The Internet and a Tiny Cool Down —-Monday, July 14, 2014

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Dayphoto

I had the internet for exactly ONE HOUR yesterday! Grrrr! At least I was able to post and let everyone know why I wasn’t visiting your blog or answering comments. This has been SO irritating. Of course, I kept checking off and on all day long until I got sick of doing so and just shut everything off. 😦

The towers are still not working correctly. The Skybeam individual told me there are 17 people on the same wave length (beam?) and every one is having the same issues as I am. He sounded rather ragged.

Right now I have service…at least I can (maybe) get my blog up and (maybe) get around to visit many of you. If not, please understand. I will be BACK!!! Just like MacArthur….snerk and chuckle.

We saw a sun dog yesterday…sun dogs occur anytime of the year, any place in the world, at any time. They announce that cool down (or much cooler weather) is about to occur.

I can just guess what and when it will happen….today or tomorrow because Terry is out cutting the alfalfa! We do NOT need a cool down for several days…a cool down in July (here in the high mountain desert) usually means rain is about to descend. Although I love a nice rain to cool down hot summer days…we just don’t need rained on alfalfa which is turning into hay! Please keep your fingers crossed that we don’t get rain on our soon to be hay!! PLEASE!!! Thank you!

I got the five acres of pinto beans weeded. I won’t be able to go out there anymore since the pinto beans are now shooting feelers. The feelers will reach and stretch until they meet each other causing the rows to grow shut. All weeding stops from that point on. There will be weeds, but at least I got it cleaned for this amount of time.

Once the rows grow shut the blooms will turn into little pods and the pods filled with beans. Gradually the beans will swell until they mature. Once they mature the water will be removed and the plant will dry up. After that we harvest. Probably sometime in late September.

I suppose I had better close this up rather quickly. I’m feeling lucky to get this much done before we lose connection!

Your friend on a farm,

Linda

Chasing Dragons— June 1, 2014

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Dayphoto

I got this idea from reading Thoughts from the Road’s post on His Chasing Dragons!

A while back Terry and I saw this really cool Dragon. It was way up on a hillside.

Even further up was something strange and orange and like a flick of flame or something.

I have no idea what it was supposed to be…food, dragon flame? Who knows. I’ll let you decide. It was so far up it was really hard to tell…looked just like an orange dot. I had to take a photo of it to see what it was. After enhancing the photo I still don’t know.

The days are warm (hot) and lovely here. Although, we are experiencing lots of wind, I don’t mind. Terry did hook up the swamp cooler so the house could stay relatively free of blowing dirt. When the fine dust/dirt gets into the house I’m rather discouraged, as it means I have to dust…I am not a fan of dusting.

I would rather—vacuum, sweep, mop, clean closets and drawers, wash windows, paint the house inside and out, weed the yard, do anything in the yard, irrigate on the farm…you name it—than dust!

(But I do dust, I hope you understand…it is just right up there with eating boiled okra.)

Terry got the pinto beans in the ground yesterday! Yippee! We are three weeks behind on everything because of the cold wet weather we have had. It isn’t just us behind, everyone is behind.

The corn is up and rowing out, it should make it to ‘knee-high by the 4th of July’—always the goal. If it makes that tall by that time it will make before any killing freezes occur.

“Time marches on” As my Momma would say…here it is the 1st day of June. Happy June 1st everyone!

Your farm friend,

Linda

Monday, September 16, 2013 Pinto Beans

Posted on September 16, 2013 by Dayphoto

I cooked up some of our pinto beans…I just couldn’t let them sit in their bucket any longer! Nothing is nicer than fresh pinto beans!

Lots of time the pinto beans on the store shelves are at least two years old or older. The darker the pinto bean the older the pinto bean is…a fresh or one year old pinto bean is light in color and takes only a couple of hours to soak. Older pinto beans have to soak over-night before they have reached a level by which they can be cooked and eaten.

Once you eat a fresh pinto bean you will understand what you have been missing—tender, moist, non-mealy, yummm.

When I was growing up pinto beans were cooked with ham, then served on the plate by themselves and the ham with a bread, with chopped onions on top. My Momma was a southern girl, who was raised in New Mexico so our family enjoyed a nice mix of Texas, New Mexican (and yes there is a difference) and Colorado food. (Daddy was born in California but was raised right here in our part of Colorado).

We had pinto beans and bread for one meal…usually Monday. After that we had pinto bean sandwiches for lunch, pinto beans as a side dish, then maybe a break from them, then pinto beans in a stew or a soup, and sometimes as baked beans.

I still do the same. Although, Terry isn’t fond of the whole plate of pinto bean meal, I am. I grew up that way so of course I still like it. I also served my growing family pretty much the same way as my Momma did, only I have since added in pinto beans in my tacos or as tostadas.

