Tag Archives: outdoors

In My Spare Time

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In my spare time I go help our oldest daughter with her volunteer job.  We walk the dogs at the City Pound/CAWS.

We go Tuesday and Friday, it takes some time.  That’s okay.  We enjoy the dogs and they enjoy us.  We walk them to the dog park and then let them run and run and run!

So much fun!

If you would like a wonderful dog…these dogs are perfect.  They are all house broke, past the puppy stage and socialized.

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Of course there are other dogs there than just these three  —  I just wanted to give you an idea of great dogs for a small price.

Linda

A Sign of Hope

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This has been a year of lots of ‘stuff ‘…

Stuff we have had to deal with…the fire, the fences, lack of rain,  way too hot, not enough irrigation water, loved ones passing on over to the other side…you know all those things that make up every day living, but also sort of wear you down.

But last evening…across the pinto bean field and the corn field right over our house

This rainbow appeared.

We were not home at the time, but our son-in-law happened to see this sign from the Heavens

And emailed it over to us!

I am delighted!

It spans our farm from the middle to the end—-an amazing gift of

HOPE!

Linda

Salida and the Zip Line

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We got to Salida to go on our pre-arranged trip on the Captain Zipline tours, but while we were eating it started to rain!  RAIN!  We have not seen rain in our part of Colorado for months and months and not even a wet snow last winter.

So having this really neat rain was well WONDERFUL!  The zip-line tour had to be canceled until the next morning at 9:30, but who cared! Salida got about 60 minutes of really nice rain.  They told us this was the first good rain they have had in a very long time.

The next morning we were at the loading dock paid and ready to go…it’s a fifteen minute drive to the mountains and canyons where the zip-lines were located.

I thought I would NOT be able to do this…..attach myself to wire and fling myself off a canyon wall to zip over the wire to the next side of the canyon….but I did it!!!!

What a hoot!

We rode all seven (counting the bunny training line)!

The group we were with was lots of fun and our guides were very good.  The whole thing was hugely fun.

I recommend it for everyone…and if you can’t stand heights…well, just keep your eyes shut!

I did for the first two…the last five were incredible!

When we got back into Salida it rained again…for 15 minutes.  How delicious it felt!

We called Misty and asked if home got any rain.

No, no rain.

Not even a dark cloud.

While we were in Salida, a fire started close to home.  That is the Pine Ridge fire at Debeque, Colorado.  (Lightening caused)

Debeque is between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, if you want to check it out on the map.

Many of you have asked how close that is to us…it’s about an hour and 15 minutes away…around 60 miles.  Grand Junction is experiencing lots of smoke from the fire, but we are up the way…. East from Grand Junction, so we only see the smoke as it bellows over the mountains and canyons west of us.

Tomorrow I will tell you about Cottonwood Springs.

Happy Monday Everyone!

Linda

 

 

Sunday Stills—The Color Brown

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I’m going to assume the color RUST can count as the color Brown…at the Antique Farm Show this old back hoe was on display…our 10 year old grandson found the whole thing “REALLY COOL”.

Then there was “#4” the next size up from the smallest this manufacturer made.  There were 5 in the series.

This one was huge…the informational sign says it traveled at 2.4 miles an hour.

For more Sunday Stills, the Color Brown head on over here…. click on the name and it will zip you right on over to the participants blog!

Have Fun!  Enjoy the color Brown!

Linda

June 19, 2012

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About 3:00 yesterday afternoon the ditch rider came by and locked our head gate down more holes…we are now at 50% of the 100% of water we pay for every year.  We will still pay the 100%;  there just isn’t water in the mountains.  Snow pack was only 4 feet last winter and is gone now, accept for a few tiny drifts here and there.

And it isn’t even July!

What is July going to bring?  An even worse thought…what is August going to bring!?

We are back to changing the water every 8 hours.  6 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon, and 10 at night.  At least we got caught up and the ground is starting to hold the water.  Less water and less rows we can set.

To give you an idea…say at 100% you can set 35 rows, at 70% you can set 23 rows so now we are looking at 15-18 rows.  This is just an approximate, a general idea.  Each field is different and sometimes each row is different.

