Chloe

Jan is out of the hospital but is now is in a medical transition unit.  It appears she will be there recovering for at least two more weeks. Every day I've been busy helping Bob with meals and taking Chloe out for bathroom breaks.  Many mornings come early for me as Chloe has to go outside for a bathroom visit after a long night.

Their cat, Jade, disappeared for several nights, and just when we feared the worst, she appeared one evening by my bicycle wanting inside the house.

Today it snowed in the morning and then rained all afternoon.  A very wet day.   And cold, as our high temperature was 38 F.  Our normal high temperature is 60 F.  Instead of melting and losing snow in April, the mountains all month have added snow and they now have more snow than when the month started.   So much for global warming.

Here are some photos of Bob and Jan's dog, Chloe.  She has to check everything out.  She is a very intelligent dog.   We think she is an Ibizan breed. Of the three hair types of the breed we believe she is a smooth hair.  Other than her hair coloring is black and white, and not red and white, she pretty much matches all the other characteristics of the breed.

So curious as to what is on the other side of the fence.

The reason we are out here.

Gates and feeder

Since my track record for buying gates at auctions is so poor I thought of placing an ad in the Mountain Trader paper to buy gates.   I didn't get around in doing so last week - but no matter as someone had an ad in Thursday's paper to sell gates.

As I am still helping my neighbor Bob I never got to calling about the gates until Friday afternoon - a time that is usually too late.  I reached the seller, who is also named Bob.  He had a variety of extra gates he no longer needed in sizes of 10', 12', 14' and 16'.   Just what I was looking for.

And he was relatively close, though on the west side of the Valley.  He said we could discuss prices when I came over.  Alright, I'll take a chance the gates will be what I want at an acceptable price.

I ended up buying five gates: two 16', two 14' and one 12' gate.  The 16' gates looked like brand new, the 12' gate had good paint, and the two 14' gates are in need of paint and a little work.  Since I bought five gates I negotiated a further discount and got all the gates for $250.  

The one 16' gate is a HiQual gate.    Last week I had priced HiQual gates at the CHS location that was selling them as closeout items and priced at $128.

The other gates I bought were two HW gates and two Pacific Steel gates - both good brands.  The 16' HW gate is a grey gate, their lighter utility model.  The 12' HW gate is green, their Corral/Horse model.

Still, I think I got a good deal.  And now I may have all the gates I need.

I also noticed Bob had a number of heavy duty (HiQual and Pacific Steel) round bale feeders that were used.  He had sold one the previous day for $200 and offered to sell me one for that price. I said I'd think about it.  As Bob would only take cash and not a check I had to go to my bank to get more money.  During the drive I decided to buy one of the feeders.

When I got back Bob said he had called the Pacific Steel company in Great Falls, Mt and got prices on new feeders.  Since he had told me $200 for a feeder he honored that price, though he told me that if he sold any more feeders he would charge more for them.

I loaded the gates into my pickup.  Now for the feeder.  The pickup is around 5' across and the feeder is over 8'.  Hmmm....    I had carried a HW feeder once and had one side in the pickup bed and the other feeder side on one side rail of the pickup bed.   I planned to carry the Pacifc Steel feeder the same way but Bob wasn't sure about that idea and kept asking if this is what I really wanted to do.  I had him bring the feeder over to my pickup using his Bobcat loader.  Next to the pickup the feeder looked big.  And the feeder is a heavy duty crown feeder.

I relented and unbolted the feeder into its three parts and Bob helped me lift the parts into the pickup bed.  In hindsight - though extra work - it was the right decision.

The feeder is heavy.  I have gotten entire HW feeders loaded into my pickup by myself but I have doubts about doing so with this feeder.  On the ground it is an effort to move it around.

The 12' and two 14' gates and the feeder.

Leaning together, the five gates I bought.

My Pacific Steel crown feeder

Gates and feeder are now checked off my list of stuff to get.  ...Now I need to buy another used harrow.  There was a harrow listed for sale in Thursday's Mountain Trader paper but by the time I called it had been sold.

