Melting most of the big snow drifts!
OH! YAY!
But the weather people are saying another Snow Storm is due in here Thursday!
Melt and warmer temps and even a drying wind is a good sign of Spring.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Now that the cows have gone, the Equines get the run of the farm
So much fun! This opportunity to race across the acres
And munch and munch on the sprigs of green starting to show here and there.
A Happy Way of Being!
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Terry, Boomer and I took a ride up to the Upper End and the Back Forty, checking the grasses, mud, and snowmelt
We were also pleasantly Surprised to still see the Sandhill Cranes filling the land and the skies of up there.
We are seeing less and less of the big birds…all the Canada Geese, who wintered on the farm are gone…heading home for the summer
And the Sand Hill Cranes are becoming less and less.
Eckert, where my brother and I grew up, holds annual Sandhill Crane Days starting about March 10 until April 20. Sandhill cranes are relatively new to our area, we didn’t have them when my brother and I where children and young adults.
I heard from a long-time blog reader, Emily, that the Sandhill Cranes have arrived at her ranch even though they still have two feet of snow.
So every day now the big birds are going home. And the Spring and Summer birds are coming back…I thought I heard a Western Meadowlark when we were up there in the pasture lands…I sure hope I did.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Thomas Davis and his lovely bride, Ethel Davis (long time readers of my blog) called to say they were in town and would love to meet.
Delightedly we met them at Fiesta Vallarta Restaurant in Delta, where they brought us gifts—
They arrived with a beautiful gift of wine and
Some of their published books.
What gracious, lovely people Tom and Ethel are!
Thomas has been a President at several Navajo controlled colleges all throughout his career, and is still Provost for a Navajo Tribal College. Thomas is a poet, scholar, playwright and so many more things.
Thomas’ books lift us into a place where words become real places and people reach out to us and beg us to become part of them.
Ethel Moretenson Davis is an accomplished artist and published poet–her work appearing in many magazine, literary journals, and anthologies.
Ethel’s work is stunning, she speaks of the winds, the gentle loveliness of the earth; the magic through the door, of which poets lead us.
And here they sat, in our humble home, very interested in us, the farm, our life.
We found out the Thomas lived here (Delta), until the 6th grade, went to school with Terry’s brother, his parents owned and operated a grocery store in town, and Terry’s mom and dad were friends of theirs.
The Davis family moved, after that year, to Orchard Mesa, close to Grand Junction, and opened another Grocery Store, which is still in operation today.
Terry remembered, through his child’s eyes, the Thomas family grocery store, then he remembered his family stopping many times at the Orchard Mesa Grocery Store to visit with the Davis Family.
Isn’t the world a strange and marvelous thing?
The beauty of blogging is making friends near and far.
If you are interested in Thomas and Ethel’s blog go here. Also, if you would like to order and read their books this is a good place to get one or many.
I am constantly humbled to the amazing gift of friendship this tiny little blog has brought to Terry and I.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
We are back on the ground! The snow left and it didn’t even make mud!
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda
(Sunrise this morning…sun through the heavy clouds in the east)
A spring storm moved into our area yesterday bringing with it snow in the higher country, splattering of rain around us and on us.
Last night we had a huge wind, thunder storms and lightening.
A spring storm.
Today it’s still cloudy and cold, but the long months of desolation are coming to an end. Our air is full of bird song
There are Red-Winged Blackbirds in the cattails and in our apple trees!
Along the fence lines
There are Western Meadow Larks adding the joy in the air.
The delightful chirp of the Robin joins into the cacophony.
All replacing the lonely calling of the Canada Geese and the trill sound of the
Sandhill Cranes. We can hear their calling their way in flight forming Vs of courage toward the promise of a distant breeding grounds.
The Crows and Raven’s on swirling wings bear them up and away to other parts unknown to me. Leaving our trees available for the song birds.
In winter, we see the raptors;
It is in winter the feathered world is reduced to the brutal hunt and eat. Dark shadows pass overhead, dip down as the big birds hunt for mice along the ditch banks and fence rows. Sometimes a Ring-Necked Dover or a smaller little brown bird provides food for the owl and the hawk.
(Sunset last night…rain on the plateau with sun bursting through the clouds)
As late winter storms come and leave, the song birds return — even though the air is still cold, but not the bitter cold of winter; the sweet fresh cold of thawing earth, the brightness of sprigs of green and the hope of tiny swelling buds on the trees.
I can handle these storms…for it won’t be long now…not at all until the whole world I live in bursts forth into a riot of color!
From my world to your heart,
Linda
Life on a Colorado Farm 