In Washington

I made it to Washington safely. It was a beautiful day for a drive. I didn't see a cloud all day and the temperature was in the upper 70s F.

I never left Kalispell until 9:45 am - later than I expected. It was a hassle driving through Kalispell on the way out of town. Since everyone was at work the little old ladies were now out doing their errands. Slow and confused drivers!

I stopped near Paradise, MT and took a few photos of the Clark Fork River. The morning light on the water and the mountains in haze against the morning light was beautiful. I guess the town's name isn't far off the mark!


The highway to the interstate followed the river much of the way. While mainly pine tree forests, there were a number of quaking Aspens along the road and intermingled with the pines. The Aspens are turning color and they were a yellow or yellow/orange intermingled with the green pines. When I reached the east side of the Cascade Mountains, the non-pine trees intermingled were a red to red/orange color. All were very pretty.

Central Washington was brown as the irrigation season is over.

In central Washington on the radio I got a few Spanish language music stations. It was a welcome change from the classic rock or Top 40 stations. I got words here or there, but mainly I enjoyed the different music. It was amusing to hear English words mixed in the rapid and excited Spanish.

One commercial: "Spanish.. rapid Spanish... 'Trip of a lifetime'... Spanish.." You would think 'trip of a lifetime' could have been translated into Spanish! Words like 'vcr', 'dvd', etc.. I understand using the English Words.

Another commercial from the 'Washington Public safety Council' (only English words) was a conversation between a young boy and a young woman that ended in a police siren. Hmmm.. wonder what that commercial was about?

I enjoyed the Spanish music which was mainly was Mexican Polka music.

When nearing and entering the Cascade Mountains I started to lose my Spanish language stations. I did a scan and usually was able to find another one. There are lots of fruit orchards in central Washington. :)

Earlier had I listened to a public radio station that had an hour of what seems to be Spanish guitar (Spain, not Mexico) mixed with classical music. Pretty good.

I stopped at the Columbia River overlook to see the view. Back in 1998 (?) when Tina and I drove this way I thought there were metal horse statues on top of the hills east of the Columbia River and the overlook. I didn't see them this time. I did like the looks of the rocks at the scenic overlook. And no... I did not take any with me.


Washington state has a law that drivers must drive in the left lane except when passing. Minnesota needs a similar law. The drivers there drove slowly in the left lane and that drove me crazy when I lived there. The drivers in Washington state seem to be better and more considerate than Minnesota drivers. I wasn't cursing out the Washington drivers like I did in Minnesota.

The only hitch came when I left the interstate on highway 18. The state was repaving the highway and I drove the highway during rush hour. What should be a 6 lane highway - and is a 4 lane highway - was now a 2 lane highway due to the paving. The line of cars stretched for miles!

Unlike Minnesota where drivers switched lanes constantly to whichever lane was moving faster, the drivers here didn't do so. I was surprised. They also would let in the cars merging onto the highway. That slowed the traffic down. In this case I would have preferred a little of the "Minnesota Nice" where the drivers seldom did that. Maybe I would have gotten through the bottleneck sooner. It took 45 minutes to drive a half mile. Then another 15 minutes to do 5 miles before I got through the bottleneck.

What made the waiting worse were there were no good radio stations to listen to. The Top 40 announcers were idiots and I think my intelligence declined listening to them. I was tired of classic rock. I found one country music station and found the announcer had a pronouced Southern accent which seemed so out of place. In Montana the country music announcers speak normally. They don't play up a hick accent. I liked the music but couldn't stand the announcer.

I was later slowed down by more rush hour traffic. At that time I had a great view of Mt. Rainier. I tried to take photos from my car window but the traffic would start up as I was about to take the photo. That explains my tilted photo (I wasn't trying to be artsy-fartsy.)


Larry said you can see a deer's head on MT. Rainer as to how the rock and snow are located. I can't quite see it in the photos so he will show it to me outside tomorrow from his front yard.

All-in-all a successful drive. At a little over 500 miles, certainly easier than my 700 mile Montana/North Dakota trips and my 600 mile Minnesota/North Dakota trips in the past. The Washington state interstate roads are the best of the states as the road was smooth and without cracks or bumps. That made the drive easier.

I'm going

Of coursen I'm going, no brainer. Although later than I planned (but not expected ). Well.. one goes to bed at 1:45 am and doesn't use an alarm clock, I shouldn't complain that I woke up at 6:45 am after only 5 hours sleep. Guess I didn't get my beauty sleep last night.

I woke out of a crazy dream that mixed MT, ND, and MN. In N. Dakota I was raising cattle with Jeff, my Minnesota friend. The cattle wandered where they shouldn't be and we got them back in the corral and were closing one gate when a new neighbor's young boys opened another gate. As I ran over to close that gate the boy ran in front of me and I knocked him over into the dirt whereby the mother got mad at me even though the boy wasn't hurt. What happened to having pleasant dreams?

As I hadn't gotten all my packing (and making lunch to eat along the way) done yesterday, that is why it is after 9 am now. Mapquest estimates the drive to be around 9 hours, so I better get going.

Talk with you later.

Oh yeah, I still found time to check the pocket gopher traps this morning and caught one.

Should I stay or should I go?

The sunset photos took longer to upload than I planned. My internet connection was slow and would reset. Man, it's already after 1 am. I was gonna get up at 6 am to leave on vacation. For the life of me, why is it so hard to go to bed early?!

I leave in the morning for my vacation to Tacoma, Washington to visit relatives. I am torn about going. I haven't seen them in over a decade and want to see them. I am not sure I am ready to go. I have a few partial lists here and there of things to do and take, but I'm not sure I am prepared as I haven't actually spent time preparing to go on vacation. What happened to the ol' days where I planned and prepared, and prepared, and ... - sometimes too much? Laid back is nice but am I too laid back now? I packed stuff this morning - clothes at least - but wonder if I am forgetting something? Or forgetting to do something before I go?

