Badger and skunk

The weather was better today. Warmer at least as the temperature got up to 63 F. It felt warmer. Scattered rain sprinkles a few times during the day. Short lived so I kept working outside.

Cattle

The cattle came around the barn several times during the day and spent time taking their siesta in the loafing shed. I gave them some bread. I only have a few loaves left as the Food Bank didn't have extra this week. No matter, the cattle have lots of grass and the earlier loaves did their job in getting the cattle accustomed to me.

As the cattle have again made the loafing shed as part of their routine their infatuation with the north pasture has lessened. They must trust that the pasture will be available to them whenever they want and don't have to worry about getting locked back into the corral.

Badger

Last evening when riding home I was surprised as a large flat brown animal ran across the road in front of me, into the ditch, then across my hayfield before disappearing into the grass by the closest power line tower. "What the?!" It appears the animal was a badger. I didn't get a chance to see its head, but the body looks to be a badger judging from the photos of badgers.

Apparently the "jeffersonii " subspecies is the species of badgers west of the Rocky Mountains.

"badgers mostly dine on ground squirrels, marmots and pocket gophers but also take other small mammals, birds, fish, insects and even the odd rattlesnake."

Now a badger comes by, after I rid much of the property of the pocket gophers!! Hopefully the badger will go after the prairie gophers.



Skunk

Tonight as I rode to town a skunk crossed the street. This was in Evergreen district. While not a part of Kalispell its streets are like city streets but without curbs and gutters. The skunk crossed the road and went among the trees and shrubs of a house's front yard. Needless to say I stopped and waited for the skunk to get a distance away, then rode on the opposite side of the street as I rode by yard.

Pocket Gophers

I trapped 5 more today. I now have trapped over 100 for the year.

Otherwise today was an odds-and-ends day as I did this and that, but not much to speak of.

Eating the lawn

As most of you know I had my "girls" eat down my lawn over a week ago so I didn't have to mow it. Today I saw this cartoon that seemed to fit me.

Mojo Nixon

Recently Tim sent me a Napster link to Mojo Nixon's last album, 1999's !Sock Ray Blue! I hadn't heard anything new from Mojo for many years now (but then I haven't been exactly keeping up with the alternative music scene lately).

Tim and I first heard, or even heard of, Mojo over 20 years ago(!) [the Fall of 1985, right, Tim?] at a bar after I moved to Rochester. Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper were the opening act for the "Beat Farmers" that night.

I remember there was confusion over the opening act as the bar had booked a local act as the opening act for the Beat Farmers.

8-25-85 The "Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper" album is released (frequently referred to by fans as "Free, Drunk And Horny" based on the cover art). Nixon and Roper take to the road in a '67 Malibu station wagon. They spend a high percentage of touring time following the Beat Farmers and being their opening act (many times as a surprise to even the club owners).

The "Beat Farmers" were who we went to see, and we got the extra treat of hearing Mojo and Skid. And yes, I remember Mojo and Skid talking about their station wagon and the drive up from their previous gig in Iowa.

A great late night of music as both acts brought lots of energy and irreverence that night. What rock 'n roll is all about! Not a typical night in dull Rochester.

Mojo writes pointed satirical funny songs in a rock 'n roll cowpunk bluesy way. He has offended a number of famous people and their fans, as you'll see when you read his short bio at the end of this. It is good to hear Mojo hasn't lost his vim and vigor 20 years later.

One of the most outsized personalities on college radio in the '80s, Mojo Nixon won a fervent cult following with his motor-mouthed redneck persona and a gonzo brand of satire with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. Nixon had a particular knack for celebrity-themed novelty hits ("Elvis Is Everywhere," "Debbie Gibson Is Pregnant With My Two-Headed Love Child," "Don Henley Must Die"), but he was prone to gleefully crass rants on a variety of social ills ("I Hate Banks," "Destroy All Lawyers," "I Ain't Gonna Piss In No Jar"), while celebrating lowbrow, blue-collar America in all its trashy, beer-soaked glory. All of it was performed in maximum overdrive on a bed of rockabilly, blues, and R&B, which earned Nixon some friends in the roots rock community but had enough punk attitude -- in its own bizarre way -- to make him a college radio staple during his heyday.

Apparently Mojo retired from singing and performing back in 2004 and now hosts a Sirius radio show.

Mojo Nixon'’s "The Loon in the Afternoon" & Saturday Night Demolition Derby

It's a redneck rampage with the irrepressible roots rock wildman Mojo Nixon broadcasting from his "Shack by the Sea" in Coronado, Ca.

Tune in every weekday from 4-8 pm ET and Saturday nights for back-to-back editions of his "Saturday Night Demolition Derby," an uncensored thrill-ride that celebrates the unheard demented psychotic underbelly of the American dream.

I seen some photos of Mojo from his farewell concert in 2004 and he certainly has gained weight since the photos of him from his younger days.


Here is the link to Mojo's !Sock Ray Blue! album on Napster (listen free).

Some of the songs I liked:
- Rock and Roll Hall of Lame
- You can't buy cool
- Machines Ain't Music/I Got My Mojo Working
- When did I become my dad

and many of the other songs are good.

"The Ballad of Country Dick" is about the drummer for the group the "Beat Farmers", now deceased. Country Dick was a cool guy the night we met him and the Beat Farmers, Mojo, and Skid.

The other Mojo Nixon (and Skid Roper) album listed on Napster, Bo-Day-Shus!!!, is one I own from back in 1987. A good album!

"Elvis is Everywhere"
"We Gotta have More Soul"
"I'm Gonna Dig up Howlin' Wolf"
"The Story of One Chord"
and many, many more great, fun songs!

Here is a site that has free mp3 songs from live Mojo shows. Gives you a feel of how much fun he is live.

Mojo's official website. His bio is funny. What a crazy life he's led. Anyone who has bicycled cross-country can't be all bad, or sane.

From his web site, here is a shortened version of his bio.



Listening to Mojo again after all these years makes me feel younger, puts a smile on my lips and a gleam in my eye.

Quiet Memorial Day

A few brief sprinkles and that was it for rain today. But it was overcast and cool (upper 50s F) all day today so I didn't do much. Nice to have a break from outside work and be able to catch up on reading old newspapers; but now I'm starting to feeling guilty/lazy/antsy and want to get back to outside work again.

The grass was dry by late afternoon so I checked the pocket gopher traps. Only 1 caught, with 2 more traps plugged with dirt by those rascally animals. The rest of the traps, nothing.

I stacked the cut logs from the tree in the south pasture out of the way under another pine tree. I'll have to finishing cutting this tree into smaller pieces before letting the cattle into this pasture.

On the walk back home I stopped, checked and counted the cattle. The cattle seem to be very happy in the tall grass. I think the weekend rain may have helped wash most of the rest of the dry manure from their fur. The manure was originally from the auction barn and the trip up here. The cattle are now a combination of sleek hair and winter fur. Some cattle are shedding nicely while others have a ways to go to get rid of their winter fur.

Other than a bicycle ride to the grocery store to get a few items (just an excuse to ride as I really didn't need anything), that's about it for today.

Looking out the window the world is lush green and blue/white. Green grass and pine trees and blue/white mountains and clouds, and a white fence. Those are all the colors.

Wet Memorial Day weekend

I feel like I am back in Minnesota on a Memorial Day weekend. It has rained today more than not.

This morning I had to get the binoculars out to see the cattle. They were at the far end of the north pasture. Even with binoculars I couldn't count them all. I was a little concerned about them as it has only been 24 hours since I let them in this pasture. With the river level very high I wanted to make sure none of them did anything crazy with the river and gotten hurt. With the recent cooler weather the flow seems to have peaked yesterday at 890 CFS, and actually dropped 8 CFS today. 882 CFS is still high as it is in the highest 20% range of measured flows for this time of the year.

Later during a break in the rain I put on overshoes and walked out to where they were, now around the trees in the middle part in the pasture. All 12 were taking their siesta among the trees. One however was standing in one of the holes where I burnt out a large tree stump. Just like a kid, has to play in the dirt. Many of the others stood up when I got near; "Now what is he up to?!"