Skillet Burrito Mix

A few weeks ago I got adventurous and made a Homemade Gourmet meal on my own - without Tammy's help as she is back in Minnesota.  Tammy said she wasn't fond of burritos so I made myself the Skillet Burrito recipe. The recipe can be found here: Homemade Gourmet Skillet Burrito recipe.

Yum!  I loved it.    And it wasn't hard to make.

As the recipe is for a serving size of eight I had plenty to eat for days afterwards.

While the recipe called for one cup of Mexican-style cheese I added a little more than one cup to the pan.  Then, when I made each burrito, I sprinkled more of the cheese on the filling.  So I ended up using two cups of Mexican-style cheese by the time I ate everything.

In the second photo, that is the recipe's Cilantro Spiced Sour Cream Topping. That also tastes good.

I also made and ate a Mexican Black Bean mix, but it appears Homemade Gourmet has discontinued that recipe as I can't find it on their web site.

Chasing after a dog

This evening when I was walking Bob and Jan's dog, Chloe, for her evening bathroom break, she spotted two birds in the evergreen trees.  She stopped short at the end of her leash when chasing the first bird. I was an immovable object.  The second bird... well... the leash came off.  That's what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object.

I had clipped the leash to a large ring attached to her collar and not the main ring.  The ring I attached the leash to broke.  Chloe took off.  The bird flew off and then Chloe realized she was no longer attached to the leash and she took off.

She was in a thick grove of evergreen trees. On the other side of the evergreen trees is a chain link fence. I saw which direction Chloe ran but little else until she changed direction and ran the other way towards the road.

I went to the road and looked on the other side of the fence.  Past the neighbor's driveway on the other side of the chain link fence is his fenced pasture with 13 Corriente cattle.  No sign of Chloe.

I went around Bob and Jan's yard.  No sign of Chloe.

I went back to the other side of the chain link fence and found Chloe running fast in the ditch along the fence on the west side of the pasture.  The cattle were running in the pasture along the fence and were running towards Chloe.

Chloe wouldn't let me get near her and tried to ignore me.   She ran full out and like a bullet.  Back and forth.  The cattle ran back and forth.

Chloe then reached the north side of the fence and ran along it.  I went down there but she ran to the NE corner of the fence.

All this time she stayed on the outside of the pasture.   But at the NE corner she slipped through the fence and went into the pasture, then ran over to the corridor that goes down to the creek.  Back through the fence, she then ran along the creek.  I was afraid she would reach the culvert and cross the creek but she turned around and came back to the pasture.

Then she decided to run to the cattle.  The herd ran after her while she ran circles around some of the cattle. The cattle were fast but Chloe was faster. I couldn't cross into the pasture and go after Chloe as some of the cattle ran over to me along the fence.  These cattle had long horns and a look in their eye of "Just try coming into this pasture buddy!"  I checked the biggest one that ran towards me and it was a steer - even though it was acting like a bull.

Chloe then ran all around the pasture checking out the salt feeders and extra hay bales.

She ignored me when I called to her.

She ended up on the south side of the pasture and I walked around the outside of the pasture to the SW corner.

Finally she came to me when I called her and I was able to reach through the fence and grab her collar.  The cattle were still towards the north side.  I maneuvered Chloe to a spot in the fence where she could crawl under the fence when I lifted the lower barb wire strand.

I finally got her home.

Chloe is like a sports car.  Here finally she could go all out with no restrictions.  It was magnificent to see, even though it was an annoyance to me.

I'll tell you one thing... in the future I will make sure I clip her leash into the main heavy ring.

Hayshed organizing

Last week I had to organize the north side of the hay shed.  I had over thirty cement blocks I wanted to move and store in the hay shed.  No room left.

Over the years as I gathered metal and wood fence posts, wire, metal sheets, cement blocks, and other stuff I would quickly place it in the shed with plans to use the stuff soon.  It all caught up to me as I had no room left.

While the outside ground was relatively dry, and certainly not muddy, it was odd to have the ground under the stuff be wet and muddy.  Which was a little strange as I had sealed most of the opening beneath the north wall last Fall.  The east side is always open so snow must have blown in from there.