Another drag on my leaving... the weather here in Montana is perfect right now. 70s, sun, no wind, clear blue skies. The forecast is for this to continue and get better (warmer) through Sunday. The forecast for Tacoma: beautiful weather until the weekend, then clouds and a chance of rain Sunday and next week. I could be getting stuff done here in Montana. Only so many nice days left before the snow flies.

I am sure my hiking group will go hiking in Glacier Park now that the weather has improved. Jan went hiking with my old hiking group yesterday. First time in over a year. They hiked to a lake out in the boonies - not in the Park - and way NW of here. This is the group I had hiked with a few years ago where we looked for one lake and found another near the top of the mountain - miles away. The same thing almost happened to the ladies yesterday. They did find their lake and it was beautiful and the fish were jumping. They did have to walk along a narrow ledge that scared the bejesus out of a few of the ladies. Sound's like an interesting time.

Once I get going to Washington I will feel better. I do want to visit my relatives in Washington. Lots to catch up on, and to see and do. I just have this feeling I am forgetting something here in Montana.

Today I picked garden stuff: all the corn, cantaloupes, watermelons, bell and jalapeno peppers, and the tomatoes that are turning red, or have the hint they will soon turn red. I have tons of green tomatoes left. I told Bob and Jan to pick what they want as they continue ripening in the coming days as no frost is predicted in the week ahead.

This afternoon I attended a education session for chief election judges for the upcoming election. I am not a chief judge, but my chief judge, Carmen, wanted another member of the team to attend as a backup knowledgeable person and I offered to do so.

It was worthwhile to attend. They had snacks to eat. And the county's elected official, the Clerk and Recorder, in charge of voting looked quite attractive and stylish in her outfit. Her skirt was several inches about her knees and she has nice legs. Paula is not some old and dowdy lady near retirement (like most of the chief election judge volunteers at the meeting). Too bad she is married.

Seriously, we learned stuff and got clued into the changes made since the primary as the county elections department learned from the primary and made some changes to the procedures. With so many new election judges during the primary we also learned from one another in the questions asked of the officials.

We also got to play with the voting machines. Hands on experience is always better than just sitting and listening. Most people concentrated on the M100 voting machine. Carmen and I decided to setup the Automark voting marker for the disabled people. As we did a group of people gathered around to watch and give hints and advice as Carmen and I "went for it" not really knowing what we were doing. I was trying not to be a typical male and would listen to Carmen as she read the instructions. We found a missing step in the instructions and informed one of the election officials. In the primary, among our location's three precincts, we only had one machine and only a few voters used the machine, none from our precinct. For the election each precinct will have an automark machine. State law. And the state will have a number of auditors roaming the state auditing and checking how the process is going.

The automark machines are pretty neat and ones doesn't have to be disabled to use it. It is like using a computer to enter your choices and then the machine marks your ballot. It has large print options, Braille and headphones for the blind, and a connection for "sip and puff" cords the paralyzed use.

Time to end for the night! Hmmm... how early will I get up and get on the road? Not as early as I planned. An 9 hour (estimated by mapquest) drive. Why is it so easy for me to stay up late?

Sunset over the back 40

A few photos from last night. They were taken from the back of the house looking over the "back 40". They were taken about ten minutes apart.

Garden and raspberries

Pumpkins in foreground with cantaloupes in mid section. Sunflowers and corn on the right. Tomatoes, bell peppers and carrots in background.

Camera and sunflowers

I bought a digital camera today. Just in time for my vacation to Washington state and the ocean on Thursday.

Here are a few photos of my garden's sunflowers.


It appears Blogger's compression algorithm when I upload the photos affects the photos quality. I guess going from about a Meg to a little over 100K will do that. It is noticable in the blue sky as it looks like there are streaks in the sky. Still, you get the idea of what my sunflowers look like.

Deer, food, camera, beaver

Today I noticed another garden item that the deer have eaten: sunflower leaves. On one sunflower they ate many of its leaves. *sigh*

I am living off my garden produce:

Lunch

• tomato sandwich
• radish
  
• cucumber
• broccoli
• raw zucchini
• zucchini bread
  
• carrot
  
• apples
  

Supper

• corn on the cob
• steamed cabbage
• potatoes or parsnip
• green onion
  
• beet
• apple pie
  

Hmm... maybe I should have kept one of my cattle for butchering so I would have some beef to counter this vegetarian-like eating routine. I keep saying I am not a vegetarian, but I find I don't eat much meat these days. Once my garden produce is gone I'll be back to eating more meat.

More digital camera shopping today. As I want an optical viewfinder in addition to the LCD screen, that narrows the choice of cameras in my price range as most cameras only have a LCD screen. Canon and Kodak are about the only brands in my price range that have an optical viewfinder. I am also limited by the models that the local stores carry. I think I'll get the Canon A540. From the reviews it appears to be a good camera. Seems nice when I looked at it in the store . Initially I was put off by the bump of the camera's right side, but found that this bump makes it easier to hold the camera with one hand. I guess that is the purpose of the bump.

The potato trucks are back hauling potatoes down my road. They had taken a break due to the wet weather last week.

I seen a dead beaver in Daryl's yard by the creek. The guy helping him prepare for his new home said Daryl shot it. It is a large animal. He left it near the dam as a warning to the others. The creek is rising again so the other beavers just moved downstream a bit.

Deer, partridges, mileage

Things done today:

• finished the trim on the house windows
• caught 2 pocket gophers
• went shopping for a digital camera. I didn't buy one, just comparing models.

