Head Gate, Garden, River Ranch

Dan stopped by this morning to check on his cattle, especially the red & white heifer that lost all the weight. She has gained much of her lost weight back. Initially Dan had trouble picking her out of the few red cattle he has but I reminded him that it was #273 that lost the weight.

When we approached the herd they were taking their siesta in the shade of one of the pine trees where I placed salt blocks. The herd were almost all laying down except the usual one or two that stand as watch guards. While the herd were all close to one another, the two Holsteins were on opposite sides of the herd sitting at the edge. They are part of the herd, but still want their space and to be different.

The cattle are fine with me but a second person spooks them a little. They were initially wary of Dan but eventually came back to check us out. I also brought old bread for them to eat. They haven't had any bread for a while and other than my number 30 who likes bread, the rest of the cattle were more interested in watching us than in eating the bread.

The cattle all look good. All of mine have lost their winter fur and have sleek shiny black coats. A couple of Dan's cattle still have some of their winter fur. My two smallest heifers are still smaller than my other heifers but they have gained weight and I have to look for their ear tag numbers to pick them out instead of merely looking at them.

Dan knew someone who had a head gate for sale. He brought it along in the back of his pickup. It is an automatic self-closing gate. Heavy sturdy construction. Dan knew the person who owned it and knows it works fine. $240 is a bit of money, but it is cheaper than buying an entire squeeze chute.

The gate will make ear tagging my cattle next year an easier job. And if I ever have to immobilize one of the cattle to give it a shot or for other reasons, a head gate is better than a rope or other method of holding it still. Last year Dan's heifer that was very sick from pneumonia still had enough energy to keep away from us when we were trying to get close to exam her.

First I'll have to install the head gate. I plan to rebuild my loading corral this year; though the way the year is flying by I am starting to have doubts it will get done. I probably will add the head gate to the corral's loading chute.

I worked more on weeding my garden. With the recent rain the grass and weeds have taken off and are growing 'great guns'.

I still haven't caught my garden pocket gopher. He/she is totally ignoring my trap. I wonder if it is because I disturbed its food storage area? When cleaning dirt away after digging into the tunnel I snagged with my fingers the pocket gopher's hoard of roots. Last year when the same thing happened (grabbing the food stash) when trying to trap a garden gopher I got bit. This time I quit reaching into the tunnel to retrieve more of its food stash. Don't want to get bit again!

I was reading old newspapers today and learned that on June 21 the Flathead Planning Board approved a revised proposal for the Whitefish River Ranch South. The Commissioners had rejected the earlier proposal last December. I don't know all the details as the newspaper just published the highlights. As I don't live within 125 feet of the area I didn't get any notice this was on the Planning Board's agenda. Guess I'll have to go uptown next week and try to learn what the new proposal is and what actually was approved. *sigh*