I like to smash the beans and pour ketchup on them. Terry puts on picanti sauce.

When I went to school the school hot lunches would feature pinto beans in some sort of nasty butter sauce…I still don’t like it, but others might.

I’m sure there are lots of good ideas out there maybe some of my followers would like to leave all of us a recipe or two.

The sun is shining today and the air feels fresh and clean…

Your farming friend,

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Bean Harvest

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Dayphoto

Bean Harvest! Dad and Mom sure have been having a hard time getting all those pinto beans out of the field.

First the belt broke on the auger (day one) so the hopper had to be emptied BY HAND from the combine into the truck.

That was a huge job.

Boomer and I took it seriously and stayed out of the way.

Besides it was really super-hot! Super-hot like that just takes everything out of you.

Then everything was going along really good

Boomer and I were helping….

right after supper the folks headed back out and it

STARTED TO RAIN!

Rain is NOT good.

Everything grinds down to halt.

It messes up the whole works.

Dad said maybe by four this afternoon he can begin again…the rows of beans have to be dry, VERY DRY, to combine or the combine won’t pick up the beans.

The other sad thing about the rain is it rained on the hay. Dad was going to bale first thing this morning, but now he can’t do that either. Rained on hay is not good…rained on hay can ruin the protein of the hay. Dad is up there checking out the hay to see how much damage occurred. 😦 (Maybe not much, as sometimes the rain will miss areas of the farm.)

It was muddy enough Mom walked up to do the irrigation so we ALL walked with her…

all three of us…

every step of the way.

The rain helped cool stuff off so the evening was rather nice.

Well, back to work…it’s warming up so Boomer and I

think we had better get some serious sleeping

in before the work starts.

Fuzzy

Saturday the Last Day of August 2013

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Dayphoto

Terry pulled half the pinto beans yesterday before the dew left and the pods became too dry. Pintos have to be pulled early so the dew will keep the bean pods from cracking open and spilling the pinto beans out onto the ground. Once the beans are spilled there is no way to pick them back up.

Today he has been out there since full light. He hopes to get the other half of the field done before the heat hits.

Depending on the weather he will wait about a week then start combining the rows, gathering the beans into the hopper and then the truck and then off to the Beanery to be sacked and sold.

Rain clouds keep building every afternoon, which causes us a huge amount of tension. So far so good, the storms stay around us in the foothills and on the plateau, which is good.

Another thing that is good is we sometimes get a rainbow!

Feeding the bees seems to be working. I use a dollop of honey early in the day…by nightfall it’s all cleaned up.

Terry also said we are on the very last irrigation of the corn. Boy, has summer ever flown. Although, we will still irrigate the hay fields the work load of changing water is fast disappearing.

I’m not sure but I think most of the adult Hummingbirds have left, I still have lots of little ones feeding. I’m not having to fill the feeders as much so I’m thinking this is a sign the large majority of those delightful little birds have gone. I know the Bullock Orioles are gone since I haven’t seen any for two weeks now.

I’m off now to fork the bean ends back so we don’t lose any…those tiny little beans are what we’ve been working all summer to have. 🙂

Your friend,

Linda

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Dayphoto

The day’s are shorting now…around 7:30 in the evening we head out for the last check of water for the day.

We also are monitoring the pinto beans. The field is turning yellow, which means the pintos are now ripe and ready to be pulled.

Probably next Friday Terry will pull the pinto’s so they can start drying.

We will need the days to stay hot and dry once they are pulled.

(see the nasty bull thistle seeds)

(The steps for pinto bean harvest is — pull the plants and leave them lay until nice and crispy, combine the plants, which is taking the beans out of the dried plants and putting them into the hopper then the truck to be delivered to the Beanery, have the beans sacked and the sold—DONE for the year)

He is baling the new cutting of hay as I write this. The first of second week of September will be the third cutting of the old hay field. Dry weather needs to prevail for at least a month now. 🙂

The moon was lovely last night.

I also saw a small rainbow from the storms playing around us.

My four o’clock photo of the Daily View features my Sun dial garden… rich and lush with 4 O’clocks. The Hummingbirds love this area!

A very contented friend, Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — The Middle of Summer

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Dayphoto

Summer is half-over!!! That’s what Mom told Fuzzy and I as we laid panting and panting under the car last night!

“Hang on, Boy! The heat will break-up soon as we get closer to the middle of July! Then, hopefully, we should have rain!”

“NO!” shouted Fuzzy and jumped up and moved under the pick-up.

“WHY NOT!” I yelled at him as he hobbled away!

“THUNDER IS COMING!!! We never have rain in the summer WITHOUT thunder!” shudder, shudder!