I found deer tracks in my garden. The deer knocked over some of my corn stalks. I couldn't tell what else they munched on.

My Hungarian partridge brood is still around. They have been running around the yard the past few days. Yesterday when I was working on the window trim they were in the front yard "chirping", or whatever sound they make. There are 15 of them. They prefer not to fly as they run like the dickens when they feel threatened. Kinda cute.

On my bicycle I have ridden over 2000 miles for the season. That has been my average yearly mileage since coming to Montana. It used to be 3800 miles a year. I now get enough physical exercise at the ranch that I don't have the need to take a spin after work. Last year my total mileage was only 1850 miles as my Fall was taken up with insulating the house. This year I made an extra effort to exceed 2000 miles - and did it with months to spare.

Pie, windows, Lyle

My excuse for getting up late this morning was that I was up until after 3 am this morning. Too bad, it was a beautiful morning and I missed half of it. I need to get to bed earlier!

It didn't freeze last night as the low was 33 F. The time I spent covering my garden was for naught. At least I was able to cover the garden before dark so I was able to efficiently use my tarps to cover things. I even had a few tarps left over. The low tonight is predicted to be below freezing. We'll see it the forecasters get it right tonight (though I hope they are wrong).

Worked more on adding trim to my house's windows. I didn't finish all the windows. No, it wasn't because I slept the morning away. I baked an apple pie this morning, and as I make the pie crust from scratch it takes a few more minutes to make the pie.

Also I chatted across the fence with my neighbor Lyle. As I hadn't talked with him since getting his signature on my road petition, I filled him in on the status of the proposed subdivision north of us. He still has his house and property for sale, though not with the realtor from last year as he was unhappy with her work. He isn't pushing to sell his house this year as he wants to work on it a little more. The annual Log Jam event to raise money to aid injured loggers is tonight, and as he is a logger, Lyle said he would attend.

Sand videos

Here are some interesting videos where a woman makes a series of pictures in sand over a lighted glass table. With music. Very nice.

Google video has the videos.

Man laying under the sun.

Ocean

Woman and birds


They also have a web site: www.sandfantasy.com

Wasting the day

Even though yesterday was an "indoors day' I slept in late this morning. Not sure why, maybe I figured it would be another cool wet day. At least that was the weather forecast. They were wrong. A dry day, and warmer than yesterday.

I spent much of the afternoon checking out internet providers. My Earthlink 6-month free trial offer is expiring soon. Connecting late at night is tolerable. Any other time and the connection is so slow and often "goes to sleep" on me. This afternoon was frustrating to get servers to be found, much less web pages loaded.

I plan on getting DSL but found they require a 1 year subscription. I plan on being away for a month or more over Christmas so signing up now doesn't make sense. So, dial up still. I have another internet provider in mind to bring the gap from October to Christmas vacation.

Kelly stopped by to ask about hunting deer on the ranch again this Fall. Sure. While talking we saw a few does come out into the south pasture. With binoculars Kelly recognized one doe from previous years. He said most does last year where kinda dumb about the danger but she was an alert doe and he had to be careful not to be seen by her as she would pound her hooves on the ground to warn the others.

Kelly is building a new house and I heard about the latest glitches in the building process. House builds rarely go smoothly.

I started to add trim around the house windows and finished the north window. I was doing this when Kelly drove up. The last he saw me last year I was putting the house's siding back on after adding wall insulation. "Aren't you done yet? It's been a year." Umm... no. The snow came before I got to the window trim, and I've been busy this summer.

Making jam on a rainy day

I shouldn't have written anything about it being nice that it only rained in the morning and at night and was dry during the day. It has rained much of the day today. It started late this morning with a strong wind that blew over the top of the house and well into the front yard leaves from the patio trees. Then came a heavy downpour with the wind noisily slamming the rain against many of the windows. It reminded me of summer rains back in the Midwest, not here.

Therefore today was an opportunity to finally make jam from the rest of my huckleberries. I know, I picked them in July so they are getting long in the tooth. While not fresh, they still were good for jam. I made two batches. I was a little short for my second batch so I added some extra cherries. Huckleberry/cherry jam. Never tried it before. I don't know if the combination will work. As I was told in Thailand years ago: "Never try, never know".

With all the rain the grass is greening up again. Typical. Every year after I sell my cattle it starts to rain and green up again. It doesn't matter when I sell the cattle - mid August to the end of September - a few days after the cattle are gone the rains start.

National Unmarried and Singles Week

National Unmarried and Singles week is observed during the third full week of September (Sept. 17-23 in 2006). The organization, Unmarried America, is behind the idea.

Some web sites crunched the numbers and apparently 41% of Americans 18 and older are unmarried or single. Or in other words over 89 million people. That is higher than I would have expected. 41% - that is two out of every five people you meet. I thought the percentage of unmarried people would be lower. I was going to say "its seems as if the majority of people you meet are married"... and that's obviously true at 59%, so I guess I mean I would have thought the great majority of people are married. I wonder if my impression is based on that I live in a rural area, and my assumption is that cities have a larger percentage of single people?

I looked at the 2005 Census Bureau data for my state, Montana. (Click on image for a larger view.) How many people are unmarried in Montana?

• Men: 42.2%
  
• Women: 43.6%
  

But this is 15 and older. The 15-18 age range will skew the unmarried percentage higher.

Here is the 18 and older population for Montana. I realize some people get married before they are 18, but I have no way to separate those numbers from the married numbers. I am assuming the numbers are not that many, so I will use the 18 and over totals in calculating the unmarried percentage.

• Men: 38.9%
  
• Women: 40.7%
  

The 15-18 age does affect the unmarried percentage.

Still, an average of a little under 40% for both sexes... not that far off the national average of 41%, which includes large cities.

