Those flesh and blood creatures
Who share the farm with us.
The daily hum, of not just our movement on the farm
But the songs,
The physical movement
Even the air
The light.
All hooked together; like a large crochet bedspread.
From my world to your heart,
Linda
This month (March 18th to be exact) I have been blogging eleven years.
I have shared our simple, busy, farm life with you. I have shared my excitement over the fresh green shoots of new grass growing, or the tiny little plants of corn or pinto beans, today I’m showing you the sprouts of alfalfa just starting to arrive in the alfalfa field.
For eleven years you have watch the soul of each and every season—the opening of the land, the growing season, harvest…and the rest– called winter.
You have been with Terry and I as we built and repaired fences, or as in yesterday—took one clear out so we could have a larger field.
You’ve been with me through the joys and wonders of the wild life upon our farm—the last of the Sand Hill Cranes left our farm yesterday—lifting up into the sky with thrilling calls telling us THANK You….we will come again. And I stood there and called back to them….PLEASE DO! You are always welcome.
Coming back into the yard I saw three Robins….Spring is truly here for sure!
You’ve shared night-time walks with me (this is the moon right now…2:00 a.m)
And that amazing sky we live under.
Thank you each and everyone so much for coming along with me, for leaving me your comments so I can get to know you also, and for being readers, even if you don’t leave comments.
Thank you for making my eleven years of blogging so very rewarding.
From my heart to your world,
Linda
We are back on the ground! The snow left and it didn’t even make mud!
Your friend on a Western Colorado Farm,
Linda
The cows are ever so calm. Terry started working the alfalfa field (he is ripping here) and they didn’t even move. (Shows how much we and Davis’ are with them. :0 )
The Mom’s loved hanging in the field eating the turned up roots.
The little ones didn’t even run from the big loud noisy machine. (Probably because the Mom’s didn’t run or holler at the kids to RUN! :0 ) (Here Terry is rolling)
So Terry had to either get out and make them move or work around them.
Calm, calm calm.
That evening Terry, Boomer and I rode through the cows on our evening check…There was a BRAND NEW little one just eating lunch.
Now THIS mom decided she didn’t want to have her little one subjected to two noisy four-wheelers…she took off at a run. The little one had to struggle to keep up, but it did.
At the Upper End we ran into one of the ‘babysitter’ cows…she had 8 little ones she was watching.
It won’t be long now before Mr. Davis comes and gets his cows and moves them onto his ranch, just below our farm…about a mile away.
Until he comes…I’m going to enjoy every minute of the time we have left with them.
Your friend on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
I’m slow today. Well, not slow for the day, but slow getting up here to post my blog. We are still working on the ditches and had a few things to do before Terry could take out the tractor.
(Sometimes I’m early, very early, because…well, I just can’t sleep at night. The stay awake and toss and turn thing so I get up and write a post to you.)
Terry is doing the tractor work, so I came in to visit a spell with you.
Once more we finished all the dirt for the rest of the year. 🙂 (Where have I heard that before 🙂 ) Terry went over and dumped the last load, while I drove the tractor home, and put the tractor way.
Then we worked on digging out the orange dams in the mud ditches. Always, always a huge job. We have two more to go, but stopped for spell. Now that we are ‘elderly’ we have to pace ourselves. Ten years ago the story would have been much different.
After supper (yes, we eat early…by 5:00–that is so we still have daylight to work in) we worked on winterizing the ditches.
We worked in a sky full of color and rainbows!
It was wonderful! I counted two rainbows, then a faint third one!
The end was right over our house! How marvelous is that!!!!?
The sky was stunning! Because the sun was sitting it turned the air/the clouds, the sky, and us—Pink!
It sure made our work go easier!
As we worked I started thinking how the year is slowly drifting into winter, but before the winter chill and frigid temperatures, the stunning beauty of fall blooms before our very eyes, the last of summer bursting forth in random elegance and grace, blessing our lives, if we just care to see.
As always your friend, on a western Colorado farm,
Linda
Terry worked on the fire road most of the afternoon…. there is one spot that is a huge problem…down a gravel hill that seeps. He got everything fixed up to that road; then ‘we’ will work on the seep road together.
I dread this road, it’s not bad when all the seep has stopped but until then we have the potential of getting stuck, sliding off, the earth shifting….sigh.
He will be on one tractor and I on another tractor…gradually we will make the downhill slant, then around the curve. It is the down hill slant where all the problems lie. But we must work together to keep from an accident or worse.
But not today…or this weekend. But soon. Before the fire season starts in earnest! Sigh!
And no, we can not make a different road in a different spot it must be here, because HERE is where the path of the fires usually take.
We are leaving in 30 minutes to finish loading up the consignment equipment then heading to the sale in Grand Junction. Gradually, we are getting everything done before the spring work begins.
Hopefully next week we will be able to start laying the last of the transmission irrigation pipe. It MUST be done before water starts April 1st and it MUST be in the ground before the tractor work starts close to March 10th. Everything has a hurry, hurry, time is passing feel about it now.
Today it is dark and gloomy with rain or snow or sleet threatening any moment.
Still we must carry on!
Your farm friend,
Linda
Terry is planning on laying more transmission pipe this spring. He wanted to lay it last fall but we were too wet. The whole winter was wet until just now. So off he went to hand-dig up the culvert under the farm road, then back to get the tractor with the loader on it.
Boomer and I walked up later to see how he was doing….”Finished!” he replied.
We followed him back to the yard and asked if he would like to go with us (meaning myself, Boomer and Fuzzy) to go look at the cows!
In just seconds we were on our way–
There is one cow with outstanding markings–she is all black except for her long whitetail….she is behind the two white cows, she is the one with the horns
We saw lots of cows looking just like this 🙂
Terry checked out a new Momma cow–he wanted to see where she had her calf hid.
Hiding a new calf in the marsh land isn’t a good idea. So if he could stir up the calf, the mom would take it on to higher and dryer ground.
I didn’t get a good photo of the calf and mom moving off.
We saw two more calves. These two are a few days older than the other one. The mom’s are getting tired of the (self imposed) nursery so are starting to take the kids out and about more.
The herd is looking good. I’m sure Mr. Davis and his daughter, Teresa, are pleased with the results so far.
Tomorrow I’ll show you the other creatures we saw along the way. Today the air and the sun feels just like yesterday–Spring has arrived. I even heard a flock of Red-Winged Black Birds while we were up there. Delightful birds.
They say another rain/snow storm is supposed to come in Wednesday and our temperatures to drop way down. Still…no matter what…we are on the other side of winter now.
My heart goes out to all of you still trapped in the huge massive snow and freezing temperatures back east. To have a warm up would be a delightful gift to all of you winter weary souls! Magic Thoughts for Spring to find you soon!
Your friend,
Linda
We didn’t go to anywhere, long story, which I will tell sometime on down the road.
While out checking on the cows and seeing how the ground was coming along for tractor work I took a photo of this cow
“Looks like you are going to have twins”, I told her.
“TWINS!” she replied, “TWINS!”
(I think so, don’t you? SHHHHHHHHHHH!)
Life on a Colorado Farm 