The corn is growing might nicely
Terry just finished cultivating all the many, many rows, giving the little baby corn a fighting chance.
One more field to plant—more than likely alfalfa or grass or a mix of the two.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
You are all heard the old adage: ” a race against time” I am sure. We are in a race against weather. Thunderstorms and light rain are predicated for this afternoon and tomorrow. Therefore, the planting of the corn is in a rush stage. Terry is planting the last field today. First he rips open the ground, lets it dry for two hours, goes back in and plants.
But by the end of the day he will have every little seed of corn in the ground and starting to sprout. The other two fields are already planted. If the rain holds off (rain will crust the ground and make it hard —we are mostly clay here—for the little sprouts to poke their heads above the soil) Terry will then get out there and harrow off the hilled part of the rows, making soft soil for the sprouts to come up through.
Today I must go work in the corrals for a spell then I’m going to WEED MY OWN YARD! I’m so excited!
Thank you everyone for stopping by, it’s always nice to touch base with friends!
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda
When Terry’s Dad passed away, Misty (our youngest daughter) who was terribly fond of her Grandpa, was horribly sad at his passing. Terry’s Mother, recognized that terrible sadness so she gave to Misty, Jack’s pick-up.
Misty and Kelly drove it for awhile, then gradually it started sitting in the garage; Misty wanted to get it restored sometime in the future. (You know how futures go–futures are way down the road when you are retired. First comes jobs and babies, then school age children, and buying houses and other vehicles, then college educations for those kids.)
Now that Misty and Kelly have left and new renters are coming in Terry mentioned one afternoon to Jason, Shannon, and I that we (meaning he and I) were going to have to go down there and pull that old truck up here and park it in the shade of the barn.
Time passed.
Farm work took over, the painting of the house took over, irrigation took over…the need to pull the truck up here was sorta shoved to the background.
Every day there was something which must be done.
Then comes the day as Terry is planting the corn in the field by the house and I was mowing MY lawn, that I looked down the road by the other house and SAW the old truck making it’s way up to OUR HOUSE!
What a surprise! Quickly I headed to the field to flag Terry down, but he was planting (his back to the road, couldn’t take his eyes off or the rows would be crooked), so didn’t see me or the truck heading our way!
Finally he was at the end of the field and saw me waving to him, just then the old truck, complete with two hound dogs, was in the driveway, and headed out to the field
A large smile broke out on Terry’s face-he jumped down off the tractor and headed toward the truck. (Later he said for a second he thought it was his Dad, he could see the driver had on a cap which tricked his eyes to think “DAD”!) As a cool surprise and a little gift to Terry, Jason had got the truck running and drove it up here for Terry.
After a short ride to the canyon and back the old truck is safely parked up here, resting in the shade of the barn—-waiting patiently for that day way, way in the future.
A surprise all wrapped up in a memory!
Your Friend,
Linda
The irrigation water sure has Dad and Mom worried.
They don’t have to go out every eight hours right now because the water is in the corn and the old alfalfa field. See those fields have their plants up and growing so they don’t take as much water, but when the water gets BACK to the pinto bean field they will be back to the eight hour change No Matter What!
Dad is planting the very last of the corn today…this morning in fact. He has given up on planting the new alfalfa field.
He will start planting the pinto beans on Monday. Outside of the alfalfa field (alfalfa seed is like buying gold at today’s prices, so he is not going to chance losing the crop because of the lack of water) he will have everything planted. (Dad will plant the alfalfa seed after the sweet corn farmers start harvesting their crop. Once the sweet corn is gone, more water will be in the canals. Hay is a nice cash crop to have.)
Water is extremely short…they are working with 70% of 100% right now—as they move into the middle of summer the ditch riders have told everyone that water is going to be moved lower and lower until it gets to 40%. That will be a 60% loss of water.
Everyone is hoping 40% is as low as it does get!
We hope so too!!!!
So the race is on!
All the farmers HAVE to get the seeds in the ground, watered up, and growing well ….BEFORE…the irrigation water drops to 40%.
As the water levels shrink the nightmare, of keeping everything wet, will just get worse. But the critical stage is getting the plant UP.
Boomie is doing better about coming when he hears the four-wheeler start…Mom talks to him as soon as we get to the field…”Boomer…you can play, but when you hear the four-wheeler start, you HAVE to be back here ready to go home or you will have to run home by yourself!”
He has done real good, even coming back to check on us once in a while.
But the last evening he said he was clear over in the wet lands smelling out the birds and things when he heard the four-wheeler start. Everything was just getting really interesting so he decided he would run home.
That’s a pretty long run, let me tell you!
We had everything put away for the night when he came dashing in just as fast as his Beagle legs could carry him.
Worked out for me really well, as I had the whole four-wheeler to myself!
Fuzzy
(This is a grain drill)
Yesterday the new alfalfa field was planted,
(Alfalfa seed)
(With oats as a mother crop)
marked out and water started on it.
Talli came for supper
Then until 10 pm we worked on making more siphon tubes
This weekend looks even busier with the planting of the garden. Spring is my favorite seson, but I do get tired at the end of the days, what with the farm, animals, and my ‘paying’ job.
Still it is better than the dark, long, cold days of winter!
The Alfalfa seed is being planted. Alfalfa seed is one of most expensive seeds to purchase-$200 a bag. The seed is very, very tiny, smaller than a mustard seed; so it takes lots of seeds to cover the field.
Once the seed takes hold, a farmer can get from 3-5 years harvest of hay, but the first year is critical. We won’t see any harvest this year, except maybe one in the late summer or early fall.
Life on a Colorado Farm 