From the census bureau breakdown of marital status, you can see "single" is defined by married or not married. Unmarried people would include people living together, and these people are not really "single". So what is the true number for single people? I can't easily figure it out. I imagine that if one looks at the household data and compares it somehow to marital data maybe one could figure it out. It's getting late so I am not up for figuring it out.

I did a quick look at Minnesota's 18 and older numbers as I used to live there.

• Men: 39.4%
• Women: 42.1

I don't know how to explain the higher percentage of single women in Minnesota, Perhaps Minneapolis/St. Paul (a large metro area) is part of the explanation.

And lastly, where I grew up: North Dakota

• Men: 38.4%
• Women: 41%
  

The largest gap between the sexes is in the most rural state, North Dakota. I think this is due to the gap between the sexes for the number of widowed people. The gap between the sexes is higher in North Dakota and lower in Montana. Also, when comparing the widowed numbers between Montana and North Dakota, it makes me wonder if the widowed numbers are behind why Montana has a higher percentage of single people than North Dakota.

Anyway... back to the National Unmarried and Singles week.

Using Google it seems as if most of the sites that mention the National Unmarried and Singles week (or National Singles week) are dating sites or single events web sites. This week doesn't seem to be making a splash in the public consciousness. Have you heard of it before reading this? Maybe this week is being overshadowed because it is also Reye's Syndrome and Prostate Cancer Awareness week.

For more info on singles numbers in the U.S., this web site has a summary. The Unmarried America site also has numbers on singles under their "facts on singles" link.

I know that this is our week, but how are us singles suppose to celebrate? Or are we suppose to celebrate it? After all, one doesn't celebrate prostate cancer awareness week!

Chainsaw and insulation on a cool day

The weather may be cool and wet, but it is working out fine so far. It starts raining before sunset and rains off and on throughout the night. By mid morning the rain quits and it warms up to the 50s F. So one can get outside to do things during the day.

Last night I caught a small mouse, or maybe a shrew, in my mousetrap by the washing machine. I thought I had heard noises in the ceiling or wall before I fell asleep last night. Wonder if I will hear the same noises tonight?

I fired up the chainsaw and cut up the tree trunks of the trees felled by the beavers across the road. The chainsaw does make the cutting easier but I find my arms and upper body gets tired and sore the next day. Probably from the chainsaw's vibration, and partly because I may need to have the chain sharpened again.

No pocket gophers caught today. Wonder if they are not active today because the ground is wet.

I heard the Missoula Livestock auction summary from last Thursday on the radio today. Sounds like their cattle market was good, and maybe even up a little. It is hard to figure out where to sell ones cattle. Different auctions have different rhythms, and the same auction can vary so much from week to week. A few cents per pounds may not sound like much, but when you are talking about an 800+ lb animal, the amount can add up.

I finished up the last stuff to do with the well. I also placed in the shed a small electric heater and a light bulb. The light bulb gives off enough heat to keep the shed warm down to an outside temperature of almost 0 F. Each year I usually scramble the evening of cold temperatures to get the stuff in place. Even so I couldn't find the light bulb and cord over the last few days of looking. Then the light bulb came on (*snicker*) in my head and I realized since I repositioned the outlet in the shed closer to the door I can now reach to plug and unplug a light bulb directly into the outlet. I found another plug-in light bulb to use.

I also put the remaining insulation to use. I put a few batts (the very thick ones) in the attic. The rest of the batts went along a few walls in the crawl space.

While in the attic I found that the mousetrap I had left there this summer was empty of peanut butter, and not triggered. I guess I didn't have chunky peanut butter when I set it. Must be why the shrews came down to the washing machine's trap.

Rain, home upgrade, auction, freeze

It was raining this morning, and as I about to settle in for a rainy day the rain let up. Then I found that outside my house it felt warmer than inside the house. The in-and-out temperatures were about the same but moving around instead of sitting may have made a difference.

With the cattle gone I took down the extra wire I had placed on top of a few sections of the hayfield / yard fence.

I trapped several more pocket gophers. As it was wet I decided to leave be the traps without the gophers or any sign gophers were there (such as covering the backside of the trap by sealing its hole with dirt). If no sign of gophers within 24 hours that usually means no gophers in this tunnel complex.

I checked in with my neighbor Daryl about the activity at his place. The reason he hasn't worked on trapping the beavers and removing their latest dam is he is replacing his double wide trailer with a modular home. The new place is a little larger and means the garage must be moved. Also one tree had to go. Big project.

Daryl and another guy and I attached a cable to the aspen tree the beavers had chewed through a week or so ago in their failed attempt to topple it. With his pickup Daryl drug the tree across the creek. He needed the tree trunk in order to move his garage. A contractor will move the garage but they said the inside walls need to be braced to prevent them from collapsing during the move.

Dan was by today to settle up the pasture rent and get the two salt blocks he brought this summer to add to mine for the cattle. We talked over selling the cattle and recent livestock auctions. In hindsight it appears selling the cattle to the cattle broker was the right choice at this time. His brother took some cattle down to the Three Forks auction Monday (the auction we all initially planned on sending our cattle to) and he was disappointed in the price his cattle brought. I checked the market report on the auction's web site and they must list a narrow range as the price I was told Don's cattle brought were lower than the range listed on the web site.

A few nights ago we had our first real freeze as the low was officially 30 F. While I covered much of my garden I didn't cover the zucchini plants. The frost wilted the plant's leaves except for a few here and there that happened to be covered as they were next to the watermelon plants I had covered. Everything I covered survived just fine.

Even with the freezing temperatures I found a goat's beard seed ball in my front lawn. I occasionally see other goat's beard seed balls when out riding around. Enough already! Weeds... quit for the year!

