Yesterday it was in the low 60's, finished cutting the last 35 acres of alfalfa.  Today the high was 29 at midnight and now down to 15 at 1:30 in the afternoon.  Snowing up a storm, may get as much as 15 inches by Tuesday.  Supposed to get as low as 4 above Monday night/Tuesday morning.  Hopefully the snow will insulate the ground a lot.  Figured I better cut when I did or the leaves would be off by the time i could get back in the field.  Time will tell if I'm right but there are a lot of other guys that did the same.  This snow is a Godsend for the fires west of me.  We have now had the three biggest forest fires in recorded Colorado history in the last 5 months, 210,000 acres, 190,000 acres and the "smaller one", only 138,000 acres plus other fires of 10,000 acres and less.  The snow won't probably put out the fires but will set them back to the point that they can be starved to death.

I've decided I am not going to celebrate my birthday this year, don't want to remember what a rotten year it has been.  Plan on being 71 for another 365 days then maybe go to 73!

 Happy Birthday next year!

Thanks for the warning about the snow. Our son just drove back to Denver to get there before this snow storm.

Regards,

 Chris

Thanks Chris!

Snow stopped about noon on Monday, got down to 7 Monday morning, 20 or so for a high, right now at 2am it's 0.  Supposed to be in the 40s today and up to the 60's by the weekend.  Just have to wait for the snow to melt so the hay will dry and I can bale it, hopefully next week.

 It was 8 here about 7 am tuesday morning, old record of 14 was over 100 years old.  Warmup is on the way, according to TV weather people. 

 Well,,I KNOW it ain't like ya'lls cold temps but occaisionally we do get some cold azzed weather,,,like we just went thru,,,it turned cold here Mon and snowed Mon nite and overnite temps down to 24° and a high of 38°,,,,for two whole days,,,,The only'ist time I stepped out was to go to town for some groceries,,,,,Most of the snow still on the ground,,,but ole SUN is finally out this mornin and susspossed to hit mid 50's today and then back to our normal low to mid 60's Thursday,,,YEAH,,,,,

     Maybe a dumb question but what do you do with the alfalfa after it gets snow / frozen? Back east here I think it would be a loss. 

AC hunter,

Out west things are so different then the east.  I tell my relatives in Hinckley that I'm cutting hay in October and they can't believe it.  They have trouble making hay in September.  Here it's so dry most of the time that we have to wait until well after dark in the summer to have enough moisture to bale alfalfa without losing lots of leaves.  I suspect when the snow is gone in another day or so it will be as green as when I cut it.  As the ground is wet with about 3/4" of moisture, I'll have to rake it in the morning in a few days.  Then a day or so later should be able to bale and stack it.  Supposed to be in the 60's and maybe low 70's next week so it should work out ok.  I once baled grass hay in January that had been cut in October because it snowed and didn't all melt until January.  Made excellent hay that horses had no trouble with.  We usually try to be done cutting alfalfa by mid Oct so it has time to harden off before winter sets in but there have been years when we were still haying in November because we hadn't had a hard freeze and the hay kept growing.  Got down to 19 last night, -1 the night before, but it's 53 now and supposed to not get much below freezing for a week or more.

          Thanks for the explanation about the hay. I know you are much drier than us but wouldn't have guessed about the hay in a million years. Do you irrigate your crops? You should have some pretty nice scenery with the Rockies so close.