Gun shots and the well cover

When I first went outside this morning I heard a gunshot. Was it from my pasture? I grabbed my binoculars and went to the corral. No sense going out in my pasture if someone is shooting. I heard a few more gun shots but could not see who was shooting. The gun shots were very loud. They also sounded like they were from my north pasture else my northern neighbor, Mr. D.'s, pasture. Finally I seen him in his yard walking to his house. He was carrying a gun. I have no idea what he was shooting at as the gophers are not out anymore this year. He has a couple horses in his pasture so I doubt he was shooting there. Then again he seems to be an excellent shot, even having only one eye, so maybe he was shooting in his pasture.

The guy across the road trying to trap the beaver... he hasn't caught it yet. How do I know? The creek is rising noticeably each day and is out of its banks and now flooding his lower lawn.

I talked with Dan about the cattle and learned that the Missoula auction is up for sale. Man, if that place is sold and closes, the nearest livestock auctions are in Great Falls, else in Three Forks. They are on the other side of the mountains and a long way away.

I know I should rest my wrist but tomorrow night's forecast low temperature is now 32 F (freezing). I need to get the one side and the door back on my well's shed.

First I needed to replace half the boards over the well's concrete casing. The pump is lubricated with water and the excess water was sent down a short tube whose end lay on the boards over the well. Not a good thing as over the years some of the boards started to rot. Now is the time to replace 2 and a half boards before they fall into the well.

The problem is that the pump sits on two metal pieces that lay on top of the boards, one north/south, the other east west. I needed to lift one end of one metal piece to be able to slip the rotting boards out from underneath it. That meant using my hands as I could not get a jack underneath the metal nor get anything long to leverage it up. So much for resting my wrist. I set my recovery back a few days.

One board was especially rotted and I took care in removing it. The ends were nailed to boards that went around the well casing. The middle of the board was the part that rotted and was coming apart. I removed the nail on one end thinking the other end and nail would hold the board as I removed one half of it. Wrong. As I removed the one half the other half fell into the well. Argh!

I removed the other rotting boards then found a long wire to use to fish the board out of my well. I measured and found the water level is 8 1/2 feet down. That is not far down, but then the aquifer in my part of the Valley is close to the surface.

Still, 8 1/2 feet is far enough to make it a challenge to retrieve the floating board. To make it more difficult the well casing is only two feet wide and almost centered is a metal pipe in which the pump's pipes go into down into the well. Add in that only half the top was opened as I only removed half the boards. And I had to work around the pump and the electrical wires.

I had a barbless two-strand interwoven wire. I un-wove the end and spread the two wires apart and then bent them to make a "hook". The challenge was to get the wire and "hook" the right way under the board so I could pull it up and out. The board wanted to float behind the metal pipe and under the boards covering the well. Once I maneuvered the board to the other side of the well I experimented until I got the right size "hook" that fit under the board. With all the effort to get the hook the right size and in the right direction, I was surprised the wire held the board on my first try at pulling it up and out once I finally snagged it.

With the board out I turned my attention to retrieving the smaller pieces of wood floating in the well. The wire wouldn't work on these small pieces so I worked at finding a pail that would fit through the opening at the top. Using the pail and a long rope I fished out the smaller pieces of wood.

You know, if you want a pail to float on water the pail will tip and sink. When you want it to tip and sink the pail floats upright. I had to jiggle the rope to get the pail to tip. It was quite a few tries at working it so the water flowing into the pail also got some of the wood.

I found this was harder on my wrist that lifting the metal piece. I took the splint off my wrist as I couldn't easily pull up the pail and dump it with the splint on my wrist. Over and over I pulled up the pail of water so I could empty it outside the shed. The only position I could be in the shed meant I had to use my sore wrist to reach outside the shed to dump the water.

I needed three hands as I needed two hands to work the pail and one hand to move the light around so I could see down in the well.

Retrieving the floating wood was the most difficult and time consuming part of the whole project. Why did those boards have to fall in the well?!

I am left handed and my sore wrist is my left wrist. Sawing boards to the correct length and nailing them in place didn't help my wrist any.

But, the boards are replaced. Tomorrow I can close the side of the shed and put its door back on before it freezes. Then I will have time to cover my garden with blankets and tarps. Naturally many items are not ready to be harvested. Oh joy, Fall and covering the garden. It seems so soon.

Splint and wire

I decided to search for my old splint to use on my sore wrist. I had saved the splint I had for my broken arm 27 years ago. Yup, still have it. Never know when a splint can come in handy.

The problem with finding the splint was that it was still packed away with my stuff from Minnesota. Yes, I still haven't unpacked everything. Now if you are thinking "If you haven't unpacked it by now, you don't need it", my answer is "Then I wouldn't have my splint!"

The reason I wanted the splint was to stop me from lifting things and irritating my wrist. The problem was that my MN stuff was stored in a number of heavy boxes. Short term pain, long term gain I guess. Thankfully I didn't have to move too many boxes before I found the splint.

The splint seems to have helped. I found a little length of cloth and some tape and fastened the splint to my arm. While not wrapped up like a 'real' splint, it is enough to remind me not to lift stuff.

While my sore wrist is stopping me from doing some projects on my 'to-do' list, I still trapped pocket gophers and did some weed spraying.

I fed the cattle apples and bread as treats tonight. One bozo got his/her head under the barb wire strand I had placed on top of the hayfield / front yard fence where it dipped down in one area. When he/she pulled her head back his/her ears snagged the wire and tore it off the fence. *sigh* Another example of a temporary fix being more temporary than I expected. I tried to pull the wire back over to the front yard side of the fence but by now the cattle were in a frenzy to get more apples and everywhere I moved they rushed and crowded. I quit pulling the end of the wire back over the fence as I was afraid one of them would get hurt by the barb wire. It was best to leave so the cattle would quiet down and go back to grazing. Tomorrow I'll re-attach the wire when the cattle are taking their siesta in the south pasture.

Overdoing my wrist

While my sore wrist is healing I guess I should take it easy using my hand. But no, I feel better and am out overdoing it.

Yesterday I decided to run the lawn mower. I know.. I know... I seldom mow the lawn, instead letting the grass grow, and now I decide to mow it. I was tired of searching for fallen apples in the tall grass and decided to mow under the apple trees. Did I stop there? I decided to mow around the house, garden, garage, and clothesline. Since I had the middle part of the yard mowed I decided to mow the back part. Most of that grass was already dead and brown so mowing it wouldn't make it any browner. The only part of the yard I didn't mow was the front yard. The exception being the middle of the driveway as I don't care for the grass brushing against the bottom of my car.

The mowed lawn looks 'tidier' than before. I guess having the grass at a single height is the reason. I didn't mow the front lawn as we haven't had rain in a long time and the grass will turn brown after it has been mowed. I have enough to do to water my trees, shrubs, and garden that I don't need to add the lawn to the list.

My wrist was fine this morning after all that mowing so... I carried a thick sheet of plywood to the hay shed. Plus dug more holes to catch pocket gopher. Plus drug the long hose as I watered the newly planted shrubs along the north fence. Plus, whatever else. By the evening my wrist was sore. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb!

Then I went for a 16 mile bicycle ride. For the entire ride I rode with one arm as I rested my sore wrist behind my back. I ride so much that I can even ride "with one arm behind my back".

This morning I discovered that some animal had taken a couple loaves of the French bread I am saving for the cattle. They took the loafs from the pile on my front entry way. They ripped the paper and ate all the loaves. Only crumbs were left on my front step. Also a 5 gallon pail of water was tipped over. That has never happened before. I wonder if it was the new neighbor's dogs? Last night he let them run free after dark. Sure surprised me as I rode my bicycle when they came at me from out of the ditch next to my hayfield. They harassed me until I passed the neighbor's house.

I chatted with my neighbor across the road. I was right when I thought he was trying to trap a beaver in the creek that runs through his property. The previous efforts failed as the trapper only caught the beaver's tail, then a leg. The trapper switched to using a conibear trap and they are determined to get the beaver once and for all this time.

The Holsteins look like white-and-black giraffes when I see them among my cattle in the hayfield. I found where the Holsteins had gotten over the corral fence earlier this week. One section of the chain link fence was slightly bent down and out. Four feet high and they still jumped it. I guess this means getting giraffes is out of the question until I add to the corral fence's height. For now I've given up on separating the Holsteins into the corral for Dan to haul them away.

Study: tall people smarter

Here is an interesting paper. According to two British studies that tracked people born in 1958 and 1970, it showed that taller people are smarter.

It has long been recognized that taller adults hold jobs of higher status and, on average, earn more than other workers. A large number of hypotheses have been put forward to explain the association between height and earnings. In developed countries, researchers have emphasized factors such as self esteem, social dominance, and discrimination. In this paper, we offer a simpler explanation: On average, taller people earn more because they are smarter.

