Chainsaw work

I was up early this morning. Brian took his car in to have the oil changed and for the mechanic to check out a few noises the car was making.

Before I will let the cattle into the south pasture I wanted to cut up the fallen tree that is sitting off the ground on its branches. It sat from ground level at the top of the tree to six feet or more at the bottom of the tree. Because the cattle like to stand under the tree and scratch against the supporting branches I felt this year - as it has been several years since the tree blew over - I had to cut the tree up so it wouldn't fall on any cattle.

I had to make another batch of 'chainsaw gasoline' (add special oil to gasoline). I had to go to a gas station to get a gallon of gas.

I would cut a few supporting branches, then a section of tree. And so on. All while paying attention that the tree wouldn't suddenly fall over on me.

I thought one tank of gas would be sufficient to cut the tree. I was wrong. I ran out of gas before making the final two cuts. *argh* I had to walk back to the house to get more gasoline.

Brian was back from getting the car's oil changed. The strange car sound was probably a loose heat shield. Difficult to reach to tighten. Labor would be expensive so Brian is thinking it over.

After cutting up the final sections of tree I, and Brian, picked the goat's beard that had gone to seed in the NE part of the south pasture.

Then I had my second shower of the morning - I should have waited till after cutting the tree as I was now covered in sawdust and sweat.

After my shower I noticed the Holstein steer was again in the south pasture while the herd took a siesta along the south/middle pasture fence. How does he get through the fence?!!! Brian held the gate and kept the herd from going through it as I easily herded the Holstein through the gate.

Then we were off to visit Glacier National Park - which I'll write about another day as it is late and we have another full day of adventure in the Park planned for tomorrow.

Weeds and Brian's arrival

Weeds

I was out again early (for me that is!) to pull goat's beard weeds while the flowers were still open. I went over most of my previously covered hayfield before I got distracted by seeing open seed pods in the south pasture. Granted it has been a few days since I pulled all the weeds I could find there, but scattered around the field there were two to three dozen open seed pods. I had hoped my earlier weed pulling would delay the new plants from growing and going to seed so soon.

I carefully bent each seed pod so it was leaning into my plastic bag before I pulled the pod off the plant. That jarring movement often causes the pod to break apart and the seeds to scatter.

I didn't finish with the south pasture as I seen that Brian had arrived.

Brian

Brian had arrived before 2 pm. Fortunately he wasn't here long before I noticed him. I put him right to work as when I returned towards the house I seen the one Holstein steer was again in the south pasture. I had Brian hold the gate open and keep the herd from passing through it while I herded the Holstein back in the middle pasture. I am not quite ready for the herd to rotate to the south pasture. Any day now.

We walked the fence line and I could not find a break in the fence, nor get an idea how this Holstein gets through the fence. He has some trick only known to him as no other cattle follow him.

After getting situated I took Brian to Lone Pine State park to get an overview of the valley. Seeing as it was a warm day, the view was hazy. I discovered the park's huge old dead tree was gone. Not sure why. It must have fallen over and was removed.

We drove a short ways along the west side of Flathead Lake. We drove through the townsite of Somers, MT. I don't ever remember visiting the area, unless maybe several decades ago on one of my bicycle rides around the valley. It was larger than I expected. The narrow streets among the houses looked to be old walking paths as they were not straight, nor on a grid pattern.

People were out on the lake on this warm-to-hot day. The water felt nice to soak one's feet in. A few women jumped in to swim. The water was cold for swimming.

Down the highway we visited the West Shore state park before returning home. Only a few people were at this state park so it was very quiet and peaceful.

Weeds, mosquitos, gophers, Brian

Weeds

Yup, still pulling weeds. Filled two more plastic grocery bags with the seed pods. I may only have one full days work of pulling before I have completed one pass of the hayfield. As I only get about 80-90%, that leaves more passes to find the rest of the goat's beard.

I was up earlier than usual and the yellow flowers were open when I started my weed work. For the first time this year I pulled goat's beard from the NE pasture. The grass has recovered from the cattle and is growing again, along with the weeds.

Mosquitos

Man, they are bad this year! When pulling weeds in the evening I have to wear a long sleeve flannel (thick) shirt, cap, gloves, and mosquito repellent on my exposed face, neck,and ears. Even then many mosquitos try to find some place: inside my ears, by my eyes, or a sometimes gap between my shirt and glove.

I have mosquitos even during mid day. It is sunny and in the low 80s F but they still want my blood. I seem to scare them up in certain areas. That is, lower areas with lots of alfalfa for the mosquitos to hide under in shade during the day.

Gophers

It has switched. Now I am catching pocket gophers and the regular gophers are avoiding the holes with the traps. Tonight I seen a gopher at the very first "subdivision" I had cleared gophers from. *sigh*

One of my pocket gopher traps broke. The plastic inside barrier/trip goes through the top of the trap and has two little plastic prongs to hold it in place while allowing the barrier/trip to swivel. The two little prongs broke off. This has happened once before. When I had called the company to get a replacement part, they told me they stopped selling this model and were redesigning it for this very reason. I was able to bend a small wire to hold the barrier/trip and continue to use that trap. I'll have to do the same with this trap.

Brian

Brian didn't make it here today. He decided, since he is on vacation, to take a side trip and drive on the Beartooth Highway. Last year mud and rock slides damaged that highway and it had to be rebuilt, closing the highway for the summer.

The Beartooth Highway was a little out of Brian's way. He called from Helena at 8 pm wondering whether to make the drive to my place tonight. Only if you like driving at night as you won't get here till midnight or later. I stay up late so it is no inconvenience to me. It doesn't get dark till after 10 pm, but he'd still would miss seeing a lot of the scenery along the way. He decided to stay overnight in Helena. He'll be here tomorrow.

More weed pulling, etc.

An early start to the days goat's beard weed pulling. I was out there by 9:30 am. The flowers were still open. That meant I got distracted by weeds in the northern part of the field as I made my way to the southern unpicked area. Yes, even though I picked the northern part of the field many, many times, new goat's beard weeds are coming up. And I do find a few older ones I missed earlier.

The plastic bag I used today turned out to be a little larger than the standard grocery bag - which I didn't realize. I quit for the day when I filled the bag with seed pods. That turned out to be 4 pm. Later than I thought. A long time with no break. Time flies when you're having fun...?

This morning (or was it noon?) my main eastern neighbor came with a tractor and mower and started to mow his weed infested field. Hurray! By the end of the day he mowed the majority of it. He should easily finish the mowing tomorrow. That just leaves a small section to the north of this neighbor, but still east of me. This property is owned by a land developer who has done nothing with it since he bought it a few years ago.

While I was pulling weeds I thought it looked like the Holstein steer had gotten into the south pasture yet again today. Later I seen he was in the middle pasture with the herd. Either he found his way back to the herd or always was in the middle pasture. It is hard to tell as he usually is near the herd but not among the herd, and the herd was along the middle/south pasture fence.

Tonight when I felt the seed pods in my plastic bag they were hot. Even after picking them the conversion to seeds is going on.

I think I only have two days left to finish my first pass at picking the field.

The gopher that moved the trap yesterday somehow triggered the trap today but did not get caught. Must have scared him as I didn't see him popping up to see what I was doing today as I approached the hole.

Even though I painted my marking sticks and rods fluorescent orange, I have trouble finding them. Today Jan gave me a bunch of white milk jugs to place over the tops of the sticks and rods. I need a few more then I'll have all the traps marked. They certainly help. Today I wandered and wandered looking for that final gopher trap. That gets old fast.

I took a few minutes to look over my garden. The weeds! The weeds! I fear a repeat of last year where the garden weeds took off as I was battling goat's beard weeds.

The apple trees look great. Even the one sickly looking plum tree is looking better. Fortunately my fruit trees and berry bushes do fine without attention from me. The raspberry plants are really taking off. Maybe a bit more than I'd like. They are coming up solidly together. If I remember right they are a little scratchy. So it may be a problem searching them for raspberries.

His first day of driving from Minnesota, Brian made it to Buffalo, Wyoming. Not as far as he planned for the first day. He will arrive Sunday sometime.

Gonna have a vacation

This morning Brian from Rochester called. He is finally coming to visit. He starts a new permanent job the first week of July and has time now to go on a vacation.

