The County Dump

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Dayphoto

So far we have over an inch of rain and it is still raining. The weather people say it is supposed to turn to snow today around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I haven’t been taking any 4 o’clock photos since there really isn’t anything to see but rain and fog.

For a really short while yesterday the clouds broke and sun came out. A great cry of joy went up from the cows and the chickens and the cats and the dogs. Everyone was in a frolicking kind of mood.

Terry and I quickly grabbed all our trash and headed out to the dump. We only make the run if we absolutely have too. We were at the absolutely spot…if we didn’t go then I was going to have to go by more trash barrels, which I didn’t want to do as we really do have enough of trash barrels now.

There really isn’t anything really interesting at the dump, but we did get to see the rubber grinder at work grinding up all the tires. I don’t know what happens to that huge pile of ground up rubber but I’m sure they have figured out some way to recycle it or they wouldn’t be doing it.

As we were there the fog settled back down. After we got home the rain started again. No complains on the moisture. It is just very odd this type of rain this time of year.

Three more days until February….I’m into the count down! 🙂

Linda

Adventures in Irrigating

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Dayphoto

We opened the last ditch on the place yesterday…what a mess.

The cement ditch had tons of trash in it, but that was to be expected.

The new dirt ditch (which we made after deciding not to buy more extremely expensive gated pipe) is holding water and sealing up nicely.

Where we had the problem was under the old apricot tree that escaped the fire.

We didn’t even THINK about there being a problem with that ditch….it’s the last ditch on the place, taking the water to the alfalfa hill and then on down to the next farm.

So here we were working away on getting the trash out of the cement ditch, starting the tubes, digging out the ends…..everything going along as expected.

We rode down to check the new ditch out.

Good. The water was going on down to the alfalfa hill, the ditch was sealing and imprinting. We got the trash out …

Looking good

Evening was starting to come on in a hurry so we headed on down to check the alfalfa ditch and start the furrows (earth dams here and digging out ends)

When we saw a LAKE in the road! And the water starting to sub over into the potential pinto bean field!

Who would have thought….a ground squirrel had made a wonderful, delightful, very nice home in the side of the alfalfa ditch!!!

It took some doing but we finally got all 8 holes filled in and covered up. The squirrel was seen chattering at us a couple of times. Floods are bad news for anyone to have to live through.

The squirrel is alive and well, it moved on over to a thicket and started a new house in a much drier area.

We have been rather cool to cold here for the last three days. Temperatures have dropped into the low 20s, it was 24* this morning when I went out to let the chickens out for the day. I think its supposed to start a gradual warm up tomorrow.

April sure was an up and down sort of month for temperatures….reaching 92* one day.

May for us is usually warmer, and a little steadier weather wise…I try to plant my garden the week of Mother’s Day. (Although, it can still freeze here, even as late as in June.)

Thanks for stopping by!

Linda

The Adventures of Fuzzy and Boomer on Friday — Back to Work

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Dayphoto

We are back to work! Hanging around and just doing what we want is now over, our work has begun. That’s what Mom told us yesterday as we headed out to help irrigate.

See we don’t farm with Dad. We stay with Mom wherever she is. Our job is helping Mom, always. Sometimes Boomer will go out some with Dad but Dad is always on a tractor or something and that is just not fun running alongside a big piece of equipment.

We ride (like Mom does) and then we work.

Boomer and I really like it.

We really like helping out too. There is so much to do. Sometimes there are mice to snap in two and sometimes not, but there are always smells to smell and for ME there is water to play in.

It’s getting a little harder every year to get OUT of the ditches, but I don’t have any trouble getting into them. Mom doesn’t like for me to get into the ditches anymore because I can’t get out very well. But I still do it — I just wait until she isn’t looking and I jump in.

The day before Dad made all the ditches on the place—first he made the main ditches, these are the ditches that carry the water to the fields from the head gate (the head gate takes the water out of the canal onto our place).

Then he made the waste ditches, these are the ditches that take the water away from the field and drop the water back into the canal so the next farm can use the water.

After that we had to wait for the ditch rider to open the head gate so we could begin work.