As early as age 3 — before schooling has had a chance to play a role — and throughout childhood, taller children perform significantly better on cognitive tests. The correlation between height in childhood and adulthood is approximately 0.7 for both men and women, so that tall children are much more likely to become tall adults. As adults, taller individuals are more likely to select into higher paying occupations that require more advanced verbal and numerical skills and greater intelligence, for which they earn handsome returns.

Using four data sets from the US and the UK, we find that the height premium in adult earnings can be explained by childhood scores on cognitive tests. Furthermore, we show that taller adults select into occupations that have higher cognitive skill requirements and lower physical skill demands.

For details, here is a link to the paper.

Hmmm... I am 6 ft and left handed. According to recent studies I should be doing well. Then what am I doing being a rancher?

Left handed people

I am left handed. I read an interesting recent study.

Our findings are quite contrary to expectations. We do not find any evidence that left-handed individuals earn less, as might be suggested by the literature which generally finds that left-handed people tend to suffer more from factors that would reduce labor productivity. On the contrary, we find that left-handed individuals with higher levels of education have higher earnings than right-handed-individuals. More specifically, among the college-educated men in our sample, those who report being lefthanded earn 15 percent more than those who report being right-handed. The size of this effect is economically and statistically significant. Interestingly, this wage differential is found for males but not for females.

On the negative side:

Numerous studies have shown that left-handed individuals have different health outcomes. For example, some studies find they have a higher rate of high blood pressure and irritable bowel syndrome but a lower rate of arthritis and ulcer. There is no convincing evidence that left-handedness was correlated with immune disorders but did find a positive correlation with schizophrenia.

Evidence as to the relationship between accident rates and handedness may be even more mixed. Higher accident rates for the left-handed are found in some studies, but not in others. However, a recent meta-analysis supports the positive correlation between handedness and accident rates.

A meta-analysis found a “small but reliable increase” of dyslexia among nonright-handed individuals.

Finally,

Gifted youth were more than twice as likely to be left-handed than those in a control group. “Non-righthanded populations are over-represented in all populations with high talent”.

It seems as if us left handed people are more likely to be either smarter or crazier than the average person. I think it is all due to us having to use sissors made for right handed people. Man, when I got my first pair of left handed sissors, life improved greatly.

For more on the paper about "Handedness and Earnings", click here.

Two Holsteins, a bird and a break

*argh!* Those Holsteins are driving me crazy!

Late Tuesday evening I decided to get them into the corral area around the barn. All the cattle were in the hayfield along the fence close to the gate between the two areas. They wanted apples. I took a bag of apples and tossed them on the ground. The herd went into a frenzy.

The two Holsteins stood back near the gate and watched. Perfect. I ran over and opened the gate and offered them one of the few apples I had left. They stood there and looked at me.

"Come on! I have an apple for you!"

Nothing. "Duh..."

I walked out into the hayfield closer to them and they took a step back.

"Here's an apple for you."

By now the herd had gobbled up all the apples on the ground and came for me. I retreated back behind the gate and closed it. *argh!*

I ran over to get another bag of apples. I again spread them on the ground and again the herd went after them. This time the Holsteins were closer to the action and further from the gate. Again I went into the hayfield; again the herd gobbled up the apples; and again came for me. *argh!*

I decided to wait till the herd got bored and started to drift off leaving me with less cattle to deal with. Didn't happen. They stood at the fence begging. Others milled around. Others started pushing other cattle as if to say, "Don't crowd me!"

The Holsteins stood side by side 10 feet away from the herd and watched. They didn't seem to be a part of the herd.

I went through the gate and tried to lead the herd away from the gate. Not a good idea. The cattle were all around as quite a number associate me with feeding them treats and they all were trying to get next to me. I had to push some away but others milled up against me. I retreated back behind the gate.

The Holsteins were closer and along the fence now. I decided to let the cattle through the gate until the Holsteins were in the corral area then shut the gate, then lead the other cattle out through the gate using apples.

After opening the gate the initial cattle didn't know what to do and were hesitant to cross the gate. The gate is only wide enough to allow a single animal through at a time. One, then another, then another. Almost half the herd came through and still the Holsteins stood along the fence with a dumb look.

You idiots! Come through the gate!

I had to go out into the hayfield and herd them towards the gate.

All but six cattle were in the south corral when I shut the gate after the Holsteins. The six were not happy about being outside and stood along the fence and began to moo. The cattle inside the corral were excited at being in a new place and with fresh grass. They were no longer interested in apples and spread out throughout the corral. The Holsteins now split up and were at opposite ends of the corral. *argh!*

I waited and waited and finally the Holsteins came together near the gate to the north corral. I opened that gate and they went through. Success! I had separated them from the rest of the herd. The herd wasn't interested in leaving the corral. I left them and went to have supper.

It was dark when I came back out. Too dark to herd them. I opened the gate and hoped they would be gone by morning.

Wednesday I was up early - way early! - as I was going hiking in Glacier Park. Half the herd were in the hayfield by the house and half were in the corral. I put water into the water trough and then Joyce and Edley came to get me for the hike. I left the gate open so the herd could leave, and left a message with Dan to come get the Holsteins.

When I returned that evening I found the Holsteins were with the herd in the hayfield. What?! I thought the Holsteins weren't invested in the herd? Dan left a phone message that when he came after 11 am no cattle could be found. The Holsteins had crossed the south/north corral fence as it was lower.

All that work! Besides, Tuesday evening I had hurt my left wrist when I had attempted to lead the cattle away from the gate. Early in the day I had noticed I had strained my wrist lifting some stuff. I must have "pushed the strain over the edge" when using my hands to push the milling cattle away from me Tuesday night. My wrist was very sore and had swelled up.

Wednesday night half the herd was again near the fence and gate begging for apples. Okay... I opened the gate. Six of the herd walked into the corral. The two Holsteins stood there and finally(!) one walked through the gate. The other Holstein was not happy, stood there and began to bellow at the other one. On and on until he gave up and walked through the gate. I closed it to keep the rest of the cattle out of the corral.

The Holsteins separated from the other six fairly quickly. I opened the corral gate but they didn't want to go through it. I had to herd them by running and cutting them off as they attempted to go elsewhere. I was able to get them into the north corral.

Using apples I was able to entice the six to leave the south corral for the hayfield. As the corral was no longer "new" to them they were interested in apples. Success! I closed the gate. Now if the Holsteins cross the south/north corral fence they will be stopped by the chain link corral/hayfield fence.

I called Dan and he planned to come Thursday to get the Holsteins.

7 am Thursday morning I awoke to scratching and tapping sounds.

Huh?!

I got out of bed and discovered they were coming from the wood burning stove. It sounded like something was tapping on the stove's glass window. I got a flashlight and discovered a large bird inside the stove.

What the..?! How did he get in the stove?

The bird had to have come down the chimney then crossed over the long stove pipe to the stove, then pass the partially baffled area were the pipe connected to the stove. But he did ...somehow?

It was a Flicker.


I put a blanket over the stove to block the light to hopefully stop his tapping on the glass. I was tired and wanted to sleep.

I checked outside and found the Holsteins in the hayfield with the herd. What?!!! I haven't even woken up and apparently I got out of bed on the wrong side of the bed. I went back to bed until Tony woke me up around 9 am. That's another story!

After I finished helping Tony, and later helping Grant - my beekeeper - Grant suggested I use a towel to grab the bird from the stove and then release it outside. I closed all the inside doors and opened the outside door. I closed all the curtains. That way the only light if the bird got away from me would be to the outside door.

Using a pillow case I was able to open the stove door and grab the bird with the pillow case. The bird just stood there and I easily grabbed it. Well, he had been in the stove for many hours now. I took care as it had a long beak and I didn't want to get stabbed with it.

Outside I let the flicker go and it flew off unharmed. That's good as Bob told me flickers are wonderful bug and ant eaters.

Another problem solved.

I checked the corral fence and found the south/north fence top wires were pushed down. So that is how the Holsteins moved from the north corral to the south one. The chain link corral/hayfield fence was fine. This fence is 4 ft tall. How did the Holsteins get into the hayfield?!!! I haven't a clue. Can they jump that high? Even the double jointed Holstein couldn't slip through a chain link fence!

Tonight when the herd came to demand - yes, they now demand apples - I fed them apples but didn't bother getting the Holsteins into the corral. I'll give it a rest for a few nights. I am more bound and determined the Holsteins have to go.

By the way, my swollen wrist and blister on my heel (from the long hike) was nothing compared to Grant's bad luck. Yesterday when gathering and cutting logs for firewood a log struck his leg and broke it. It was not a compound fracture but he will be in a cast for about six weeks. What a tough break (no pun intended). Lots of work to be done outdoors before winter and Grant again got a great, and hard to get, hunting license for this Fall. I forgot for which animal. A cast will slow him down. I offered whatever help he may need over the upcoming weeks.

