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.