I've told friends I don't need much advance notice, just a day or so. Which is what I am getting. Brian plans to arrive Sunday afternoon. Hmmm... where are my cleaning supplies? I need to make the place livable.

Brian's timing is good as Glacier Nat'l Park's Going-to-the-Sun road opened Friday afternoon.

Where does my vacation fit into all this? The only time I take time off away from the ranch to see the park and the area is when I have company.

Jail break

Hmmm... is this a broken record? Today after mending the fence where the magpie (Holstein) broke it yesterday, I noticed that magpie in the south pasture again!! He saw me by the fence, and since the rest of the herd was along the north fence he wanted back into the middle pasture. I opened the gate and he started to come but then got distracted by eating some grass. *sigh* I had to herd him a bit. This time he knew where the open gate was and went through to rejoin the herd.

I checked the fence and couldn't find any breaks. I did notice the top wires on the gate were sagging a bit. I wonder if he jumped the gate? I tightened up the gate closure to make the top wires sit higher.

When walking along the north/middle pasture fence I found a broken fence wire by the apple tree. None of the cattle went through the fence. I guess they have "been there, done that".

What will tomorrow bring?

Gophers

Only caught one pocket gopher the past few days. What's up with that? They are around. I usually catch one, or have him fill the trap with dirt, within 24 hours. A few days ago, not having caught a gopher, I figured the tunnel had been abandoned. I put the dirt back in the hole and moved the trap. A day after that I saw fresh dirt mounds where I filled the dirt. 24 hours later I trapped the pocket gopher.

I'll give the remaining traps another 24 hours.

Even though I have painted the marking sticks with orange fluorescent paint I still have trouble finding the sticks in the tall grass. Today I had to stand on top of my fence to search for one trap. I have started placing empty milk jugs on top of the sticks (3 so far). That really helps.

Another subdivision has been re-occupied. *sigh* I put a conibear trap over the top of the hole. When I checked an hour later the trap had been pushed to the side of the hole. *argh!* That's a first. These gophers are getting smarter.

Neighbor moving

The couple renting the house to my south have bought a house and are moving in July. It is too bad as they are nice neighbors. They gave me odds and ends of chain link fencing and a roll of wire fencing (not field fence). Also I get their old harrow. The property they bought is a half acre and the harrow is no use to them. Even here I used their harrow more than they did.

Weeds

What's my day without weeds? I pulled weeds for only a little over a half day as I had ridden my bicycle to the main post office to mail my shipping labels back to the nursery for my 1 year guarantee. Even working less than a full day I filled one and a half plastic grocery bags with seed pods.

The deer think they are helping me, but they are not. The deer are eating the younger stalks on the plants with multiple stalks. The oldest, central, stalk's seed pod is all seed and no flower, and therefore of no interest to the deer. With only the oldest seed pod left, the plant must think it is under attack and then opens the seed pod to scatter its seeds. Sometimes all it takes is to step on a plant and the next afternoon the pod opens to disperse its seeds even if it not quite time to do so. Other than a few early openers (always someone who wants to be first), most of the open seeds today were on partially eaten plants. The rest are waiting for whatever is the main trigger before opening.

Today's picking followed where the open seed pods were located. In between I picked large pods that look ready to open any time now. There are many of these. I am starting to feel this year I won't be able to pick all the goat's beard pods before they open. Especially with Brian coming to visit. Remember I said I needed three more days to finish my first pass at clearing the field? Yup, after today's work I still need three more days.

On the brighter side, the plants for the most part misjudged how high they need to grow to be above the grass. Once they open their flower they do not grow higher. New stalks can, and usually do, grow higher before flowering. Many of my plants are not taller than the surrounding grass. Even though this afternoon was breezy, most of the open seed balls were intact when I got to them. Maybe this will keep much of my eastern neighbor's seeds over in his field. I sure hope so!

Weeds, missing trap, jailbreak, other annoyances

Weeds

I got outside to pull weeds earlier this morning: 9:30 am. The flowers were open and the dew was on the grass. My shoes and pants legs got soaking wet. The dew was gone about the same time the flowers closed for the day: 11 am. With all the flowers open I started from the north end and worked south. While I have gone over this area numerous times, this was the first time when the flowers were open. I found a number of goat's beard weeds scattered here and there.

Yesterday I thought I had three full days of pulling left before I gone over all the field at least once. Today, after a full day of weeding I think I have three full days left. *sigh* I picked almost two full grocery plastic bags of seed pods.

Gophers

Since the eagle/hawk circled over me in the hayfield when I pulled weeds ("Hey! Open the traps to release the gophers so we can eat!") I figured I should check on the traps after eating my lunch. Some traps had gophers, some were tripped with no gophers, some were set and empty, and one was missing. *argh!* I staked my traps well after losing the first two. I lost this trap because it had no chain to hold it. It was a leghold trap I had bought at the auction. In place of a chain was a wire. Or two wires fastened together. The stake and half the wire remained.

I don't know if the eagle/hawk carried off the gopher and trap, or since this is a leghold trap the gopher dragged the trap back down the hole with him. Some holes are large enough for a triggered trap to fit. I have had to pull out gophers and traps that were held tight by the stake. I started to dig out the hole but it quickly went down deep, and who knows how deep.

Another trap gone.

Jailbreak

While I was checking my pocket gopher traps I noticed one of the Holstein steers was in the south pasture. What?! I could see part of the herd was along the north fence. Is there more cattle than this one Holstein in the south pasture?

The Holstein was running along the south/middle pasture fence. It was calling for the herd; that's how I noticed it. By the time I reached the gate it was halfway back to the river. I called it. Nothing. As the herd was still along the north fence I opened the gate then went into the pasture to herd him back.

As I approached him to circle around to herd him, the steer began to approach me. Oh. I turned and walked to the gate. He followed. Part way. Then he got distracted by eating grass under a tree. *sigh* By now I could see his Holstein brother was coming across the middle pasture. I started herding him and he wasn't too keen on the idea. His brother was now at the fence so I had to keep at him to head towards the gate.

It was going slow but steady when I noticed the rest of the herd coming. Coming to the open gate. Great. I added a little urgency to the herding of the Holstein. That, seeing the approaching herd, and finally noticing the open gate, and he ran through the gate. I rushed to close the gate before the herd got the idea of coming through it. *whew!*

The herd gathered around me. I took this opportunity to count them to see if there were any more jailbreakers. They kept moving and I kept counting. Over and over. Once I counted 28 twice, I knew that was correct.

I wanted to check the fence to see how the Holstein got through it. But I didn't want the herd to follow along. I waited till they got bored and a number of them laid down. While waiting a number of them wanted to sniff and lick me. Mostly my cattle as they are more used to me. Several then started to lick my pants legs. My pants are loose around the knees and the next I knew several tried to tear my pants off. "Now girls! Behave yourselves!"

It was only a short distance before I found the fence break. As an inner fence it is only three strands. A middle strand had been patched with a old rusty piece of wire and this is what broke. I did a quick re-wire job on it by hand until I can get time tomorrow to wire it correctly.

My heifer is smarter than Dan's Holstein. When my heifer got out, even though I did a quick re-wire job, she knew where to go to get back through the fence and re-broke the wire. Dan's Holstein couldn't remember where the broken wire was in the fence even though he walked right by it several times.

Other annoyances

I am trying to straighten out my final bill for the cataract surgery last January. I know what my deductible is for my health plan and the hospital and doctor's clinic each sent me a bill although they are part of the same hospital group. Their bills have duplicate items and different items. The numbers don't add up.

Then today the clinic said the were going to sic a collection agency on me if I don't pay. And here I had been trying to get them to send me a bill to my home address as they had been sending bills to my mother's place where I had stayed when I had the surgery. Lately I had been trying to get them to explain the different bills to me and they hadn't called back. One hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing.

I had to call my health insurance company to see if they paid everything. Oh joy. They said they had. I left it to the hospital and the insurance company to speak with one another to find out who is wrong.

Also, I had ordered some trees and shrubs from a nursery last year. All but a few things died. That is what happens when they finally ship the stuff in August. The 1 year guarantee is about up. I ordered online so I scanned the shipping labels into the computer and sent the original order back to them for their guarantee. Oh, no... the guarantee isn't good over the internet. I have to physically mail the shipping labels back to them along with a description of what is bad.

