First off I had to retrace part of my previous evening bicycle route. During that ride I broke one toe strap. The broken strap initially remained in the bicycle's pedal and toe clip after it broke but it came out somewhere along the way home. Odd, as the strap is usually in the pedal very tight.
I didn't find the strap. I noticed the street cleaner had been out along part of the route that morning. Darn, usually they don't sweep the debris often enough. On the way home I found in the ditch a five gallon pail. It was just beyond the railroad tracks that cross the highway and where I have found "goodies" in the past that have bounced off of vehicles.
That's the score this morning - lost one thing, found another.
A nice day: warm, mostly sunny, and only a small breeze. Perfect for burning of the middle pasture - which is what I did. Whenever the sun went behind a cloud the fire lost energy. Whenever the wind picked up so did the fire. Here and there I burnt areas of taller grass. Definitely a minority of the pasture.
Near the end I came across two groups of three of old rotted tree stumps. They were so rotted, the stumps - at ground level- were no longer a single piece. Often these stumps catch fire easily so I raked little piles of grass on each of them and spent a little time tending to their fires. Once I got a burning/smoldering pile of ashes on each of the six I went home for lunch.
On the way I walked through the hayfield and discovered new prairie dog gopher holes! Argh!!!
I got rid of the pocket gophers and now the prairie dogs moved in. I had noticed last year that the pocket gopher mounds and prairie dog holes in the north pasture did not mix together. The pocket gopher mounds skipped over the prairie dog town before continuing on to the river. I went around and with a spade covered the dozen or so holes with dirt. Maybe the prairie dog will get the hint!Speaking of gophers, I was so busy with fires that I forgot to check my pocket gopher traps today.
Cattle still behaving. I didn't see any heifers in the feeder - although I did see one heifer had her front legs inside as she ate. Two heifers easily take the bread from my hand now and others are getting better at getting it off the ground.
After lunch I took a wheel barrow with me to the north pasture to burn the tree stumps. I had to pass through the corral. Whenever I enter the corral the cattle come over to me. With the wheel barrow they didn't know what to think and they were a little jumpy as I pushed it through the corral over to the pasture. They followed me to the pasture gate and wanted to come with me. They stood at the gate and watched me go.
I gathered wood and lit large fires over the four tree stumps in the north pasture. Gathering wood was time consuming. For some of the tree stumps I reached in the pine trees and broke off some of the dead branches that I could reach. For the other stumps I got wood from the fallen tree that was blown over the year before last. I had to cut the branches off the tree trunk.
The saw's blade was good and sharp but the handle was not good and after a while broke apart.
I used the broken handle to cut a few more branches. The saw slipped and with no handle to protect my hand I mashed and cut several of my knuckles. 
This hurt and bled more than when the nail went through my finger earlier this year. Bleed, bleed, bleed. 
Good thing I was wearing old and ragged clothes as I got blood all over my pants. My fingers would stick together as the blood dried. I went home and got another saw. This one had a good handle but dull blade. Can't win. 
Near two of the tree stumps the prairie dog "town" had fat little sentinels out barking warnings when I was nearby. I covered a number of holes. Get the hint, you little buggers!
After lighting the fires for all the stumps in the north pasture I started on some in the middle pasture. I burnt five stumps in the middle pasture before the sun set and it got dark.
Three of the five were towards the river and for burning material I gathered the large pine cones and raked long pines needles from under the large long-needle pine tree near the river. I need to wear gloves tomorrow as those pine cones have lots of short sharp barbs. Ouch!
This tree is one of the trees the owls roost in. Tonight as I worked I could hear two owls hoot to one another in the south pasture. One of those owls probably roosts in this tree.
The pine needles and cones burn quick and hot, but not long. I checked the previous fires as I walked home pushing my wheel barrow. All the branches and logs had burnt with glowing ashes around the tree stumps. But it didn't look like most of the stumps "took". By "took" I mean continued to burn. Sometimes it takes two or three fires before the stump will continue to burn.
I'll see tomorrow how they are doing. Probably not early as I am so stiff and sore.
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