Gophers, insulation, walnut tree

Now that my girls are gone I am able to set my pocket gopher traps back in the hayfield. And it needs to be done as there are lots of fresh dirt mounds! You would have never thought I had cleared the north part of the hayfield of gophers several months ago. I set six traps this afternoon and by evening caught four pocket gophers. That makes 266 pocket gophers caught this year.

I also finished insulating my well's shed. It looks nicer than before. I threw out the thin very old insulation that was in the shed and added new insulation with an R value of 13 in the walls and a higher R value in the ceiling. I made a ceiling as previously it was just the roof. To be fair one couldn't have a ceiling before as the tank sat on the well covering, and also was taller than my new tank. The old tank almost reached the roof.

For the walls I took the odds & ends of pressed board I have collected the past years and cut pieces to make interior walls. The shed is now sealed good. In the past, when I heated the shed with a light bulb, there was a good sized difference in the interior temperature between the calm days and the windy days.

I haven't talked to my neighbor Daryl in over week. I see that the breach in the beaver dam is still open. I did see that between this dam and Daryl's trailer home the beavers built a new dam and the creek is rising and flooding again.

Sunday I used my wood stove for the first time this season. Good thing I cleaned the chimney the previous week! The cool and wet weekend cooled the house off. To avoid shivering it was time to burn some wood for heat.

Missing my girls has lessened today as I found that one or more got her head through the corral fence and ate most of the leaves off my nearby small English Walnut tree. Maybe it was Dan's cattle. Ya, that's it. My girls very good. It had to be one of Dan's cattle that did this.

Of the two walnut trees I planted last year, this was the only one that came back after winter. I have babied this tree along this year and it was doing great. Now only a few leaves are left. I hope it comes back next year. I cut a small section from an unused field fence and nailed it to the corral fence by the tree. If the tree comes back next year this should prevent the cattle from reaching it. Of course, it would have been better if I had thought of doing this earlier.

Foggy weigh-in

Last night on 10 pm news the weather forecaster said the overnight low would get down to freezing. With all the activity yesterday I hadn't covered my garden.

It was now pitch black outside. I hoped that with the overcast skies from the earlier rain, those clouds would stay till morning and keep the heat. On the internet I checked the weather conditions west of me in MT and Idaho. Overcast and cloudy. Maybe the clouds will stay till morning.

Before I went to bed I went outside to check. Do I see gaps in the clouds? Umm... is that a star to the west? And another star? The clouds were dissipating. Oh no! The temperature was 41 F, so 32 F was not far off. I had to cover my garden. In the darkness I covered my garden the best I could.

Even though I didn't go to bed until midnight I still woke up after 7 am - in time to go to the cattle weigh-in. Thick fog was outside and the temperature was hovering just around freezing. As I drove out of my driveway I could see white frost on the tall weeds here and there in the field across the road. I am glad I took the effort to cover my garden.

The fog let up as I drove through Kalispell. However south of town it came back thicker than ever. I drove on a 4 lane divided highway. Even driving in the left lane I could barely make out some of the buildings to my left. I had only been to the cattle broker's place once before, the previous day when we brought the cattle over. The landmarks I noted were lost in the fog.

After I realized I drove too far I turned back. Driving in the right lane I was able to find the road that led to the broker's place.

It was 8:07 am when I arrived. In the fog I could barely make out the broker as he stood and waited outside his weigh scale building. Dan wasn't there. He didn't come till later, after I left. The broker and I went ahead and weighed the cattle. Dan's steers averaged 740 and his heifers averaged 671. My girls averaged 795 lbs.

On average my cattle gained 201 lbs over the summer. The broker said that was good, and he again said I had very nice looking cattle. But that is exactly the same weight gain my cattle averaged last year. I had the cattle this year 3 weeks longer.

And I made the same amount per head as last year even though my expenses were higher this year. Less than $100 per head. I guess it is good I like having cattle as it doesn't pay to raise them.

I am a little disappointed in doing the exact same as last year even though I did things this year where I expected to do slightly better than last year. Still, I'll have cattle again next year. My place feels empty without them. As I was out and about in the yard today I would glance out to the pasture to see my cattle before catching myself. They're gone.

My girls are gone

It has been only a few hours and I already miss my "girls". My place seems so empty without them. The same story every year - you'd think I would get immune to this feeling. It isn't like their leaving was a big surprise as I knew this day was coming for a few weeks now. But I still miss them.

I suppose this feeling has been magnified by the cattle being in the corral since yesterday, and my spending time with them feeding bags and bags (and bags) of apples. I also harvested my broccoli, uprooted the plants and fed them to the cattle. The best for my "girls".

Who are going to eat the extra apples now?

I think the cattle were getting spoiled with apples. They are usually quiet and content cattle but early this afternoon when I was outside and didn't bring them another bag of apples some of them (Dan's ) started to bellow. My girls are well behaved.

Dan and his brother, Don, were both going to haul the cattle in their trailers. Don has a long goose-neck trailer that can hold lots of animals. We only used Don's trailer as Dan's pickup tire flatted just as he arrived at Don's house. Dan had dropped off a couple cattle in Don's pasture. After working on the tire they drove out of the pasture. After they left the pasture they were surprised to find a horse from the pasture had climbed into the back of the open stock trailer and rode out. I guess it was kind of like a prison movie where the inmate hides in the laundry truck and rides out of prison.

I easily led the cattle into the loading corral as they all followed me expecting more apples. Loading them into Don's trailer was another matter. They got most way down the runway then balked. The runway was still wide enough that the small ones could squeeze around to turn around. We had to let them back to the end of the runway and try again. Again one of Dan's cattle (#57) turned around.