Etc.

Tonight as I was riding my bicycle back from getting the weekly papers I was startled to see a dark shape overhead. I was riding on the road along my property when a silent dark shape came from above and my left. A huge owl floated down then folded its wings before dropping in the grass in the ditch, else just on the other side of the fence in my hayfield. It was too dark to see exactly as I kept moving along on my bicycle. I guess the owls aren't gone after all.

Quickly high, slowly low

The river is dropping. From the USGS chart notice how fast it rose in 36 hours from all the rain. But days later it slowly drifts down. It is now at 856 CFS. It took four days to lose 154 CFS, while only 36 hours to gain over 250 CFS.

Weeds, hole, birds, gophers, Chris, cattle

Weeds

Much of the day again was taken up with weed pulling. I finished going over the south pasture and also moved further in the hayfield. I am now up to the south power line tower. The further south I go, the more weeds, the more multiple stalk weeds, and larger seed pods ready to open. At this rate it will take me three full days before I reached the south property line.

Where I have already pulled weeds in the hayfield, I got most of them. This morning I seen some yellow flowers in the picked area. The flowers were on tall, thin, spindly stalks as they had to grow fast and tall the past day or two to grow as high or higher than the surrounding grass. Still, even these weak plants can produce lots of seeds.

I filled a little under two plastic grocery bags with seed pods today. Yesterday I filled one and a quarter bags.

This morning the breeze was from the east. The worst possible direction when the seed pods open as my neighbor's field seems to be nothing but goat's beard weeds. Grant commented that if the seed pods open during an east wind I am done for. He is right. That neighbor's field must have a billion seeds. Nothing I can do as goat's beard is not a Montana noxious weed so one doesn't have to control them. Thankfully today was cool and only a few pods opened here and there.

Hole

When searching for weeds in the south pasture I came across a large hole with a large mound of dirt outside it. The hole was on the edge of the rain shadow of a large pine tree near the south property line. I am not sure when it was dug, but no more than two or three weeks ago. I seen paw prints on the soft dirt outside the hole, but they were made earlier as the recent rains have mostly washed them out.

Since Grant works for the MT Fish & Wildlife department I asked him this morning when he was checking the bee hives. From my description he felt it could either be a fox, coyote, or badger hole. Somewhat late in the year for a new fox or coyote den, and since I had seen a badger a few weeks ago in the hayfield, the odds are it is a badger hole.

Badger will dig after gophers and pocket gophers. I have no gophers in the south pasture. The pocket gopher mounds are no where near this hole. Maybe it is a badger den?

Birds

While pulling goat's beard weeds in the hayfield I had some small bird chirping at me. I have seen these little birds other years when pulling weeds. They must have their nests on the ground somewhere as I never have come across them. The birds can sit on alfalfa plants so one can hear their "chirp. chirp. chirp." and not see them.

Today the bird sat on the north power line tower and "chirped" at me. Initially it was neat to hear the bird. After 10 minutes of constant 'chirping' it got annoying. Another nest must be along the west fence as I heard chirping when nearby.

Later I heard a different bird warning call. I looked up to see several large birds circling above the hayfield floating on thermals. In all I seen 5 of these birds. Two at a lower level, two at a higher level, and the last bird well high. While I could tell they were very large birds I couldn't tell if they were eagles or hawks.

They circled over the north hayfield before their circling took them northward. Looking for gophers or pocket gophers from my traps I imagine.

Gophers

My two new conibear traps are now "broken in". Both traps were tripped with one empty trap and one dead gopher.

When walking out to check my traps I could see at a distance three gophers running from the "subdivision" that I had cleared and shut down last week. Hmmm... I found that three of the "subdivision's" holes were reopened. After removing gophers from several traps I moved those traps back to clear out this "subdivision" once again. With all the gophers (46) I have trapped in the past two weeks I am a little surprised to find them expanding to reclaim that "subdivision". I guess it is a nice area, else their existing holes are crowded with gophers.

Chris

Just as I finished pulling weeds late afternoon Chris rode by on his mountain bicycle. He stopped to talk. I haven't talked with him in over three years as his daughter is now two. I'm not sure if his daughter was even a "gleam in his eye" when we last spoke. I did know he had a daughter as I talked with his mom a few times the past few years.

We caught up on the major events in his life and where he is working now. Before I got cattle his parents had pastured their two horses at my place during the summers. I showed him the new corral fence work I had done this spring.

Chris makes beer and I gave him a small bottle of my beet wine. Chris said he can make mead using honey. So if I get a lot of honey this year, we may make mead. Bees, do your stuff!

Cattle

The cattle are doing fine. Yesterday some were in a bad mood as they were pushing one another. They weren't wrestling testing their strength like steers do. They were pushing one another as if to say "Get away from me. Get out of here. Don't crowd me. Don't touch me." They seem to be in a better mood today. Overall they are happy cattle.

Tonight I heard a banging of metal. Huh? Then I seen one of the cattle near the stack of irrigation pipes. *sigh* I'll have to walk by there tomorrow to see if they knocked some pipes off the pile.

When I am nearby in the hayfield pulling weeds some of the cattle stand near the fence and watch me. "Pulling out green edible stuff! What, is he crazy?" ...perhaps.

Weeds and a wink

Weeds

More goat's beard weed picking today. I had errands to run this morning, then had to check on my gopher and pocket gopher traps, then I got down to serious weed pulling.

Today I wore a glove on my weed pulling hand to keep the goat's beard sap off my hand.It otherwise takes a lot of scrubbing to get the sap off. I also wore the glove as my hand is getting sore from pulling weed after weed after weed. My hand seems to be getting weaker, or the weed roots tougher to pull from the ground, or a combination of the two. Other years the same thing happened and I thought the weeds were harder to pull because the ground got drier and therefore harder. With all the rain this year that has not happened yet.

This morning when I looked out over my hayfield I could only see a few yellow flowers here and there on the north side. Even when I stood near the top of my fence. Success!

I started checking for weeds near where I left off yesterday and reached the other side of the north power line tower. Getting into unchecked territory went slower as the weeds were more numerous. I then switched to the south pasture in an effort to complete checking it. I did not succeed as it got dark before I could check the SE corner.

On my way home I walked through the hayfield. Even in the rapidly darkening field I was able to pick out the large seed pods. The dew was forming fast. By the time I got home my shoes were wet and my lower pant legs were soaked.

Today I found a half dozen pods opened to seed balls. They opened even though the day was cool and cloudy (and of course a rain sprinkle when I first went to the first to check for weeds). I imagine a large number of seed pods will open when we first get a warm and sunny day. And one of the those type of days is in the forecast soon.

Wink

This morning I ran my weekly collection of errands. I bought two more conibear traps. I bought two blocks of "bloat blocker". These are needed to prepare the cattle before I let them into the hayfield. Because the hayfield is part mature alfalfa, the bloat blocks are needed to prevent the cattle from getting bloated because they pigged out on the alfalfa. The "bloat blocker" blocks are not cheap. They cost $18 each.

I get so focused on tasks that I later wondered as I walked the hayfield and pulled weeds, "Was she flirting with me?" I stopped at the Food Bank and learned there was no extra bread for my cattle this week. As I was at the door to leave I talked with the old lady who runs the place. I don't remember what we were talking about, but whatever it was I saw an attractive woman, who while kneeling down to get a bag off the floor, look up at me and give me a wink.

I noticed the wink, but it didn't register at the time as I was focused on the conversation with the old lady and also on the rest of my errands that I needed to complete that morning. Was that a wink because she was flirting with me? I guess I'll never know.


By the way, I reached a milestone in trapping pocket gophers today. 150 for the year. I am on track to easily exceed my total (209) for all of last year. Especially considering all the fresh mounds of dirt I find as I pick weeds in my hayfield. And the south pasture which I cleared this spring... quite a number of fresh mounds of dirt. *sigh*

Goat's beard

I decided I will call the "Western Salsify/Salsify/Western Goat's Beard/Goat's Beard" weeds: Goat's Beard. I tried calling them salsify as I believe that is their plant classification/family. But it doesn't sound "right".

