Here are some of my past hawk photos
There are two hawks here, see the split tail, the same as the one in the above photo
Here is one landing
Now taking off
Trying to get high in the sky because I was there
And my favorite!
My world to your heart,
Linda
Yesterday, Fuzzy, Boomer and I took a walk about…I needed to get out and do something..Fuzzy needed some exercise and Boomer really wanted to go check out some smells.
Once out on the land I thought it would be a fun little sidebar trip to show you the difference in plowed and rolled land.
This is what plowing does to the land. These huge clumps of dirt are horrible to walk in–I’ve had to chase many an escaped animal through these cliffs of soil. They have a way of slowing you down. One nice thing about slowing you down, is they also slow down the sheep, goat, cow or horse that is making their way through them.
Then the roller comes along and smashes everything–now it’s easy to walk on the land again. It won’t stay this way long as the next steps have to move along quickly so we can be ready to start water around the first of April.
A person could NOT plant anything in here, the soil would not sub and the seed couldn’t get a hold, but all the humus is now turned under to start rotting. Adding to the richness of the soil and giving more food to the plants.
The dogs and I checked some of the work that effect us…cleaning out the ditches! Huge job. I much rather clean out the cement ditches than the gated pipes though.
Then we looked at the alfalfa field — its starting to green up nicely.
In about an hour I need to head up to where Terry is working with the back hoe. He is having a trench dug for the very last of the transmission pipe to our place. After we get that in place we will have all our transmission/distribution pipes underground–less weeds, less loss to subbing and evaporation.
My foot is coming along nicely. I did too much yesterday, but after a good night’s rest I’m able to use it again. Sure wasn’t a good time of the year to get a hurt.
Off now to head up to the ditch!
Your farm friend,
Linda
Just for a bit of fun or in the interest of the moment I thought I would tour you of the parts of the farm I talk about — The Back Forty and the Upper End.
This is the head gate…you’ve been here many a’time with me, but I’m going to start here…where the lifeblood of the land (the irrigation water) starts
Those are two alfalfa fields on either side of the irrigation road. They are not our fields but our neighbor’s.
To get to the head gate we go past lots of ‘fun to hide in’ areas. (Fun for the cows when we had them.)
When we had cows this was their favorite pasture. We call this the Upper End. It is the Upper End of our place. You can see one of our alfalfa fields in the corner.
The Upper End is full of hills and dales. When the kids were little we would take them and their little plastic sleds and head up here and go sledding in the winter.
Shannon had a goat, Bambi, and the dogs who always went with us…the dogs didn’t sled, but Bambi always road down on his own sled every time. He would even help pull it back up for another go at the hill. 🙂
From the Upper End we take the only road over to the Back Forty,
That is Terry the tiny blue dot going toward the Back Forty.
The Back Forty is stunning (in my opinion). All of the front of the photo is our land. The view is from the hill on the Back Forty. Our land ends way over to where you see the two trees and the dry looking spot. This was also the area that burned, a couple of years ago.
I could take you to the Burn Road, but I didn’t this time. The Burn Road is the road Terry built so the fire trucks could make it to the burn instead of waiting for the fire to ‘get closer’. The ‘get closer’ was almost a disaster –coming 1 foot from the equipment and 5 feet from Misty’s house and barn. “Never again,” he said, so he built a road. I’ll have to do that sometime, just so you can see the West side of the place.
We are not big, we are small farm, but we are lovely farm full of diverse lands and wonderful pastures. At the new alfalfa field
You can see the into the south west portion of the Uncompahgre Plateau. You say “Un-come-pah-gray,” meaning — rocks made red by water, rocks that make red water, or just plain dirty water.
Between the two blue mountains (part of the Plateau and another mesa) is Grand Junction
This is a little further away so you can image the span.
Well that is a short little trip to give you and idea of the places I talk about when I say the Back Forty or the Upper End.
Thank you for coming along for the ride,
Linda
While an old chair is not an unusual item to be found in a museum, it may be unusual that we have eleven of the twelve original courthouse jury chairs in our museum. These chairs were used in the 1896 courthouse, in the District Court, and may have been used for over fifty years in that building until the new courthouse replaced it in 1958.
All eleven of the chairs are in use, even today, in the museum. Nine of them are placed in the Stephens Gallery around the tables which are used for board meetings and are also used by the public when conducting research. We keep two chairs near the reception desk for use by visitors, as well. The twelfth chair is in Delta in private ownership, rescued by a well-known attorney of earlier years.
The museum acquired the chairs in 1965, a gift from the Board of County Commissioners that year. While the Delta County Historical Society added cushions to the chairs years ago, the jurors had no such comfort. Perhaps the lack of comfort kept them awake, if needed.
Imagine how many lives were affected by those that sat in those chairs years ago?
Jury chairs from the 1896 courthouse are still in use at the Delta County Museum
Jim
Museum Director / Curator and Newsletter Editor
Jim Wetzel (970) 874-8721
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 