IF this heat continues and the hot, heavy wind (we had 40 m.p.h. gusts yesterday) ….. let us not go there.  Worse thought yet, is what if there isn’t any snow in the mountains this winter…!!!?

Okay, okay.

July could/can be a wet month–typically that is our monsoon month, with moist air moving up from the Gulf of Mexico…this would be good!  RAIN!

The middle of July starts to see the Winter Wheat being harvested and the sweet corn crops going into to market.  (The sweet corn harvest starts in July and ends the second week in September.) As these fields are harvested the farmer does NOT continue with water on the field. This reduces the strain on the canal.  So if these two things come together…rain and crops being harvested the rest of the crops in our area—onion, shelling corn, hay,and pinto beans all the farmers in the area should make it.

We will just have to wait and see.

The hummers are back!

This year instead of one soft tiny nest in the tractor shed we have TWO!  I tried to climb up on the tractor to see if I could peer into the nest, but it was just too far up there for me.

At least I can see the nests, maybe if I keep checking I will see the baby hummers!

Sorry about the worry/rant…sometimes I think farming very stressful.

Linda

 

Moving Pipe

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We had to replace two broken sticks of pipe (5 feet long) in one of the fields.

That is the bad thing about the plastic pipe, the sunlight finally gets to them and they start to crack.

They never break at a ‘good time’, nothing ever works that way does it?

So Terry turned the water out and then we pulled apart the sticks, ran them over to the broken pipe pile, ran over to the stash of good pipe and put them back together last evening.  (We waited until it cooled down some since this was rather hot work in and of itself).

A little quail was singing to us at the broken pipe pile—he was up in a tree, which I thought was rather cool.

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Around 8:30 p.m.  we got everything back together and the water back on.

This morning everything is working good!

Happy Wednesday!  We are in the middle of the week!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Dear Diary

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Dear Diary—

I finally have a few minutes to write a few notes to myself!  Boomer and I have been extremely busy this week.

The water is finally starting to work right.  It took a while.  The ground was so hard and dry and the air so full of hot wind and dirt, oh, yes, and the amount of irrigation water so slim, we had to go change water ALL the time.

But everything is coming together now.

Dad goes out and checks the water often, but we only have to CHANGE the water twice a day, which is normal.

That is because the ground FINALLY got wet.  That’s how Dad and Mom talk when they talk about the water…they say: something, something, something now that the ground is Finally wet.

Dad wastes nothing with the water. He sets up a series of dams so nothing is wasted.

The water at the end of the field goes off our farm and back into the canal so then next farm below us gets our water, it goes on like this clear to the Gunnison River.

Pretty cool!

Sometimes Hank goes with us; he likes to check the tubes for mice.

Boomer is off smelling the news somewhere….he reports back what he finds when we all get home.

Me!?

Well, I help the folks out.

I stay right with Mom and make sure the water is the right height in the ditch, (I really like catching the water bubbles, but I don’t tell anyone, they would probably not let me get in the ditch if they knew)

I just jump right in and show them I’m good at irrigating.

Dad has cut baled and hauled hay.  The first customers came last night.

That is always cool…..we like to bark the customers into the yard, and then we like to lead them to the haystack with our barking signals—

Bark, bark, bark…THIS WAY—

COME ON–  We will show you!

Bark, Bark, Bark!!!

Boomer and I do a really good job of getting them to the hay yard.

By the time we get the truck and the trailer there and all backed up and lined up, Dad is ready to load.

We are a gooood TEAM!

Sometimes Hank and his family walk over in the evening.

Boomer is terrified of the goats!

Terrified!

Did I tell you he is terrified!

Boy is he ever!

Hank and I laugh at him.

Boomer doesn’t care…every time he gets around them one of them tries to butt him so he gets real nervous and barks at them.

Hummmmm

Maybe I would be afraid also if they would try to butt me.

But they don’t.

I get that look on my face and I crouch down and slink close to the ground and they stop.

They look at me and I give a warning growl.

They walk off and I go my own way.

Bullies never like courage!

I tell Boomer to do that, but he says he just can’t.

One day going to town, we saw a devil – a dirt devil.

I thought it was pretty cool.

Boomer said he had never seen one!

Well, Diary.  There you have it.  Just another day on the farm!

Like I say…changing water is always the best part!

