High strong winds
Packing 65 M.P.H. Gusts
So big and full of dirt
You can actually see the sun.
Sigh!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
And—-THE WIND CONTINUES– Wednesday, May 11, 2022
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Tag Archives: life on a Colorado farm
They Decided to Stay and Raise Babies with Us —- Tuesday, May 10, 2022
I count us lucky!!
I hope we get to see the little chicks!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday — Well, That’s About It —Friday, May 6, 2022
Outside of all the bending, stooping, picking up, laying down, walking, walking, walking, shoveling.
There is always and forever the delight in being out on the ditch bank watching the seeds pop up out of the ground, growing straight and tall.
There is so much happiness in being a farmer, and a protector of the land and the water.
And having a wonderful, furry kitty. Kitties are an important part of this farm.
There are so many things kitties do: we hang out with our people when they are stressed and just need to hear a purring voice,
we follow along as they work in the farmyard, keeping a silent, watchful eye on all they do,
we keep monster mice away from the house, the feed, the chicken pen, and everything on the farm,
we warm beds in the night, (sleeping RIGHT BETWEEN our people!), and lick them in the face when it’s time to get up in the morning.
(Meow—it’s hot!)
Kitties are very, very important!
Thanks for coming along. We, (Mom, Dad, and I) appreciate your stopping by and reading.
TLC Cai-Cai
Spring Magic — Apple Blossoms, Thursday, May 5, 2022
Our apple tree has expanded itself in a most delightful way
Completely filling each and every twig and branch with lovely, lovely flowers.
We will see if another freeze comes along and wipes them out; like all the other fruit we have.
Time will tell….until then I will enjoy this massive show of abundance.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Wednesday — Step Five, Water is Athletic —Wednesday, May 4
Well, maybe not the water itself, but Mom and Dad sure are.
There is the headgate, you have to keep all the trash out of it,
sometimes Dad has to walk across the headgate on the tiny little board to put other ‘blocking’ boards in,
and sometimes Dad has to put down the side of the tiny walking board a screen to filter out the trash.
Trash is a huge part of keeping the water flowing.
Trash stops the water,
causes it to pool up and then will become a flood. Trash makes Dad and mom athletic getting down and digging it out of the water.
Then there is putting in and removing the dams. That is a dam you are seeing.
Dad uses several dams all along the ditches so the water isn’t just rushing by and causing some other sort of crisis somewhere else along the way.
At each dam, the water rises until there is enough water Mom and Dad can start the tubes.
Mom says you have to be fast or the water will rise so high that it will run over the side of the ditch and cause a flood.
The water coming out of the cement ditch into the tubes goes into little furrows that keep the water manageable.
Over time the furrow becomes imprinted with the water and won’t let the water run over into another row.
But in the Springtime, when everything is starting to ‘learn’ it’s way-of-being, Mom and Dad have to walk down the rows and make sure the water stays in its own row and doesn’t get greedy and try to take over its neighbor’s row.
The tools used on the water are shovels, rakes/forks (not all the time, but in the early Spring for sure), dams -metal and the
orange fiber material, siphon tubes, a wide variety of trash cleaners,
four-wheelers to get a person from here to there, and people.
Lots of bending and stooping and jumping over ditches and walking on scary boards…if water isn’t athletic, Mom and Dad sure are! 😊
Lots of work, but Mom says it keeps Dad and her young.
TLC Cai-Cai
Bridge Repair — Tuesday, May 3, 2022
We had a huge log come down the canal and knock the warning poles off their foundation
What a mess!
Linkin was spending Friday and Saturday with us;
Terry and I had (Thankfully) lots of help.
It was a huge long process…taking two hours to get the two logs jacked up and out of the water
The water was running
fast and scary—and would have flipped us under the bridge if we fell in it
TLC Cai-Cai and Linkin ready to help
Terry finally got one log up, then had to get the second log up
Linkin holding up one of the logs
After much pulling, straining, lifting, and pondering. Terry got all the logs up, wired together—good to go until this winter when the canal is dry and we can get in there to work on everything.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday —Step Four, Friday, April 29, 2022
Water is not only the backbone of the farm.
Water is a tool.
To irrigate properly you not only need to understand water, the needs of the water, and how the water performs on the land.
You need to also understand the land you are using the water on!
For some people, like Mom, watering yard…she just turns the spigot on, moves the hose with the sprinkler head here and there all over the lawn in 30 minutes stretches.
Also, Mom takes off the sprinkle head and puts on a soaker head so she can water her flower beds.
Yes, this takes lots of time, because Mom doesn’t have a sprinkling system.
But for the water on the farm, on this side of the Rocky Mountains, in the high mountains desert…water is moved through furrows.
Other places rely on rainfall—that will never happen here.
Some other places pump water out of a river, or lake, or pond, or an aquifer into huge sprinkler systems that never stop. (Because sprinkle systems only put down a tiny amount of moisture at a time, so the sprinkler has to be moving constantly to get everything wet down to the roots of the plant.)
Some places flood-irrigate…like rice paddies, for instance, or some other type of crop which moves lots and lots of water onto the crop then take it away and let it dry, only to repeat again later.
Here we take our water onto the land in a big head — the head is made up of shares. The Shares are the amount of water allowed for that farm.
Moving water onto the farm takes timing, balance, athletic ability (you have to stand or jump on the ditches), and an understanding of the farm and water.
Mom says there is something so beautiful, soothing, and marvelous about working the water on the land. Just listening to the water is calming; making sure the water is doing what it’s supposed to —
run down each row…the row that amount of water is allotted to is exciting.
Sometimes the water wants to ‘cut over’ into its neighbor’s row, or something jumps into the row—like a clod of dirt, or the remainder of last year’s corn cob/stalk — getting the water BACK into its own row and taking the block out can be a tad exciting (and muddy and stressful.
But seeing the water running nice and even, the sides of the furrow’s turning browner soaking up the water, watching the ground soak up the water all the water to the middle.
WONDERFUL!
At least two more chapters in the backbone of water—Stay tuned!
(See my gift to Mom—MOUSE!)
TLC Cai-Cai
That Tinkling Laugh Called Spring — Thursday, April 28, 2022
Joy is everywhere
Delight so profound it permeates everything
The bird’s song is so loud it actually echos
With bouncing walks
And twittering voices.
Colors always changing bright and iridescent
The beauty of Spring
Everywhere…full of jubilation, exultation, rejoicing, happiness, glee—every word which expresses Triumph over Winter!
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Even After the Storm —- Monday, April 25, 2022
The world seems full of lace
Even though the wind tried to tear apart the lovely
Blossoms
The fruit trees stood firm
Against the wind, the hail, and the rain
Bringing joy to the sunshine now filling the land.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
POWER in the Form of Wind — Sunday, April 24, 2022
Friday the wind became more than over-the-top, it became so concentrated
That the electricity went out for three hours.
We had 65 m.p.h. wind gusts
Full of dirt and flying things.
Terry talked to a friend, at the power company, and was told trees in the Hotchkiss area were blown over causing outages; power poles snapped in our area.
What a mess.
After the wind left we had a hail storm. All these little white blossoms are from the pear tree.
Scattering bits and pieces everywhere.
Then at the end of the day—-the sun shone upon the bruises and fissures the wind breathed on the land.
Putting us all back together with its own unique rhythm of healing.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 