Tag Archives: Rain

Autumn a Type of Contentment—-Sunday, September 17, 2017

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We’ve had rain…the days damp and the mornings with a chill

The days warm up nicely.

The pinto bean harvest came to a screeching halt—the bean puller broke…

Then as it got fixed…

The rains came.  Which means Terry will have to go out and lift all the plants up out of the soil, (rains smashes plants) before he can combine the two fields—there is still one to pull and let dry and then combine.

I’ve been canning…pineapple candy peppers and

 

Salsa

Plus we’ve turned off water to the place.  Irrigation is done for the year.  The only thing left now will be picking up the syphon tubes and flushing out the ditches.

Fall galloped in…complete with wild geese flying over us in the wind!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

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In My Dreams—-Sunday, August 6, 2017

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Yesterday was my Momma’s birthday.  If she were alive today she would have turned 88.

Saturday, August 5th, we woke to a world full of low, dark clouds, following a night of gusting wind and hard heavy rain.  Although, the clouds started to thin, my thoughts still remained heavy…sadly I was missing Momma.  ( I know that many of you can relate to this type of sorrow…the swirl of memories of that one person, whose heart beat alongside yours…right from the beginning.)

Ruth LaVerne Thomas

Often times throughout my life I was told that I looked like my Momma.

Myself

Looking back over old photos — at certain times and in certain ages I can see the similarities.  But I must confess I didn’t while I was growing up.  

Momma was one of those ‘good souls’.  She was gentle and kind and given to helping every animal who came within her reach. Maybe in today’s world she would have been a Veterinarian.

Often times ‘people’ would say of her Daddy…”He would give his shirt off his back to help you.”  Momma followed in his footsteps.

Momma gave all the little children who followed the fruit (people who came to pick fruit) clothes from our own closets, often times their very first (and only) birthday cake and a small party…those children remembering her kindly wrote to her for years and years…letters telling her about their marriages, the birth of their children…that first real job.   She treasured those letters.

She always, always told me life was full of turbulence and cares, which can make a heart heavy….we, as human beings, do not need to add to sorrows of another’s soul.

(My maternal grandparents and my parents had fruit orchards, which is where my brother and I grew up)

Her smile is the same as a older woman, as when she was a grade school child)

Ah, well, memories are wonderful! But they do have a tendency to cause my eyes to blur with tears — misting the day…even though the sun broke forth from the clouds.

Momma died August 10, 2000…her heart stopped; cutting her life’s threads, which bound her to this earth.

But the thing that gives me the most peace, about that most ordinary day, that wasn’t ordinary after all….was Momma was ready to go.

A few days before she died—- she had just returned from a long and wonderful trip to Ireland.  My brother took her.  They saw everything possible, spent a night in a castle, walked on that green, green Isle she dreamed of walking on all her life.

An old old dream of her heart.

She told me: “I am finally at peace, Linda. There is nothing more I want to see or do.  It is the most amazing, but odd feeling, to have nothing forward to accomplish.”

Hours later I was rushing to the hospital, following the ambulance…time passes slow when you NEED to GET THERE.

But finally I made it—Momma waited for me.  She also waited for my Brother…although she was in a coma. Then in the night’s heart she left.

I miss her still.  I always will.  I love you, Momma. I love you.

I know each of you understand.

From my heart to your world,

Linda

 

 

 

 

Dazzled by the Storms—Wednesday, July 12, 2017

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We set the last set of water under the treat of an approaching rain storm

The wind whipped a series of fast moving showers all around us throughout the Uncompahgre (Un-come-pah-gray—accent on the pah) Plateau; along the canyons between us and Grand Junction–the Roubidoux, Esclante, Dominguez Canyons, then soaking the desert separating Delta from Grand Junction.

Stunningly beautiful fast moving rain!

At one point the late sun broke through just long enough to illuminate some of the rain drops south of us to look like a faint rainbow!

 I’m not picky.  I’ll take anything that looks like a rainbow, even for a few moments in time.

Then as nighttime arrived lightning whipped the Plateau, wind beat our area, and thunder hammered the heavens way over there on the Uncompaghre.

Boomer and both cats came in, to lay as close to me as possible.

Lightening slithered along the canyons and gullies on the Plateau, with distant drumbeats of thunder sounding loud [here].  It must have sounded like the roll call of the end of the world up there on the Uncompahgre.

Although rain seethed around us the skies only sprinkled on us—not even turning the ground to mud…just damp.

This morning we woke to rinsed skies, cooler temperatures, with thick gray clouds hanging in bunches, waiting to mush together at some future point in time.

They say by Friday this flurry of small intense storms will be gone from our area; the heat and sun will return.

These little reprieves from fierce sun and heat are good for the soul. (Just like warm/spring-like days in the middle of winter).

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

The Scent of Ozone Sharp in the Air—-Wednesday, May 10, 2017

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Yesterday was a cold, chill day…with threatening rain clouds, splashes of rain striking, in huge sploshes on the dry soil, and the collective sigh of all green things opening up for the possibility of rain.

Still the ground stayed dry enough Terry could continue leveling on the Middle field

Making it back into the farm yard,  while the lightening flashed and burst  way, way over there on the Uncompahgre Plateau.

One last check of the water before another patch of dark rain splattered and darkened the earth.