"I pulled salsify today." "I picked some salsify." "Lots of salsify to pick."

It sounds like I am making a Mexican dish. Some salsa or salad. Not pulling weeds. Salsify just doesn't sound like a weed. Goat's beard sounds like a weed. Goat's beard it is.

Now that I have settled on their name, I have to pick/pull/get rid of them from my property. My plan of having the cattle eat them is not working. Not that the cattle aren't willing, it's just the hayfield is the last area in their pasture rotation and I have realized that won't be till after the goat's beard has gone to seed. So I am back to pulling and spraying them again this year.

During a rainy day last week I rode my bicycle along the road one morning during a lull in the rain. I had plenty of yellow flowers scattered throughout my hayfield eager for the sun. *sigh*

Then I looked at my neighbor's field across the road. He doesn't hay his small field. Instead he mows it once in July. Always after the goat's beard has gone to seed. Previous years when I had extra time I picked his flowers and seeds closest to the road (and therefore closest to my property). Floating seeds don't respect property boundaries.

This year he has more yellow goat's beard flowers than ever. His field looks yellow and green, like the Green Bay Packers football team. My field is green with some yellow. My efforts the past few years have had an effect, though I would have expected very few goat's beard weeds what with all the effort I have put in to eradicate them completely. I guess I got to take small victories when I can.

Last Sunday my neighbor was spraying in his field here and there using a backpack sprayer. I spoke with him. He was spraying the Canadian and Bull thistle, and whatever weeds he saw. He said he also planned to spray the weeds that look like big dandelions. I pointed out his field was thick with them. He then said he might mow his field. I pointed out I saw two goat's beard plants that already went to seed a half mile south of us, so if he plans to mow to get rid of them it should be sooner than later. Aren't I a helpful neighbor...

The past month, when checking my pocket gopher traps in the hayfield, I had been pulling the weeds I came across. Since last Monday I have made a concerted effort to get rid of the weeds. To do this I walk the hayfield east/west and go from north to south. I try to search logically rather than go wherever I see the next flower or plant. The southern part of the field is where the plants are thicker and takes more time to clear.

Even after the flowers close to hide their yellow I have seen enough plants that I can pick out many of their stalks hiding among the grass. Notice I said "many" and not most or all. Sometimes I find a plant by feel as when I brush against it or step on their stiff stalk. A plant can be right in front of me, unseen among the tall grass, until I step on it.

Last Monday I searched until calling it quits when I reached the northern power line tower. This two thirds of the field holds probably half or less or the weeds. I was hungry, thirsty and hot as the sky was clear and the temperature in the 80s F. When I got home I found I had been out picking weeds for 5 hours! Time flies...

The next morning I looked out across the hayfield from the north: yellow flowers scattered throughout. *groan* Didn't my efforts the previous day have any effect?

Between the rain and errands I didn't get much time to make a concerted effort the remainder of last week to pick more goat's beard. Yesterday and today I dedicated time to picking weeds. It took two days and I still haven't gotten back to the power line tower where I had reached last Monday. To be fair I spent a good deal of time in the south pasture picking the weeds. As the cattle haven't been in this field yet I have weeds to pick. My pasture rotation plan is turning out to be work for me in more ways than one.

As quite a number of plants have the wispy white sticking out of a mature seed pod (the goat's beard), I now have to carry a plastic grocery bag with me to hold the seed pods and mature looking flowers. I have filled a bag and a half so far.

While I try to get up earlier in the morning to pick the weeds when the flowers are open and therefore easier to spot, I am having trouble doing so. I have taken to picking the weeds also in the evening. I find the light when the sun is lower in the western sky highlights the thicker and paler green weeds and seed pods from among the grass. When the sun is overhead the weeds tend to blend in the tall grass - though, I either have an eye to spot them else there are so many any idiot can find some. I probably fall into the later as this evening when searching for my pocket gopher traps I kept finding weed after weed in an area searched thoroughly in the morning and day.

Today was a mostly cloudy day until a few breaks in the clouds towards evening. The flowers stayed open longer to get the sun. The downside was the heavy dew did not dry. My shoes, socks, and pants below the knees were soaked. After a change of shoes and socks over lunch, I returned to the field to check pocket gopher traps and also pick more weeds. A light shower passed overhead. *sigh* Now this pair of shoes and socks are wet.

I did see a beautiful rainbow after the shower. It was bright and very thick. I like how the mountains are behind the rainbow. It adds to the picture. And one knows the pot of gold has to be in the Valley! As the rain shower lessened, the rainbow did also. Not in an overall fading way; but the southern end of the rainbow disappeared, and this continued on up till only the northern arch went from the ground up into the rain cloud. The part of the rainbow that was left was just as bright and thick as when the entire rainbow could be seen. I got to buy a camera!

Tonight I found my first open seed pod in my field. *augh!* For several days now I have seen a couple open pods here and there along the road a half mile or more to the south. The weather hasn't been warm enough to trigger the seed pods to open - or so I thought. In the past years the pods didn't seem to open till almost July. Then again, yesterday I notice my alfalfa is starting to bloom. With all this rain everything seems to be earlier than usual this year.

I have lots of mature goat's beard weeds south of my power line towers. If the weeds are starting to open now, I'm doomed. And I hope for a westerly breeze to keep my eastern neighbor's millions upon millions of seeds away from my field. An east breeze and next year will be a nightmare.

Looks to be another month lost this year to fighting these weeds.

Birch Grove auction

I did pretty well Saturday; I was only an hour late to the nearby auction. I arrived at 11 am which is pretty good considering I had gone to bed at 3 am that morning, and I had the crazy bicycle ride in the rain hours earlier.

The auction was a retirement auction for a collector and restorer of old tractors and farm machinery along with tools, license plates, and other stuff. I had ridden my bicycle past the auction site earlier in the week and wondered where all the stuff could be as I could only see a small house and a few acres behind the house. He may have only had a few acres but behind the trees were a number of metal buildings that were his workshops and storage areas. From the condition of the items they were all stored inside.

I'm not looking for antique stuff; the auction ad mentioned tools, equipment, and other farm stuff. The only things I was interested in were some boxes of bolts, nuts, and nails, and one box of old miscellaneous traps, and maybe a livestock watering tank. These items were hours later, but it was a nice enough day and the items being sold were different than the unusual items at other auctions.

Shortly after I arrived they sold a very tall wooden stepladder, very long wooden ladder, and one piece of a small aluminum extension ladder. Usually ladders sell for a good price. The step ladder sold for $15. This is a low price and I started to think about if I wanted it. Before I could decide it was sold.

The long wooden ladder sold for only $10. Again to my surprise, and while I pondered, it too was sold.

The aluminum ladder interested me as I need one catch for my aluminum ladder. While this ladder's catch was different maybe I could still use it. The auctioneer tried to sell a box of miscellaneous junk and had no bidders so they suddenly threw the ladder in with it. A bid of $1. As I raised my hand to answer the call for $2 the auctioneer sold it all for $1 to the initial bidder. Darn. I would have paid $2 on the chance the catch would work for my ladder.

The owner also collected the chrome car names they use to put on cars. My first car had one. I thought it looked cool, but it was a pain to clean around. He also collected a number of hood ornaments. These were popular on 1950s cars. He had them all mounted on large black plywood pieces. I saw an ornament similar to one I had on my first car. No, my car wasn't a 1950s model (it was from 1960), but I loved the hood ornament (an airplane shape) I had found so much I drilled holes in my car hood and installed it on my car. I had the only 1960 Chevy with a hood ornament. My current car wouldn't look good with a hood ornament so I didn't buy any at the auction. And they didn't go cheap. Though if I really wanted one, it was worth the price.

I didn't get any nails, bolts or nuts. They were on a flatbed trailer with lots of boxes of other miscellaneous shop items. Some items were sold a box at a time, but by the end of the trailer they were grabbing two, three or four boxes and selling them as a group. The owner had sorted the bolts, nuts, washers of different sizes into boxes for each size. I was interested in only a middle, or common size. And sometimes the group of boxes had stuff unrelated to bolts, etc. I bid on some of them, but wouldn't go over $5 so I lost out to a couple of other guys who wanted the stuff and would bid it higher. One old (70ish) guy annoyed me and not just because he out bid me for the nuts and bolts. He smoked a lot and was a little pushy.