After picking some small rocks the cattle's hooves had brought to the surface around the barn, I decided to go for a short bicycle ride. Darker blue clouds were to the west and north and I felt I could "get a few miles in" before the next rain. As usual I enjoyed riding and decided to go a little further, then a little further before turning around. I figured going towards the darker blue clouds to the north would help me gauge when it was about to rain. Surprise, the rain came from the west blue clouds. A little drizzle, but I was wet when I got back to the ranch.

After my ride I saw the cattle laying in the open area this side of the middle trees. The grass is tall enough I can't distinguish them and count them all unless I get close. While I think counting and recounting may ward off alzheimer's, I didn't bother to go out to count the cattle this time.

Our high temperature exceeded the forecast of upper 40s F. Mid 50s we reached. Woo hoo! I still started my wood stove this evening as it was cool and damp in the house.

I got a flyer to the annual Plains nursery stock sale today (late notice). I attended their sale last year over the Memorial Day weekend. The nursery is a wholesaler but one weekend a year they are open to the public. Even on a nice summer day the 100 mile (one way) drive is a bit much unless one is in the mood for a road trip. While I enjoyed last year's trip, this year I didn't plan to attend. But today I found out this year, unlike last year, they have nut trees on sale. Chestnut, walnut and filberts. All of which I had to mail order from an out-of-state nursery last year, most of which did not do well over the winter. I think only one walnut tree might make it. I had very good results with the bare-root trees and shrubs I bought at the Plains nursery last year, and might have made the trip if I knew they had nut trees this year.

Opened the north pasture

This noon the cattle were lounging under the pine trees in the very NE part of the property. I remembered I hadn't fixed the broken wire in the north/middle pasture fence and decided to do so before letting the cattle into the north pasture.

I checked the northern fence and found four seriously "loose" posts. Loose meaning probably broken just below ground. This happens to some of the posts over winter.

When I returned to the corral the "girls" were all in the south part of the corral watching and waiting for me. After I picked up two posts, a post hole digger, sledgehammer, hammer and "u" nails I opened the corral gate and let the girls into the taller grass of the north pasture. No hesitation on their part in entering this new area.

As I worked on putting in the new posts the cattle went here and there checking everything out, stopping to take a few bites of grass before moving on. The laggards would notice the leaders and sprint to catch up in case they were missing something good. The cattle checked out the perimeter and at one point the entire herd ran down the center of the pasture from the river to the corral in full gallup. Stampede!

The river was a new thing for them and they stood and looked at it trying to make sense of it. I purposely let the cattle into the pasture earlier in the day, and not the evening, as I wanted them to see and understand the river and not blindly run into it. I had strung a simple two strand barb wire fence on the higher river bank section, but running cattle could easily go through it and over the river bank.

When the cattle walked along the fence near Mr. D's house his cocker spaniel came running out and toward the fence barking furiously. The cattle ran away from the fence. Hmmm....

The north pasture is the hardest to view from the house as the corral and barn block much of the view. Late afternoon I seen a few cattle in the trees by the river. They had finished exploring and had settled down to eating by the time I finished with the fence posts so I think they are fine. I just miss seeing them when looking out the window.

Flathead Valley was a lake during the last ice age. Then a large river when the ice dam melted and the pent up water rushed to the Pacific Ocean creating the Columbia River gorge. As a consequence one never knows what is underground. Two fence posts holes were easy to dig as it was soft dirt. A short distance away I seemed to dig more rocks than dirt. It took a long time to dig those holes.

I closed the NE pasture to the cattle to let the grass recover. I checked out my little trees along the north fence and they all survived. My tomato and other cages and boards worked at protecting them.

For the caragana bushes I had recently planted I had taken big pine cones and put around the caragana bushes along with some fresh manure. For both objects I noticed the cattle would avoid them and leave a little grass around them. My efforts paid off as these caragana bushes apparently were untouched.

All the time I worked outside it would sprinkle rain off and on. A cold cloudy day. Our high temperature struggled to reach 50 F. So much for the mid-80s of last week. At least our overnight low temperatures stay above freezing. The mountains supposedly are getting socked with lots of snow by this weather. In the late afternoon I even had the wood stove going to heat the house. Tomorrow's weather forecast is for more of the same.

Other than checking my pocket gopher traps (4 more!) today was an indoor day. Washing, cleaning and mending. When checking the pocket gopher traps I decided to go over a barb wire fence and not crawl under it in the wet grass. My back pants leg caught on a barb. As I was over the fence by then I couldn't reverse my movement to untangle. Pull! Pull harder! Rip! Also, today's work made the small hole in the pants' right knee bigger. I sewed another patch over a patch. *sigh*

I also set another mouse trap. Last night, in the 30 seconds before I fall asleep, I heard a scratching sound in the ceiling above me. Pound! Pound! Pound! on the ceiling only temporarily stopped the scratching sound. So it took me a couple of minutes to fall asleep last night after I made a mental note to set a trap in the attic after I woke up in the morning.

Fruit tree and garden cattle - done

For a while it didn't like much of anything would be done today. It rained a third of an inch early this morning. Add in a late night on the computer and a very late morning as the week's late nights and work during the day caught up to me. I even took a short nap after breakfast as it was wet outside.

I let the cattle into the fruit tree and garden area even though I wasn't out there digging in the garden and able to keep a closer watch on them. There were only three heifers out there as the rest were taking their siesta in the loafing shed. After my nap I found all the cattle were in the fruit tree and garden area. They were behaving themselves.

Since the weather had improved I went outside to dig in the garden. After I arrived the cattle lined up along the fence to watch me as I dug. After a while they lost interest and went back to eating. The grass is now shorter and a few heifers decided to sample the leaves of the few fruit trees not completely protected by chicken wire.

The second time I admonished them to stop doing that, all but one heifer left - I guess in case I got upset like the previous night when I caught the two heifers in the garden itself. They went over to their favorite scratching tree in the NE pasture and held a conference. As the one heifer was still eating the rest came back. After a short while they settled down around the fenced in strawberry patch for their siesta and to chew their cud. Everyone was happy.

After their siesta it was back to eating. It wasn't long till some couldn't keep away from the fruit trees and I chased them all out and closed the gate behind them. The grass is short enough in the fruit tree and garden area that I no longer need to mow it. If they had stayed with eating only the grass I would have kept them longer to have them even the grass out. Oh well.


When I was checking pocket gopher traps in the hayfield I seen the black mama dog from the "3rd trailer" down the road. The dog was chasing the partridges it could find among the hayfield's grass. A partridge or two would fly up and land elsewhere in the grass. The dog would run over that way until a partridge would again take flight. Eventually the partridges had enough of the dog's harassment and flew off.

The river level is 890 CFS and it is playing musical chairs. I mentioned before that the large tree stump is gone. A few days ago two new smaller tree stumps appeared near this particular gravel bed. 24 hours later one of the two stumps is gone. As the river level continues to rise we'll see if the other one remains.

I went all the way to my northern boundary. Mr. D's low lying part of his property next to mine is all under water. As I approached the boundary a group of fuzzy brown little baby ducks (?) walked from my property into the water along my fence and swam out among the grass on Mr. D's low land. I counted 10 babies all swimming as a unit. No sign of their parents anywhere.

The past couple of days I have seen a pretty good sized deer on the other side of the river. The river is so high it can't cross over.

I am still getting accustomed to the tree I cut yesterday. Now when I look out to the north pasture I see a large yellow circle in the air that is the end of tree.

The lilac bushes are in full bloom. Lots of purple.

Fruit tree and garden cattle

This afternoon (Thursday) I let my "girls" into the fruit tree and garden (FT&G) area. Seven of the twelve heifers were still taking their late morning siesta by the barn. Five were in the NE pasture munching the grass lower.

The five heifers didn't realize the open gate meant access to the FT&G area. They were still mad at me about the ear tags and turned as if to prepare to run when they saw me approach the gate. I had a loaf of bread and tossed pieces of it on the ground around the gate. As they approached the gate (and I retreated) they caught on they could enter the FT&G area. Ignoring the bread they quickly came inside.

Over an hour later the remaining seven came out to NE pasture. Seeing their sisters in the FT&G area they all got excited and came running.

For the most part the cattle were well behaved. They did break three tree branches I had placed in the ground several years ago when I had no fence posts to make a fence around some of my fruit trees. *sigh* I planned on replacing the branches/posts but not right now. The reason the cattle broke the branches was that they are the right size for scratching their foreheads.