Then we got half the group in the trailer before another one turned in the runway and when resetting these, the cattle in the trailer came back out. *argh!*

We then got half in, closed a divider so they couldn't come out then drove the rest in. Or I should say, all but one. The trailer was a foot or two from the end of the loading corral and one steer trying to avoid entering the trailer got its head and neck between the trailer and loading corral before it got stuck. Fortunately it was the last one of the group so we moved the trailer to let it out. As we had to make two trips to haul them to the cattle broker, Rich's, place, we left him behind with the second group.

Rich's place had a number of pens to separate them. After unloading the cattle we sorted them into three pens: my cattle (all heifers), Dan's heifers, and Dan's steers. Steers and heifers fetch different prices so that is why we separated them by sex.

When loading the second batch we found there were a few more than we thought. We initially tried to split the loads into two groups of thirteen. There was the one that had slipped out during the loading so that should be 12 and 14. It turns out Don miscounted when we had made the first group. The split ended up being 11 and 15. After lots of encouragement for him to make his way inside we barely squeezed the 15th cattle into the trailer.

Like the first time, this loading also had several animals who turned around midway in the loading chute. This time one of my girls was the main culprit. In driving the cattle down the runway it seems if they went single file one would turn around, otherwise multiple cattle tried to squeeze down the runway.

At one point I thought the runway's south fence was going over as it leaned way over from the weight of three or four animals in a space for one or two animals. Dan's wife on the outside and ran over - not to hold the fence but encourage the "log jam" to break apart. I was in the back of the animals and couldn't split them. Her action worked as the animals moved into more of a single file and the fence held.

You know the story by now: I need to put the corral fence rebuild on my to-do list.

I received a small kick on my thigh in the beginning when the cattle were outside the runway, but took care to watch out for hooves during the excitement in the runway. One time when the cattle turned and ran back I was buffeted around as they moved past me.

I tried the nice talk and encouragement but that didn't work so we had to do a lot of shouting and smacks on their rear. Dan did the smacking as he had a whip stick. Dan was still recovering from a triple root cancel on Thursday, so his patience with the cattle only went so far. I heard him use a few four letter words as encouragement to get the stubborn ones to move.

Rich will weigh the cattle tomorrow morning at 8 am. The cattle won't have food or water from this afternoon till the weighing. This will account of shrinkage, instead of taking two or three percent off the total weight. The good thing for Dan and I is the temperature today barely reached 50 F and the overnight low is suppose to be near freezing. So, no hot weather where the cattle would lose more weight in the heat.

I plan on being there for the weighing of the cattle. So an early night to bed for me.

Upside down routine

My routine - if you can call it that - has been turned upside down by the change in the weather. It rained over night. Today it was now cold and wet outside.

It didn't rain all day. Once it dried the next rain cloud came and made everything wet again. In between rain events I picked apples, later rode to the grocery store and made it back just before it began to rain again, and worked briefly on my shed's insulation project. I tried to feed the cattle apples and some broccoli plants but the rain chased me inside before I could finish. But not before I got wet.

Since I had to spend part of my day inside I made another apple pie. If I can't feed the apples to the cattle, may as well make something for me.

Tonight's forecast low was 36 F. After the early evening rain quit the clouds left. All the mountains had clouds ringing them, but no clouds were above me or much of the valley to keep it warmer overnight. *sigh* I better not chance it freezing overnight. Even when the days' high temperature were in the 70s F, the lows were in the 30s. Today's high was 53 F (brrr!). The temperature by 9 pm was already down to 39 F. I covered my garden, or at least what I wanted to protect. Zucchinis - you're on your own!

Wouldn't ya know it - dry much of the year, but when I have to cover my garden the ground is wet and muddy to walk on.

I had to make do with a few less tarps to cover my garden. I had used a few to cover the hay Dan brought Wednesday for the cattle to eat Friday. I didn't want the hay to get wet so I rolled it back up into two rolls and covered the hay with tarps. Unroll... roll. Nothing like doing things multiple times.

Sitting around much of the day made me hungry. Usually when I work all day I don't get hungry. Huh? Isn't that backward?

Since I was inside after 8 pm (early!) I made a real supper. My first full supper in many weeks. Now I feel stuffed and am not hungry for pie for dessert. I want my old routine back! I always had room for pie!

Before the weather changes

The weather forecasters still insist summer will soon be over and that colder and wetter weather is coming. I may have to agree as today was cloudier and cooler than the previous summer days. The satellite images show storms building in the Gulf of Alaska and coming this way.

I had all summer to get my project dones. It's Fall, and again this year I feel the clock ticking to get things done before the snow flies. Where did the time go?

The leaves are turning yellow and brown and fluttering down. Today I noticed the ground under the patio trees is covered in leaves. How did that happen so fast? Maybe it happened under the cover of darkness. Today we lost 3 minutes and 28 seconds of daylight length. That is how much less daylight we will have tomorrow. That's a lot to lose in one day! We are now in the period of rushing into darkness, Fall and Winter. So soon. So fast. And I have many things to do before the snow falls.

Enough whining.

This morning while I was sorting apples (one for me, one for my cattle, one for me, two for my cattle, three for my cattle, one for me...) Rhonda from Schwans Ice Cream delivery stopped by to pitch why I should consider buying food from them. No sale. But we did have a nice chat about apples, apple butter, Schwans, DHL delivery and why she is quitting Schwans to go back to being a DHL delivery person (better hours to allow her to be home more with her daughter).

My poor-to-begin-with flirting skills have gotten so rusty the past years here in Montana that they are pretty much non-existent. Rhonda had red hair and freckles which intrigued me. Her Schwans outfit was a negative. And she was missing a molar. That shouldn't matter, but a gap in a smile is a distraction. Oh well, I am more focused right now on getting stuff done before tomorrow's predicted rain.