You know... I was thinking... I am never bored out here on the ranch.

Airfare prediction website

There is an airfare prediction website called Farecast. It's a service that is designed to save you money by predicting whether airfares will rise or fall, helping you decide when you should buy your plane ticket.

They have 55 origination cities with many more destination cities. Unfortunately my city, Kalispell, is not one of the cities even though we are connected to one of the origination cities, Minneapolis/St. Paul. Maybe some day...

Geo visitors button

I came across a tool that allows people looking at my blog to view a map of the world that shows the general locations of people who have viewed my blog in the past 24 hours. I added this button to my blog's sidebar.

Before you get all excited, I get little traffic to my blog. Some of my regular readers are on an email list where they get the posts in an email. So that cuts down on my visitor count. (Not that it is big to begin with... )

Click on the following button to see a map showing the visitors. Note, the green icon is you. Btw - I doubt the button will work when viewed in email. Somehow the button knows what web page it is on and tracks the visitors to that web page.

Dan and cattle

Dan came over late this morning to see how our cattle are doing. He hasn't been by in over a month.

Half the herd was taking their siesta near the irrigation shed. I fed them apples while we looked them over. One of Dan's steers, number 423, really likes apples. He kept wanting more while I wanted to save the rest of the apples for the rest of the herd. The steer would try to circle around me to get to the plastic bag with the apples. A number of times I was almost encircled by him as he twisted his head and neck around me to reach the apples. I also had to be careful as he would sometimes start to step on my foot. He is way too big to be stepping on my foot. Other times I had to move my foot as he would reach down and bite my shoe. "Stop that!"

We found the rest of the herd, minus the two Holsteins, down in the low area closer to the river.

All the cattle look good. One can't tell that Dan's Hereford-cross steer had lost all that weight back the end of June. A few of Dan's cattle still have a slightly rough winter coat. Dan says they may be missing a mineral in their diet. All of my "girls" have sleek coats, even the runt who was last to lose her winter coat.

Dan said the cattle all look happy and stress free. The cattle should be happy as my place is cattle heaven. After an initial wariness by some of the cattle at this new guy they quickly gathered round.

"Now, where are those darn Holsteins?!"

I walked over to the river and spotted one Holstein south of the river, south of the island. How did it get over there? I had built a simple two-strand fence last year along that river bank to keep the cattle from getting there.

While Dan waited I climbed over my border fence and went to get the Holstein. I found both of them in the tall grass and trees. I also found how they got there. A little herding and they returned to the river they way they came.

They had threaded their way through dead trees laying along the river bank, then broke the old barb wires and walked through the fence. *sigh*

After Dan left I returned to the scene of the crime to add three more 2x4s for posts and also more barb wire. The cattle were still taking their siesta in the shade in the low area near the river. Most of them followed me to the boundary fence. Guess they thought I had more apples for them.

When working on the last of the three 'posts' the Holsteins came into the river. The double jointed Holstein made his way through the fallen trees along the river to where I had fixed the fence. After a bit he strained against the barb wire and when it appeared he would break the simple fence I chased him away. After taking a drink from the river he went over to the island and joined the other cattle who now had moved over there. The other Holstein stood in the river watching me for a long time. He stood like he wasn't watching, but I saw that he always had one eye on me.

After putting in the third 'post' I found more dead tree branches and piled them in the path where the Holsteins try to break the fence. I also placed a few dead branches in other areas with easy access between the fence and the river. So far it has worked as tonight I see the Holsteins are in the hayfield with the rest of the herd.

Dan said he would take the Holsteins back to his place. He had two other Holsteins pastured at his brother's place but those Holsteins also were wanderers and didn't have a strong herd instinct. He eventually brought those back to his place. We had thought Holsteins were mild mannered and easy going, if odd looking. These Holsteins are proving us wrong.

This evening not all of the herd came by the house when I was out and around. So I didn't get the Holsteins into the area around the barn separate from the herd and ready to be loaded. Another night I will try.

Dan said Evan traded his 25 ft stock trailer for a new 30 ft trailer. He can haul more cattle now. Usually Dan sells his cattle the end of August, but as I plan to wait till the end of September or so, he plans to wait also. There is still plenty of grass left for the cattle so a few more weeks here would be fine. The ranch always feels empty without livestock so I want to have my "girls" here as long as I can.

Baking and biking

In addition to checking pocket gopher traps and watering trees & part of my garden, I did something different today. I baked zucchini bread and muffins and made an apple pie, including the pie crust. With all these apples I need to do something with them. I don't have an apple press to make cider, and I didn't feel like making apple butter at this time. So a pie it was.

I also fed a full bag of apples to the cattle this evening. Some were so desperate and/or greedy for the apples they strained against the fence to get all they could. When I heard my fence posts start to crack I moved elsewhere.

I went for an 18 mile bicycle ride tonight. And I mean tonight as it was dark by the time I was halfway into my ride. I rode a few miles along the highway. The highway has a wide shoulder to make riding safer. However debris is on the shoulder. In the dark I hit something big and hard and my entire bicycle and I went up in the air. My feet came out of the toe clips but I was somehow able to get my feet back onto the pedals before I landed. I didn't crash, nor did my tire blow. My tires are fully inflated so I didn't get a flat tire due to a rim pinch. However the force of striking the object appears to have made a flat spot on my wheel's rim. I can feel it as I ride. Darn.

The odd thing was that just prior to hitting the road debris tonight I was thinking about the time I crashed north of Las Vegas during a bicycle tour from North Dakota to California to see the 1984 Olympics. I was riding after midnight to beat the heat as it was near 107 F during the day while I waited in the shade at St. George, Utah. With little traffic on the interstate that night I often rode in the right lane's right wheel track. Still I hit a 4x4 board that lay across the road's shoulder and part of the right lane. With a fully loaded bicycle I wasn't able to stay upright and ended up was a bad case of road rash that left a couple scars.

Stomach pain

I woke up feeling fine, even if my wakeup time was 11 am. That is what happens when I go to bed after 3:15 am.

A hour or so after breakfast I began to have intermittent pain in my stomach. I ate my usual: cereal, strawberries and a roll. I don't know what caused the stomach pains. I took a nap.

I felt a little better and did some clothes washing. Remember my post from a few days ago about smelling a skunk? I think I may have ridden through its spray. My clothes still had a faint smell on them. Time to wash them!

I wandered over to visit Bob and Jan, and not feeling ambitious, spent hours chatting on a warm summer day. From an overnight low of 42 F it got up to 84 F today. Bob and Jan invited me to have supper with them, which I accepted. Maybe better food would help my stomach, and it did.

I also noticed the neighbor lady had her horse out of her pasture and in her front yard. Guess her efforts to get reacquainted with her horse are working.

Other than checking my pocket gopher traps, and riding 16 miles on my bicycle, that was all I did today. Not much.

No rain, horse and deer

Thursday's forecast of widespread rain was a bust. We had a few rain showers, but that was it. Not much moisture. I expected rain so I had stayed up late (even for me!) Wednesday night. Late as in 3:45 am. So when Joyce called me at 10 am Thursday morning to ask if I would hike with the group on Friday, I was still asleep.

Thursday I got the barb wire and fence from the family that had the rummage sale and is moving. More wire and fence that I thought. I kept pulling more and more out the tall grass and weeds between the garage and the pole shed. I piled it in the pickup bed as high as the pickup's cab. I also filled a good sized box with apples for the cattle (with a few of the larger ones for me).

The new neighbor lady's horse, a mare, has had an attitude change since they moved here from Helena. The five horses that had been in that pasture are now gone leaving only her horse. The attitude change is that her horse wants nothing to do with her. The previous evening I had seen a pickup driving around their pasture chasing the horse. Apparently they were trying to catch it.

Thursday the horse hung around the SW part of the pasture. The owner would walk in the general direction but not to the horse. Then when she started to get closer, the horse would move to another part of the pasture. Over and over. She came back to the garage and got a bucket of treats. After a long wait the horse came near. More waiting and the horse finally ate from the bucket, but only after she set it down and moved a few feet away.

I don't know if the move to Kalispell upset the horse, or her mare went "boy crazy" being in a pasture with five geldings.

I finished digging the area for my Emerald Arborvitae, then planted them. While I watered them I heard a car slow down on the road to almost a stop then honk its horn. I had fed apples to the cattle a short time earlier and they had now moved to the mid section of the hayfield near where the car was. None of the cattle got through the fence, did they? I couldn't tell, so I jumped on my bicycle and pedaled over there. The car had now gone. The cattle were all in the hayfield and no sign of any animals on the road. This is one of the areas the deer use to cross the road and I suspect it was deer in the road when the car drove there.

After spraying weeds tonight, as I was walking back from the north pasture, a fawn came walking towards me. The fawn surprised me as it was coming from the corral area and not from the river or the neighbor's pasture. After a few steps of walking towards one another we both stopped and checked each other out. We walked slightly counter-clockwise around each other until the fawn got to where I had been, then it went - white tail wagging - to the north/middle pasture fence and slipped under the bottom wire and left. Excuse me for intruding on "your" pasture.