The other problem I had was that a few heifers had a fascination with the dirt I dug. I had put up a fence to protect my garden, but as I was still digging, fresh dirt was outside the fence. Some heifers just had to walk in it. As they are heavy they quickly sink down. "Huh?!" Then another step and 'sink'. "This is kinda fun." Sink! sink! sink!

"Get out of there!"

One heifer liked to eat dirt. What's up with that?!

One heifer was in tall grass yet she kneeled down and bent under the wagon of irrigation pipes to eat the grass underneath them. Go figure! Seems to be a lot of work when easy-to-reach grass was all around her. I'm not complaining as the grass underneath the pipes needed trimming.

All was forgiven mid evening about the ear tags as three heifers licked my hand, arm and elbow as a way of saying thanks?

The trouble came late evening. I decided to move the fence to enclose the entire garden area, not just the section I had dug. I put in a few new posts and moved the rest. The fence didn't stand up its entire length and I needed to get some wire to attach it to the fence posts.

Before going to get the wire, the cattle were on the north side of the FT&G area so I pounded in a steel post to replace a broken branch. Then I noticed the cattle had untied the twine covering one of my serviceberry bushes. They didn't eat the bush, but had to untie the twine to check the bush out. I was re-stringing the twine when I noticed two heifers in the garden. *argh!*

The heifers had walked over a leaning section of fence and were now checking out my garden plants. I still had shingles and boards leaning over many plants to partially protect them from the sun while they acclimatize. The cattle were checking them out and knocking over a few to see what was underneath.

I ran over and chased them out. The whole herd now got excited and I chased them all out of the FT&G area. Anyway it was late and time for them to leave. No way was I going to let them stay in here overnight!

The cattle did a good job eating the grass down. One more day and it should be enough for now.

Lumberjack

"I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay.
I sleep all night. I work all day."

Monty Python (click on the Lumberjack Song link to hear the song)

This morning I fired up the chainsaw. Two fallen trees, one in the north pasture and one in the south pasture, needed to be cut down. It has been a year and a half since they were blown over. From past experience they seem to only last a couple of years supported by their branches before they fall to the ground. As the cattle like to scratch against the supporting branches, no sense taking a chance the tree will fall on a heifer.

I cut all but the last fifth of the north pasture tree. The rest of the tree was pretty solid, and I only had one tank of gas, so I moved on to the south pasture tree. I got the smaller one fourth of the tree cut before running out of gas. As I don't have anymore chainsaw/small engine gas mixed, I called it quits for the day. I mainly wanted to cut the north pasture tree down before I let the cattle in the north pasture in a few days.

Milkweed plants

They have started to sprout up this year. My eradication efforts last year didn't get them all. They are popping up all over. Today I even found two of them growing (and already with a flower) in my ditch. That was unusual, but the odd thing is that with all the milkweeds all over (my fields, the neighbor's fields, the neighbor's ditch), I never had any milkweeds in my ditch before.

Pocket Gophers

They, too, are multiplying. I now am finding fresh mounds of dirt in the hayfield where I eradicated them last year. One mound of dirt is relatively close to the house. *sigh*

Bees

After checking the pocket gopher traps for the day I was almost to the house when I noticed Grant's pickup parked at the hayfield gate. Grant was suited up checking his bee hives. I had walked right near him and the hives and never noticed him. I guess I was too absorbed looking at the ground for milkweed plants and fresh pocket gopher mounds,

The bees are doing well; one hive more than the other as that hive didn't winter well and it is taking them longer to get going for the season.

Ear tagging

My "girls" got their ears pierced today. Now they are mad at me, don't trust me, and do not want to have anything to do with me. I thought females liked to get their ears pierced?

Dan came over after 3 pm. I already had the girls in the corral having fed them bread and other goodies while we waited for Dan. As I carried a French baguette the girls followed me into the loading corral and Dan closed the gate behind them. Then likewise into the loading chute.

I already marked (1, 5, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90) the tags. For some reason I marked two tags with 40. The second tag will be used next year.

I had my doubts we would get all 12 heifers into the narrow end of the loading chute and that final gate shut. I herded them in to the end and couldn't get the gate shut behind the last 3 heifers. While I held the gate against the heifers Dan decided to tag those he could reach. He stood outside the loading chute and reached over the side to do the tagging.

The heifers were fairly (more than what one could expect) calm up to now. But having a hole punched in your ear and a tag attached would excite anyone. Heifers started to go up, around, back and forward. One big heifer got so excited it looked at one point that she was going to stand on all four legs on the backs of the other heifers then jump over the corral's sides. But she went back down to stand on the ground.

The corral's sides bulged out and in and made cracking sounds, but surprisingly held. The same couldn't be said of me as the back heifers backed up and I couldn't hold the gate steady against them. Sensing a lost cause I got out of the way the best I could. One heifer stepped on my foot but fortunately it wasn't a large heifer and she was moving quick so I hardly felt it.

For the most part I avoided "bodily functions". Ya know, when you get anxious and excited sometimes there is a powerful urge to "go". I said "for the most part" as one of my shoes got covered... from the top. The soles of my shoes - naturally - were in the thick of it. Life on the farm. By the way, yesterday Jan gave me a welcome mat with images of cattle on it. Nice. I also took another mat she planned to throw away. Living on a farm - one can't have too many mats to wipe ones shoes on! I still haven't gotten around to cleaning up the fertilizer the cattle left for me on the front lawn.

Dan had only been able to tag a a couple heifers. I herded them back in to the narrow end. This time they were reluctant to go there. The heifer at the front wouldn't go all the way to the front. I had Dan go up to coax her forward. Seeing Dan they all got more excited. I let the back ones slip out then got the gate shut on the rest. Five were out and seven inside. They seven had a little room to move but Dan decided to try to tag the ones he could.

More milling heifers and bulging of the corral's sides. My gate held though I wondered if it would as the gate latch sometimes would pop away from the catch when the corral's side bulged out. Dan got all seven tagged. One (tag 90) pulled away as Dan tagged her and we were unsure if the tag would stay on.

I let the seven out to join the five. Of the five, four did not have tags. I herded them back into the narrow end. I got all but a couple heifers inside and the gate closed. Fortunately it appeared all the untagged ones were inside the gate. Dan tagged the two near the front then the two in the very back near me. He checked number 90 and as it's tag wasn't closed put another tag (40) on its other ear then got the other tag off. He was going to cut tag 90 off but it came out when he grabbed it.

I let the cattle out of the narrow end. Dan then opened the second inner gate. I thought Dan used the extra 40 tag so I looked for both heifers with 40 to see if could tell them apart. As the cattle moved to the next outer section I saw one heifer without a tag. So tag 40 was not the extra tag.

I herded them all back in. This time I got all 12 into the narrow end. Why couldn't we have had this from the beginning. With all 12 in the narrow end the heifers had little room to move. Still, the untagged one was the smart heifer. She would put her head down when Dan tried to tag her. That's how Dan missed her all the other times. But we were on to her now and she couldn't avoid getting a tag.

Done. Finally.

Afterwards the cattle didn't want any part of Dan and I. Even though I opened all the corral gates, and the gate to the NE pasture, they stood at the other end of the loading corral all bunched together and watching us. Only when we moved towards them did they stream out to the pasture.

In the pasture they remained close to one another and would stand watching Dan and I to see what tricks we would pull next. They kept their distance from us - quite a distance. After a bit they started to munch on the grass but were ever alert to Dan and my movements.

When tagging the cattle, one heifer in her excitement snapped her head against Dan's hand. Dan jumped back from the heifer and corral. Dan, a typical guy, told me he was fine and didn't get hurt although he shook his hand to shake the sting out. He had some blood on his hand but that may have been from the one heifer with a partial tag as I seen a little blood on her ear that had the partial tag.

I felt a little sorry for the smallest heifer as it was harder for her to keep her head above the bigger heifers. I noticed the top of her head was covered in manure. Poor girl. I'd wash it off her but naturally she wouldn't let me get close to her.

The blue tags look very nice on the black cattle. The tags stand out nicely. The tags help when counting the cattle as all black on all black sometimes blends together. The cattle all look nice and stylish. While Dan tried to tag only the left ear, two heifers have their right ear tagged. Number 1 and an unknown tag id have right ear tags. I'll have to learn the other number. It would have been nice to have all with left ear tags as I now have to look to make sure one didn't lose a tag.