The sunrise this morning was stunning.  The Gray velvet veils of clouds had lightened and the silent, jagged forks of lightning way over on the rim of the western sky—- gone.

The enchantment of a new day, after a storm is just beautiful!

The clean fresh air, the smell of watered soil, the shining washed leaves—the brilliant burst of sunlight coming through wildly colored clouds…humbles me and causes me to give heartfelt THANKS for being allowed to be alive — to enjoy each and every day.

From my world to your heart,

Linda

 

Enter the Sun —- Sunday, January 22, 2017

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snowAfter a brief dusting of snow

melted-snowWe melted!  Adding too the already mud and slop.

rain-puddles

Then the rains came!  Popping up bubbles in the huge puddles.  Fun little bubbles, as if the earth was adding some humor into all the moisture.

sunbeams-003Then this morning we woke up to fleeing clouds

sunbeams-001And sunlight over the land

As I write this the sky is  clear, the sun bright, and there is beauty all around!

From my world to your heart!

Linda

Our Weather Report—-Tuesday, January 17, 2017

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before-the-melt

We went from this

wet-004To this and have stayed at this for weeks now. Rain and rain and even more rain.

wet-003Sigh!  The days are long and grey and boring and ever so nasty.

roof-topStill it seems like there is always something that needs to be done.

walk-in-the-farmI’m looking forward to walking with  Boomer  in the SUNSHINE!  Where we throw shadows on the ground and our feet don’t collect mud!

But not yet!  Not today.  Not for awhile.  Another big storm system is heading in here in a day or so, until then just know that I am

Hot-Summer-NightDreaming of those hot summer nights some place in the future!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

A Restlessness in the Air—Tuesday, January 10, 2017

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before-the-meltAs I wrote yesterday—the morning was chill and cold. Icicles had grown long and pointed, a testament to the slight melt and continued bone chilling air we had been having.

little-birdsThe little birds were restless, as were the other animals…a shifting of here and there.  I thought possibly it was a search for food…the need to fill up to prepare for a long journey or another onslaught of storms.

melt-004Then a melt occurred!  Snow fell off the roof of the house with a loud bam, snow melted out of the tire wells, giving the car tires a much needed relief from packed snow, AND puddles arrived in the yard where once snow drifts lay.

working-with-the-trash-canI was able to get a few things done the snow drifts had stopped me from doing.  It was a relief.

storm-coming-inThen around 10:30 last night a huge ice storm roared in, with a voice like an archangel!

This morning we can hear the sound of tires slipping and sliding on the pavement a mile away, as drivers head to work, forgetting to go slow.

Just because the pavement looks dry….

ice-stormIt’s still slick out there!

Your friend on a western Colorado farm,

Linda

 

The Light Flooded Around Me—Wednesday, September 14, 2016

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Yesterday evening, Terry, Evan and I finished our load of firewood for the day and headed home.  We actually got done in an hour.  We are doing one load a night.  The pile is shrinking—thankfully.  And growing larger at each of our houses.  Maybe by Saturday we will be done.  We sure hope so, all of us are getting tired of the cutting and hauling of firewood.  🙂

more-wild-turkeys

(Wild turkeys)

Storms rolled in again in the late afternoon, cooling the skies and bringing rain.  Still the pintos are doing okay.  By tomorrow the rain is supposed to gone for several days.  We will begin again in earnest after the storms get out of here.  (I would like to share with you a little secret….although it doesn’t look so: Harvest is grueling work–and dusty—and worrisome. Most of all worrisome)

wild-turkeys

(more wild turkeys)

the-world-turned-red

Terry and I had to finish up some stuff back out on the mud ditch last night, after the firewood.

The sky was stunning.

Darkness rolled up from the canyons, trying to fill the air with shadows.  But the light of the setting sun had other ideas.

The deepening shadows turned red and glowed in an amazing splendor behind and through the racing clouds over head.

Terry headed back in, with his load, but I stayed out there.  Letting the light flood around me.  The  silence fell in waves; the minutes with Boomer, myself, the light, and the coming night passed by uncounted for.  It was a stunning

From my world to your heart,

Linda

 

A Moment of Relief—Tuesday, August, 30, 2016

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StormLast Thursday the heat of the afternoon bore down on us in such a wave of intensity I thought this fall weather had made a huge and dramatic turn back to summer.

The-color-redTerry was gone for the day, having flew out of Montrose for a meeting in Brighton, Colorado; it was up to Boomer and I to check the irrigation and  keep the farm running.

It was late in the afternoon; the gnats and mosquitoes were in swarms of carnivorous activity wherever we walked along the ditch bank—- when I felt the cool down from the swiftly moving clouds.

Storm-2It started sprinkling just before we got back to the house.  Then it started to rain.

Birds-on-a-wire

Not a bad rain, a gentle rain, a moment of relief from the suffocating heat; enough so the sparrows hung out on the wire taking a bath.

HailSuddenly the sky turned into hail, the birds, Boomer and I scattering. The blows from the hail and the wind silencing everything and everyone as we hunkered down waiting for the end.

Yellow-2Gradually the noise lessened; the air ringing empty—only the canal talking loudly as the water rushed by.

We got an inch of rain from that storm…a mixed blessing, because of the hail.

From my world to your heart,

Linda