Monday, June 10, 2013

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Dayphoto

The hay is looking good! We need to haul it in soon…either today or tomorrow, Wednesday at the latest.

This might be the last time we get a cutting off this field since the water is short. Terry will decide after the hay is hauled in.

I know I keep going on and on about the water (I’m sure it is becoming and old song by now) but that is where our thoughts are. Moving water, making sure everything gets wet, always asking the question “can we make it?” Everyday we ask, everyday we work it a little bit more and ‘whew’ we are through those rows.

Terry is off to the Doctor around 9 this morning, which will tell us more about his leg. He is DETERMINED that HE WILL haul in the hay…

sigh

Sigh, sigh!

I decided I will just have to see it though, and if I can pick up the slack I will.

We finally had to break down and hook up the air conditioner. 93* was hot and today it is supposed to be 103* It was time

Besides coming into a cool house was nice after the blistering heat in the fields. The wind is predicted to rise today so having the cooler on will help keep the dirt out of the house.

Well, not much going on here, just taking it one day at a time, one field at a time and waiting to see what the Doctor has to say.

Thanks for stopping by,

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Moving Water

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Dayphoto

Dad had another meeting last night so it was just Mom, I, and Boomer. We had a great time.

The sunset was beautiful.

We had to move the water from the upper end, from the hayfield, down to the corn field around the house.

The corn field around the house is well….hot! We are all ringing wet all the time and it isn’t because we are dipping in a swimming pool, let me tell you.

I sleep under Dad’s pickup truck and under the lilac bush, the two coolest spots in the house.

Boomer has decided he wants to sleep with me under the pickup truck…I told him okay, there was room enough for the both of us.

The other place Boom likes is under the garden bench right after Mom has watered her flowers right there.

The musk thistles are amazing…they are as tall as Mom. Mom says they are pretty but she sure doesn’t like having them around, especially on the ditch bank. Makes for moving water well, stickery!

Those things aren’t near as bad as cockleburs I tell her, but sometimes Mom doesn’t understand what I’m trying to say.

It took us a little while to get the water from the upper end to the house, so Boom and I played around lots. Mom worked with the water, she had a run away for a short spell….the ditch had sanded up and the weeds were a mess…she dug and dug and finally the water headed on down like it was supposed it.

Did I tell you the sunset was amazing? It sure was.

Well, not lots happening here…just watching the corn grow and the pinto beans and hay. Dad sold the second cutting of hay, every last bale of it. It wasn’t the best hay as it got rained on, but a couple of small farmers wanted it for their two cows and one wanted it for his three cows and his wife’s rabbits. Dad gave them a huge deal and they took everything down to last hay leaf. Dad said this was a win-win for everyone.

Mom is painting the inside of the house since she has everything all weeded up. We like it better when she is outside with us, but sometimes she works inside.

We go inside sometimes, but that can be hotter than outside…like when she is canning. WHEW!

Hope good things are in the picture for all of you.

Just hang’n loose,

Fuzzy

Opening a Ditch

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Dayphoto

I dug out a camera I had purchased awhile back. It wasn’t a real expensive one, I think I got it for around $90, since I knew my other dear old battered and well-loved camera would someday bite the dust. This camera doesn’t seem to take too bad of photos so I shall continue to use it.

We finished watering our largest field. Which means it was time to move the water. We had to take the water from that field down to the one by our house.

Therefore we had to open the ditch. (Winter is not good for my body, but I’m fast getting into shape.) We only have to open the ditches once, but, oh my, is that ever a job!

Even though Terry makes the ditches with the ditcher there is still lots of trash in the ditch, he turns the water down and then leaves and goes on down to the trash gates, I stay behind and fork the trash out of the ditch.

It starts small, but by the time I make it to the trash catchers I’m hefting huge wads of wet weeds out the water. ( I couldn’t get photos of the wads — I think Terry would have been a tad upset to see me taking photos while massive amounts of weeds were heading toward him.)

Weeds plug up division gates and get caught in the pipes causing floods. Floods are never good as they always go where they are not supposed to go.

By the time I get to the trash screens Terry is already in the field flushing the pipe. This field by the house is set with gated pipe, trash in that pipe is one major pain. It plugs up the little gates and backs up the water. You are looking at a screen that has stopped trash.

We like gated pipe for some fields and cement ditches and siphon tubes for other fields. We even have dirt ditches with siphon tubes for even other fields. Terry is thinking of changing out some of the gated pipe back into a dirt ditch, they (dirt ditches) really are lots easier to work with than gated pipe. You wouldn’t think so, since it would seem all you have to do is open a gate and the water flows out. Pouring another cement ditch is financially not feasible so if we change it will be to dirt.

Trash is the main reason. Here in our part of Colorado when the wind blows heavy it always blows in weeds and icky stuff which lands in the water and then get caught in the gates. With a tube the weed will usually flow on by since the tube is under the surface of the water. With a gate the weed runs right to the gate and tried to get out with the water and plugs up the gate. You then have to put your hand into the water and dig out the trash. For every gate that is open all 20-30 gates.

Anyway, I could lift and toss an 80 pound bale of hay now if I had too. Three weeks ago I don’t know if I could even pick it up.

The pear trees are blooming! They sure are pretty. We’ve had three nights of bitter cold (18* one night) and another cold front moving in by Friday. I remember these days from my youth and how my Dad and my Grandfather would stress out during spring.

Being and orchardist isn’t for the faint of heart that is for sure.

Linda