“Gosh, Fuzz, a little thunder never hurt anyone.” I said to him in a puzzled voice.

Dad finished up the last cultivation of the year…the pinto beans are starting to shoot feelers. Once the feelers grow the rows shut then the pinto bean plants will start setting seeds.

Until then…we go with Mom to cut the volunteer corn out of the field. This corn is from seeds dropped last year as Dad harvested, they start growing and will make a mess at pinto bean harvest.

Not from being too big to go through the combine but because the pinto beans and the corn kernels are close to the same size. You can’t have corn in the pinto bean at the beanery because you can’t clean them out. Same thing for Cockle burs!

So we head up with Mom as she cuts cockle burs and corn. Every night, just about sunset we ‘weed’ several rows…the cockle burs she throws away, but the CORN! The corn gets to go into a pile and go with us to feed the GOATS!!!

Fuzzy usually stays on the four-wheeler waiting for Mom. Or he lays in the shade by the four-wheeler.

Now ME!!!

I jump off the second the key turns off and head out for news. I have to really keep an eye on Mom while I do this because she will LEAVE ME!

Oh, yes, I know she will call and call and if I don’t get there in time she goes.

I’ve missed getting to go to Misty’s a couple of times (that is where the goats live). Since I’m not sure where Mom really went I have to run home and wait for her.

I REALLY DO NOT LIKE WAITING FOR HER!!!

I really do like ‘going’ so I pretty much try (I really do try-honest I do) to keep an eye out or an ear up so I’m not LEFT BEHIND!

Oh, I just about forgot — the corn is starting to shoot tassels!

I guess Mom is right…we ARE in the middle of summer!
Boomer

July 1, 2013

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Dayphoto

HAPPY CANADA DAY, to all of my Canadian readers out there!

We were a shade cooler yesterday it only got up to 97*. 97* sounds hot, but not as hot as 105*. It actually felt cooler, once in awhile a cloud would skuddle across the sun giving us a sun break while it was there.

The clouds would randomly look like a few drops of rain might fall, but didn’t. This time of year we have to worry about hail…hail is NOT something you want ever, but to have hail now would strip the leaves from all the growing corn and pinto beans. That would be the end of the crops. Therefore, we watch the sky and pray for rain and wish hail away.

So far we have NOT had hail, which is wonderful.

They are saying this intense heat (which is terribly abnormal) is here for at least another week, the cooling ocean breezes that would move the stagnate air is also stagnated off the west coast…so we wait.

A little gift from the heavens last night was a slight rainbow.

The promise of hope!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Thirteen Years and Counting

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Dayphoto

This is my BIRTHDAY month!

Mom says I have a whole month for a birthday! That is because she doesn’t really know when I was born! I was a lost dog when Mom and Misty found me.

I was also five years old when Mom and Misty found me.

You see I was ‘dumped off’ in the country by my other people. Since I am part Border collie and part Sheltie (that is what my vet says) I sat by the side of the road where they dumped me for days and days and days. Anytime Mom or Misty would try to get me I would run off…I was waiting for my people to come back, you see.

I waited until I went from 40 pounds to 25 pounds. I was sooooooooooo hungry I almost couldn’t run anymore. But I waited!

Then Misty came out with ROAST BEEF! That was it…I was Mom’s for life. Mom took me home and gave me lots of love and took me to the vet and well…here we are eight years later!

Since Mom brought me home in June that is when my birthday is…I get a whole month…because neither she nor I could figure out a good day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!!!

Dad had a meeting so Mom, Boomer and I did the water without Dad. We had lots to do.

A skunk got in one of the gated pipes so we had to get it out and then bury it.

WAY COOL!

Boomer and I wanted to sniff it up really well, but Mom didn’t let us…. “Leave the dead alone you guys!” she said.

We had to walk up to the middle of the pinto bean field and check on a pipe there…it was horribly HOT!

Then we rode the four-wheeler up to the hay field to see how the alfalfa was in the hay making process. Boomer jumped off because he smelled a cool smell and had to run home.

Then we sat outside and had a couple of really yummy Dog Treats and a milk bone for my Birthday while Mom watched the hummingbirds. And I got lots and lots and lots of pets. Boomer got some too, but it was my special day so Boomer had to let me have the most!

Then around 10 o’clock that night we all went back out and changed the water in the front corn field.

It sure was a nice day!

A perfect Birthday just for me!

Fuzzy

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — It’s Warming Up

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Dayphoto

It’s warming UP!!!

Boy, Fuzzy and I are sure enjoying it!

Lots of work going on….the water is about done in the alfalfa field — today is the last day. Dad has water in FIVE PLACES!!! Five different fields on the farm and we get to go to ALL of them all the time.