Bicycle, cattle, gophers

After taking a shower I went for a bicycle ride. A short distance into the ride a bicycle spoke broke. Not just any spoke, a spoke on the rear wheel - on the freewheel side. Yup, after replacing the spoke - so much for being clean.

During my bicycle ride later a woman passenger in a black SUV asked if I wanted to race. Yah, right. "No, not tonight.", I said. They continued to drive in the left lane slightly ahead of me and at my speed. So I speeded up. They speeded up. I speeded up more. So did they. At 21 mph they had enough and drove off. So much for the race.

I still didn't see the cattle this morning. While the usual behavior when previous cattle discover they can cross the river to the small island is for them to stay and explore the island for a day, I wanted reassurance these cattle were ok. I went to the south pasture then towards the island to look for them.

Sure enough I found them taking their late morning siesta. They were all on the eastern tip of the island. I wasn't able to count them. It is hard enough to count them when they are laying down close together; it is nigh near impossible when they are across the river and in amongst trees. It looked like the whole herd was there. This herd tends to stay together, unlike last year where the slightly smaller herd eventually broke into two herds.

The herd watched me. They seemed pretty content. They had this look of 'See what we found! Our own little island!' They had it good: shade, and open area, and surrounded by water on a hot day.

I also checked the east river channel. I hadn't been down to see it in a while. While it is a shallower channel, as it is not the main channel, I was concerned it was still high enough the cattle may not want to cross it twice. It was shallower than I expected even though the river is running around 350 CFS. I have been accustomed to seeing the river upstream before it divides into three channels and it appears there to still be running 'deep'.

By late afternoon I seen the cattle were back in the south pasture. They had come back for the salt blocks. Instead of rushing back to the island they grazed in the south pasture.

I picked a few goat's beard seed pods in the south pasture the cattle hadn't eaten. I also stacked the logs from the tree I had cut up earlier before letting the cattle into the south pasture. Then I spent a few hours picking goat's beard seed pods in the hayfield. Looking at the field one can't see any seed pods, but after I started to walk through it I found a number of them amongst the tall grass. When I walked to one I then could see another, and so on. I must have picked a hundred pods as I filled over a third of a plastic bag with the seeds. 100 times 64 seeds equals 6,400 plants. That is if all the seeds germinated. See why it is so difficult to eradicate them?

The garden pocket gopher must have left. I moved the trap elsewhere yesterday and left the gopher's hole open. The hole is still open. Pocket gophers do not like open tunnels.

I caught a regular gopher today. The first one in a number of days. I wondered if I would be stuck forever on 66 trapped. I caught this gopher near the north/middle pasture fence. I think I have closed down most of the "suburbs" in the north pasture. Holes I covered with dirt have not been reopened, and the traps on open holes are not catching anything. I think I only have a few holes near the fence and then the north pasture will be clear of gophers. For now anyway.

My raspberry plants are producing a few raspberries. Yum!