Bird, manure, and work

Today has been a day of little projects. The weather had improved and our temperature now has reached 50 F. Woo hoo! After the near 80 degree temperatures earlier this week a cold front came through and our temperatures plummeted. Thursday we had a temperatures all day in the low to mid 30s. And snow. It snowed a few times and it stayed on the grass. It was gone by mid morning Friday. From the upper 70s to the 30s. A big temperature change!!

Yesterday I rode my bicycle uptown to run errands. I also signed up and joined the local CHS (Cenex) farm coop. I had never thought of it before but I do qualify as I am a farmer/rancher.

While uptown I met a large SUV when I came to an intersection. My one foot didn't come out of my bicycle's toe clips fast enough as my shoe snagged on it. (I fixed the toe strap when I got home). Down I went and I ended up sliding on one knee. A nice pair of pants now has a tear in the knee. And I have a skinned knee. It is on the knee I use when I kneel on one knee. And every time I kneel to work with a gopher trap I forget and use that knee. Ouch!

Today I straightened (for the most part) six of the bent metal posts I salvaged from the broken hayfield fence. Either the posts are getting tougher or I am getting older as I found it difficult to bend some of the posts back to be straight.

I also moved a stack of lumber out of the corral. These were old fence boards from the corral that I replaced last year. It is getting closer to my getting cattle and I wanted to clean up the corral a bit before then. I have hopes of getting cattle next week. We'll see... I read today that ranchers in SE Montana have lost several thousand cattle (lots of calves) from the two blizzards they had in late March and early April. I am not sure what impact that will have on cattle availability or prices in western Montana. Dan was at the Missoula livestock auction last week and they were plenty of cattle and plenty of buyers, and the buyers were not just the regular cattle buyers. Prices are trending upward.

I also cleaned up the rest of the manure in the corral from a few Springs ago. There was a circle of manure around the cattle feeding through. I had removed half of it last year and today I hauled out eight heaping wheelbarrow loads and dumped them on my garden area.

I also put a rag under my roof eve. Several times some weeks ago I noticed a bird fly off from this area. Today I noticed a bird in the area and I got a ladder to look. The area under the eve was stuffed with grass and may be a nest. The rag will stop this from being used. I know... I'm a meanie - but I don't want bird droppings all over this area.

In the photo the area I am talking about is the little gap right of the light between the eve and the awning.