The weather forecast called for warm, clear and dry. It was warm, partly cloudy and then late morning we had a sprinkle of rain. Only enough to put a few raindrops on the window before it ended. Then it was mostly clear. At least in my part of the Valley; I did see clouds and showers elsewhere closer to the mountains.
I moved a bench outside their garage for Bob to sit on when he is outside of the house. Jan gave me a container of potato salad and that was part of my lunch later.
I hadn't seen the cattle all morning and my 'sixth sense" told me they crossed the river to the island. I had the rest of the branch pile to move and decided to kill two birds with one stone.
On the way to the branches and cattle I discovered the gophers moved back into the middle pasture and reopened holes. When I had cattle in the north pasture I removed the traps from that pasture and the gophers moved there. Then when I had cattle in the middle pasture I moved those traps to the north pasture. For my effort in the north pasture all I caught was a mouse.
I set five traps in the middle pasture and later that evening I discovered two traps (one leg hold and one conibear) had been triggered and were empty. Argh! So close!!! A couple other traps had signs of activity with the dirt disturbed but the traps not triggered. I wonder if this activity was from gophers or mice.
At the river I found the cattle on the island. A new record. This is the fastest I have had cattle get to the island. This partly because this is the earliest I have had cattle in the south pasture but also previous cattle took a few days to a week before they crossed the river. These cattle only took 24 hours. And another difference is that the river level is higher now than other years when the cattle crossed later in the year. When these cattle cross the river the water is up to their belly. Well, at least they are getting a bath when they cross the river.
It is a bit surprising the cattle went to the island so fast as the grass is high and green in the south pasture. Yesterday when the cattle took their siesta they had to blow the grass away else eat it away as it was so tall it covered their faces when they sat down.
These cattle are cool, calm and collected, but also fearless. When it gets later in the year with the river level lower and the grass drier, how much adventuring will these cattle go on?
Since the cattle were exploring the island I decided to move the rest of the branch pile. It wasn't long before the cattle saw me. First one then the rest of the herd crossed the river to come check me out. They checked out the new branch pile and then came over to check out the old branch pile and me. By this time I quit moving the branches in order to avoid carrying the branches around the herd.
A number of cattle checked me and my rake out. The same two "washers" decided to wash my hands and arms again even though I had just taken a shower a few hours earlier. They also worked on my pants and shoes. Once the shoes were clean they decided to untie my shoelaces. That is when I shooed them away from me.
After the cattle left I finished moving the branch pile. I also trimmed a number of trees growing under the electric line on my property boundary. I had trimmed the trees five or so years ago and while they hadn't reached the wires I decided to trim them again before the trees got too big.
After a late lunch I fell asleep. Then it was off to check my pocket gopher traps. Jan mentioned they had a gopher mound in their yard and I took one of my traps over there. I found the hole didn't go anywhere. A gopher probably made a short tunnel when checking whether to move there or not. Jan gave me soup and other food that Bob had no appetite for. With all his new meds Bob's appetite has changed and a number of foods hold no appeal for him anymore.
In the evening as the afternoon's breeze began to die down I went out and burned more. I dug around a tree stump and naturally it turned out to be more digging than I expected. Since the part of the stump I found at ground level was rotting I expected the stump to be quick and easy to shovel around to prepare for burning. Wrong again!
I then reburned the first ant pile as the ants were rebuilding a ring around the burned pile. And they were starting a new hill a yard from the burnt one. At least this was one way to get rid of some of the old hay the cattle didn't eat.
I checked the two ant hills I burnt Monday. These hills were pretty devastated, and while I did see ants around them, not enough activity or hill remained to warrant a second burning.
I burnt another "new" tree stump in the north pasture. This is the last stump I plan to burn in the north pasture as the other stump I will cut from the ground.
Then it was on to a previously burnt stump in the middle pasture. I decided to dig the ashes and some dirt away from the stump and while there was lots less of the stump than when I first burnt it, I found more stump than I expected.
While digging the stump I heard a heifer call out. I looked up and saw two deer in the middle pasture and the cattle along the middle/south pasture fence. The heifer was calling to the deer but they were ignoring the cattle. I walked towards the deer and they bounded off back to the river with their long whitetails bobbing back and forth as they ran and hopped.
It was starting to get dark when I got the stump burning. It made a nice bonfire. I just needed some marshmallows.
I have a feeling some of the stump will remain tomorrow.
Photo 1 is the stump after I dug around it after the first burn.
Photo 2 is the first burn last week.
Photos 3 and 4 are of this evening's burn.
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