Later in the evening I pulled the second water tank back to the NE pasture near the well. Maybe this will reduce the chances of me forgetting to turn the water off when filing this tank. Before filling the tank I cleaned and scrubbed the bottom of the tank. As I did the herd came over and stood in a semi-circle to watch me.

Earlier in the day I had "cattle proofed" the fruit tree & garden area and was ready to let the cattle in to eat the grass down so I wouldn't have to mow it. Since the cattle were now near me I tried to lead them through the now open gate. I encouraged them to come join me and walked back and forth through the open gate. But the cattle would have none of that. They were sure I was trying to trick them again. Besides they had seen me pass through many other gates that I wouldn't let them come through. Having enough they snubbed me and all went to the far end of the pasture.

As I mentioned, this afternoon I got odds & ends of fencing, posts, wire and old baling twine and wrapped a number of trees and bushes, plants and the gardens to protect them from the cattle. I remember last year when a few cattle wouldn't behave and made a mess. While I vowed not to let cattle near the garden and trees again, the grass is now tall and thick and I don't want to mow it. Besides I successfully protected the front yard this year.

I guess I will have to find out tomorrow how well I protected this area as the cattle didn't want to get near me tonight. I'm on their "manure" list.

Rototilling, dog ownership, caragana

Not a lot going on today. I got more bread this morning for my "girls". They prefer the long thin French baguette's. In fact the drier the better. I had a round loaf of Italian bread that I tore into pieces, and wasn't old and dry. I fed this after the French baguettes and most heifers spit it back out. They later ate it off the ground when they realized that was all the bread I was giving them for the day. Or at least the heifers that aren't fussy ate it all.

As I hung my wash on the clothesline they all came over to this section of the fence. I dunno, maybe they associate me along the fence with treats to eat.

While riding along the road today I noticed they have eaten the grass in the ditch where they can get their heads through the barb wire. With all the grass inside the fence... *sigh*

A nice day, if a little on the windy side. I rode the long way home after stopping at the local postal substation. By then Bob and Jan had finished clearing stuff from their garden bed. Last Thursday Bob had a cast put on his foot. The healing from his surgery has been going slow, and walking on it hasn't helped the healing. I volunteered to rototill their garden bed for them this year.

They have an old monster rear tine self propelled tiller that I wrestled around the garden bed. (Actually moving the tiller when it wasn't running was harder!) During the first go-around one wheel would always go in the newly tilled dirt making the tiller cock-eyed. I eventually stopped fighting this and let it till this way.

Just before finishing the first go-around the belt driving the tines came off. Fixed that. Shortly after I started the second go-around a loud screeching noise started. After several tries at adjustments the screeching would start again. Bob decided to call it a day and he will investigate it another day.

Then off to relax and enjoy a nice supper Jan made as reward for my help. Fresh asparagus from their yard - yum!

Earlier today I verified the ownership of a very nice friendly mama dog that Bob and Jan have taken to feeding and brushing. Other neighbors thought the dog either belonged to the people in the "3rd trailer" down the road, or the trailer north of me. I knew this dog was not the same as the dog belonging to the trailer north of me. While riding to the postal station I saw people outside the "3rd trailer" - a man and a woman in their early to mid 20s. He seemed nice and laid back; she was talking on a cell phone and wore a short dress (I'm a guy, I notice things like that. What was the guy wearing? Can't remember. )

I stopped and asked if they had a dog. Yup, and "Brian" owned a dog. They showed me and it was the same dog. "Ok, just wonderin' if it was a stray as I seen it roaming a lot down the road."

While this guy seemed nice, she seemed a little cold having got off the phone and joined our conversation. As for Brian? Don't know. I wonder if Brian is a guy who likes the idea of having a dog, but not caring for it?

Before rototilling Bob's garden bed I dug out of it a number of small caragana trees and a few other tiny mystery trees.

I filled three small pails. I planted two pails along the road in the yard and part of the fruit tree area. I would like to plant them along my northern fence boundary but the cattle would taste test them, especially if they see me planting them. By now it was 10 pm and getting dark. I'll plant the remainder tomorrow.

Oh yeah... Grant brought the bee hives over last night. Two stacks. Yay! The more the better. I still am eating my share of the honey from last year. Grant won 1st place at the NW Montana fair last year for his honey, and tasting it you can tell why. Yum! Yum! Yum!

Retro car images

Plan59 is a cool web site. It has pictures and photos from the 1950s. Mainly of cars, but the images have people and places that are interesting.

This photo caught my eye initially because it shows a 1960 Chevrolet. My first car was a 1960 Chevrolet - a white one, and a different model.

Then... the scenery looked... familar. Reading the caption on the web site - duh! - the photo was taken on Going-to-the-Sun road in Glacier Nat'l Park.

The location is just below Logan Pass on the east side of the pass. The mountain in the background poking into the clouds is "Going-to-the-Sun" mountain at 9642 ft (2939 m) . I have hiked around it by going over Siyeh Pass - quite a climb!

Here is another example of their car art. This appears to be from an ad. Wouldn't you like to own this 1959 Cadillac? Look at its lines. And the tail fin! Glamorous! Oh.. and the couple looks nice also.

Corral prep, garden, bees

I thought today was the day that Dan and I would give my "girls" ear tags; but it was not to be. Not sure why Dan wasn't available. He left a phone message he may be available to help on Wednesday...

Today (Monday) I prepared the corral for the ear tagging. I removed the higher side boards to make it easier to reach down to tag the cattle. The higher boards were needed back in the days when the cattle would be loaded and transported using pickups and trucks. The boards prevented the cattle from going crazy and jumping over the side while walking up the ramp to the vehicle. I removed the ramp a few years ago as now-a-days most everyone has a stock trailer to haul cattle. Besides the loading ramp hadn't been used in years, was overgrown, and the boards were rotting. With stock trailers the cattle are able to step up into the trailer.

I still have the wooden stock rack I helped dad built many years ago for his pickup. I haven't tried to see if the rack would fit my pickup. Since I have my own stock trailer, and the livestock auction is way down in Missoula, hauling a few cattle in a pickup wouldn't be feasible.

I repaired a metal bar used to hold closed an inner gate in the loading corral. This Spring the cattle somehow got the nut off the bolt that held it in place and removed the bar. Bored, I guess. I had to get another nut to repair it.

The outer end gate is not much, and doesn't need to be much as it isn't necessary when loading cattle. But as we will hold the cattle in the narrow end of the loading chute, we need a substantial gate. With no time to make a better gate I got some 2x4s and slid them across the very end of the chute. That should be a barrier the cattle can't cross.

I also went along the loading chute and removed or pounded in any nails that stuck out.

One of my projects this summer (along with how many other projects?) is to redo parts of the loading corral. The loading corral has been patched and patched over the years and is quite old. It is functional but can be made better and easier to use. Some posts are wobbly and need to be replaced. When the cattle get bunched in the narrow part and balk at entering the stock trailer the corral sides do some moving as the cattle push and shove. I also can use some of the wooden corral panels I recently bought at auction to replace a few sections of the greater loading corral. I just need to find the time.

Finding the cattle were taking their mid-morning siesta in the loafing shed I closed the gate to the NE pasture and kept the cattle in the overall corral today. This would make it easier to gather them into the loading corral for their tagging.

Half the cattle have no fear of me and actually got in the way as they wanted to see what I was doing. Some would crowd in the narrow loading corral with me. For some reason a few wanted to lick my hair and I had to watch out for this when bending down. Carrying boards was like threading a maze as many cattle would stand and watch and not move. I don't want my cattle nervous and afraid of me, but they were getting in the way. I gave them some treats to distract them.

I again forgot the water was running to the cattle's water tank. Lately I had been taking to leaving the hay bale's twine around my neck until I turned the water off - no way I forgot about the water with the twine around me. But as I don't feed the cattle hay now - no twine, and I forgot. Fortunately(?) it was for less than an hour.

Garden

To protect my newly transplanted garden plants I got some sticks, boards and old roofing shingles and used them to shade my plants. My garden looks a little odd with all of the shingles and boards propped up on the sunny side of the plants.