A cattle dehorner went for $20, the same price that two of them together sold for at the last auction I attended.

Finally the trailer with the box of traps. By now the weather had changed. I had been keeping an eye on rain showers north of the auction site. The rain at the north end of the valley tends to go straight east and into and through the Badrock Canyon gap to Glacier Park. And it did also today but we still got some light sprinkles when they moved to this trailer with the traps. Still, not enough rain to chase people away.

The box of traps had two conibear traps, quite a number of small leghold traps, and several large animal leghold traps. I didn't even get into the bidding mix as a young 20ish Amish fellow started the bidding at $20 and it quickly escalated from there. The traps sold for $50.

When he walked over to get his box another older Amish fellow with a long pronounced beard (the kind that only runs along the jaw line and chin) told the 20ish man that traps don't work that well for him to catch a woman. The 20ish guy wasn't amused.

I asked if he wanted the conibear traps. He looked through the box and found the two. He asked what I'd pay for them and I said $5. He wasn't that keen on the offer and decided to keep them. Oh well, at my last auction I had paid $7.50 for 3 conibear traps and 5 leghold traps. There will be other auctions. Traps are a common item at farm auctions.

The Amish man with the pronounced beard bought a box of miscellaneous stuff. In the box there was a pint jar of white powder. The owner was nearby and came over to say that this was ash he collected after Mt. St. Helens exploded in 1980.

The owner also collected cast iron tractor and farm machinery seats. They were neat. Most of the seats were not solid, instead they had lots of holes. Many looked like spiderwebs. A number had a name spelled out on the back slightly upright part of the seats. The seats looked to be heavy!

Here are some similar seats as to what I had seen at the auction:


He also had the front plates for grain drills and other old equipment that had company names and logos on them. One long flatbed trailer was covered with all these items. Earlier I overheard one fellow say that half the seats belonged to his grandfather, and the grandfather had brought them from North Dakota when he moved out here. The grandfather ended up selling the seats to the current owner many years ago.

The current owner and his wife are also originally from North Dakota. I remember in the 1970s many of the newcomers to the Flathead Valley came from North Dakota. So many that the locals would tell North Dakota jokes to put them down. You know, the standard ethnic jokes but with "North Dakotan" substituted. They even published small books of North Dakota jokes. My father even owned one. Now-a-days it is Californians who move to the Valley. Some things change, others don't. The long time residents still resent outsiders, but instead of telling jokes, now they grumble and make mean comments.

Even though it was mid afternoon everyone gathered around the trailer as we were all curious as to what the seats would sell for. The auctioneer sold choice on any item. The initial winner paid $75 each for seven of the cast iron seats. I believe there were almost three dozen seats as the final buyer bought the final 13 seats for $25 each.

I wasn't interested in owning the seats as they looked mighty uncomfortable. Several seats had a very large hump in the front in the middle.

A couple old guys on my right made a comment to one another that those seats were for the women. *wink* *wink* A few women standing on my left didn't seem amused by the old guys comments. Later one of the guys bought one of the seats and the other fellow kidded him it must be for his wife.

Many of the buyers for the seats were about the only people who didn't look like old farmers. The very old farmers commented they remembered how hard those seats felt.

Most of the people at the auction looked to be long time native Montana farmers/ranchers. Only a few people here and there looked to be "outsiders". I saw a few auction regulars. I even saw one of our three County Commissioners; Watne the one who is retiring this year. He was dressed in Conoco hat and work shirt. You know, the type with the person's first name on a patch over their pocket. At $56,000 a year I guess being a full time County Commissioner doesn't pay enough. Watne was there for a while looking stuff over and chatting with a few people. I didn't see if he bought anything.

Later the auctioneer sold old metal milk cans. An attractive young women with a long thick mane of blonde hair in a wheelchair and a cast on her foot up to her knee bought two of the four cans, then bought the old restored milk can cart for $500.

There were many other old restored hand or horse drawn farm machinery. The one Amish fellow I spoke with (not the 20ish trapper buyer) told me he had used similar machinery back in the 1970s in Ohio before he moved to Montana.

I didn't get the stock tank. I didn't really need another one so I dropped out at $25 and the other bidder got it for $20. Afterwards I kicked myself as, even though the outside was rusty it didn't leak and was still sound. The tank was worth more than $20 and I should have kept bidding. Eventually I'd find a use for it.

After more antique farm machinery they sold the antique tractors. A very old steel wheel tractor - which supposedly ran - sold for $300 after the wife put the kibosh on her husband from bidding more. The other 6 tractors - all but one restored and painted - sold for $1000 to $2050. A John Deere Model A, Cocksutt, a Ford, etc. All ran and looked very nice.

And with that the auction was over at 5:45 pm.

I spoke with a few people during the auction while waiting. I was curious as to what religious order these differently dressed people belonged to. They didn't dress in black as they were in blue with some grey. The one woman wore a plain dress and bonnet. All the men wore hats, but they weren't straw hats. Just different looking. Even the boy wore a hat. I figured they were Mennonites. I asked and learned they were Amish. "But you aren't all in black." He said they were "old order" Amish. They wore plain clothes and weren't restricted to black. The all-black clothes Amish tend to be the more conservative in the range of Amish belief. He said the "old order" were in the middle of the range of beliefs. He had a slight accent so I had him repeat a few words now and then.

He said that all Amish forgo cars and electricity. He said some people who drive claim to be Amish, but he said they aren't. He said some Amish people give in and eventually start driving cars. He said when that happens they are no longer Amish people.

He said he lived west of Eureka, MT (pop 1009), west of Lake Kookunusa. NW Montana. Remote.

"If you don't drive, then how'd you get here?"

"By train."

"No, I mean 'here' to the auction."

"We have someone who drives us. For the Amish who need to travel they have a contract with a man who has a van and he drives us."

I didn't think of it at the time, but what's the difference between driving yourself and someone giving you a ride. I can understand a little the idea of taking a train as many people ride the train as it is public transportation. By hiring a driver is not public transportation. A question for another time perhaps.

It also made sense as to why the Amish guy paid so much for the traps and only would sell the conibear traps to me for a higher price. He doesn't get a chance to get out to buy stuff. Going to the CHS store and buying new traps for a few dollars more is a big inconvenience for him as he would have to hire a driver and be part of a group, so not everyone would be able to shop where they wanted to go.

He also mentioned other areas in western Montana with Amish communities. How other places people have tried to start a community but can't get the critical mass of families to make a go of it.

We also talked about how upon turning 18 the young can leave the Amish life and live in the world and then later come back and rejoin the Amish community if they desire. He said they lose a lot of people this way as quite a number don't return. The longer they are away in the world the less likely they will return. More so lately as with the economy doing so well it is easy for them to get work that pays well. Not much money to be made in an agricultural life.

Earlier while I was sitting on a piece of farm equipment and waiting, a woman came over to also sit down. She was from Sunburst, MT, (pop. 413) near the Canadian border and the Sweetgrass Hills. She and her husband come over to the Valley a few times a year for short vacations. They were interested in the large Red Wing crocks but didn't buy any as they sold high. The same for the milk cans.

We talked a bit about the Sweetgrass Hills and how most of the land on them was private and not open to the public. She said the view of the prairie from the top of the one she hiked up was great. I believe there are three hills. I can see them whenever I drive the Hi-Line to North Dakota. Some day I want to hike to the top of one of the hills.

With how the land rises from the east, the Rocky Mountains aren't visible till you are close to them. So the Sweetgrass Hills are the only thing to see for many miles when crossing the Hi-Line. For people traveling east to west across Montana, and unfamiliar to the state, think upon seeing these hills that this is finally the start of the Rocky Mountains after so many miles of prairie. Nope. I suppose in many other states these would be considered mountains, but next to the Rocky Mountains they are considered hills. Beautiful, nonetheless.

Oh yeah, the food sold at the auction smelled really good. I had just eaten prior to coming to the auction so I passed on the food. Even though I wasn't hungry, the food still smelled really good.

So I didn't buy anything at this auction, but I had a nice day.

