from the combine into the truck.
That was a huge job.
Boomer and I took it seriously and stayed out of the way.
Besides it was really super-hot! Super-hot like that just takes everything out of you.
Then everything was going along really good
Boomer and I were helping….
right after supper the folks headed back out and it
STARTED TO RAIN!
Rain is NOT good.
Everything grinds down to halt.
It messes up the whole works.
Dad said maybe by four this afternoon he can begin again…the rows of beans have to be dry, VERY DRY, to combine or the combine won’t pick up the beans.
The other sad thing about the rain is it rained on the hay. Dad was going to bale first thing this morning, but now he can’t do that either. Rained on hay is not good…rained on hay can ruin the protein of the hay. Dad is up there checking out the hay to see how much damage occurred. 😦 (Maybe not much, as sometimes the rain will miss areas of the farm.)
It was muddy enough Mom walked up to do the irrigation so we ALL walked with her…
all three of us…
every step of the way.
The rain helped cool stuff off so the evening was rather nice.
Well, back to work…it’s warming up so Boomer and I
think we had better get some serious sleeping
in before the work starts.
Fuzzy
Life on a Colorado Farm 