Fixing, digging, stuff, rain, apples

I fixed the fence where the cattle tilted a few of the 2x4s. These were different 2x4s and not ones I had fixed a few days ago.

I fixed my wheelbarrow wheel. Or I should say, replaced it. The tire went flat today. Kinda hard to move stuff with a flat tire! The tire has an inner tube. The tire was old and cracked in a number of places. I found Home Depot sold the tire, tube, and rim as a unit for $19.98. There was no other choice as they didn't sell the items separately. My rim is good so I now have two rims.

Down the road was an unadvertised rummage sale. It had started Sunday and yesterday when I noticed it and stopped by many items were gone. The 79 year old woman is moving to Washington state to live with her son-in-law and daughter, who had grown up in the Flathead. A small world as the son-in-law knows my uncle even though both live in small towns just outside of Tacoma, Washington. But then, this guy and my uncle are/were in law enforcement.

Stuff had been picked over and some of what was left I didn't really need. The son-in-law told me he planned to haul off to the dump many items that didn't sell. The time was noon today. I stopped over after 1 pm and found many items loaded in the pickup already. I found a few odds & ends of stuff that could be useful. They also gave me the odds & ends of barb wire and also various sizes of wire field fence they had out back. I need to go back and get this later. I noticed apples laying under several apple trees and asked if I could have them for my cattle. Yup. I'll have to go back for the apples as they didn't have any extra bags for me to gather them into.

Rained this morning so I used the time to catch up on my beauty sleep. Then early evening we got a little more rain. This time the blue clouds looked to be holding more water than what we got. The weather forecasters promise widespread beneficial rains later tonight and tomorrow. Hope so.

This afternoon most of the cattle came from the river area to the hayfield at a very fast run. Some light thunder was rumbling as the rain clouds were building in the western mountains. Not enough thunder that I would think it would scare the cattle. Maybe some people floating the river harassed and scared the cattle?

I thought I had dug enough ground to plant my Emerald Arborvitae. It is recommended to plant them three to four feet apart. I initially dug an area to hold them three feet apart but when I came to measure and dig the holes today I found I was spacing them closer to four feet apart.

As I was digging more ground my neighbor came outside to walk their dogs. A doggy bathroom jaunt more like it. They have a small apple tree with apples on the ground. I asked and got permission to gather the apples for my cattle. Lots of apple sources - just need to get my butt in gear and gather the apples.

Cattle, apples, traps, garden

My earlier post about the cattle and the fence by the road... tonight as I rode home I could see several 2x4 boards cock-eyed. Either the cattle messed with boards I hadn't fixed earlier else my repair job wasn't that good. I'll see tomorrow in the daylight which instance it is.

The cattle really associate me with apples. When they are in the south pasture, and I in the middle pasture checking pocket gopher traps, some of the cattle will come to the fence if I am near the fence to beg for apples. I don't even have to actually feed them apples, if the herd sees a few cattle near me the rest will run over as fast as they can. Even with a fence between us it can be a little disconcerting to see a herd of cattle running towards you. I try to feed them apples near the house each evening to get them into a routine of coming by. They usually graze in the hayfield in the evening.

Today the cattle weren't in their usual routine. It was a breezy day. Nothing unusual for Minnesota or North Dakota, but out here, out-of-the-ordinary. I find on these types of days the cattle act differently. Where are they?

When checking the pocket gopher traps this afternoon I took a side trip to search for the cattle. I found them on the peninsula across the river. Well, it is out of the wind among the thick brush. This is where the double-jointed Holstein earlier had slipped through the loose section of the neighbor's fence. As I had blocked that loose section, no jail breaks today. By evening all the cattle were back into the hayfield. Apples, that what they wanted! They saw me watering my garden and came to a nearby fence. I gave them apples and some loafs of old dry bread I got from the Food Bank today.

The cattle hung around the fence after I finished giving them treats. The neighbor's dog had come over when I fed the cattle. Both the dog and the cattle are curious of one another but each wants to be the one to do the approach. So the dog will not cross the fence. Instead it paced back and forth. When it started to bark at the cattle I had to tell it to stop.

The other evening we had a short but intense rain shower. I noticed half the herd in the NE corner of the hayfield staring at something to the NE. It was my NE neighbor. He and another man were along the creek near the small earthen bridge over the creek. I saw the neighbor holding a good sized conibear trap. Ah... his beavers are back. I did notice the creek near his trailer house looked to be higher than usual for this time of year.

I removed the rest of my regular gopher traps. No activity for a few weeks now. They have gone underground (hibernation?) for the year. There is still activity with my pocket gopher traps. I haven't caught any for a few days now. Either the tunnel is abandoned, or was merely an exploratory tunnel, or the gopher fills my trap with dirt. I have three pocket gophers that refuse to go into my traps. I have the traps placement down to a science so maybe it is something to do with the time of the year. I had similar problems last August but wrote that off as bad trap placement. This morning I finally caught two of the three - after many tries.

My garden is doing well now that I am keeping up with its watering. All four zucchini plants survived this year so I have much more zucchini than I need. I have picked the peas and green beans. I thought all my watermelon plants had died. I found two survived. The plants are doing great now, but no melons. Too late to get any now. I don't have the heart to pull the plants. The pumpkin plants are growing pumpkins.

Even though I haven't gotten to watering my strawberry plants yet, they were so happy at being weeded they produced some strawberries for me. Oh yeah... and the robins that steal my strawberries have left. I only have the yellowjackets that go after some of the strawberries when they are tired of eating the fallen apples. Enough apples drop each day from my two trees that I fill a five gallon pail each day.

I have dug over 60 feet along the fence of my NE pasture. I plan to plant some Emerald Arborvitae shrubs I had gotten some weeks ago. I decided to dig the whole area before planting any. The NE pasture is dry and once I plant them I need to keep up with their watering. Once the shrubs grow up they should hide the traffic as it comes around the road bend from the north. I hope so.

A skunk must have been nearby tonight. I smelled it along the road when I rode home and with the windows and doors open to cool the house down even now I still smell it. The skunk must be Pepe Le Pew as the smell has a little sweet smell to it.

Cattle and fences

What is it with cattle and fences? *sigh* I've had more fence work this past weekend.

First to be fixed was the hayfield fence that runs along the road. From the yard to the gate, which is almost half way in the hayfield, dad had added two rows of 2x4 boards to the three strand barb wire fence. I guess since this was a hayfield and not pasture fence the original owners felt three, and not four, strands was sufficient for the fence.

Since the fence wasn't built to have fence posts at the ends of the boards, the boards would join together between fence posts. Time passes and boards age. Yup, the boards easily come apart now.

After my hike in Glacier Park last Friday I came home to find quite a number of boards with one end in the air and the other on the ground and the middle of all but a few of these cock-eyed boards still attached to a fence post. The cattle didn't get out as the original three strand barb wire fence still stood.

In a perfect world I would take the fence down and build a new one. This is not a perfect world so Saturday afternoon was fence repair day. I found short odds & ends of boards and nailed them to the 2x4 fence boards to re-join them. Not the prettiest, but it works. My repair job has held so far. Ask me again after my next hike. While the cat is away the mice will play.

The other fence repair was to the patio fence on Sunday. Again it was the cattle that broke it. A rebuild of the patio fence has been on my long to-do wish list since I got here. The people who originally built the patio and fence made one mistake. The fence is just outside of the patio roof so the rain water from the roof falls on the fence on one side. Add in many years and you get a rotting fence.

This summer the cattle have slowly been dismantling the patio fence. Along the patio fence is one of their siesta spots. What I find is that not all cattle feel like taking a siesta. Bored, they will fiddle around with stuff. The patio fence is short 1x8 boards standing up-and-down attached to long 2x4 boards. (The only vertical fence I have.) The cattle have been taking some of the rotting 1x8 boards off the fence here and there. Not enough to get through - but they are working on it!

The damage to my patio fence was because I wanted to avoid the breaking of my far backyard/hayfield fence. The cattle love the apples so much they push and strain to be the one to get the most apples. Almost 20 cattle that weigh 600 - 900 lbs against that little fence (again not built with cattle in mind) and I have seen the fence really bow towards me as I fed apples. Whoa!

So I decided to go over to the fence west of the house. The cattle were so excited they rushed over. The patio is carved out as a rectangle from the hayfield and as the cattle came they tried to cut the corner and snagged the corner of the patio fence tearing the south part of the fence away from the west part of the fence.

I had to get a short 2x4 board and nail the corner together again. That worked for a day. I had left my bedroom window open last night to cool the house down. I could hear some of the cattle sleeping in the hayfield outside my window as they were breathing deeply. I guess not all cattle felt like sleeping the night away! Bored cattle were up to no good last night trying to take my patio fence apart again. Today I noticed the patch job was coming apart and I had to fix it again.

