Lust driven jailbreak

Today eleven of my heifers swam the river and got over to the neighbor's bull. I suspect the heifer that was so in heat the previous night led the other ten heifers.

In the afternoon nine of my heifers came back to the salt blocks and their favorite siesta place. Only nine... hmmmm. I checked the pasture and no other cattle. With my binoculars I spotted two of my heifers with the neighbor's herd and bull on the side of the ridge across the river.

Oh no!

No wonder the bull stopped his calling to my heifers.

I called the neighbor to let him know. He said there is no way to get my cattle back until he runs his cattle from this field back to his corral in a couple weeks. There is no corral or sorting area in this field. And with the trees and ridge line it would make separating and herding the cattle very very difficult. Even if I had three people on horses it would be hard to sort the cattle.

The cattle are on the young side to be bred as most people would wait till next year to breed them. Last year a smaller heifer got to the bull and this Spring produced a beautiful calf. Apparently this Maine Anjou breed of bull throws low birth weight calves.

And the cattle will most likely be bred. I no longer hear the bull calling to the cattle but that doesn't mean the bull is quiet. Far from it. The neighbor said he thought the bull had finished breeding his cattle already. Great. He can turn his attention to taking advantage of my young and naive heifers.

From signs of flattened grass on top of the river bank and disturbed dirt from hooves clawing the river bank side, I think I know where the cattle crossed the river. This area of the river is deep and the bank on the other side is about a yard above the water level and is almost sheer. The neighbor hadn't fenced this section of the river because the river is deep and the bank vertical. I am amazed the cattle made it, especially as the river level is relatively high and there is a still a good current. Other years the cattle would quit half way across when the river got deep as they didn't want to swim.

I plan to go and check that all eleven heifers made it safely across the river. I think they did as the river gets shallower past this bend. If the cattle didn't make it onto the river bank they would float to a shallower section. Or at least I hope so.

Amazing what cattle will do when in heat and a bull is calling them.

Rain and lust

I got rain on Thursday! Not much, but something. .10 inch. I didn't expect it. The clouds were building dark blue to the west for a long time. That doesn't mean much as it usually goes around else goes overhead without dropping rain. It looked like it was going to go overhead again without raining. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped. But, surprise, it began to rain. It was enough that I decided to go inside the house and have lunch as it rained. Still, it is a drop in the bucket for what I need. That evening when I filled in a few holes where tree stumps were the dust flew.

Otherwise I worked in the pasture on small chores. I took to the pasture tree branches I had trimmed from around the house to make painting easier. Once in the pasture I decided to trim the branches from a tree that had fallen this Spring. Not many branches so it shouldn't take long. Once I cleaned up these branches I decided to trim the branches from a tree that had fallen into another tree. My chainsaw bar's end is bent so I couldn't cut the tree to the ground but I worried it could fall when my cattle are nearby. At least I could trim the branches from the trunk so it wouldn't spear anything if the tree fell to the ground.

I then chopped two small tree stumps from the ground in the middle pasture. Okay... I might as well chop the large tree stump from the ground in the north pasture and be done with it. This was one of the first tree stumps I had dug around this Spring but never got around to finish removing. After some chopping and some more digging I was able to pull the stump out of the ground.

I filled the dirt back into this hole then decided to fill in the hole from the other two burnt out stumps in the north pasture. For the small stump I discovered another part of the stump when I dug around the hole's edge for smoothing the edge of the ground. *sigh* Another hidden trunk. It was small enough that I could chop it out of the ground.

For another hole I found a horseshoe when digging the edge of the hole.

By the time I was done it was well after 10 pm and getting dark. Another long day.

Oh yeah... the "lust" part of my post. In the afternoon I moved my cattle from the south to the middle pasture once I finished my fence work. The neighbor's cattle who had earlier been in sight from the middle pasture had moved up on the ridge and to the NW of my property and out of sight by the time my cattle came to the middle pasture. That didn't stop the bull from bellowing every so often.

As I was chopping the large stump the cattle came over to the middle/north pastures fence. One heifer in particular, number 55, was all excited and tried to reply to the bull. Her call was more like a weak squeak. Thank goodness as I don't think the bull could hear her. Whenever the bull would call I tried to talk to her to cover up his sound. The same when she called out.

#55 had the look I saw on the lovesick heifer from last year that eventually made her way to the bull. She stood right at the fence and was wide eyed and trying to see though the trees to the bull. Her nostrils were flaring as she tried to get a scent of him. The rest of the herd paid no attention to the bull's calls and eventually moved on. #55 kept an eye on the herd but still wouldn't leave the fence. Eventually the bull shut up and she rejoined the herd.