I taped the towing plug's wires for my stock trailer. In testing the wires I found the right signal and right brake light doesn't work. The right light's bulb is good as both the right and left parking lights work. The left light works just fine. Odd.

I thought maybe the wires weren't connected to the correct wires. The color (and purpose) for both ends match. I tried switching a couple wires but no change. I checked the trailer's wiring and it all looks fine from the outside. I guess I'll have to buy a tester to see if the wire has current. When one is under a deadline why can't things work fine the first time?

The cattle spent much of the day in the north pasture down by the river. I have bags and bags of apples and bread as they haven't been to the house for a few days now. This early evening they wandered near the corral. Probably to lick the salt blocks. I tossed them several bags of apples. Then bread. Then I started to pull stuff from my garden: broccoli plants, some bean plants, a sunflower, and corn stalks with no or very small corn on them. The cattle loved it all, though some cattle were picky about the bread.

I also worked more on insulating my well's shed. I only got a little more done before the day disappeared on me and darkness fell.

Cattle and wiring

I am working on a write up for the Iceberg Lake hike and about the bears. Just need to find some photos to go with the text. Be patient. No, no bear photos as I don't have a camera and Edwina's photo of the black bear in the tree eating chokecherries was on a film camera, so that one isn't available. Barbara promised to email the photos she took but first had to figure out how to get photos from her camera to her computer as she has never uploaded photos.

This morning when I first stepped outside I heard cattle bellowing. I couldn't see my cattle. Then it sounded like it was coming from across the river. Nooooo.... they couldn't have crossed the river from the middle pasture, could they? Sure sounds like the cattle are over there.

I went back inside to get and put on my shirt and shoes and came back outside. I thought I could see cattle across the river where the neighbor's cattle went up the ridge. His cattle have been gone from that area for a month now. With binoculars I could see one... two... three.. four Herefords. Whew! The neighbor must have brought his cattle back as Dan only has two Herefords. Looking in the middle pasture my cattle were there. Ok, I guess I'll go in, eat breakfast, and take a shower before starting my day.

The Food Bank was very happy I stopped to get the old bread for my cattle. "Please, take it all!" They threw in a leftover cake for me as enticement. "Okay... if you insist."

I drove around looking for a male plug for the towing wire harness I have. The wires from the pickup have no male plug, just wires. No stores had the correct male plug, and I even went to the Chevy dealership. I munched on the complementary fruit and bagels for customers while I waited for the salesman to search for my plug. They were willing to sell me a complete harness for $85. No thanks. I'll cut off the one female plug in my harness and hook the wires together directly.

Later this afternoon I cut a hole in my pickup's bumper in which to place the female plug. Cutting the proper sized hole - in fact, cutting any size hole - took some time and effort and involved drills, a hacksaw blade, and a file. Fortunately (?) bumpers now-a-days are not the steel bumpers from my youth.

I have the plug fastened to the bumper and the wire ends stripped. Tomorrow I'll hook the wires up and test my work to see if the trailer lights work. Tonight I had to watch "Dancing with the Stars". My favorite redheaded Russian professional dancer didn't return this year. And the celebrities this season looked so stiff and worried. I shouldn't complain as I can't dance a single step, but if they are on TV I can have an opinion.

I had planned to do this wiring project last Spring. My, how time as flown as I wasted my summer on other things. As usual I need this project done in a few days so I can use it, and the weather forecast is for cold and wet weather in a day or so. Can you believe snow is in the forecast? Doesn't look like we will be hiking Friday. If the group is crazy enough to hike, I won't. Snow is predicted for 4000 ft and above. Not much higher than the valley. And today it feels like mid summer with temps in the 80s F. All things must come to an end.

Dan brought a large bale of hay for the cattle to eat when they are in the corral Friday and Saturday morning. There is some grass in the corral but we want to make sure they have all they want to eat as they will be on a fast for a day at Rich's place prior to being weighed. We will use this method instead of knocking 2 to 3% off the weight for shrinkage. Dan and I rolled out the bale around the corral to make it easy for the cattle to eat all the hay in the day they will be in my corral.

Earlier this afternoon I opened the gate between the middle and north pastures and closed the gates to the south pasture and the hayfield. I moved the salt blocks from the south to the north pasture. All in preparation to moving the cattle into the corral this Friday.

I found three of the cattle already in the north pasture near the river. Apparently when testing to see if "the grass is greener on the other side" the cattle broke a top fence wire then stepped over the fence. *sigh* I need to rebuild that section of the fence and strengthen it. On my to-do list to do some day.

Dan told me that the two Holsteins miss their "uncle" and the ranch. Ya... well... the feeling is not mutual. Those double jointed jail breakers! They just look dumb.

Linda sent me this cow image. Holsteins. My favorite...

Cattle costs, fence, and garden

Dan came to an agreement with Rich and he will buy Dan's cattle. Rich also wants to buy my cattle. He will pay .97 cent a pound for our heifers. I am on the fence about selling. 97 cent / lb is a fair price, but I probably could get more at the livestock auction. Probably... and then there are costs.

• the auction charges a 3% commission
• transportation cost (expensive shipping the cattle to Missoula)
  
• $1 a head goes to the Beef Council to advertise "Beef, What's for dinner?"
• .50 cent a head goes for the Brand Inspector
• veterinary inspection fee
• insurance charged by livestock auction
  

I am leaning to selling to Rich. The 3% commission and transportation costs take a big bite out of one's profit. I could get more per pound at the auction but come out behind after subtracting costs.

What to do?