River flow and dam

As you can see from the following chart, once the rain stopped my river stopped rising for the most part. Since last midnight to 10:30 pm tonight the river rose from 1000 CFS to 1010. Tonight when I checked the river I could see it was higher than yesterday, but as the tracking station is a few miles upstream of me, the increase in the river flow I saw was probably the increase tracked late yesterday that made its way down to my place.

Also in the news today is that a small dam broke this afternoon on the Stillwater River north of Olney, MT. The Stillwater River is west / northwest of me and doesn't affect me as it joins the Whitefish River some miles south of me. The Stillwater River initially had a flash flood watch and now has "just" a flood warning. That's all I know as today is Saturday and the TV news isn't as thorough (as if it is thorough the other days ), and it is broadcast from Missoula - 120 miles from here. So it is not really the local news, and no video.

River flow from recent rain

Tuesday night to midnight Thursday/Friday it has rained, and rained, and rained. Don't believe me? Look below at USGS's measured stream flow for my river.

This afternoon, after checking my gopher traps, I could see the river was higher than the 890 CFS peak over a week ago. Then 5 hours later, when checking the traps a second time, I could see the river was even higher. The water is not just brown but the color of mud. Lots of erosion going on.

The local news said 10 rock slides went across Going-to-the-sun road in Glacier Nat'l Park. Avalanche Creek in the Park went over its banks closing the hiking trail. (Francis, Tina, Larry... remember that trail?) The west reservoir road near Hungry Horse Dam is completely washed out in one area as shown on the 6 pm news.

Here is the chart from the USGS for tonight. I took the chart with the 10:30 pm reading as the flow was 991 CFS. The 12:30 am flow was at 1000 CFS exactly, and the chart was resized to go to a maximum of of 2000 CFS. The increase is not as dramatic on that chart.

Note that on Thursday morning (15th) the flow was less than 750 CFS. (I seem to remember it at 741). A pretty steep increase of 250 CFS in a day and a half!

(Click on the images to see their larger version.)

Riding in the rain

No rain this morning! Actually the sun came out as there was more blue sky than clouds.

After a days work of waiting for the rain-soaked grass to dry, visiting with my neighbor Bob, trapping gophers, trapping pocket gophers, visiting with Grant my bee keeper, and pulling weeds, I decided to ride my bicycle into town to get the weekly papers. Besides, the mosquitos were out in force making weed pulling a distraction to my swatting mosquitos.

Rain clouds appeared to the west. The 6 pm weather forecast mentioned a possibility of rain and these clouds now seemed to be moving quickly. Still I wanted the papers and figured a race between me and the rain clouds would make the ride interesting.

I added more air to my bicycle's tires as they were a little low, and to ensure a quicker ride. Off I went.

Now I could have gathered the papers I needed at a couple of places in a ride of 6 miles total. But now that the leading edge of the clouds was overhead, it looked like they had "more bark than a bite" and that little rain would fall where I was, at least for the time being. I rode on to the Super 1 grocery store where I could get all the various papers at once. While there was a shorter route to Super 1 it was along a busy road, and besides, still no rain.

By the time I reached my next decision point "10 miles or 12 miles total?" a few rain drops were sprinkling. Umm... let's not push my luck. I took the shorter way home: 2.8 miles to go. I was cranking on my bicycle and generating body heat in the warm 68 F air. I saw the rain drops making more-and-more of the pavement wet, but did not feel them.

At 1.5 miles from home the rain increased and all the pavement was wet. I started to feel some rain drops break through my body heat. I was down on my bicycle's lower handlebars when I noticed in my peripheral vision a flash of pink light. No thunder or sound. It was pink heat lightning.

At 1 mile from home I turned onto the highway that led .3 mile to my next turn off. Definitely raining now; water was on the pavement. Not only could I see it, I could hear the water as the cars passed me at 65+ mph. This time when the pink lightning flashed I could see its jagged arc from cloud to cloud. A double flash also helped in seeing it. A few seconds later the low sound of thunder.

At the ".7 mile from home" turnoff I had to wait on the road's shoulder to make a left turn across the 4 lanes of the highway as now a string of cars came whizzing past. Wait... wait... wait... w..a..i..t.. then the last vehicle. A semi-truck. Great. Now I am covered in a spray of mud and water, and not just water. My shirt was so wet the wind from the passing semi couldn't blow my shirt up my back as sometimes happens.

A half mile from home the rain noticeably picked up. I had my head down so as not to breathe water as I sucked air. I was getting soaked. All over. I started to feel the water in my shoes. Not much longer and I would begin to notice the movement of the water in my shoes as I peddled - even though the shoes are tight.

The road was not a road but a sheet of water punctuated by rain drops. I had to slow way down when taking the corners, then speed up again on the straight-a-ways. No cars headlights on my road. Good, as it is getting hard to see the road's edge and I can ride wherever in my lane.

Home and I rushed for my house's covered entrance pushing my bicycle the last few steps. Once I unlocked the house door I stripped off my wet clothes and rung the water from them. Then went inside. My earlier extra body heat was all long gone now and I quickly found a dry towel.

My rain gage said that .14 has fallen so far. Funny, it seemed to be far more than that!

The newspapers on my bicycle's rack? They mainly stayed dry. I had some plastic to cover them. I'm not totally reckless!

Cow tipping

Apparently there has been a study last year debunking cow tipping. Yeah, we all heard of the practice, but have you ever witnessed it? Even without this study I had my doubts it was possible.

I've never seen my cattle sleep standing up. Apparently they may doze or take a quick cat nap while standing, but not sleep. The only time I've seen my cattle sleeping is laying on the ground curled up like a cat or dog among other cattle. Even then when I approach they wake up, or a nearby cow wakes them up. The other thing is, seldom do I see a cow by itself. If they are a little ways from another cow they are not sleeping. The other cattle will react to your approach and this would signal the dozing/sleeping cow.

Also I've noticed cattle are very aware of their surroundings. They can be a distance away and I see their head turn to watch me when I come out of the house or another building.

Their eyes are on the sides of their head and therefore they have a wide range of vision. Their only blind spots are directly behind them and directly in front of them. That is why they don't care for or trust when you try to pet them on their nose when you stand in front of them.

So to approach them unawares from their side to push them over... doubt it. My cattle at least certainly wouldn't stand there and let you try.

And who would want to tip a cow over? That's mean.

The sport of cow-tipping has been debunked as an urban, or perhaps rural, myth by scientists at a Canadian university.

Margo Lillie, a doctor of zoology at the University of British Columbia, and her student Tracy Boechler have conducted a study on the physics of cow-tipping.

The animals weigh about 1,500 pounds, she points out, so "“actually tipping a cow is quite difficult when you take the biology and physics into consideration."” Boechler took on the legendary "“sport"” for a zoological physics class project, emerging with evidence that claims of single-handed cow-tipping prowess are the result of overactive imaginations and too much alcohol.

To tip the average cow, which is about five feet tall, would require around 654 pounds of force, Boechler found. Assuming a 150-pound "“athlete"” can push his own body weight, the equivalent of 4.36 people would be needed to take down one cow.

Dr Lillie, Ms Boechler'’s supervisor, revised the calculations so that two people could exert the required amount of force to tip a static cow, but only if it did not react. Another problem is that cows, unlike horses, do not sleep on their feet -— they doze.

The original British Times article is here.

Left handed shells

It seems being left handed isn't always a drawback.

Snails with left-handed shells can have a big advantage in life - predators may find it impossible to eat them.

Scientists from the US examined whelks and cone shells preyed on by the crab Calappa flammea.

They found the crab is unable to open left-handed shells because it only has a tool for peeling them on its right claw; so it discards them.

"The crabs have a special tool on their claw, a tooth that's used like a can-opener," said Gregory Dietl from Yale University.

"So, if you imagine trying to use a right-handed can-opener with your left hand - it's very hard to do," he told the BBC News website.

*Ahem* Notice the last quote. I guess that is why this left hander uses a right handed can opener with his right hand and not his left. Do they even make left-handed can openers?!

For more on the story, click here.

Mt. St. Helens rock slab

A photo of a new rock slab now growing in the Mt. St. Helens volcano. Apparently the slab is growing a meter in height each day. The site with the details about the photo also has a link to a time lapse video. After seeing Hollywood movies, the video is underwelming as the time covered is only a week or two.