Work started at 6:00 last evening. We worked until 8:00 because there were so many weeds and burn trash in the ditches, but we made it.

Boomer and I helped. I even got into the water a couple of times which made Mom yell at me. She said the water was too full of trash and it would stick to my fur so I had to get out.

Geez!

Trash on fur is not a big deal.

But she made me get out.

It was rather hard to get out, so I hung with Mom looking for mice in the tubes while she dug out ends and started the tubes with water.

Dad had to work on the trash in the head gate and the transmission ditch, and then he came and helped Mom set tubes.

The trash WAS bad.

And the wind was bad. The wind kept blowing in other trash so we had to stay out and keep the water from flowing over the sides of the cement ditch for ever so long.

Boom and I really enjoyed it.

Mom and Dad said they were tired.

They worked all morning, then helped Evan move furniture into his new house and set up his new kitchen and then chased water all evening. The second they sat down in their chairs they were asleep.

Boomer and I were still good to go, but since the folks were so tired we decided maybe we wouldn’t chase Freddy Fox or any of the raccoons tonight or even get on the barking telephone system.

Around 11:00 Dad had to go back out in the wind to check tubes again to make sure they hadn’t trashed back up and stopped or the water was flowing over the sides of the cement ditch into the work fields.

We went part way and then turned back. ½ mile is pretty far to run for me anymore and Boomer didn’t want to leave me.

By that time we were tired so when Dad got back we went to bed also.

Anyhow our work has begun.

We love it, couldn’t ask for a better life!

Fuzzy (and Boomer)

Irrigation Begins

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Dayphoto

Getting the ground ready is all about tractor work, getting the soil ready to accept seeds is about irrigation.

Terry marks and creases at the same time, which saves on time and fuel.

Then we have to check all the pipes, making sure all the gates are in place and working

The wind has been rather wild this fall, winter and spring filling even the main artery headgate with trash

So the first order of business, after fixing gates and cleaning the ditches

Once everything is clean here, then boards are set to force flow into our main headgate

Water must flow downhill, so just because we are irrigating one field, all the ditches have to be cleaned and ready to go.

Terry makes it look simple here, but a dam must be placed to hold back the water plus each tube has to have the end dug out so the tube lays flat in the row

Success!

Once started the water is never turned off until harvest.

We irrigate and then let the ground dry out until it is at moist stage, then the seeds are planted. Depending on the weather, should be around two weeks from now.

Have a nice weekend!

Linda

Irrigation—Continued (Step 7)

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Dayphoto

spring-trash

Trash! Trash is a BIG deal, and this year seems worse than other years. Mainly because of the wind! I like the wind; I like the fact that the wind is one of our helpers in that it brings the leaves to the tops of trees. But I don’t like the wind for all the trash and weeds that blow along with it.

Then you couple wind and trash with water (which sinks all the trash) you get a mess! And if you aren’t diligent you will get ditches that are stopped up enough to flood whole fields.

So every couple of hours YOU MUST GO CHECK THE DITCHES for messes like this one!

Look closely and you can see bubbles (white foam) and the each of the cement ditch, which means that we don’t have enough gates in the gated pipe open and a build up is about to occur. The build up means the water flows over the side (NOT GOOD) and creates another mess. We don’t like those types of problems.

imprint-of-water-005

This photo shows you success. The water made it all the way down the 25 acre field to end of the field. YEAH!!!! The furrow with the water will form a crust that will make the water flow down better next time. Imprint the row. This is good. This is the goal. To get the water to seal the row, but at the same time provide enough moisture to sub across to the next row!

You will notice that every other row has the water in it. That is the way you water corn, every other row. So this field will be planted to corn in about 10 days. Beans and hay are watered differently.

tallin-and-grandpa

Talli used a stick to help dig out the trash. She called it her shovel.

The grandkids like to come out and help irrigate. Blade and Linkin were way down the row digging out the stuck corn stalks and other bits of trash but Tallen stayed with us.

helping-grandpa

Water, Wind, and Trash

Posted on April 21, 2008 by Dayphoto

Terry started the water, what a mess with all of the wind and trash and wind and trash, oh, yes, I said that. You can see my hair blowing madly about!