Public speaking at Growth meeting

Those who know me know I really don't like to speak in front of crowds. That is part of why I didn't speak at Tuesday's growth policy meeting. But at Thursday's growth policy meeting I eventually screwed up my courage and stepped to one of the two microphones and spoke. While I could submit written comments, by speaking I would know the Planning Board members would hear my comments.

I waited to speak until late in the process. I am taking a cue from the engineering planners and others who do this for a living. As I had mentioned when describing the Whitefish River Ranch commissioner meeting, these types of people wait till near the end so as to rebut selected comments and make it appear all issues are resolved in the developer's favor.

My reason to comment on the growth policy was to comment on bicycle paths. I wanted to planners to consider that bicyclists are not a single type. Bicyclists can be:

• kids riding to school
• recreational riders
• commuters

Each type of rider has its own needs and types of paths. For example, bicycle lanes should be incorporated into the policy. Currently the policy only mentions bicycle paths separated from roads.

I commented that while a number of people had commented on how vague the policy was, I had an opposite comment. The policy recommends a bicycle path on each side of a road. I commented that wasn't always feasible or necessary. I had concerns these bicycle paths would be nothing more than glorified sidewalks.

A person earlier commented that the policy document needed to mention about protecting the night sky and establishing a lighting standard. I echoed that comment, adding that since a business was built a few years ago a half mile away from my place, I now see shadows created by their light at night.

A number of "property rights" people earlier said that a proposed open space board was unnecessary. The federal, state, and tribal governments make up 82.5% of the land in Flathead county. The comments were that we have more than enough open space now. I commented that some open space needs to be preserved near development for small parks so the kids could ride their bicycles and visit these local parks. The federal and state lands are too far away for the children to visit.

Lastly I tried to work in traffic and the recent inaction on Tronstad Road by the Commissioners during the Whitefish River Ranch proposal. BJ from the County Planning Department had raised the pink card by now alerting me that I only had 30 seconds left of my 3 minutes. I went over the 3 minute mark by a little bit as I stumbled to make my point.

In fact my entire 'speech' was disorganized and rambling and too many topics covered in three minutes. I am not a speaker and it showed. I don't think I got any of my points across. I now regret not taking high school speech class seriously and only doing what I had to do to get through the class. I also think I should have taken debate class in high school. "Youth is wasted on the young."

While people spoke, four or so planners entered the speaker's comments into their laptops (or so it appeared). People could also submit written comments so I grabbed a piece of paper that outlined the meeting's agenda and wrote my comments on the back. I feel I can write far better than I can speak. While I had thought I had spoken near the end, people continued to trickle up the microphone after I spoke. I had room on the paper so I added comments in support of other people, and made comments opposed to those speakers I didn't agree with.

A number of people had a speech prepared that they read from. Only a few of these speeches held my interest, partly because the speaker wasn't a dynamic speaker as they stumbled through reading their speech, or else their speech was generic.

The best speeches were by good speakers who had good voices and could deliver the speech well. Usually the best speakers were people who didn't ramble, spoke without reading a speech, and made their point describing their situation in an emotional - but not overly emotional - tone.

One old grizzled fellow - who I initially thought would be another 'property rights' fellow - was the opposite. He came from the South many years ago and his ancestors had been slave owners. Somehow he compared some 'property rights' people to slave owners of old. He spoke extemporaneously and, while a touch rambling, spoke well. He also had humor, though I am not sure if all of his humor were intentional jokes. His comment describing the relationship between developers and their neighbors cracked everyone up. He compared the relationship as follows: "An old man's fondest dream can also be a young maiden's worst nightmare."

Later the head of the 'property rights' group felt obliged to deny a link between 'property rights' and slave owning.

Thursday's meeting was split between the 'property rights' people opposed to the policy, and people who favored it. Each group would applaud the speakers aligned with their position.

Linda, her husband and some of their grandchildren also attended and spoke. As they are far better speakers than I - even the grandkids are - they were among the people quoted in the newspaper article on the meeting.

One of the last speakers was an elderly man who lived a few miles down the same road as I. He said he had lived there since the 1950s. After the meeting I introduced myself to him. While he lives some miles away, he said he had known of my dad.

The meeting lasted over 2 and 1/2 hours, the same length as the previous meeting, even though there seemed to be less people at this meeting. When the meeting started I doubt if even 50 people were there. But as time when on more people came. I think a higher percentage of the audience spoke this night.

Again I had to drag myself to attend the meeting. Another hot day and I was tired. Again I rode my bicycle to the meeting. Again the weather forecast had rain and thunderstorms in it. Unlike Tuesday's meeting it hadn't rained during the meeting. But leaving the meeting I could see signs of approaching rain. It wasn't hard: dark blue clouds and lightning stand out.

I was one mile from home when the rain came down. After heat lightning here and there I saw a large lightning bolt that went in a jagged manner from high in the clouds to my west over to the ground far away to the northwest. The lightning bolt was pink and purple with a touch of yellow. Right after that lightning bolt the rain came. Wet again before I got home. No matter, we really need the moisture.

Getting married can affect ones mood

While getting married can help depressed people, the opposite can be true for people who are not depressed.

"Depressed people may be just especially in need of the intimacy, the emotional closeness and the social support that marriage can provide ... if you start out happy, you don't have as far to go," Williams said.

On the other hand, if you're not depressed, marriage could have the opposite effect, Frech said.

People who were happy before getting married and end up in a marriage plagued by distance or conflict -- qualities associated with a depressed spouse -- might be better off single.

"It seems right to say that people who are not depressed are at risk, that if they marry a depressed person this could be a bad deal for them," Frech said.

Hmmm... I am not depressed so it seems as if I'll be better off staying single?

The full article can be found here.

44 years of bicycling

A German guy has been traveling around the world by bicycle since 1962. That's 44 years! 211 countries and territories. And here I thought I liked to ride my bicycle! I can't compare to this guy.

An interesting article about him: Day 15,996: bike stolen in Portsmouth. Day 16,000: nice ride with newspaper chap

Moderate day

It was a nice day with high temperature in the 70s F. Hmmm... I didn't feel so tired today. Was that because of the moderate temperature, or the fact my supper last night was ice cream?

I found a pocket gopher is back in the front yard yet again. *sigh* It never ends. You'd think they would have settled down by now to a place to live for the year and stop all this moving around.

The wind from last evening's thunderstorm blew a number of apples off my trees. That's ok as the trees are overloaded as I hadn't had time to thin them earlier. More apples for "my girls".

Yesterday I looked over most of "my girls". Numbers 70 and 90, the two smallest, look good. They have finally lost their rough winter coat and look lots sleeker. They also are gaining weight and the one doesn't look like a "runt" any more. One was nice enough to lick the neck of the other one. I am trying to resist praising them because you know what happens whenever I praise or brag about them... trouble!

I sprayed a tank of herbicide this afternoon even though it was threatening rain. I figured that would make it certain that it would rain. A few hours later it did rain lightly. It didn't rain much but anything is better than nothing.

I chatted with Bob and Jan today about gardens, fruit trees, property rights crazies, and listened to some old railroad stories from Bob's past. Jan gave me a spider plant.

A young couple from Helena are now renting the small concrete block house south of the ranch. They also have two dogs and two young kids. Not sure how all will fit in that small house. Early evening I seen all my cattle lined up along the hayfield fence staring into their backyard. I couldn't see what was going on but it sure had the cattle's interest for a while.

I made a second batch of huckleberry jam tonight. The berries are still delicious for munching but I need to use them up before they get overripe.

I read the local newspaper article about last night's growth policy meeting. The article mentioned the property rights people and complaints but didn't balance the article to mention the people who spoke in favor of the growth policy. From the article you'd think everyone was against the growth policy.

Heat and growth and after

Heat

I think it is the heat that is draining my energy. This morning, while not energetic, I felt fine. Late morning / early afternoon I went out to check my gopher traps and cattle. I was dragging by the time I returned an hour and a half later. The temperature was over 90 F. When I got home I laid down for a minute and woke up over an hour later. I was still moving slow the rest of the afternoon, and also during my bicycle ride uptown to attend the Flathead Growth Policy public comment meeting. Now, you'd think I'd fall asleep at the meeting, but I didn't. It was cooler after the meeting and now, after midnight, I have the most energy I've had all day.

I decided to check on the cattle this morning because my "sixth sense" was going off. Earlier in the morning I heard one cattle from my herd bellow a couple times. From the echo off the ridge I wondered if it was somewhere where it shouldn't be, i.e. on the "thumb" or south of the "thumb" near the ridge. Also I saw no sign of the cattle from the pasture as I checked the gopher traps.

