The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday—-Farm Adventures, For Mom, June 17, 2022

Posted on June 17, 2022 by Dayphoto

I was out and about

When I saw

Chase

Zoom

Pounce

A Lizard!

You have to be Extremely Fast

To Catch a Lizard.

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday—-Farm Adventures, Those Who Live with Me, Friday, June 10, 2022

Posted on June 10, 2022 by Dayphoto

We have a chipmunk…

actually, two that live with me in the farm yard. But Mom can never seem to get a photo of them. These Chips are the descendants of two Chips

who were friends with Sam-Sam.

And Fuzzy.

And Boomer. Now their great, great grands are friends with me.

Since Mom can’t get a photo of them, she is posting one she saw out on the farm—where I NEVER go.

We also have several ground squirrels who share the chicken feed with the chickens.

Once more these are the descendants of Stanly and Stewart and their lovely squirrel wives—Shirley and Shelia.

It seems whenever Mom is around and the squirrels are around, she never has her camera. BUT— out on the farm, Mom saw a squirrel hiding behind his tail. So cute-thought Mom.

We also have a family of bunnies.

Momma bunny told me it was much, much safer to hang around the farm yard, than the farm proper. She knows, she was over by the equipment area when she grew up.

It was a dangerous and very scary place to live.

The Gambol Quails have migrated in to share dinner with the hens. They are extremely fast. (and, of course, Mom never has her camera when she is working in her yard.)

The pair of Gambol Quails have BABIES— that run and dart very fast. I have a goal….no! No! NO!!!! I don’t. Never! I can’t even think of that goal! EVER!!!!

One day I was a tad bored, Skitter Bug was close, I was bored so I hopped out from under the peony bush right on her back. (Mom saw). Mom screamed NO!

She didn’t need to scream.

Skitter Bug turned around very fast and pecked the heck out of me, then when I fell over, she flew up and pounced on ME!

Let’s just say—hens are off the grocery shopping list. (Although to be fair to me, I didn’t want to eat her, just play with her.)

We have

birds,

and birds

and

lots of birds.

One day we had a hawk…

WOW, THAT BIRD IS BIG!!!

I had to hide in the wood pile. Mom was outside and saw the hawk. She yelled at the hawk—“SHOO! Go away!

(I’m not sure if this IS a hawk—any ideas?)

These animals in the farm yard are NOT your dinner.” The hawk just looked at Mom, but he did fly away.

So—that’s the working list of animals in the farm yard.

Plus, Me, Dad, and Mom.

(We also have a badger…Mom…did you hear me?)

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday—-Farm Adventures, Working with Mom, June 3, 2022

Posted on June 3, 2022 by Dayphoto

When Dad goes out to the farm with one of his HUGE, BIG, LOUD machines

Mom goes into her yard, or out by the farm buildings, or into the corrals, or something or other.

The second I hear the back door open and then shut

I know Mom is outside somewhere.

Someplace.

Somewhere.

I stop what I’m doing and start looking for Mom.

Sometimes I look for Mom in a sneaky way—like hide here and there.

Hide under this.

Or that.

Then I walk very quietly to Mom

Sit down and wait for Mom to notice me.

Other times I run down the road

As fast as I can.

Soon as I get to Mom, I start rubbing myself all along her legs.

Either way, Mom always stops and gives me really nice rubs and pets

Then Mom ‘gets to work’

Sometimes that means dragging the hose all over the lawn

Or loading up the wheel barrels with shovels, rakes, and the hoe

Other times it means Mom sits down on the side of the flowerbeds and starts grabbing the weeds

No matter what Mom starts doing I hang around with her

I hang around

And around

And—

This is so sooooo boring.

I don’t mind waiting and waiting if there is a mouse to torment

catch

But just laying in the shade, under a big leaf, waiting on Mom

IS—-

I’m done!

See you later, there are things to do, and mice to catch!

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday—-Farm Adventures, Invaded by a BIG Machine, May 27, 2022

Posted on May 27, 2022 by Dayphoto

I was finally outside running free, free, free!

I checked here

And there

And over here

Then back behind here

Down the road

Behind the grain bins.

I was just turning around to head back to the house for

BREAKFAST

When

I heard a ROAR!

Not just a roar, but

A BIG ROAR, ROAR

It scared me so bad I ran under some weeds next to Dad’s tractor shed

The ROAR got louder and louder

THE ROAR WAS HUGE

I made myself as small as I could get—keeping my eyes peeled on the sound

Then out backed Dad and the tractor

OH! Yes! The TRACTOR!

The scary thing that lives on the farm

Well, one of the scary things

Dad has five tractors—FIVE! And they are all huge, green, with giant tires that could smash a cat flat and LOUD!

I mean LOUD!

I slunk way down to the ground where I got so flat I was part of the ground.

Then I waited there. All still and tiny and flat.

As I watched, Dad fueled up the loud tractor, then headed toward the equipment area

That means the tractor, the VERY LOUD tractor has to go right by my hiding spot.

I made myself flatter and flatter

Whew!

Dad is gone!

I jumped up—all fluffy and my full size again—and dashed away, away from the tractor shed and all those potentially

LOUD TRACTORS!

As I was dashing away I saw Mom come out of the Backdoor—

MOM! I yelled.

WAIT! I need breakfast!

Mom waited.

Swooped me up, gave me a kiss on my kitty nose, and put me in the house

Where I got BREAKFAST!

Purrrr, purr, purr

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday—-Corn, Friday, May 13, 2022

Posted on May 13, 2022 by Dayphoto

Dad is planting corn,

He got it all planted

Then he went out and knocked down the rows

Now Dad and Mom wait

( of course, they don’t sit and wait)

After the corn gets a tiny sprout

They will start the water on the cornrows

Soon the tiny seeds will make

BABY corn PLANTS!

