Black cloud over me?

Is there a black cloud hanging over me? Tonight I could have burned the house down as I turned the stove burner to high and not low before going outside to do more work. I decided to steam a beet for supper and decided to start it before I came in so I could eat supper earlier... say at 10 pm and not 11 pm.

I thought I turned the burner to 1 (low) but had turned it the opposite direction and it was set to 9 (high). 45 minutes later when I came back in the house the burner was glowing red hot and the pan was very hot. The water in the pan was long evaporated and the beet was shriveled and black. I have aluminum foil under the burner to catch overflows and the foil was ashes. The pan - my favorite and most used one - was scorched.

As I was cleaning the scorch marks from the blackened beet off the strainer, its handle came off.

*augh!*

*sigh*

What next?

And the cattle... yes, they went wandering. This afternoon they disappeared from view after their noon siesta. They reappeared in the evening in the south pasture. The whole herd. The three that figured out the other day how to get from the middle to the south pasture via the river taught the entire herd. This group of cattle is smarter than average as prior herds usually didn't figure out the middle/south river passage. I had a couple cattle who figured it out in the past but that was when the river level was much lower, and they didn't teach the others.

Since the cattle were in the south pasture I opened the gate between the south and middle pasture as I want them to have access to the bloat blocks. I didn't feel like herding them. I also had to tip up the wooden box that holds one of the bloat blocks as the cattle had flipped the box over and spilled the bloat block on the ground. That explains the large group of cattle around the flipped box this morning before their siesta.

Earlier in the afternoon I checked the hayfield fence along the road in preparation of letting the cattle into the hayfield later. I added a fence post and some other wire and nail work.

Late afternoon I got back to working on my loading corral. I put three railroad ties in the ground and added fence between them. I am using as fence the wooden fence panels I bought at an auction a couple years ago. At the time I wondered if it was worth spending $20 for the twelve panels as I wasn't sure I would use them. Yes, it was worth it!

I also found the railroad ties I have accumulated via auctions are in varying lengths and thickness. I have one 11 ft long, eight or so are 10 ft long, and the rest seem to be 8 and 1/2 feet long. The 10 and 11 ft ties are rectangular and are 7 by 9 inches thick. All this adds up to be very heavy ties. I can barely lift these ties, and do not carry them. I have to drag them along the ground.

The old posts seem to be dug 30 inches deep and that is a good depth. That leaves over 7 feet of the tie sticking out of the ground. I am using the 10 ft ties on the runway part of the loading corral. I don't think any cattle will ever jump out of the loading ramp ever again.

Due to the ties' weight I have to get the hole right before I lift the tie and slide it in the hole. There are no "do overs" with these ties as I cannot get them out of the hole once they are in there. The most I can do is wiggle the ties slightly side-to-side in the hole. I would need a tractor with a loader to get these ties out of the holes. So I am careful before putting the ties into the holes. So far I have gotten each one correctly positioned.

Once I fill the dirt around the ties they are solid. The soil here is so fine and powdery right now that usually the post I place in the ground can be wiggled until the ground sets over time. And I do pack the dirt around the posts. With these ties, once I pack the dirt around them they do not wiggle. These ties are solid. I doubt these ties will bend outward when the cattle crowd the loading ramp.

I don't know how long the current corral posts have been there. I doubt it has been the 68 years of the ranch. Of the four posts I have removed, one was as good as new while the other three were rotted from ground level to about a foot down. Below that level those posts were as good as new. I imagine these railroad ties, and the loading corral, will last many decades - most likely longer than this ranch will exist.

I have another five posts to pull and ties to put into the ground before the south part of the loading corral will be done. Hopefully I can do more than three ties a day.