As the plan is to transport Dan's (and maybe my) cattle over to Rich's place this Saturday, I need to get them into the corral Friday night. Today I strung another wire above the chain link fence for the section of the corral that the two Holsteins jumped over to escape a few weeks back. Now the fence height is 5 ft high. I'd say "Now try jumping that!" but the cattle may take me up on it.

Actually I'm not too worried as my cattle spent the spring in the corral and never jumped the fence. When Rich was here I asked about Holsteins and he said they are known for escaping through fences. Holsteins have such a hang-dog dumb look to them you wouldn't think they would be smart enough to make a jailbreak.

I have started to get a few ripe tomatoes from my garden. Finally!! There are lots of tomatoes on the plants but they are green. The story of my garden here in Montana: green tomatoes. I have also been eating my corn the past week. Tonight I steamed a beet from my garden. Zucchinis... more than I need or want. I cut up four or five large ones and gave them to the cattle. Only a couple head came over tonight and there was a limit to how much zucchini they were willing to eat. I also fed them some apples. One of Dan's steers kept following me along the corral fence as I worked on it. "More! More! I want more apples!"

Last evening I saw a large bumblebee on one of my sunflower heads. It looked like it was going to spend the night there as it didn't move.

This morning I had a half dozen to ten Hungarian partridges napping in my yard behind the house. It was an area where I had cut the grass so I could easily see them. I stepped quietly so as not to disturb them. They were sitting all puffed out. Guess that is to keep warm?

Jan gave me a set of wind chimes she and Bob no longer wanted and which I had admired earlier. The chimes are cut-out shapes of cattle. They are metal and unpainted so they have a brown rusted look. I like cattle images and items. I hung it outside entryway door.

Quiet Sunday

Not much going on today. Dan's brother brought Rich this afternoon to look the cattle over. Rich liked what he saw as the cattle are quality cattle. I've been trading phone messages with Dan this evening as it appears Rich wants to buy all of them. I'll know more tomorow.

I also started insulating the shed over well and pump . The insulation that was in the shed was old and poor quality. Last week I had stopped at a local insulation store and bought some odds & ends of insulation. The way they bundled pieces together I got more than I needed. Otherwise it may have been less than I needed if I didn't get two bundles.

In addition to putting insulation in the shed I will nail boards over the studs to seal the insulation. Previously the inside of the shed was partially boarded over in a mish-mash of pieces of wood. It worked for the most part as it only froze the one time when it got down below -30 F a few winters ago. I now have more odds & ends of wood and will cut them to fit.

Chimney cleaning, etc.

Since Fall is just around the corner I guess I should do my annual chimney cleaning. Usually I do this in the middle of summer but this year this has flown by. The forecast is for a big cool down with rainy weather next week, and cleaning the chimney now when the day is beautiful and the temperature 80 F is the smart thing to do.

Last Christmas my mother gave me a chimney cleaning brush. This was the first time I used it and I can say it beats using a long pole with a pair of my dad's old jeans tied to the end.

It takes a while to clean the chimney as the cleaning also involves dis-assembling and cleaning the pipe that goes from the wood stove over to the chimney. Not only is ash in the pipe and chimney but also stuff (hard ash?) that needs to be scraped off. Not creosote, as I do clean the chimney and stove pipe each year to not let the buildup become creosote.

When done, from the chimney alone, I ended up with a gallon of the soft and hard ash. I spread it in the NE pasture. While ash can be good for a garden, I also remember that ash is high in a mineral that my soil doesn't need more of.

All the brushing and scraping took a good part of the day, and yes, I got very dirty. But now I am ready for when the time comes to burn logs in the wood stove to heat the house. Well... not completely ready as I want to cut and split more logs to add to my pile. Always something to do.

Pocket Gophers

I finally rid the front yard of pocket gophers. A few days ago I finally caught the one pocket gopher who had eluded me for over a week. When I pulled the traps from the middle pasture I put an extra trap out to catch the tricky pocket gopher. Of course once I got this pocket gopher I found new dirt mounds in another part of the front yard. *argh!* But good news, today I caught that gopher.

Beavers

I checked the dam and traps. Dam still not repaired and the trap was not triggered. The other trap was triggered but nothing in that trap. No more trees felled by the beavers. I haven't seen Daryl for a few days so I don't know what's up.

Cattle

I gathered a few more boxes of fallen apples for the cattle. However they haven't left the middle pasture since I let them in there last evening. I figured that after 24 hours they would return to their routine of coming by the house for apples. Guess not. Can't blame the cattle as they haven't been in the middle pasture for a few months now so the grass re-grew and is younger and greener than where the cattle had been.

Cattle in the middle

I hiked to Iceberg Lake today. It was a very nice hike. The water was... ice cold. Yes, I went in the lake. We saw 7 bears today: 4 black bears and 3 grizzles. I'll write more about the hike later.

Tonight I let the cattle back into the middle pasture as part of my pasture rotation. I wanted to do this for a number of days now; but I also wanted to finish clearing the middle pasture of pocket gophers. Each day when I thought I had trapped my last pocket gopher I would find another mound of dirt on my way to open the gates. It happened again tonight. More fresh mounds of dirt. But as the cattle's days here are winding down, I decided to let them into the middle pasture tonight and wait till the cattle leave in a few weeks before returning to get the final pocket gophers.

I can't trap and have cattle nearby as they knock over my traps' marking sticks and sometimes step on the traps.

The cattle were in the south pasture making their way to the hayfield when they saw me in the middle pasture by the hayfield. Me = apples + bread. So after they saw me, they made a beeline for me. When they found they could enter the middle pasture where I was they immediately went to checking out the grass and most forgot me, though a few came by to lick my hand.

Several stragglers came out of the trees in the back and when they saw the herd in the middle pasture, came galloping over. They didn't want to miss out.