I walked across the east river channel to the big island. It wasn't that hard to do as the deepest part was less than 6 inches. The hard part of the crossing was I did it barefoot and the river bed is gravel and rock. Ouch, ouch, ouch!

No cattle on the big island. Then I saw some of them across the main channel over on the small island. It was their siesta time and they were in the back of the island. That is why I couldn't see them from the pasture.

After I returned to the pasture a few cattle saw me and came from the river over to me. They associate me with treats. I didn't have any. Half the herd lined up in the south pasture along the fence as I checked pocket gopher traps in the middle pasture. Sorry girls. The treats are back at the house.

I brought a couple regular gopher traps back home. No activity at all. I have put dirt into the gopher holes I found to close them. No activity by the gophers to reopen the holes. You'd think they would come up to open the holes to allow air movement into the holes.

Growth Policy

Tonight (Tuesday) the County held the first of two public comment meetings on their draft Growth Policy for the County. It was from 6 to 9 pm. The County planners were in attendance along with all but one Planning Board member.

I had planned to speak as I didn't get all my written comments in by the August 1 deadline. But I found the general comments and tone of the meeting was either general arguments for or against the policy with little in the way of specific comments. I also learned one could submit written comments as long as they handed them in during the meeting. I plan to submit my comments at Thursday's meeting.

The "property rights" people were out in force. They were very emotional and the impression I got is that they were fearful. They feared change, and not knowing how the policy affected them. They also didn't make too much sense. One speaker would accuse the Planners of communism; another would accuse the Planners of being Fascists. Other than both ideologies being totalitarian in how they have been implemented, communism and fascism are far apart.

The property rights people were against the Growth Policy, and seemed to want things to be how they have been, or back to the "good old days". The problem is growth is occurring and to ignore it or not try to manage it is like to be an ostrich and sticking one's head in the sand.

One speaker was so worked up I think he thought the growth policy meant the County would seize his property as, in his obscenity laden tirade, he claimed to have a gun and wouldn't give up his property without a fight.

One woman I initially thought was a "hippy chick". She wore a long billowing dress similar to what hippy chicks I knew in the past wore. She started her talk describing her neighborhood and how she owns property and she and her neighbors grow alternative crops. No, not marijuana! Sounded like a hippy chick lifestyle. Then she launched into a property rights tirade and rant. Whoa! She turned scary. Part of her rant made the local 10 pm news when they picked one speaker to show during the news segment. She sat back down across the aisle from me near other property rights radicals. I noticed she had no rings on her left hand. I am not surprised as she went from attractive to scary once she started her tirade. I certainly wouldn't want know her any better.

A number of state representatives from the area spoke. All were Republican. All urged delay and claimed the October 1, 2006 deadline was not mandatory. There was a three minute restriction on speaking and all of these long winded legislators had to stop before they were done. I was not impressed by the speaking ability of any of them.

The person who most impressed me was a 16 year old boy from Kila, MT who spoke at the end. He eloquently spoke to make his points and did so within the three minute period. He was not a property rights person and spoke in favor of the growth policy. After the meeting Linda was trying to act as matchmaker between him and a few of her granddaughters.

Linda and Emy spoke in favor in the growth policy and did so very well. And bravely as many of the previous speakers were property rights people who ranted against the policy. Linda worked in an allusion to "not being afraid of the alligator" in reference to the recent find of an alligator in a local pond used for swimming and fishing. I think the reference went over the heads of the property rights people.

After the Meeting

The meeting finished around 8:30 pm. When I went outside I found it had rained. What?! It was hot and sunny when the meeting started. I had laundry hanging on my clothesline back home. It also was much cooler. It felt good.

During my bicycle ride back home I passed Depot Park and found the Tuesday music concert was in progress. The rain hadn't scared everyone away. I decided to stop to listen to the music, and to let the rain clouds move east and to allow the roads to dry. The music was good. A jazz band was playing. They did an interesting jazzy version of the Beatle's song, "Norwegian Wood".

By the time the music ended at 9 pm the roads were dry. I stopped by a grocery store on the way home as, after making a loaf of pumpkin bread this afternoon, I had room in my freezer for a half gallon of ice cream. I hadn't bought ice cream since visiting my mom last winter. I think I am losing my sweet tooth as eating ice cream tonight wasn't satisfying. Maybe making it my supper and not dessert had something to do with that?

It is raining lightly now. Good! We really need the rain. And no thunderstorm wind or lightning this time. During my ride home I rode near an area where the electric company was repairing a power line after the wind blew a tree over on it. Lots of lightning earlier over the Swan Mountain Range. We'll see tomorrow how many fires were started from the lightning.

Garden and supper

I finished watering my garden and finally weeded my strawberry patch. Even with my neglect of my strawberry plants I found some ripe ones to eat. Come to think of it I haven't seen my robins lately. That might be why I found some strawberries.

That's about it to write about other than the usual. I.e. gophers, feeding apples to the cows, etc.

I actually made and eaten a supper the past two nights. I don't believe I've eaten a proper supper the past month. I don't come in the house until dark and that has been after 10 pm. Then it feels too late to cook something to eat so I usually popped some popcorn and found other stuff to munch on. But lately I have felt sometimes like I was dragging. I don't want to admit its my age, so I am blaming it on only 2 and 1/2 meals a day on probably what many consider to be a vegetarian diet, though I am not a vegetarian. So, although it was well after 10 pm, I made hamburgers to eat. Protein! I'll see if this has any impact.

Multi-tasking day

A dull day when it comes to blogging about the day's events. Lots of multi-tasking.

• I checked my gopher traps. One pocket gopher trapped. Several traps filled with dirt. The rest: no activity.

• I sprayed some of the knapweed in the north pasture.

• I picked seeds of goat's beard growing in the pastures. One would think that with the grass drying up and turning brown, the goat's beard would not have enough moisture or energy to grow. But grow it does.

• I began to dig an area so I can plant the rest of my Emerald Arborvitae shrubs. Watering them in their containers is getting old. I decided to plant them along part of my fence line in the NE pasture. When they grow larger they will block the view of the traffic when it comes around the bend on the road.

• The pump for my well has a plastic hose running from it. The end of the hose lay on the shed's floor. That's not so good. I had put the hose end to run back into the well until I looked closer and found the water was the runoff from lubricating the pump's shaft. Don't want that going into my well. I put the hose end into a bucket for now. I need to come up with some way to get that water to go outside the shed and not be a problem.

• I also picked up the insulation from the well's shed that I had pulled out when replacing the water tank. By the time I reassemble everything back into the shed it may rain. Don't want the insulation to get wet.
  

• I fed a pail of apples to three cattle that were close to the fence this evening. Two of the cattle were quite anxious to get all the apples they could. I was afraid they would burst through the fence as they competed to get the apples, but the fence held. I held the pail behind me as I fed them the apples by hand and one tried to reach around me to the pail. One would think I had my arm down their throats as they slobbered all over my arms clear up to my elbows. They love apples.

• I found some of the leaves had been eaten off a shrub in the yard. Found the caterpillars and dispatched them.
  

• I watered half my garden before it got dark. I picked one head of cabbage as it was large and ready. I picked a second head as something is eating it. A quarter to a third had been eaten away.

• I rode 10 miles on my bicycle to get some exercise.
  

The air is smoky / hazy from Washington State forest fires. It is especially noticeable around sunset. I can see the smoke when I look at the trees on the ridge. One would think the fires are closer. A red sun when it sets.

Commissioners & Whitefish River Ranch

Now that some time has passed maybe I can write about the County Commissioners meeting on the Whitefish River Ranch South project without getting overly detailed. (Fat chance!)

Background

We have three County Commissioners:

• Bob Watne, Republican, the current Chairman
• Gary Hall, Republican
• Joe Brenneman, Democrat
  

Two out of three votes decides the result.

Watne is not running for re-election, which will sadden the developers as he seems to always side with them. He seems to miss a lot of meetings as mentioned in this local newspaper article. He has had DUI issues in the past as mentioned in this web link.

Watne also got into trouble back in 2004 according to this local newspaper article:

Watne was charged with assault or, in the alternative, obstructing an officer, and entered a no-contest plea to obstructing. The charge arose after a dust-up on Panoramic Drive on April 5, 2004 at the home of his then-fiance, Beth Benjamin, when her barn burned. Firefighters called for law-enforcement help after a confrontation with Benjamin.

Brenneman is the newest Commissioner. He seems to hold the developers a little more accountable and seems more concerned with managing the county's rapid growth in a smarter manner.

Hall is the swing vote, though I've been told he appears to side with the developers and Watne more often than not. People have told me that they feel Hall seems to sit on the fence to see which way the wind is blowing before committing himself.

The Meeting

Tony, the neighbor who borders the proposed subdivision and who has concerns about his road easement, and I rode together to the meeting. The room had plenty of people and Tony and I had to get chairs to sit on from a stack of chairs by the wall.