As for me—I am busy keeping the farmyard

SAFE!

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday — Well, That’s About It —Friday, May 6, 2022

Posted on May 6, 2022 by Dayphoto

Outside of all the bending, stooping, picking up, laying down, walking, walking, walking, shoveling.

There is always and forever the delight in being out on the ditch bank watching the seeds pop up out of the ground, growing straight and tall.

There is so much happiness in being a farmer, and a protector of the land and the water.

And having a wonderful, furry kitty. Kitties are an important part of this farm.

There are so many things kitties do: we hang out with our people when they are stressed and just need to hear a purring voice,

we follow along as they work in the farmyard, keeping a silent, watchful eye on all they do,

we keep monster mice away from the house, the feed, the chicken pen, and everything on the farm,

we warm beds in the night, (sleeping RIGHT BETWEEN our people!), and lick them in the face when it’s time to get up in the morning.

(Meow—it’s hot!)

Kitties are very, very important!

Thanks for coming along. We, (Mom, Dad, and I) appreciate your stopping by and reading.

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Wednesday — Step Five, Water is Athletic —Wednesday, May 4

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Dayphoto

Well, maybe not the water itself, but Mom and Dad sure are.

There is the headgate, you have to keep all the trash out of it,

sometimes Dad has to walk across the headgate on the tiny little board to put other ‘blocking’ boards in,

and sometimes Dad has to put down the side of the tiny walking board a screen to filter out the trash.

Trash is a huge part of keeping the water flowing.

Trash stops the water,

causes it to pool up and then will become a flood. Trash makes Dad and mom athletic getting down and digging it out of the water.

Then there is putting in and removing the dams. That is a dam you are seeing.

Dad uses several dams all along the ditches so the water isn’t just rushing by and causing some other sort of crisis somewhere else along the way.

At each dam, the water rises until there is enough water Mom and Dad can start the tubes.

Mom says you have to be fast or the water will rise so high that it will run over the side of the ditch and cause a flood.

The water coming out of the cement ditch into the tubes goes into little furrows that keep the water manageable.

Over time the furrow becomes imprinted with the water and won’t let the water run over into another row.

But in the Springtime, when everything is starting to ‘learn’ it’s way-of-being, Mom and Dad have to walk down the rows and make sure the water stays in its own row and doesn’t get greedy and try to take over its neighbor’s row.

The tools used on the water are shovels, rakes/forks (not all the time, but in the early Spring for sure), dams -metal and the

orange fiber material, siphon tubes, a wide variety of trash cleaners,

four-wheelers to get a person from here to there, and people.

Lots of bending and stooping and jumping over ditches and walking on scary boards…if water isn’t athletic, Mom and Dad sure are! 😊

Lots of work, but Mom says it keeps Dad and her young.

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Friday —Step Four, Friday, April 29, 2022

Posted on April 29, 2022 by Dayphoto

Water is not only the backbone of the farm.

Water is a tool.

To irrigate properly you not only need to understand water, the needs of the water, and how the water performs on the land.

You need to also understand the land you are using the water on!

For some people, like Mom, watering yard…she just turns the spigot on, moves the hose with the sprinkler head here and there all over the lawn in 30 minutes stretches.

Also, Mom takes off the sprinkle head and puts on a soaker head so she can water her flower beds.

Yes, this takes lots of time, because Mom doesn’t have a sprinkling system.

But for the water on the farm, on this side of the Rocky Mountains, in the high mountains desert…water is moved through furrows.

Other places rely on rainfall—that will never happen here.

Some other places pump water out of a river, or lake, or pond, or an aquifer into huge sprinkler systems that never stop. (Because sprinkle systems only put down a tiny amount of moisture at a time, so the sprinkler has to be moving constantly to get everything wet down to the roots of the plant.)

Some places flood-irrigate…like rice paddies, for instance, or some other type of crop which moves lots and lots of water onto the crop then take it away and let it dry, only to repeat again later.

Here we take our water onto the land in a big head — the head is made up of shares. The Shares are the amount of water allowed for that farm.

Moving water onto the farm takes timing, balance, athletic ability (you have to stand or jump on the ditches), and an understanding of the farm and water.

Mom says there is something so beautiful, soothing, and marvelous about working the water on the land. Just listening to the water is calming; making sure the water is doing what it’s supposed to —

run down each row…the row that amount of water is allotted to is exciting.

Sometimes the water wants to ‘cut over’ into its neighbor’s row, or something jumps into the row—like a clod of dirt, or the remainder of last year’s corn cob/stalk — getting the water BACK into its own row and taking the block out can be a tad exciting (and muddy and stressful.

But seeing the water running nice and even, the sides of the furrow’s turning browner soaking up the water, watching the ground soak up the water all the water to the middle.

WONDERFUL!

At least two more chapters in the backbone of water—Stay tuned!

(See my gift to Mom—MOUSE!)

TLC Cai-Cai

The Adventures of TLC Cai-Cai on Wednesday —The Back Bone and Life Blood of the Farm, Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Dayphoto

The backbone of the farm is not Dad—although, he does put lots of backbone into making the farm what it is. Nor is it, Mom. Mom doesn’t make the farm go; she helps Dad make the farm go. Mom says there is a difference.

The backbone isn’t the land, the land IS the farm.

Nor is it the seeds, fertilizer, or crops. Those are extensions OF farming.

The backbone isn’t animals with backbones…we all have backbones, so living breathing things don’t count as the farm’s backbone.

The Back Bone and the Life Blood of the Farm is WATER!

It takes Water to make the farm and it takes water to make the farm grow so for this last series of FARMING—We are going to learn all about water on the farm!