I got back to digging to enlarge my garden. Another 5% dug today.

River

The river is at 806 CFS today; a rise of 33 CFS in the past 24 hours. The river is high enough I couldn't really tell any difference today. I did see a large owl fly from the large pine tree by the river as I neared the tree. A few beats of its wings then it glided to a tree in the north pasture.

Bees

Grant said he planned on bringing one set of bee hives tonight after dark. Apparently this hive is in a cranky mood, what with recently being moved south of town to pollinate a group of apple trees. The better to move them after they have gone to bed, and to place them out in the middle pasture rather than nearer to houses. I didn't pay attention if Grant did bring the hives tonight as the route I told him to use didn't come by the house. It rained lightly off-and-on this evening so I don't know if Grant postponed the move. I'll see in the morning.

Native nursery, garden, river stump, dogs

I bought two serviceberry (juneberry) bushes today (Sunday). I went back to the "Nursery for Native Plants". This is the place I visited last weekend only to find they had closed for the day. As I believed they were only open on the weekends I went back today. I was wrong; they are open only on Fridays and Saturdays.

Fortunately the owner, Laurie, was there watering the plants. She let me in. While she had plenty of plants, I wanted berry (for eating) bushes. Of these she had:

• serviceberry
• elderberry
• chokecherry
• currants (two or three varieties)

Chokecherries grow wild in the ditches nearby; and I have elderberry and currants - although I am not positive they have made it through the winter.

The serviceberry bushes look to be in very good condition and many have flowered. I should get a few berries later this year on the two I bought. As soon as I got home I transplanted and watered them. Now grow!

The nursery also sells snowberry bushes. Those bad plants I am trying to get rid of from the ranch! Laurie said they are a native plant and useful. Grouse and other birds like them; and they grow in forests protecting the soil. She did agree with me that they can spread and become a nuisance in other areas.

Laurie gave me a pamphlet on "Creating Native Landscapes in the Northern Great Plains and Rocky Mountains". It was created by the USDA and Montana Association of Conservation Districts. Looks to be a useful guide.

Laurie also gave me a pretty paper-mache lotus blossom that she had made. The tag attached to it read:

The paper lotus flower is a moral discipline reminder, because lotus flowers grow in the mud but keep themselves very clean and elegant.

In Chinese culture lotus flowers are symbols of highly virtuous individuals who maintain a high moral standard.

The world needs:

• Truthfulness
• Compassion
• Forbearance

Fallun Dafa www.falundafa.org

I asked, and Falun Dafa is related to Falun Gong, which the Chinese government is suppressing. Laurie practices this. We then had a discussion on how the Chinese government is suppressing these peaceful people, the person who spoke up about the persecution of the Falun Gong in China during the President's recent news conference with the Chinese president, and how communism is evil. Interesting. Apparently there are some Falun Dafa practitioners here in the Kalispell area.

After transplanting my new serviceberry bushes I planted the rest of the garden I have dug up so far. I planted my starter tomato, bell pepper, and jalapeno pepper plants. Then I planted the Yukon gold seed potatoes I had bought earlier at the CHS store. I dug 12 hills. This is less than the 21 hills last year, but then I am expecting better things from these seeds potatoes this year than the russet potatoes from last year. If not, lots of potatoes are grown locally so potatoes are sold cheaply.

Since I had area left, I planted cucumber and zucchini squash plants. Or I should say transplanted two cucumber plants and started the rest from seed. I thought I had started more cucumber and zucchini plants, but I must have gotten distracted by my efforts to start pepper plants, and with other things.

As I had a little room left I planted some of my starter cantaloupe and watermelon plants. Cross your fingers that I'll actually harvest some melons this year as growing them is an iffy proposition here in NW Montana.

Now to dig the remaining 30% of my garden to plant the remaining starter cantaloupe, watermelon, and pumpkin plants.

In the evening I checked my pocket gopher traps. The more I walk over the hayfield the more new mounds of fresh dirt I find. *sigh*

The river continues to rise. I see it is now (as of 12:30 am) at 773 CFS; an increase of 32 CFS over yesterday's 12:30 am flow of 741 CFS . The increase is a smaller amount than yesterday's increase of 51 CFS, so the rise is slowing. Still the increase in the river level each day is visually noticeable.

I found today the huge tree root/stump is gone. A few years ago it floated from upstream and lodged on a gravel bar in the middle of the river. Subsequent high water flows have moved it slightly along the gravel bar each year, but this year's flow is the highest in a number of years, and was enough to send the tree root/stump downstream somewhere.

When setting a pocket gopher trap near a tree I noticed a bird fly out low from a tree trunk. The tree is slowly dying and I found a large hole leading into a large hollowed out area inside the tree trunk. The hole is only a yard or so above the ground - low! Bob said it may be the nest of a bluebird (or did he say blue jay?)

The cattle are happy. Green grass, and I don't put them back in the corral at night so they can eat all they want when they want. No more waiting in the morning for me to toss them more bales of hay. And they have different sizes of trees they can scratch against. Some trees whip around when a heifer vigorously scratches against it.

This morning when I fed some loaves of bread to the cattle they were more interested in a neighbor's big black dog who came up behind me in the yard. The cattle lined up along the fence to watch the dog. They were fascinated by the dog and would follow along their side of the fence as the dog moved along his side of the fence. The dog was smart enough not to cross the fence to be on the same side of the cattle.

Tonight I noticed the cattle were lined up along the northern fence line when the neighbor brought her small dog out for a bathroom run. The cattle didn't appear to be fazed as the little dog "yipped" away.

Yesterday's rain knocked a number of the apple trees' blossoms to the ground. The ground is littered white with blossoms near the apple trees. Looks neat. I seen that even the small old apple tree has a few blossoms. Wouldn't that be something to get apples from that tree! Bees, do your business!

Swan Mountain Range

The mountains I see out my front window, the Swan Mountain Range, have their own web site.

The web site is really good with lots of maps and photos. My view is of the northern part of the mountain range.

I have hiked up to the top via the Jewel Basin, and a couple years ago via the Hungry Horse Reservoir. When I hiked up via the Jewel Basin it was October; and hiking along Alpine Trail #7 I counted six piles of bear scat on my hike in and seven piles of scat on my hike out. I am sure I didn't miscount.

This range is nice to hike in the summer as most visitors hike, and crowd, Glacier Nat'l Park.

The web site also has a link so you can take a virtual tour of Alpine Trail #7 with lots of great photos.

Here a couple of photos from the web site to encourage you to check the web site out and the rest of their photos.

Opened the NE pasture

Today (Saturday) was an off-and-on rainy day. Just like last year, after I planted my garden it starts to rain after a dry spell.

After feeding hay to my "girls" I worked on readying the NE pasture for the cattle. I found over winter two wooden fence posts had broken at ground level. Between rain showers I went and put in two newer posts next to the bad ones.

I am trying to grow some pine trees along my northern fence line (and a few other varieties of trees and bushes). I find that cattle will nip the trees in order to taste what they are. Sometimes they will pull the entire tree out of the ground. To protect the trees I placed tomato and other cages around the about ten trees that look to be alive. As cattle will pull tomato cages out of the ground and step on them (every one last year!), I pounded some boards and metal rods inside the cages and into the ground to make it harder for the cattle to abuse the cages. This worked to protect the trees and shrubs in my yard; hopefully it will continue to work in the pasture.

I remember transplanting earlier this spring a small leafy tree or two I had found growing in my garden and elsewhere. I forgot all about it until I found a decent sized tree along the fence line. Wow! Is this a tree I transplanted? I wish all trees I transplant did this well.

I added some boards to the gate between the NE and north pastures so the gate will look more substantial and deter the cattle from trying to go through it.

Lastly I added some wire to the chain-link part of the fence between the NE pasture and the fruit tree/garden area. Most specifically the section where the raspberry plants are. Two years ago I found the cattle would put their head through the barb wire fence and eat the raspberry plants down. Last year I added a chain-link fence and found that at the end of summer the taller cattle would put their head over the top of the 4 ft fence and eat the tops of the raspberry plants down a foot or more that the cattle could reach.

Today I added boards to the fence posts to extend them a little over a foot higher. To these boards I nailed chicken wire that was a little over a foot in width. I knew the odds & ends of chicken wire I bought at auction last summer would come in handy!