The 15 minute open comment period before the meeting was supposed to start at 10:45 am. It didn't start until 10:50 am. Because I seen a number of people who were there to speak, I jumped up first to speak when the open comment period started. I wasn't sure if the Commissioners would limit the comment period to 15 minutes.

I presented the Commissioners with more names on my petition about the traffic and road concerns. That made 52 people total who signed it. I mentioned one family's concern about a spring that crossed the road and how the gravel shoulder may affect it. I also mentioned people's concern about the commercial traffic on the road. I reiterated my comment from Wednesday's open comment period that people felt a road should be made from Trumble Creek Rd to Hwy 2. Tronstad Road lies to the west, west of Whitefish Stage Road, and would be the ideal road to continue east to Hwy 2. This road would be a better alternative for the subdivision traffic.

Once I spoke people lined up to speak. Most were opposed to the subdivision due to traffic, water and sewer concerns, schools, and density. Tony spoke about his road easement and said he has no agreement with the developer on how the proposed subdivision would protect his easement. Loyd spoke about perk tests, ground water and traffic. Darryl spoke about traffic on the bend in the road next to his trailer house. Emy spoke about density and the proximity to the airport. Linda C. spoke about protecting the ground water and the proposed level 2 sewer system.

Then the developer's hired hands spoke.

An engineer with the level 2 septic system spoke about how good the system is and reminded the Commissioners of an earlier meeting where he explained the system to him.

The property's former owner, Steve Streich, spoke why this was a great subdivision and he would be proud to live there. People in the audience snickered, "Then why did he sell his house next to the subdivision and move?"

This subdivision is part of the Two Rivers Master Plan amendment. One of the amendment's conditions was for high density development be hooked up to city water and sewer. The proposed subdivision will not meet that condition as it is the furthest Two Rivers development from the city, and the first one to come before the Commissioners. Streich said that if he thought he would have been held to the Two River's condition he would never have be part of the Two River's group. I guess whining works on the Commissioners as they didn't hold him to that condition.

Ken K., a lawyer, said he met in early May 2006 with Charlie Johnson, the county road department supervisor, and said Charlie felt the 2 ft gravel shoulder addition to Trumble Creek Road was the preferred alternative.

After Ken was done speaking I got up to say I spoke with Charlie this past Monday morning and Charlie said nothing was addressed concerning the bend in Trumble Creek Road, a Tronstad Road extension, or a road east to Hwy 2.

Erica the engineering company's mouthpiece spoke. She waits till after the opponents speak and cherry picks comments she can rebut giving the impression she answered all the opponent's concerns. Erica said it was her "understanding" the road easement issue was settled. Wrong.

Commissioner Gary Hall asked Erica if an extended Tronstad Road would pass through the subdivision as the map on the wall showed. Erica felt Tronstad Road would not pass through the subdivision but then asked Steve Streich to verify that. They all looked at the map on the wall and I got up to join them. Steve said Tronstad Road would pass south of the property, not through it.

Erica went on to spin for the developer. She said "it was her understanding" that Charlie Johnson believed Tronstad Road would never be extended down the ridge between Whitefish Stage Road and Trumble Creek Road due to the ridge's elevation. Hmmm.. then why did the county build the Rose Crossing and Birch Grove roads down the ridge? Erica had the floor so I wasn't able to rebut her claim or ask when it supposedly was made and why.

After Erica was finished speaking Commissioner Watne called for more comments. No one else spoke so I got up to address Tronstad Road again. Exasperated, Watne said this was the third time I spoke and to let others have a chance to speak. No one else was up to speak and I said I wanted to address comments made by others. I told the Commissioners that Streich felt Tronstad Road lay south of the property and I believe it ran through the property, as the map showed. I asked the Commissioners to verify Tronstad Road's future location before making a decision. I also said that even if Tronstad Road would not be built over the ridge in the near future, it could run from Trumble Creek Road to Hwy 2 to handle the traffic from the subdivision as that section of the road would be flat.

Bob Watne and Gary Hall didn't look like they were paying attention to me.

After I finished my comments the open comment period was closed. It had lasted more than 15 minutes. More like an hour or more. The Commissioners then opened their discussion on the Whitefish River Ranch South proposal. Erica, on behalf of the developer, got to make a presentation. She had some large maps and Gary Hall jumped up to set up the stand for her to place her maps.

The Commissioners and Erica then went over the objections the developer had to some of the conditions set by the Flathead Planning Board. One objection was to the requested 200 ft open space area along Whitefish River. The developers wanted only a 100 ft open space area. They claimed their trout ponds fell within the 200 ft area and they didn't want the public to be able to fish from the ponds. Commissioner Brenneman then said "200 ft except for the ponds". Erica then whined that they planned 4 housing lots in other parts of the 200 foot open space area and 200 ft would decrease the lots size.

Her request seemed to go nowhere and then the developer, Ben Franklin, stood up and said in speaking with Jeff Harris, the County Planning director, Jeff mentioned a need to do a study of a trail system for the County but there is a lack of money for a study. Mr. Franklin then pledged $10,000 towards a study since his subdivision's open space borders the river and in the path of such a trail system. Mr. Franklin said there were "no strings attached" to his pledge but asked that until the study was complete that the Commissioners only require a 100 ft open space corridor along the river and not 200 ft. Of course by the time the study is complete he will have built houses on those 4 housing lots and no one will take the lots' property to build a bicycle and equestrian trail.

Commissioner Gary Hall took the bait, thanked the developer for the "donation" and said he felt 100 ft was adequate. Bob Watne seems to always do what a developer asks, so Brenneman had to give up the fight for a 200 ft open space corridor along the river as two votes wins the day. Gary Hall made sure the $10,000 "donation" was written into the subdivision's final conditions.

Many of the people in the audience were incredulous. Everyone I have spoken with describe this as a bribe. I guess since it was out in the open in front of everyone, it is legal?

Gary Hall's daughter was due to give birth that afternoon in Missoula and he was in a hurry to leave. Brenneman tried to attach or modify a few conditions but got nowhere.

When it came time to vote Hall was the only person to try to explain his vote. He said that while members of the audience had raised concerns about the Level 2 septic system and water & aquifer issues, he wasn't an expert and therefore had to trust the experts (the Level 2 system's designers) on how well the system will work. He said he trusted that the DEQ (the MT Dept of Environmental Quality) would not let a bad system go through their process. You would think the Commissioners would require the DEQ to approve the design before the Commissioners approved the subdivision?

Well, in the week since this meeting, the Commissioners lost a lawsuit on another subdivision and it appears one of the points of the lawsuit they lost on was the Commissioners did not follow MT's subdivision's law where the Commissioners had to get the DEQ info/approval before approving subdivisions. Here is the newspaper article explaining the lawsuit and court's decision. I know one of the people behind the lawsuit and all I can say is: Way to go Linda J.!!!

Regarding traffic, Hall felt the proposed 2 ft gravel shoulder to be added to about 1.5 miles of a 22 ft wide Trumble Creek Road as a "safety improvement" was a good solution to handle the subdivision's increased traffic of 520 vehicle trips per day. Hall neglected to mention to mention he was involved in a meeting with the County road supervisor, the County planning director, the developer, the developer's engineer, and the developer's lawyer in coming up with this 2 ft gravel shoulder idea. I have seen the email correspondence documenting this meeting. Hall ignored the bend in the road around Trumble Creek and the idea of extending Tronstad road to provide an alternative route for the traffic. In this case, Hall apparently didn't want to get an expert opinion on where Tronstad Road would be located in regards to the subdivision. Funny how experts are only useful when you want to hide behind them.

With that the Commissioners voted. Hall and Watne voted to approve the subdivision and Brenneman was opposed.

So this is an overview on how our Commissioners handle subdivision requests. I am curious on what impact this recent court decision will have on our Commissioners.

And lastly, there was a woman sitting along the west wall towards the back of the room who appeared to be about 60 years old and who wore a pink miniskirt and could get away with it. When speaking I noticed out of the corner of my eye the flash of a camera. Later I seen this woman taking photos of some of the other speakers. I stared at her trying to figure out why she was taking the photos. She saw me looking at her and winked at me before turning her attention back to the speakers and Commissioners. ...odd!

Spray, water, apples, cattle

Spray

I finished re-spraying herbicide on the areas I had covered earlier before getting sidetracked on the Whitefish River Ranch South proposal over a week ago. I sprayed what I missed the first time and the snowberry bushes which often require several sprayings to completely kill them. All the other weeds I had sprayed were dead. I continued to spray until I covered the whole NE pasture. The smallest pasture done, many more larger ones left.

Water

I started to water the garden and fruit trees and berry bushes again as they all are dry again. I was able to complete watering the trees and bushes before it got dark.

