Spring, like Autumn has a tipping quality about it—
One moment its cold and the wind is blowing
Another moment is hot enough that you think it’s finally Summer!
Spring—YAY! I’ll take it over winter ANY DAY!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
The world is full of tiny, but powerful miracles!
Like an afternoon of blue skies and fluffy clouds!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
FIRST and FOR MOST is that black and white striped cat-like creature that stinks to HIGH HEAVEN!
SKUNKS!!!
Skunks are —well, stinky. They also are good bug catchers, and…if Mom isn’t careful…eaters of CHICKENS!!!
Skunks love to spray things, and for sure— dogs. But since I’m not a dog, when I see a SKUNK, with his/her tail all fluffed up…I RUN! I’m not stupid like a dog.
I have no desire to ‘take on a skunk’ — I don’t want to meow at it, run headlong at it with my mouth open and loud sounds coming out of my mouth, nor do I want that NASTY GREEN STINK to hit me in the face!
Let’s just say…I’m smarter than a dog!
Just say’n.
Then there are
PORCUPINES!
Randomly we have one or two come into the yard and snack on the fruit in the Apricot trees, but mostly porcupines stay out on the farm.
Porcupines are another DOG Magnet! Not cat magnet…DOG MAGNET!
Dogs LOVE porcupines! There is always at least one dog who never learns what a porcupine can do TO a dog. That said dog get clobbered with QUILLS up the nose, in the mouth, down the throat, all over the face.
(This is Hank Puff–the grandkids’ dog)
Then there are dogs who never get clobbered or, if they do, it’s only once, and then it’s maybe just ten or so quills.
Sometimes Cows, horses, and other curious creatures get clobbered with the tail of the porcupine, but cats Never do.
Yes, I know cats are known to be very, v.e.r.y. curious, but when it comes to DANGER…cats know to SCRAM out of there! A porcupine and his tail of quills spell DANGER!
You see…Cats are SMART! Very Smart!
Then there are those extremely clever creatures called
RACOONS!
Raccoons are over-the-top smart! I mean eye-q’s of beyond the clouds smart.
Raccoons love eating all sorts of stuff, corn on the cob, corn spilled on the ground, corn scattered to feed the birds, speaking of birds—
raccoons love eating chickens. They reach their very clever little hands through the chicken wire on the pen grab a hen by the neck, pull the neck through the wire, and bite off the head.
If a person were to let their hens run wild all over the yard, lay their eggs wherever then the raccoons would find the eggs and eat them all up.
That is why mom’s hens don’t get to run in the yard until AFTER they lay their eggs!
Raccoons love to eat anything in the mom’s garden…. all the melon’s the corn, tomatoes, you name it. If they don’t eat it then they rip it up and tear it out.
They like all sorts of chicken, dog, cow, horse, and mule feed, so Mom and my sister, Shannon, keep those things in big black plastic barrels shut up in buildings.
Speaking of barrels, raccoons LOVE GARBAGE.
Those very clever and smart creatures can take the lid off a 50-gallon barrel and tip it over scattering all the garbage from here to there.
Raccoons have hands just like humans and they use them just like humans.
Just so you know— MOM DOES NOT LIKE RACOONS no matter HOW cute they are!
Badgers. Now if you want to take on something that looks like a flat skunk, without the big bushy tail, try taking on a Badger.
Those creatures are mean!
Over-the-top mean. Dad has been chased by a badger, Mom said Boomer and Hank were chased by a badger…every fox on the place gives the badgers a wide berth.
Thankfully Badgers don’t come into the farmyard so I’ve never met one. Nor am I likely to go way up to the Upper End or the Back Forty just to see one.
I am a good learner…just tell me to stay away and I will!
TLC Cai-Cai
They are back…WASPS!!
Anyway, I got a notice from WordPress, that I have been blogging for 14 years now!
WOW! Time really does pass quickly when you are having fun!
Thank you for being part of our daily life on our western Colorado farm!
From My Heart to your World,
Linda
Terry and I were out working in the alfalfa field, he was marking out the field
Beaglie and I were setting out the siphon tubes
Boomer has decided that his work now is to just stay on the four-wheeler.
My little dog is getting old. Rather sad.
When I noticed HUGE flames soaring high at the end of our farm
Then I saw Terry getting off the tractor and heading to the edge of one of our hills.
By the time Boomer and I made it to the rocky point the fire was out…but O! MY! Was that every scary!
Fire is a most frightening thing! Frightening!
Back home I opened my email and there waiting for me (and for you)
All the way from Australia was a rainbow! “This morning, walking Mouse, I saw this and thought of you ”
Kate
WOW! A perfect sign of Hope!
From my world to your heart,
The rains came and went…although we have a promise of more rains to come tomorrow.
Past dark the sounds are only those sounds of night….an owl hooting, coyotes yapping over a kill, dogs barking in alarm; a warning of the coyotes
Although there is no sound of the worked up soil on the farm — it won’t be long until we start water on the ground
Then the farm ground will be alive with the sound of water running down the furrows; back into the canal to water the next farm
The outbuildings, barns, chicken house, even the fences creak and talk to themselves as they settle into the night…just like old houses do.
The clouds were whisked away in the wind…leaving us with a spring day. Everything feeling fresh, new, crisp…like sheets dried on the clothesline.
Morning dawned lite up the snow, on the Paonia mountain range, with vivid colors
It’s possible to leave things behind—-stuff, people, good and bad memories, but places…the second you are at that spot again everything comes back…who you are, who you were, when you were there…how life once was.
This is my world…the who of who I am, the what of what I am…the essence of myself.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
“Bee to the blossom, Moth to the flame, Each to his passion, what’s in a name?” —Helen Hunt Jackson
A friend of mine ‘shared’ with me the above photo…(double click if you want to read all the little spots)….on my FaceBook page. I had to actually laugh-out-loud when I saw it. Someone really does understand that need to create everyone has. (Sometimes the names have to be changed, but it’s still the same.)
Then I saw on Pinterest this little saying: “The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” — Jessica Hische
I had to stop a moment and ask myself what DO I do when I’m not WANTING to do anything. It’s a rather fun thing to ask yourself.
We woke up to a skiff of snow this morning. Things are turning green, the earth is too wet to farm, but it will dry. Friday is APRIL…of jolly! We are moving right along to warmer weather. YAY!
With joy, your friend,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 