Now we'll see if the cattle can get to my raspberry plants!! Maybe I'll get raspberries this year!

Then I let my "girls" into the pasture. Initially they missed seeing the open gate so I walked over, then through the gate. A couple heifers saw me and came through the gate. Quickly the herd instinct took over and the rest came into the NE pasture.

In the beginning they put their heads down and concentrated on eating as much grass as they could. Later after part of the herd drifted off to another end of the pasture the remaining herd would come running as fast as they could so as not to miss whatever goodies this group may be having. Ok, just don't get too excited and go through a fence.

To get my 8 hours sleep the past few days I have taken a catnap late afternoon. A 3 am to 9 am sleeping time just isn't enough. I guess there isn't anything wrong with this, as I can keep & sleep whatever hours I want. Still, it seems 'wrong' somehow. Taking a short nap during the day seems to be wasting time. Still it is hard for me to get out of a "night owl" way of life. At least today it rained when I took a nap - probably part of why I fell asleep as I couldn't work outside right then.

Since the sun came out to mostly dry the grass I went and checked my pocket gopher traps. 3 more. I could see a change in the river level since I last seen it 24 hours ago. The river is still rising rapidly. Checking the web site I see the flow increased 43 CFS since yesterday. An increase of over 6%. A cooler day today with the high temperature in the lows 70s. The cooler weather should slow the rise of the rivers.

With the warm weather this past week (and nights where the temperature stays above freezing), the grass has really perked up and started to grow. Which is good as my cattle need food to eat. The bad is the weeds also grow and the part of my garden that I haven't dug yet seems to have filled in with more weeds and bigger weeds.

The evening sun came out as I walked back from the river. The grass and pine trees seemed to be very, very green in the soft light. How is that blue and white rain clouds make the mountains so much prettier when the sun breaks through to light up the mountains?

The apple trees have really blossomed the past few days. Initially the trees were odd looking as the blossoms were out but the leaves were still in the process of coming out. I hadn't seen that before. Today the leaves were out so the trees look more normal. I seen bees flying around the blossoms before it turned rainy. Hopefully the bees will be busy and pollinate all the blossoms. Both trees have plenty of blossoms so it appears the "green/yellow" apple tree will have lots of apples also this year. My apricot trees never blossomed this year. Usually they are the first trees to have blossoms. Guess it was too cold earlier and now it is too late.

Before it got dark I transplanted my starter broccoli and cabbage plants into my garden. The stems are so fragile that I put some little metal rods in the ground to reduce the chance a wind could snap the plant off. Hopefully I get more of my starter plants into the garden tomorrow so I can get on with digging the rest of the garden.

Favorite sounds

As I mentioned in an earlier post today, the slow rumble of thunder rolled around the western sky for a half hour before it started to rain. One of my favorite sounds.

Others:

• the slow rumble of thunder rolling around the sky ahead of rain on a hot still summer day/night,
• rain,
  
• a cat's purr,
• wind rushing through a car's open windows on a warm summer day when driving fast down the highway,
• wet snow falling from the sky on a still day,
• the muffled silence after a heavy snowfall,
  
• a blizzard's roar,
• the crunch of walking on hard packed snow at -20 F,
  
• the crackle of a campfire,
• mountain stream,
  
• a coyote's howl,
• croaking frogs,
• waves hitting something; the shore, a boat, a dock, etc.
  
• a lover's contented sigh

River level May 13-20

As I mentioned in the previous post, the river level has risen rapidly the past few days. The temperature rose from highs in the low 60s F on May 13th, to the 80s F starting the 15th through the 18th. Todays high was 76 F. The mountain snow pack is really melting with these hot temperatures.

At 12:30 am on May 20, the stream flow was 690 CFS (cubic feet per second). As you can see, an above average streamflow

The automated tracking station is a few miles upstream from my place. The chart's stream flow is close to what I have, but my flow probably lags the station by a few hours.

The link to the tracking site is here.

Here is a screen capture of what the river flow has been the past week.

Tag exchange, girl, high water

When one goes to bed after 3 am, one doesn't get up till after 10 am. Rule 147?

Overcast sky... hmmm... it will give my transplanted sunflowers a chance to acclimatize and not get sunburnt after living indoors their brief life.

After I gave my "girls" some hay I decided to take down a couple of the protective fences I had put up in the yard. As I rolled up the first fence it started to rain lightly. A soft light rain coming straight down. But enough rain that I stopped and stood under the large pine tree next to the well so I would be out of the rain until it quit.

After breakfast and a shower - no, make that a shower then breakfast - I took down the other two fences and rolled them up. I also gathered the cages I had placed around my young trees so the cattle would not taste test them. I found the one tomato cage elsewhere in the yard. Apparently the cattle had a game of soccer with it. The tree was unmolested.

While my "girls" mowed the yard down low, new dandelions were already popping up yellow here and there around the yard. Can't I have one day without them?!

While friends think I never part with old clothes, I do. Kinda. Today I cut the legs off a really worn out part of pants. Maybe the rest of the pants will be handy when swimming in the river.

With the cooler wetter weather I made a batch of pumpkin bread. Notice I said "pumpkin" and not carrot. I am getting closer to the end of my garden carrots and am saving them for munching on.

With the cloud cover our high today was 76 F -- 10 degrees cooler than yesterday. Lots more humid today.

I rode uptown to exchange the two-piece cattle ear tags for one-piece tags. I had bought the tags at CHS and thought they only carried two-piece tags. I called Murdochs and was told they only carried two-piece tags. I called Dan to tell him I couldn't find one-piece tags. He happened to be at CHS and checked. He found they carried one-piece tags. How did I miss them?! Ah, the two-piece tags are called Y-tags or two-piece tags. The one-piece tags are called Z-tags or snap-on tags. No mention they are one-piece tags.

I then rode over to the county courthouse and the election department. Down Main street Kalispell. On a Friday afternoon. On a spring/summer day. Ergo, lots of traffic. Being on a bicycle helped as I could squeeze between the traffic and parked cars and beat most of the traffic down Main Street to the courthouse.

I gave the election department copies of my drivers license and social security card so I could be enrolled as a county employee to get paid for judging the upcoming elections. $6.50 an hour. Woo hoo! Just above minimum wage. I don't think anyone is doing the judging for the money.

I also picked up my absentee ballot for the upcoming primary election as the election officials were putting the ballots into envelopes to mail out.

On the ride home I decided to take a short jog over to the Flathead River by the Old Steel bridge and see how high the river was. Plenty high. Fast moving and brown. Each side of the river has a day use park and I rode over the bridge to the other side. The bridge is a single lane and only one vehicle is allowed on it at a time. Believe me you want to follow this rule as the county put some metal plates down last year over the old rotted planks, else the bridge had to be closed. I guess the State is scheduled to replace the bridge in a year or two.

A car from one side, then the other would cross. As I was on a bicycle I followed a car when it was halfway across. I don't weigh that much.

As I rode into the day use park an older Ford Bronco with a loud muffler passed me on the gravel drive to the river. It was parked at the end of the lot near the bridge when I arrived at the river. A young woman was walking across the lot and down to the river where a railing stuck out of the brown water. After rolling up her pants legs she waded in the water then climbed onto the railing and sat there. A few minutes later a young man came from the Bronco and passing me walked down to the water's edge to talk with the girl.

I watched the water swirl below me. Below me, along my river bank, the water moved upstream until it got near the bridge then curved out to join the flow downstream. The movement was obvious from the water's flow but small logs heightened the effect. Will a log break free and join the downstream current this time around? There goes one!

The girl came out of the water and walked towards me on her way back to the Bronco. The guy stayed behind. Her pants were still rolled up to just below her knees. She wore a light sweatshirt over a light lime green low cut spaghetti top blouse. She was thin, no more than 100 lbs; she had what I call "Doonesbury" eyes: hooded with dark circles under them. Her skin was pale which made her dark eyes stand out more. She looked to be anywhere from 17 to 20. It was hard to tell as it is hard to gauge a person's age the further in age one is from them.

I asked, "Is the water cold?"

"Oh yes, very cold! I didn't know it would be so deep. I was here three, four days ago and there was no water there. I never seen it so high. Look... I rolled up my pants and they still got wet."

Her pants were wet at the bottom where they were rolled up.