Credit: Dan Dzurisin, Cascades Volcano Observatory, USGS

NASA: sunspot, volcano, space station

Isn't this a neat photo?! A further explanation about the photo can be found here. On my cold, rainy Montana day the warmth of the photo appeals to me.

Credit & Copyright: Greg Piepol (sungazer.net)

A solar flare sun photo from 1999. Info here.

Credit: SOHO-EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA

Another neat photo is of an Alaskan volcano erupting as seen from the International Space Station. More info here.

Credit: J. N. Williams, International Space Station 13 Crew, NASA

I don't remember seeing a photo of the entire space station before. It kind of surprised me it was so big, and that it seems so close to earth. Guess that is why the volcano plume seems so close. The station is 240 miles up. More interesting info about the distance from earth and what astronauts can see of the earth from the space station is here. More info about the following photo here.

Credit: STS-114 Crew, NASA

In fact, the whole NASA Picture-of-the-Day site has cool photos.

And yes, the site has star photos. Info on this photo here.

Credit: ESA & NASA; Acknowledgement: E. Olszewski (U. Arizona) HST

Moving the gopher traps

With the cattle now in the middle pasture I immediately removed the gopher and pocket gopher traps from this pasture. The cattle always knock over, and sometimes break, the traps' marking sticks. The thin sticks are not made for rubbing against. I also didn't want to chance the cattle stepping on and breaking the pocket gopher traps or triggering the conibear traps.

Last week I bought a spray can of fluorescent orange paint. My marking sticks are old thin survey-type sticks. Last year I had used the only color I had - black - to mark their upper part. This year with the tall grass and my poor memory I spent too much time looking for the sticks and traps. Even with the orange paint I have to sometimes search for the sticks as they can be obscured by the grass. Come to think of it, I sprayed a little orange paint on the springs of one or both of the missing conibear traps. If you ever see them...

As mentioned in my earlier post about gopher traps, this is when I learned my second conibear trap was gone. What?! I had it anchored by a metal rod in the shape of a cane. *sigh* Only one conibear trap left. I know what I want for my birthday. More conibear traps!

I moved my remaining traps to the north pasture. The gopher "city" has the past few summers extended from their base in the middle pasture to also be a large area in the middle of the north pasture. The "city" has expanded and now has suburbs. I am working on first de-populating their suburbs. I found their "homes" are not single occupancy dwellings. The whole kin live there.

A couple pocket gophers had moved back in since I cleaned them out of the north pasture earlier this spring. Within a day I again cleared this pasture of pocket gophers. (Man, I am getting good at this!)

Since I only had one conibear trap left - and there are many gopher holes in this pasture - this is when I decided to try using the leghold traps. Thankfully they work well. I still prefer the conibear traps as the leghold traps rarely kill the gophers. I can do it - as it is necessary - but I don't like doing it. Last evening between rain showers I had to pull a trap's chain and drag out a gopher who backed down his hole as far as the trap and chain would let him. I had to "dispatch" the gopher taking care it didn't charge me with its three free legs pulling the trap along. The gopher was fairly large and had plenty of energy, and of course, was not happy.

Actually, the size and coloring of the gopher surprised me. I had been trapping smaller darker brown gophers from this hole the previous days. I guess this large lighter brown gopher found a large unused "house" open for occupancy? His mistake.

Another problem with me "dispatching" a gopher is I bent one trap a few days ago. After removing the now dead gopher I had to get two pair of pliers and bend the catch mechanism back into shape. Now I try to be more careful not to damage the trap, but it can be hard when the gopher is doing their best to get away and I am trying to finish him off as quick and painlessly as possible.

I have found that my new anchor rods work. A few days ago I found a trap's chain wound around the trap's anchor rod and only a gopher leg in the trap. I found a fresh bone nearby. Another trap was wound around its anchor rod with nothing but some fur on the trap. The birds couldn't pull the gopher and trap up over the rod and have takeout, and had to dine in.

I think the birds like me. A few days ago I watched as a large bird/hawk/eagle (?) circled low over the hayfield where I had earlier discarded a dead pocket gopher. The bird suddenly dropped the last few feet into the tall grass then flew up and south off the property. I am more convinced my missing traps are elsewhere on other people's land. My far neighbors are probably wondering what the odd metal is and how it got there.

I recently realized my owls are not as prevalent this year. Before the grass took off growing I would see them in the yard's trees or power poles after sunset. But I haven't seen them or heard their screeching for a few weeks now. The owls feed on mice and pocket gophers, and the tall grass must be interfering in seeing them. And I have cleared the yard (short grass) of pocket gophers.

This rainy afternoon I ran across a blog by "farmgirl" writing of her farming experiences and her transition years ago from being a California chick to a Missouri farm girl. Lots of cute cat, dog, sheep and goat photos on her web site. She writes in the typical estrogen blog style of being short, breezy, and cute. And here I write in detail about killing gophers. Must be a "Men are from Mars and Women from Venus" thing? I do like her blog though. Who can resist those cute farm animal photos?!

Cattle and "football"

Now that I moved my cattle into the middle pasture I went into the north pasture and put their "football" back. By "football" I mean a large log.

Before letting the cattle into the north pasture some weeks ago I cut much of a large fallen tree so it wouldn't collapse off its supporting branches when the cattle would rub against it. And rub they do! I took a half dozen of the largest logs and stacked them in two triangle piles under the remaining uncut part of the tree.

Around a week after I let the cattle into the north pasture I noticed the top log from the pile just under the end of the tree was quite some distance from the pile. Strange...

I carried the log back and placed it on top of the pile again. A few days later the log was again on the ground. A few more days the log was further from the tree. I replaced it again. The next day it was on the ground again.

Okay, play with your "football" or "soccer" ball. Or are you doing this just to mess with me?

To give you an idea of the log's size, my chainsaw has an 18" blade and I had to cut the log from both sides to cut it from the tree. This log's length is cut to fit in my wood burning stove; I guess 18 or so inches long. It takes some effort for me to lift and carry the log. I doubt most women have the upper body strength to lift the log. It will take some effort to split the log for firewood.

And here the cattle are moving it around the pasture. What bored cattle won't do!

I also found the rotting tree stump attached to the north/middle fence was knocked over. Stumps I want to get rid of stay; stumps I want are knocked over. At least now that the cattle are in the middle pasture they can scratch their neck on tree stumps to their hearts content.

Moving into the middle pasture

Last Saturday I finally moved the cattle into the middle pasture. I had been getting antsy waiting to make the move. They had eaten the north pasture grass down fairly well except for certain areas that were a little taller, along with tall odds and ends scattered here and there. As they probably won't be back to this pasture till late summer I wanted as little as possible of the taller grass as it gets tough when tall and dry, and the cattle tend to avoid eating it. On the other hand I didn't want the cattle to get restless now because of short grass.

I couldn't check the pasture grass until mid afternoon as it had been raining all morning. We are in a period of several dry days, then several wet days. The rain had started last Friday night before 9 pm. After finishing the dig of my garden Friday night I decided to mow the grass in the garden/fruit tree area around the garden, strawberry, and raspberry patches. The better for my eventual weeding of the strawberry patch.

This was my first time mowing this year, as having read my earlier posts you know I had let my "girls" mow my lawn and fruit tree area earlier. As the 12 "girls" were a handful I knew that 28 cattle would be insane. I may be crazy but I'm not insane. Besides, while tall enough to mow, the grass wasn't tall enough to make it worth letting the cattle in.

After mowing part of the garden/fruit tree area, I mowed around the house and buildings, then part of the front driveway. My car is low and the grass tickles the car's underside as I drive in my driveway. A light rain had started and was steady but mowing the lawn creates body heat and I barely felt the rain. I mowed until the gas ran out.

I finished mowing the lawn Sunday afternoon. The grass was still damp in areas but I couldn't wait. I could already see in less than 48 hours how the mowed areas of the lawn were starting to regrow.

Back to my cattle... Saturday afternoon after the rain finished I checked the north pasture. It's time to move. What little tall grass there was here and there was not worth the effort to remove. I opened the gate then walked to the river to get the herd. They saw me coming and came to meet me. They followed me, excitedly, to the gate.

