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...