No rain please on a day of work

Since I had comments on Wednesday about me not working I thought on Thursday I should be more diligent about working.

I:

• sprayed a tank of herbicide on the weeds in the front yard, the ditch north of my driveway, and most of the fruit tree and garden area,


• unloaded my pickup of odds and ends of lumber, and eight or so old thin railroad ties tossed out in a nearby building supply store's free pile,


• rolled a large roll of fence from my yard to be next to my hay shed,


• hauled off the rest of a pile of tree branches I had trimmed last month, and some other stuff,


• checked my gopher traps,


• moved the 20+ old hay bales from one part of the barn to another part to make room for my new hay bales,


• swept the entire barn floor to get rid of loose hay,
  


• removed the rotted boards from inside the barn. 90% of the barn floor is concrete with the remaining 10% being wood boards. Why? I don't know. I don't know how old the barn is, but possibly over 60 years old. Part of the boards where stuff sat for years were rotting.
  
  The wood floor was two layers of old planks. On half of the wood floor I removed the bottom layer completely. Of the top layer I removed 2/3 of the half section.
  
  Underneath the floor was dirt. I have a pail of small rocks I have picked up around the yard and pasture as I have walked. I plan to use those rocks on top of the dirt and under the new wood floor.


• By now I could see clouds slowly approaching from the north. A large weather system with rain was moving along the U.S./Canadian border with most all the rain predicted to stay in Canada. But now it looked like the rain was trying to get into the Valley.
  
  Man! My hay was still laying out in the field.
  
  The wind all day had been from the south, and I hoped the warm dry air in the Valley would keep the clouds and rain at bay. Over time the edge of clouds came closer to being overhead. It was getting bluer on the Whitefish Range that was the northern boundary of the Valley. I could see smaller white wind clouds against the blue and near the mountains. The Whitefish Range was getting harder to see. There felt to be more moisture in the air.
  
  Man, oh, man! No rain! Please!
  
  To occupy my time and mind I decided to split logs. As I split and watched the northern sky the wind switched to come from the north. The temperature started to rapidly drop and the wind picked up. It got cold!
  
  It didn't look good for my hay. Why couldn't Wyatt have baled the hay earlier this afternoon? If I had my equipment I would have baled it this afternoon. The guy across the road was now out picking up most of his hay bales.
  
  I kept splitting wood until dark. It never rained though at times I was sure I - and my hay - would get wet. The wind did blow and I had to pick up tree branches from the ground. I learned later that Whitefish and other areas on the north end of the Valley lost power due to fallen trees on power lines.

So I think I had a productive day. At least I felt like I did stuff.

Friday I took it easy as I thought Wyatt was going to bale my hay. I wanted to be rested for hauling my hay bales into the barn late that afternoon and evening. However when I came home from running an errand uptown on my bicycle, Wyatt was in my field raking the rows of hay. Thursday's wind had blown some rows around, and Wyatt also wanted to turn the heavy rows to ensure they were dry. He planned to bale the hay Saturday. So much for taking it easier today.

After checking my gopher traps, I sprayed another tank of herbicide. I completed the fruit tree and garden area, completed the yard, and did the entire corral.

As for gophers, I found new mounds of dirt from a pocket gopher along the fence line between the fruit tree and garden area and the ditch to the road. I had trapped a pocket gopher there last year and now a new one had moved in. Another hard one to trap. Several times during the day I checked the trap only to find it covered in dirt. *sigh*

In the pasture I found one of my leg hold traps caught a mouse. A mouse! I thought these gopher traps were too big to catch mice.

At the end of the day I worked on my fence gate and got the hinge attached to the post and to one pole I am using for the gate. Now to building the rest of the gate.

Other than patching a pair of my cutoff jeans, I think I may have done a few more things, but don't remember them now.