Fuzzy

P.S.  Oh, yes!  My fur is starting to come back in.  I really like having fur.

P.P. S.S.  Mom says I have to go to the groomer again NEXT WEEK (SHUDDER) But she said I won’t get shaved.

{{{SHUDDER}}}

Sundial Garden and the Pinto Beans are Up

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Far Side of Fifty (Far Side for short) has a delightful fun blog, complete with a blogging wonder Border Collie, Chance.

Far Side also is the Museum Coordinator for her Hubbard County, in Minnesota, collects old photos from antique shops, scans them and puts them on another blog she has which is used to help people connect with their families (and photos). Her third blog is a photo blog…Far Side takes some very good/outstanding photos from around her area.  Her fourth blog (this is one VERY busy lady) is for the Museum.

I feel very lucky to just do two blogs!

Anyway….

Far Side has been asking to see the complete Sun dial garden.  She asked me to stand in the water trough and take all sides….since the water trough is planted with Red Hot Pokers, alyssum, and three different colors of petunias…I decided not too. 🙂

The Pinto Beans are up…summer is on its way!

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Thanks for stopping by!  I always enjoy visiting with you!

Linda

Monday, June 4, 2012

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Terry is out baling…6:30 in the morning and just enough dew (YEA) to set the baler up and give it a good go before the heat starts rising.

We are thinking we will be able to get another cutting this year, but if the water shrinks anymore that will be the last cutting.

At least we will get two cuttings and we are darn grateful for those.

Anyhow, what I’m really writing about is the Barn Swallows.

I don’t have a photo of the birds themselves, because they are very careful to fly off the second I appear.

See this little pair of Barn Swallows decided to build a nest on the house, upstairs, next to the north side window.  They must be a young pair as they MADE A MESS!!!

I had mud all over the screen, bird droppings on the screen and the window…huge mess.  I got so mad at them (they only had the two bottom rows done on their nest) that I yelled out the window for them to go someplace else…the other side of the house, THE BARN, the tractor shed, BUT NOT ON THE WINDOW!!

Then I scraped off their little nest and told them to LEAVE!

Later on that morning, I was visiting the Northview Dairy blog, whereby Threecollie was talking about a nesting Robin on her house.

By this time I was feeling really bad I had knocked down the little mud house and yelled at the cute little pair of birds, there she was telling us about her darling Robin family, that was nesting on HER house.

(Which reminds me…I encourage you to visit Northview Diary….Threecollie and her family live in up-state New York.  I’m always amazed at the differences in weather from here to there.  They get way too much rain and we don’t get enough.  But her blog is a delight– full of fun, excellent writing, and a true peak into dairy farming —- I encourage you to visit.)

So I went back upstairs, poked my head out the window and hollered to all the birds flying around, sitting on the Blue Spruce trees and on the electric lines that I was sorry.

I then asked the little Barn Swallows to come back, just don’t build where the screen and the windows get dirty.  Build where we can ENJOY them and their little famil(ies).

Two days came and went, nothing.

Three and four days came and went-no nest.

I finally gave up and decided that they really did go to the barn or one of the other buildings.

As I was washing that particular window I happened to look UP and there it was

A perfect little home, NOT on the frame of the window, or above the frame of the window, but where we could watch several little families of Barn Swallows grow up this summer.

It seems that Barn Swallows raise about three families before they leave for the winter. So this should be fun for Terry and I and the grandchildren.

Well, time is quickly getting away from me.

Have a nice Monday!

Linda

Nighttime Irrigation—Moon Music

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Coming back from irrigating last night the moon was just delightful!!

We had some rain storms in the mountains that have helped (sort of) the irrigating situation.  Enough that Terry thinks he can go ahead and plant his new alfalfa field.

Don’t get me wrong, water is still short, and we are still having trouble getting the ground wet because it has been so dry.  But water in the hills brings a little more water down the canals.  Enough to put out two more tubes, or open two more gates for a short time.  If we get more rain in the hills or steady rain, that would be great.

Every little bit helps!

Sara did a cool post on Moon Music I would like to share….just perfect, just perfect.

We don’t have frogs or fireflies, but we still have the moon and last night was just beautiful.

Moon Music is right!

Linda