Odder still, I found ice between the sheets of metal.  In addition, the ground beneath the sheets was frozen.  I was unable to pound any boards or posts in the ground until it thawed. I had to wait a few days. It took much of the week to complete the reorganization, and that was with three long days of work.

Yes, that is ice you see.

I decided to put some of my extra cement blocks to work and I put everything up on blocks so nothing lays on the ground any more.  No sense letting stuff rot or rust.


Here is a view when I was part way through organizing.  The metal and wooden posts have been organized but this photo gives you an idea of the area between the stuff and the RV in which I had to walk.

Here is how I supported the stack of fence posts.  The first time I stacked the posts in the foreground, the supporting posts bent way outwards and I had to take the stack apart and re-stack the pile with more support posts pounded into the ground.  Stacking and re-stacking posts made me sleep hard at night.

Here is the stuff when I finished.  Look at all that room!

Wait 5 minutes

The last few days the weather has been in a rinse cycle over and over with a little sun and snow tossed in.

One time late this morning...

One time this afternoon briefly...

Over and over the weather changed from rain, snow, sun, snow, rain, sun, snow, rain, etc.  Right now the snow pellets - graupel - are making a racket as they hit the house windows.


This afternoon's view of Big Mountain ski area.  The ski resort is closed for the season even though it looks like plenty of snow is still there.  Glacier Park has started to clear snow from the Going-to-the-Sun road and they report much more snow than usual.  It has been said that the mountains around here have 141% of snow than normal.

With this moisture the moss I had raked up, and which looked to be dying, is now back to bright green.  That moss doesn't seem to need anything to grow on.

I removed some extra pipe from my well as it had a slow drip from the extra valve.  I had no replacement washer and rather than replace the valve I removed it.  The extra valve is seen in the lower center of the first photo.

Thursday I took Jan to the hospital for the operation on her foot.  She was suppose to be home that night but she is still in the hospital. The operation was more extensive and painful than predicted. Apparently the medical staff is advising that she go to a transition unit for a few weeks to get the healing and therapy off to a good start.

As Bob has trouble getting around, and has health problems of his own, I go over to their house multiple times a day to take their dog out to go to the bathroom.  She also checks out the yard with her nose to the ground.  Mice are in a number of low thick evergreen type of bushes and she tries to get them to no avail.  I saw one mouse but in the thick tangle of branches couldn't step on it to good effect.  I did catch and kill a shrew in my house last night.  It had a light touch and earlier had licked the trap clean of peanut butter without triggering it.  This time it was not as lucky.

Chloe - the dog - and I are getting to be best buds as she has taken a shine to me.

I also try to let their cat in and out.  She must have gotten out last evening as this morning she showed up wanting back into the house.  She has spent all day in her cat bed sleeping soundly.

And I find and take to Bob some of the leftover food for him to eat, and also feed the dog and cat their food.

All that running back and forth to help out is keeping me busy.

Niarada auction

Last Saturday I attended a large auction at the former Montana Large Animal Sanctuary.    Over the winter around 800 of animals were removed from this place and now the rest of the ranch was up on the auction block.

Defunct Niarada animal sanctuary put up for sale


This was one of the few nice days we had this year and there were a lot of people at the auction, all with the same thought as me: there would be lots of ranching material for sale. A number of vehicles were pulling flatbed trailers in hopes of getting stuff.  Vehicles were parked along the county road on each side of the ranch's driveway.  The road was narrow so there was only room for a parked vehicle and barely room to drive by them.  At the driveway entrance a middle aged woman flagged me down and asked if I could take her and her aged mother up the driveway hill to the auction.

Sure.

The woman put her mother's walker in my pickup bed and climbed in.  Her mother climbed in my pickup which is no mean feat as it is a four wheel drive and high off the ground.  Add in that the step on the passenger's side is missing after I knocked it off when driving in my pasture and the climb into the pickup is more suited for tall people.

After I dropped the woman off by the house where one auctioneerer was holding forth I found parking out back.

As I mentioned there were a lot of people there. Here ATVs are being auctioned off.