"Well, with the 80 degree temperatures the water will rise fast from the melting snow."

"I didn't realize melting snow can do that. "I came here in 1996 and I never seen it so high."

"Really? 1996 was a record snow year..."

"Right. 13 inches. 13 feet. Something like that. I don't know."

"I would have thought in 1996 the river would have been higher from all that snow."

"I never seen it so high."

10 years ago she would have been, what, 7? 8? 9? Maybe 10?

"I swam in Flathead Lake last week and that was cold!"

"Yah, it's early spring. The lake would be cold. Why were you swimming in the lake this time of year?"

Now the guy she was with came walking up.

"He and his friend said I was bad luck and I got mad and jumped out of the boat into the lake and swam to shore."

The guy didn't say anything and walked over to his Bronco.

"I was so cold I didn't think I would make it. But I did."

"I hope you had a nice hot shower to warm up."

"But I didn't. I had to call my mom to come get me I was so cold. My sister was in a coma, in the hospital. We don't know why but she was... in a coma."

"Oh, sorry to hear that."

"I swam across the river here last year. It was during the summer so the river was lower. But I almost drowned. I didn't think I would make it."

"Oh... uh..."

"A few years ago you should have seen all the big logs floating down the river. That was cool."

"With the higher water maybe we'll see large logs later."

"The logs were a few years ago, after the big fires. Our place almost got burnt by the fire."

"Oh, you lived near Hungry Horse... or near the Park?"

"We lived in Bigfork. Then Lakeside. Then out in the boonies. In the middle of nowhere. The boonies we call it."

None of the places she mentioned had the fires that year. But by now I realized she wasn't the sharpest stick in the woods.

She said, "Well, I gotta go. Don't go swimming in the river."

"I won't. You have a nice weekend."

She walked to the Bronco behind me. I watched the river and logs some more. Then I heard her say behind me, "F* you!"

I turned and she said, "No, no, not you. Him!" She then walked back down to the river, waded back out to the railing, climbed up on it, and sat.

I left.

After I got home I went out to check the pocket gopher traps as I hadn't checked them for several days now. Got four more. As I checked the traps and reset them low slow rumbles of thunder rolled across the sky to the west from the dark blue clouds. One of my favorite sounds. The air was still and humid. As I walked back home it started to rain lightly. The rain was a little cool but felt good on a warm day.

Oh yeah, my river definitely has risen since I last saw it a few days ago!

Anger, grapes, tags, and garden

This morning I rode my bicycle uptown to return to the library the DVD of the movie "The Upside of Anger".

"A comedy where a sharp-witted suburban wife (Joan Allen) is left to raise her four headstrong daughters when her husband unexpectedly disappears. Sinking into anger, resentment and alcohol, things get even more hectic when her neighbor Denny (Kevin Costner), a once-great baseball star turned radio d.j., enters her life as a drinking buddy and romantic interest. The daughters are forced to deal with their mom's anger as well as their own problems."

While the movie revolves around the mother and daughter relationships, on the DVD commentary track, the writer/director (surprisingly a man) said he had added the Kevin Costner character in order to have a male viewpoint/counterpoint. Else the movie would have been totally estrogen like the movie, "Steel Magnolias". As a guy I agree the male character was needed to balance the movie somewhat.

I liked the movie. However after reading some of the user's comments on the imdb web site, I have to agree with a number of plot holes and characterizations. Still, when watching the movie I didn't think about them. That is probably due to Joan Allen's and Kevin Costner's performances in the movie. Be careful in reading reviews of the movie as a number of them have spoilers and reveal stuff that would better appreciated by learning about them when watching the movie instead of prior to the movie.

Grape plants

While riding uptown the man who has quite a number of grape plants inside his deer proof fence on River Road was outside in his driveway. I stopped to ask him about growing grape plants and how his fared over the winter. Only today have I seen some signs of life in his plants. He said the reason his plants are fairing poorly is that he pruned them at the wrong time after he returned from wintering in Arizona. He told me the first few years of planting grape plants are critical as the winter is tough on the young plants until they get their root system established.

He has the deer fence because one year the deer came in and ate his entire grape crop. We also talked about beavers and trees he lost. His backyard borders the Whitefish River.

He is a landlord and was loading carpet and carpet pads into his pickup to take to the landfill. His previous renters, two women, trashed the place and he had lots of repair work to do. He said the best renters are single men. They don't trash the place and are clean.

Ear tags

Dan stopped by to check on how we can immobilize my "girls" in order to place ear tags on them. As I don't have a squeeze chute or head gate we'll try to squeeze a number of cattle into the end of my corral's loading chute and go from there. Dan recommended I return the two-piece tags and get a one-piece tag as the cattle won't be immobile and a two-piece tag has a greater chance of losing one of the pieces before the cattle is tagged.

Unlike the other day with Jan, while the heifers were initially cautious of Dan, they didn't run to the far side of the corral when Dan appeared.

After Dan left I let the cattle out into the yard. After sundown I herded them back into the corral. Again no problems herding them back into the corral. Today is the last they'll be in the yard as they ate all the grass down short. Hardly anything for me to mow with a lawn mower. (They did leave behind some fertilizer for my lawn! )

As the grass was very short by the end of the night the cattle started to look elsewhere in the yard for taller grass. I had a problem with a few of them pushing down and stepping over the simple fence around the well shed and where I had planted asparagus. At least they ignored the few asparagus plants that have come back this year and concentrated on the grass inside the fence.

Still I can't complain. Some of you may remember all the mischief the cattle got into last year when let into the yard. Today I forgot I had put the starting containers for my bell pepper plants outside on the patio. Fortunately the cattle ignored them.

While working in my garden I pulled the tall grass between the garden and the fence on two sides. I tossed the grass over to the cattle who quickly ate it up. They would follow along on the other side of the fence as I moved from one end to the other. A slight breeze was from behind the cattle and I got to smell their grassy cattle breath as they followed me. Their tongues were stained green by the juicy fresh grass that I tossed their way. I pulled some of the weeds growing in the part of the garden I hadn't dug yet but the cattle weren't as enamored with the weeds.

Beets

Tonight I ate the last of my garden beets from last year. I love beets, but I am glad I have finished all of them.

Garden

I finally started to plant my garden. I planted part of the lettuce. The rest of the lettuce will go in the ring by the well shed (and not planted with asparagus) as this area is close to a large pine tree and more shaded than the garden. I planted radishes, green onions, yellow-sweet onions, beets (another long row! ), carrots, parsnips, peas, pole beans, corn, and sunflowers. I had 10 sunflower plants pre-started in the house and those are the sunflowers I planted in the garden. Once I dig the rest of the garden I will plant a few more sunflowers from seed.

It was getting dark (10 pm) when I finished watering what I had planted. I had to run the water slowly so as not to rearrange the seeds all over the place. Even so, each year I find plants growing in clusters with open gaps. *sigh*

Weather

Another hot day. 86 F - a new record high. I am so looking forward to cooler temperatures next week. I like 70 F - the 80s are just too darn hot.

Hang on... just as I am about to post this at 3 am it started to rain. That's a surprise! And welcome as it hasn't rained in a number of weeks, and with the hot weather it has been getting dry and a little smoky/hazy. The views of the mountains haven't been as clear the past few days. Oopps... well, that was short lived. The rain has quit just as I finished typing this.

Training to be a judge and Mystery solved

Today I attended a training class to be an election judge here in Flathead County. While my voting precinct is in Kalispell, I will be a judge in Whitefish at their armory.

The training class was held at the Whitefish city library at 1 pm and ran until 4 pm. A beautiful day for a bicycle ride and so I rode the 15 miles to the library. I don't get up to Whitefish but a few times a year, usually when I catch the train or meet people who come visit me via train.

As I rode nearer Whitefish I could see the lower half of the ski runs on Big Mountain above town were bare of snow.

Building! Building! Building! In addition to the brand new hospital being built on the south side of Whitefish at the intersection of US 93 and MT 40, a field near MT 40 now has quite a number of large houses. Initially I thought they were condos or townhouses as they are large and are close together, but as I rode past they appeared to be individual houses. Usually houses this size are on large lots, like 5 or 10 acres, and yes I saw a number of them elsewhere today.