At first most didn't notice the gate was open as they were focused on me, but after the first few went through the rest quickly followed. In the tall grass they got down to business and the sounds of "rip, rip, munch, munch" filled the damp post-rain air.

As I planned to lock the cattle out of the north pasture I had to move their salt blocks. The wooden stand to hold the salt was at the south end of the middle pasture under a large pine tree that kept the salt dry in its rain shadow. I used a wheelbarrow to move two large blocks from the north pasture. I found the stand was getting loose and wobbly, even though I had nailed and tightened it up last summer. I got some wood, nails, hammer and a saw and added to the stand and nailed it good. I also added pieces of wood to the stand's legs. In the past the cattle would sometimes tip the stand over. With the large "feet" it should be harder to tip.

While excited to be in a new pasture, and moving here and there to check things out, some cattle were still curious as to what I was doing. They took a break from eating to check out the stand and my tools. At least I now know they know where the salt blocks are.

After fixing the stand I sat and watched the cattle. This was the first I had really looked at Dan's cattle. His cattle look really nice. Their coats are sleek and healthy. His full blooded Hereford heifer is quite pretty with its red and white. Even his two "magpies" (Holsteins) look good even if bonier and more ungainly than the rest of the cattle breeds. I like the Holsteins. Their black and white stands out even when down by the river. I can see where the herd is by them. The black cattle blend in and hide in the tall grass.

After several days the cattle seem to be happy in their new field. I brought the remaining two salt blocks and their wooden stand from the corral area into the middle pasture. I placed them under a large pine towards the north side of the pasture. That should be plenty of salt for them. The salt is on the east side of the pasture to encourage them to visit the east side once in a while so I can easily see them and sometimes count them. They have their routine and favorite trees under which to take their siestas. It is sometimes hard to see them in the shade or tall grass, even when on the east side of the pasture.

Happy cattle are good cattle. ...usually.

Housefly gets glasses

And now, for something completely different than my usual ranch doings...

Photo by FRANK KORTE/GÜNTER KAMLAGE/EPA/LANDOV

An entry in a German science-photo competition, this image shows a fly sporting a set of "designer" lenses crafted and set in place with a cutting-edge laser technique. The glasses fit snuggly on the fly's 0.08-inch-wide (2-millimeter-wide) head.

A German company, Micreon, created the glasses for the fly using ultrafast laser micro-machining. The firm makes other miniature objects but they weren't quite as "eye catching" as this photo.

If I remember right... a fly actually has more than just two eyes.

Yes, that is a real fly. Dead, but real.

More info about the photo at the IEEE web site.

More micro image photos at the Popular Science web site.

Garden done dug

Finally! I finally finished digging my garden late last Friday afternoon. When did I start digging it? I seem to remember it was in April.

With all the weeds this year I decided use a shovel to dig my garden, and get rid of the weed's roots rather than rototilling the garden and chopping up the roots for them to regenerate. Using the measuring wheel I got at the Creston auction I found my garden size is 32' by 76'. 2432 sq ft. That's a lot of digging.

Of course I didn't continually dig as burning tree stumps, fence work, and cattle and whatever else intervened. Lately it seemed my "digging enthusiasm" waned as I would dig only a small portion every few days, with each new day's portion dug getting smaller. The weeds in the undug portion were colonizing the area faster than I could dig. There's a forest over there! Also the pressure was off slightly towards the end as I already dug and planted the part of the garden that will grow from seed. I only had to now dig an area for my indoor starter plants.

My remaining starter plants were watermelon, cantaloupe, and pumpkin. The cantaloupe, and especially the pumpkin plants, were spreading long vines and starting to take over the front window area in my living room. Good thing the "Little Shop of Horrors" movie doesn't scare me so I was able to relax and watch a little TV when sitting next to my plants.

The pumpkin plants were putting out blossom after blossom to no avail, other than to make me feel guilty. I had to be very careful in untangling them and removing their grabber tendrils from the furniture when I moved them outside.

Earlier I had transplanted four watermelon plants, and out of all the starter plants I had transplanted outside earlier, these four shriveled up. Not from lack of moisture but from the sun. I hadn't prepared the plants earlier by slowly introducing the plants to the outside sun so my solution was to shade the plants in the garden with boards. I guess the watermelon plants needed more than a few days of shade.

I won't make the same shading mistake this time. I even added boards to shade the plants from their northern side and not just the southern side. This time of the year the sun rises in the far NE and sets in the far NW.

Okay, the blossoms are there... bees do your stuff!

It looks like most all my seeds have sprouted. The lettuce seems patchy for some reason.

You think I am done digging in my garden? Think again! The earliest dug parts are sprouting weeds. *sigh* It never ends. This year I plan to get right on them before they get unmanageable (like last year). That is, once it stops raining.

My raspberries are doing great this year. The best since I planted them three years ago. Of course not having cattle munch on them for desert helps. They are sending up plenty of suckers and filling out the area I dug last year in an effort to plant more. Each time I see walk by my raspberry plants, large and small bees are buzzing around their blossoms. I can't wait to eat raspberries this summer! Eating fresh raspberries is almost as good as sex. Maybe even better than sex.

Speaking of bees, Grant's hives are "humming" right along. He says one stack is doing great and I see he has added a super to it. The other stack has a queen who apparently is not all that into sex. (Do I need to give her some raspberries?) She should be laying lots of brood to expand the hive but is doing a lackluster job.

Grant says the bees are still excitable and get easily annoyed. I haven't had any problems when nearby looking for Goat's Beard weeds. One day though I visited with Grant at his pickup along the road. One bee had followed him from the hive across the field to his truck and "wouldn't let it go".

My strawberry patch... oooh! Last year I faithfully weeded it. This spring there were no weeds. Yesterday I turned my attention to weeding the strawberry patch. Where are the plants? There were so many weeds and even clumps of grass I had trouble finding the plants. Oh, there were lots of strawberry plants growing. The other thing I didn't get to this past fall/spring was to thin my bed. I believe the oldest plants should be removed as it has been three years now. Man, I hope my strawberry patch won't collapse on me. These plants are fantastic plants. (Thanks Mary!)

I have three rhubarb plants at one end of the strawberry patch and they are humongous. If I had enough strawberries - and the time - strawberry/rhubarb jam. Or the equipment - and the time - rhubarb wine.

The strawberry plants are expanding under the rhubarb leaves - or is it the rhubarb leaves are expanding over the strawberry plants?

My initial weeding was slow and delicate as some weeds were coming up through the strawberry plants themselves. Later I realized that if some plants also got uprooted, so what, that was a way to thin them.

I got less than half the patch weeded before the rain chased me away for good. We had quite the thunder and lightning storms and heavy rain last night! At one point during my weeding, before the rain came for good, it got very light all around and then I heard a sizzle above and nearby before the light faded. Kind of an odd sound. Not quite like water on a hot griddle, and not quite like tossing a shovelful of light dirt on dirt, but a combination of the two sounds. I was glad I was on my hands and knees weeding at that moment. (Insert smiley face with hair standing on end).

I found lots and lots of strawberries: ripe, unripe, overripe, way overripe. It wasn't just weeding that slowed me down. With all the robins around this spring I was surprised they didn't eat all my strawberries. Guess my patch was too full of weeds even for them.

Guess what I found under one rhubarb leaf? A pile of fresh dirt from a pocket gopher! That's right - they are back in my garden area again this year. Ironically earlier in the day I walked the garden/fruit tree area looking for fresh piles of dirt and was satisfied there were no pocket gophers. I was concerned they were in the garden/fruit tree area as I now am back at the fence line between the hayfield and the house trapping lots of pocket gophers. *sigh* I had this section of the hayfield cleared way early last fall. Where are they coming from? My only guess is the field across the road. Baby factories are in full production and the young migrate across the road (the border) in search of a better life in my fields.

I quickly set a trap under the rhubarb. After a rain shower passed I checked the trap. In the 40 minutes since I set the trap the pocket gopher had come out and covered the other end of the trap with dirt to seal its hole. I cleared the dirt and reset the trap. This morning between rain showers I checked and I got him... her... it. A young one. It left its home to make its way in the world and unfortunately came across the "mean old rancher" and met a tragic end.

I tell you what - I am not having any pocket gophers in my garden again this year!