Here the auctioneers are selling cars and trucks.  That is what they are standing on.

I recognized some people from the Flathead Valley.  I spoke with people from Missoula and and I overheard others say they were from Troy and all over western Montana.  With so many people they got crazy and bid high on lots of stuff, especially stuff I was interested in.  Gates, panels and fencing material were popular items. I wasn't about to pay almost new prices for used stuff.  I overheard one person wondering if people were paying almost new prices just so they wouldn't have to drive the long distance into town to buy the stuff new.    For example, 25 eight ft steel posts sold for $95.  Usually at auction I find they sell for closer to $2 each.  About 30 to 35 eight ft treated unused wooden posts sold for between $300 and $400.   A 16 ft heavy duty gate sold for $140.

Also to keep things moving the auction would bundle stuff.  Instead of one gate, you bought 3, or else 10 panels at a time.  I came home empty handed.

They had three lots of 10 unblemished corral panels.  The first 10 sold for $775.  The second for $825. The third lot sold for $875.  Usually the price drops with each lot sold.

While the Sanctuary had lots and lots of llamas, I learned they also had some camels.  About 20 panels were majorly damaged and bent when the camels leaned over to get to the hay on the other side.  These were 6 rung panels and the top rungs were bent and useless.  I think they sold for about $45 to $50 each.

For a few items, if people weren't interested, the stuff sold cheap.  For example, a large pile of various chain link fencing sold for $25.  I wasn't too interested in the chain link fencing as I still have a few sections I am not currently using.

A small caterpillar with a blade sold for $2750.  It looked to be in good shape and was kind of cute. It reminded me of a small caterpillar my dad owned when I was a kid.  It was fun to drive. I briefly entertained the thought of buying this caterpillar to use it too smooth out my rough and bumpy middle pasture.  But I thought better of it and didn't bid.  Still, I might of gotten it for $3000.  A bargain I think.


The scenery was nice though as the property up in a high valley with few neighbors and views of snow covered mountains in many directions.

The area is rocky...

The Sanctuary is on Far West Road, which is off West Road.  I didn't see a "Further West Road".

The ranch is 400 acres and apparently is for sale at $889,000 in case you're interested.

Feeder, nails and logs

I don't believe I mentioned that I finished fixing my cattle's feeder last week.  Here it is with the redone floor.  Now I just need to get cattle.  I missed the large cattle auction in Missoula last Thursday and I will miss this week's auction as I will drive my neighbor Jan to the hospital tomorrow for her operation on her foot.

I also took an old rotting stand apart and down.  Even though the stand was old and deteriorating, some of the long nails were difficult to pull out.  Here I had to use a vice grip to twist the nail around a bit to loosen it up as it did not want to be pulled out of the post.

After cutting up the willow tree last week I used my chain saw on other logs until I ran out of gas.  As you can see I have plenty of logs left to cut and to split.

Transplanting pine trees

Thursday, March 31, I transplanted around a dozen small pine trees.  Across the road from me a number of small pines trees are growing wild in an unused field.  As they are growing near power lines this is not the place for them.  I transplanted the smallest of them.

My past history transplanting pine trees have shown them to be very touchy when moved and my success rate is not as good as with other trees.  I picked trees small enough that I could get the tree and all its roots in the dirt dug without any roots getting exposed to air or light. This was a good day to transplant as it was heavy overcast and the ground was very wet.  I had to make two trips with the wheelbarrow and even then the wheelbarrow was so loaded down with dirt I worked up a heavy sweat on a cool day when moving the trees.

I planted the trees along my fence in the NE pasture.  When they grow up they will hide the houses of my neighbors.

I have other trees along this fence.  I checked on them and found the mice had eaten the bark off five of them: three pine trees and two arborvitae.

Argh!   Those #@&% mice!!! 

Two of the pine trees...

Two of the arborvitae...

Willow Tree header

I updated my blog's header photo to show my recently cut willow tree...

Willow tree, before and after

Here is how the willow tree a few years ago and now that I am done cutting on it.

Here are how the tree looked before and after I cut it this year...