One I couldn't believe was a house as it was huge. It looked to be three or more stories tall with windows upon windows. Initially I thought it must be an inn, but the location wasn't right for an inn. A house was next this large one, or was it a large trailer? It looked tiny compared to this monster house. I guess the owners needed something to live in while their monster house was being built.

Anyway, this collection of houses outside of Whitefish each looked to be two or three times the size of my little shack. Who needs all that space for a house? I don't get it - the bigger the place the more one fills it with stuff.

I was plenty early to the training session so I rode around Whitefish. Whitefish is a touristy town, especially in the winter during the skiing season. But there a number of galleries and shops to sell stuff during the summer season. I found the new Indian restaurant which I want to try someday. I made it up a few streets on a hill overlooking Whitefish Lake before having to go to the library.

I imagine there were 60-70 people at the training session. All were women except for seven of us men. I think 90% of the people collected social security as the average age appeared to be in the 60s. So I felt like an odd duck.

It appeared a number of people either had a poor short term memory, else they were like teenagers and weren't listening all the time. A number of times they asked questions about things that were explained earlier.

The session covered the roles of the various election judges:

• greeter
• register judge
• poll book judge
• provisional judge
• ballot or M100 judge
• automark judge

The M100 is the voting machine, and the automark is the voting machine for the disabled. The automark even has the ability for the disabled to hook up their breathing device to the automark that allows the disabled to operate the automark voting machine (for the disabled who communicate on computers via breathing). The M100 and automark judge can be the same person.

This election the officials consolidated 46 voting precincts into 30, and 26 of the 30 are new locations. This is because the new law mandated handicap access and most of the old places were not handicap accessible. Say what you will about the 2000 Florida debacle but some good came out of it in new laws requiring handicap access and provisional ballots for those who don't have id or for some reason there is a question about their legitimacy to vote.

Most every group has one person with many comments and questions, and this group had that one person. A 50-ish man who had reading glasses on the end of his nose that he looked over when asking questions. He has some good comments but then he seemed to get overly concerned about how the ballots would be handled, how the seals worked, how the machines would work and if they could be tampered with. Questions after question after concern. He felt the Ohio 2004 election had many irregularities that we need to avoid. After the election presenter answered his concern twice he said "maybe I am the only one who doesn't understand it", to which the majority of the people chimed in, "we all understand it".

I am glad he is not on my "team". Election day will be long enough without listening to all his concerns all day long. Afterwards a woman on my team said at the next table people on his team were passing notes to one another asking "please, he's not on our team?"

On my team is a woman who smokes. A rule is that the election judges must remain in the building at all times during the election. If they leave the building they cannot return and be an election judge anymore. Smoking is banned in all public buildings so this will be hard for the judges who are smokers. I guess she plans on wearing a nicotine patch. We'll see what mood she will be in by the end of the long day.

I met all but one woman on my team. This missing woman apparently is the only one on my team who had been a judge previously. My initial impression is that the people on my team seem to be nice.

After the session was over we decided which role we wanted to take. Carmen is the chief judge. Tom is a 50-ish man with a short grey ponytail. The men-with-ponytails fad is long over, and other than my friend Darrel, most older men with ponytails look silly. Tom volunteered to be the M100 & automark judge as he works with computers and felt he would be best in that position. I didn't tell anyone I was a former IBMer. Fine, he can judge the computers.

I then took "provisional judge". Now if everyone has their id and there are no challenges to their ability to vote, my job probably will be quiet. On the other hand, it could be stressful if they are not registered properly and I need to resolve their ability to vote. I think the others sighed a sigh of relief as I don't think they wanted the provisional judge position.

Rene is the smoker and will be the greeter. She did have concerns the greeter would be on their feet all day as they work the line to ensure people are in the correct line for their precinct and have the correct id. Rene looks to be of social security age so I said I would switch and be greeter if she felt it would be too hard on her. "No! No! I don't want to be provisional judge!" So she will be the greeter.

Jean and Pam will be Register and Poll book judges. These are the people who look up the names in the register and track the ballot numbers for regular, provisional, spoiled ballots in the poll book.

After we settled on the roles, the women decided we need to determine who will bring what food, as we can't leave the place to go eat. Tom volunteered to bring a buffalo stew in a crockpot. Rene said she doesn't cook and volunteered to bring rolls - before I could volunteer. I forgot what the other women are bringing, I think one is bringing a salad, another chocolate. The women didn't want chips or pizza as they didn't want to gain 10 lbs. But... chocolate... yup, women!

Then the women looked at me - "what are you bringing?"

"Umm... I don't really cook."

Rene piped up, "Too late, I am already bringing the rolls!"

I volunteered to bring fruit and vegetables. Carmen then asked if I was an vegetarian. "No." She thought I might be a vegetarian as I am thin and look healthy.

With that settled I asked where the armory was located and got directions. It was outside, SE, of town. With how the roads are laid out it appears the fastest way to get from my place to the armory is to go through town then back out to the armory. Otherwise I would have to zig-zag on backcountry gravel roads to reach the armory.

When I got home I let my "girls" out of the corral and into the yard. I had given them hay earlier and lots of bread in the morning. I even gave them a package of tortillas. They didn't care for the tortillas but I noticed tonight all the tortillas were eaten. I guess they wanted to sniff and taste test them first.

Right after I let the cattle into the yard I got some boards and worked on a wobbly section where the yard fence attached to the hayfield fence. I doubted the heifer got through this area yesterday when she got out into the ditch. But how else did she escape?

As I worked on the fence from the ditch one heifer came and ate grass on the other side of the fence. The rest of the herd was still by the house. A short time later I heard the rattle of wire and looked up to see the heifer doing the limbo under the wire gate to get out of the yard. So that's how she got out yesterday!!! The wire gate wasn't as tight as I had thought. She had gotten her head under the wire and bending down and lifting her neck she slipped under the gate which went back into position after she exited.

How and why she thought of doing this, I don't know. The gravel driveway is on the other side of the gate so she shouldn't have accidentally discovered this while reaching for grass on the other side of the fence.

I quickly opened the gate and herded her back inside. As I went to close the gate she approached again. "Shoo!" A minute later she came again in a beeline to get to and under the gate. "Shoo! Shoo!" She got mad at me. She made some sort of noise, swung around and ran off twisting her body and kicking her rear legs in the air like cattle do when they are annoyed. *sigh*

Since she went and rejoined the herd by the house I quickly went and got my pickup and parked it in front of the gate. That put an end to her jail-breaking ways.

I am glad to have figured out the mystery on how she got out yesterday. And relieved she hadn't hopped the fence to get out. If she had hopped the fence that could have been trouble down the road as that is my standard fence height.

I did see a smaller heifer had gotten inside the fence around my well shed. *sigh* I watched and after she ate the grass down inside she sniffed but did not chew on the shed's asphalt shingles. Then she wanted to get out but forgot how she got in. She pushed the fence down a little and tried to walk over it but got her leg in the fence. She reminded me of a cat trying to shake something off its paw. But a heifer is a little larger than a cat. She got her leg free but was still inside the fence. On her second attempt she got out. I had to later go and fix the fence and put it back up.

The cattle went around and around eating the grass down. One more day and that will be all as the cattle have trimmed the grass down pretty well. They don't seem to care for the foxtail, and I will use the lawn mower on that and also to even out the odds and ends of taller grass (mainly next to the manure dropped earlier).

When it came time to go back in the corral most approached me as if I had something for them. I had to be a "meany" and turn them around and herd them back to the corral. After a few steps they went into a run and ran back into the corral. Two nights in a row they easily went back into the corral. Either they are fast learners, or I got lucky two nights in a row.

I did notice my pile of rocks collected from my walks across the hayfield was scattered. For now I dump the rocks against the corner of the barn where the addition sticks out. I don't know why the cattle spread the rock pile out - maybe mad at me for not letting them out into the yard when I was gone at the training session?

The stump in the SW pasture is still smoldering. Tonight as I rode on the road I could faintly smell the sweet smoke from the stump. Yesterday I could still see smoke rising from the hole. Tonight the wind was from the right direction to push the smoke towards the road, and the air temperature or whatever was right to hold the smoke near the ground and not let it rise up and away.

The other night the moon was a dark orange. Not red - orange. The full moon was last Saturday so it was past full moon. Still, quite pretty hanging low in the SE sky late at night.