The blueberry bushes don't look so good. They normally need frequent watering without drowning the roots. I am not sure if the browning leaves are because the bushes dried out before I got to watering them last week, or if my method of watering was too much, or both. I water long and deep infrequently rather than a quick watering often. I am trying to get the roots to go down deeper rather than stay near the surface expecting water. With my older (planted a few years ago) fruit trees this seems to have worked as none of their leaves looked stressed by my lack of watering earlier this month when it was hot and dry. The blueberry bushes handled this type of watering last year with no problems, but I also watered more frequently last year when it was hot and dry.

Apples

Two of my apples trees are loaded with apples even after the recent wind knocked quite a few to the ground. I filled several five gallon pails with the fallen apples and tomorrow I will pick out the few good ones to eat and give the rest to the cattle.

The cattle's timing is a little off. They spent the morning and early afternoon down by the river, much of the afternoon in the south pasture, and the evening in the hayfield. After dark I noticed they are along the fence near the house. It was too dark to hand feed them the apple treats.

Cattle

I leave my bedroom window open at night and the window is next to the hayfield. Early this morning a few of the cattle woke me briefly by some sounds they were making outside my window. I don't think it was a wake-up call.

Harrows, gopher, wind, spraying

Harrows

This week's Mountain Trader had an ad listing two spike-tooth harrows for $20. I called for the address, then went to look at them. The owner had pulled them up out of the grass and weeds on his "back 40" up the mountain side. He recommended I put the pickup into 4 wheel drive so as not to spin its wheels on his rough gravel & rock "road" when I drove to where the harrows lay.

They are old and have seen better days. One harrow has all of its teeth; the other one is missing some of its. The harrows' size is smaller than the neighbor's harrow I had used. I think the neighbor's harrow was custom built while these harrows are the typical size.

I debated whether to buy them. $20 isn't much, but they were old and beat up. I asked if he would take less. "A few dollars less". I offered $15 and he accepted. After we loaded them in the pickup I spied a few rolls of field fence. I asked if he would sell them and for how much. "You can have them for a few dollars." I gave him $20 for everything: the harrows and fence. I got four rolls. Old fence, and the rolls are kind of flat, and I had to break small trees that had grown through the rolls over the years, but this fence will work when attached to my old barb wire fence. The cattle get through the fence by sticking their head and neck through the barb wire, and then the wire breaks. If they can't get their head through the fence... no problem?

After loading everything into the pickup I drove up the mountain more. He wanted to show me a contraption he made to "blade" his road to smooth it and pop the large rocks from the ground. He had welded and modified part of a trailer house frame and hitch to pull behind his machinery. It works, but nothing I needed.

Most of the other items in his ad he had sold the previous night - not that I was interested in them. They were the old horse drawn equipment that people now fix up and put in their front yards.

After driving back to his house I chatted with him about the area. He lives along Blankenship Road and the 2003 Robert fire that burned in Glacier Park was close. If the wind blew from another direction his place could have burnt. He has lived here for 40 years. Initially he only had 3 other neighbors within miles. Now, lots of neighbors who live up on the mountains on narrow gravels roads the local fire department won't travel on. He used to shoot gophers in his front lawn, but quit because he is afraid the joggers may think he is shooting at them.

He has an old 2 cylinder John Deere 730 diesel tractor which he showed me. He also has a D7 Cat. Big! He said in the old days the loggers used the D7 to built roads and do other logging tasks. They aren't used any more as the equipment is specialized and now all run on rubber tires.

An interesting old guy. I like to talk with the old timers how the Valley used to be, and how things used to work.

Gophers

I caught a regular gopher today! A surprise. I guess all of them haven't gone underground. I caught this one in an area where I had dug down deep around a tree stump I plan to burn this fall. I had a trap here several weeks ago but no activity. I closed the hole with dirt and moved the trap to another area. After catching that gopher I found the closed hole was again open. I reset the trap with no activity. That is why it was such a surprise to catch the gopher today. That makes 82 trapped this year. I don't think I will make it to 100. That is ok; I have made a significant dent in their population.

Wind: trees and weeds

Another front came through as the wind was strong this afternoon. The weather forecasters had predicted, "The wind can be as strong as 30 mph." Even after all my years here I smile when wind warnings are issued for 15-25 mph wind. I grew up in North Dakota and lived in Minnesota. 15-25 mph wind is the norm there.

I found another tree on the ground. I have three dead trees the bugs apparently got. I had left them standing as I have other dead and fallen trees to cut and split first; and because my friend Sarah asked me to leave them standing for now for the wildlife that likes dead trees. The recent winds were too much for one tree. Fortunately the tree fell just short of my south/middle pasture fence.

Another problem with the wind is my neighbor's field. Usually the south neighbor (to my pasture) plows her field. This year she hasn't, and the Canadian Thistle has gone to seed. Areas of white seeds. With the wind I find white seeds flying past when I am in my pastures. *sigh*

Spraying

I sprayed a (hand held) tank of herbicide on my weeds today. I had sprayed over a week ago before I got wrapped up in the subdivision fight and escaped Holstein. Now is not the best time to spray as Spring and Fall are the best times. But one must do some things when one has the time.

Earlier I had sprayed my front yard, the fruit tree/garden area, along the fence along the road, and half the NE pasture before I got pulled to other things. Today I re-sprayed the front lawn, along part of the roadside fence, then a little of the knapweed in the north pasture. The earlier spraying had worked as those weeds are browning up. The snowberries, being tougher, were affected but fighting the herbicide. They got another dose.

Carmen, Nursery, Cattle, Gophers

Carmen

The other day Carmen called me. Carmen was the chief election judge for the precinct I worked in during the Primary election. Carmen was about to finally fill out the survey on how we thought the election went.

We re-lived old stories and learned a few new ones on what happened during the election. Carmen said the officials in charge of the election told her that our team did great. We also learned that we can stay together as team for the general election. One woman moved east of the mountains so our team won't be exactly the same. But I hope everyone else volunteers again as we were a good and fun group.

I thought of another suggestion so when I was near the courthouse to speak with an official from the Planning Department about Tronstad road and the Whitefish River Ranch South subdivision, I stopped to speak with the election officials. My suggestion was to include a precinct map with our materials. We shared the Armory location with two other precincts and when the voter wasn't listed in our book we sent them to another precinct based on what precinct we thought their address was located. Guess work by the judges on my team who lived in Whitefish. Me, I hadn't a clue. I am not sure the election officials will include a map, but at least I made the suggestion. The election official told me our team did great during the Primary election.

Nursery order

I got a card from the nursery where last year I had bought plants and 95% of them died because the nursery had sent them to me in August. I had sent my info in just prior to the 1 year end date for the guarantee. The nursery appears to be honoring their guarantee. I had requested the replacement items not to be shipped till Fall as I didn't want to get them in August again this year. The card said they will ship my order in the Spring.

Cattle

The cattle are behaving. (I cringe when I say that as that compliment seems to give them license to get into trouble). Tonight half the herd was near the fence and I wanted a break from shoveling the dirt back around my well's shed. I had a 2 gallon pail of apples that had fallen from my apple trees. I also gave them some loaves of French bread I had gotten from the food bank. The bread was dry, which is how the cattle seem to like it.

In the past when I had given these cattle some apples they didn't eat them as they expected bread from me and the apples were an unknown item. Since then I had left some apples on the ground across the fence for the cattle to discover. Now they know what the apples taste like and tonight they really went for the apples. Many apples were very small so I would open my hand and between their large tongues and my pushing them against their mouth, they got most of them. And I did not get bitten from all the teeth I seen. Lots of tongues and teeth near me as the cattle jockeyed to get the food. My hands were covered in cattle "slober" by the time I was done giving them their treat.

The cattle had "cattle breath" tonight. They were in the middle of eating grass when I fed them. Chewed up green grass and cattle saliva doesn't smell that good. It almost stopped me cold a few times when several cattle pushed and shoved to get the apples and bread and had their mouths close to me.

The neighbor to the south has rented his pasture to hold five horses. I have seen when the cattle are in the south hayfield a few of them stop and "talk" with the horses. It looks that way as the cattle and horses stand opposite each other across the fence and face each other. I haven't gotten close enough to overhear their conversations.

The alfalfa is now dry after all the heat we had the last week, and also due to the lack of moisture since early July. I had one bloat blocker left and I put it out. I also put some of the salt blocks back out.

I had to repair one of the wooden stands used to hold the salt blocks. Now that I am not chasing cattle or building fence I finally was able to rebuilt the stand. The stand was old but fairly sturdy. But cattle are hard on things.

Gophers

It seems as if each August the regular gophers disappear down their holes. Guess what? It's August now and the gophers have disappeared. No more warning chirps when I am in the pasture. Many of the gopher holes now have spider webs over them. I haven't caught any gophers for days now, nor has any of the traps been triggered. I have left the traps as is for now in case a stray gopher is still active. The pocket gophers are still active and I caught two more today. I also found a fresh mound of dirt in the corral. *sigh* I moved one trap back to catch this pocket gopher.