My harem has arrived

My "ladies" are here. They didn't arrive early morning like Evan predicted. In Missoula he had problems loading Dan's and my cattle.

First, three of Dan's little heifers were missing from their pen at the auction. They were found in another pen. No one knows how they got there. Also two of Dan's littlest calves somehow got themselves into the hay feeding area for their pen. It took some time to get them out.

When loading the cattle one of Dan's oldest cows, the last one to be loaded, decided the space available in the trailer was too small. She laid down outside the trailer and didn't want to get up. I guess she was on strike.

Dan and I bought too many cattle. Dan actually bought six calves, not the four that Evan and I thought. Evan felt the trailer was too crowded for all the cattle and had to leave Dan's six calves behind on this trip. Dan will get them tomorrow.

Add in the (three at least) road construction projects on Hwy 93, stopping at Dan's place first, and Evan didn't arrive until almost 3 pm. Getting up earlier this morning than I felt like doing was unnecessary.

My "girls" initially didn't want to get out of Evan's stock trailer but once the first heifer left the others followed in a rush.

The cattle are now in the process of getting use to their new home. For the time being I will keep them in the corral area around the barn. They are fairly calm. They slowly checked out the boundaries of the corral and did not race around.

I put hay out for them. The corral area has a good start on green grass so the cattle weren't sure what to eat and would alternate between the two food sources. Later it seems they are concentrating on eating the green grass.

They aren't sure about me as they keep their distance from me. Its not that I go up to them, but whenever they see me they stand if sitting down, or move further away. Later they got more used to me and would continue to sit and have their siesta nearby as I added another strand of barb wire to the top of the western corral fence.

They are very nice looking cattle. Evan also commented on how nice they looked. They are all black and have the black Angus look with the narrow head and beady eyes. As they are all uniform in size (other than the three slightly larger ones), and have identical color I have doubts I will name these cattle like I did last year. If any do get a name it will be because of their personality. They don't have ear tags but I plan on buying some for them.

The three larger heifers remind me of "Daddy Long Legs" from last year. They all have very long legs to go with their long bodies. That is why I decided to add a strand of barb wire above the top of the older fence in two places in the corral. These three heifers could stand and easily watch me with their heads higher than the fence in these two areas. I didn't want them to get any "ballerina" ideas and for them to hop the fence when I wasn't looking.

I finished my south corral fence rebuild just in time! I was still putting finishing touches on the fence this morning while waiting for Evan. With my "in-between" posts and the metal pipe that runs along the top, the fence looks a little more substantial. The fence is solid. It is just that with it being a chain link fence one can see through the fence much easier than other fences. The cattle seemed to like it as many sat near the chain link fence during their afternoon siesta and looked through it and out to the hayfield.

I had a little more chain link fencing than needed for the south side so I wrapped the extra 20 or so feet along the west corral fence. I still have another 50 ft roll of chain link fencing and plan to redo the western corral fence. But later as I need to take a break from fence work and get to my other items on my to-do list.

Earlier this week when I worked on the corral fence the weather was so-so: partly cloudy, 50s temperatures and occasionally windy. I got quite a bit of work done though. Today was our nicest day since last October and our official high was 71 F. Our first 70+ degree day and one of only a few days of 60+ temperatures. Maybe I was tired from all the activity this week, or it was the great summer-like weather, but I didn't have ambition to do much today. Still I completed the fence, repaired the three old wood hay feeding containers, put some hay out for the cattle, cleaned and filled the two stock water troughs, helped Dan load the last of his hay he had stored in my barn, and checked my pocket gopher traps. Very late afternoon I burnt some of the tall dead grass in the middle pasture.

Between the approaching cold front with its cool air and clouds, the new green grass, and the thin and sometimes isolated nature of the tall grass, even with the stiff breeze from the cold front the fire needed babying to continue burning. After an hour I gave up. I still have time to finish the burning as the open burning season continues until May 1.

This weekend I plan to not do anything. The forecast has a chance of rain so that will help me not feel guilty about laying around.