20 females and a bull. This is going to be a long time. This morning the cattle are all hanging down by the river instead of their usual siesta in the SE corner of the pasture. I'll have to go down there this afternoon and check it out.

Wednesday this and that

Wednesday I took Tammy to the airport for her return trip home. It had rained there (a few miles away) so that is why the official rain total for the day was .29 inch. It was dry when I got back home. All I got Wednesday was enough rain to wet the pavement briefly. I so need rain as it is dry. The official rain total for the month is .59 inch but it seems as if every part of the Valley is getting rain but my area. All I get is only enough to briefly settle the dust.

Still have not heard back from Wyatt about when he will cut my hay and I had left him another message Wednesday.

My neighbor's burnt building is still standing. But Wednesday he pulled his burned out excavator from the building and hauled it away.

I found five new and reopened gopher holes. So I haven't completely eliminated them yet. The time is running short as they will soon stay underground until next year. The gophers are getting tricky or desperate as I found three of the holes under thick branches of pine trees.

I moved the fence where the eroded bank gave way and the heifer slipped under the fence and into the river. Then I checked the rest of the river fence in that area and found the cattle had completely tore up the section of the fence that goes from the large log that is eroding into the river up to the middle/south pasture fence. *sigh* So I fixed that fence also. I had to wait a while during the rebuild as the cattle had come down to the river and I didn't want them to watch my work and get any ideas when they come back to the middle pasture. I have a little more work to do today on another part of a river fence elsewhere in the middle pasture as with the lower river level the cattle had walked around the end of the fence.

Otherwise the cattle are behaving. *knock on wood* My one neighbor put his cattle across the river this week. Including his bull. This year his bull found his cows before my heifers. He has not seen my heifers yet. But I think he can smell them. Last night as I was working on the fence the bull ranged the property across the pasture where I currently have my cattle. The bull was alone and not with his cows. He can't see my cattle in this pasture due to the trees. But he was bellowing and calling. I hope none of my "girls" succumb to his calling and get in trouble.

I nicked my thumb knuckle when pounding in a fence post and tore the skin. Hard to put a bandaid on it and still bend my knuckle. Also got a few splinters.

The tree stump Tammy and I had a bonfire around for her final night here was still smoldering Wednesday. I picked up a few small wood pieces I had missed cleaning up earlier and placed them on the stump and they caught fire and burned. It looks like this will be the end of this stump.

I used a scraper to remove more paint from the well shed. I am in the process of repainting my house and garage. Tammy helped me get started on this job after all these years of needing to do it. She wasn't kidding when she said she likes to paint. I am almost done with painting the eves on the house and garage. I borrowed a pressure washer from Gary as the job of scraping paint off the eves with scrapers was slow and tedious. I expected the pressure washer to strip all the paint from the surfaces but that didn't happen even though the washer put out a strong stream of water. In some areas the water started to eat the wood away. Yikes!

I was tired last night when I got back in the house. After watching the weather report I fell asleep in the chair and then when to bed after midnight. No supper not even popcorn.

It is a slow morning today and I am feeling a little blue.

I just got back from getting my mail and I picked up some of the trash tossed into my ditch. I found the drivers license, credit card, and more in the ditch. Looks like someone tossed the contents of a guys wallet into the ditch. I'll have to track down this guy's phone number and give him a call.

Fireworks over the lake

For the 4th of July Tammy and I drove down to Bigfork, MT to watch their firework show. We sat on folding chairs on the lake shore at Wayfarers State Park and after a nice sunset we watched the fireworks across part of Flathead Lake. In addition to the city of Bigfork shooting off fireworks other people shot off their fireworks along the lake shore.

The firework show started before 11 pm and ended with large fireworks shot off on the hill behind us around 11:30 pm. We saw those fireworks against the moon. Nice!

Over a hundred

FYI - I have now trapped over 100 pocket gophers this year. And that is with two missing traps. I am now down to five traps. Last week one trap went missing. Then a few days later another trap went missing. Unlike the last time I have not found the traps. This is a mystery as it could be a dog or a coyote or a person taking my traps. I even asked the neighbors if they had seen my traps as the missing traps were just on my side of the fence near their house. Nope, they seen nothing.

If the traps are anywhere near maybe I'll find them once the hayfield is cut, that is if the swather doesn't run them over. It sure would be nice to get my missing traps as dirt mounds are popping up now that the pocket gopher kids are moving away from home and out into the world.

As for regular gophers, I hadn't found any holes until recently when I stumbled upon six holes. I put traps on them Friday and I hope I will finally get the last of them.

And if you are wondering about the cattle... they are behaving nicely - though I hope I am not jinxing anything by praising them.

Happy 4th of July everyone!