Clothesline

The "same-old" here: I'm trapping pocket gophers and spraying weeds.  So not much to write about.  Tonight the horses did pull the garden hose out of my raspberry bushes as I was watering them.  I let the water run while I attended to another chore and when I got back, instead of having the plants watered, the horses pulled the hose onto the lawn and the water ran there and made a large puddle.  Argh! 


After years of using a sagging clothesline, during the end of May and the beginning of June, I finally built a new clothesline with help from Tammy and then my uncle Curt.

Here is how my clothesline used to look.  The clothesline wire can hardly been seen in the photos, but trust me, the wires sagged a lot as you can see that the posts are not standing upright.  Leaning against the building are the new clothesline posts.

 

I dug out and replaced the old posts.  This hole is big because I found a large wire in the dirt by the post.  I followed the wire and dug and dug - and dug - and I was able to pull up out of the ground a heavy piece of iron.  I guess it used to act as an anchor to hold the post up in place.  At some unknown time it was replaced by a wire attached to the wall near the post (as can be seen in the previous photo).

With Tammy's help we removed the old clothesline and posts, and then put in new posts.  We put some cement around each post to:

1. help hold the posts upright, 
2. protect the posts from rot as they didn't appear to be treated, and
3. provide a ring around the posts to prevent the grass from growing against the posts and make mowing the lawn around the posts easier.

Even with the cement, I still attached a wire from each post to the nearby building to help hold the posts upright.

Tammy left after the posts were done, but before the cross-arms were attached.  No problem.  My uncles arrived a few days later and my uncle Curt helped me install the cross-arms and the rest of the clothesline.

The cross-arms on the old clothesline were six feet across so I cut these cross-arms to be the same length.  In hindsight I could have left the cross-arm boards as eight feet.  The clothesline posts could have supported the longer length.  I lengthened the clothesline and felt that would give me enough room to hang several large loads of laundry at the same time.  It does, but more is sometimes better and it wouldn't have hurt to have two extra lines the longer cross-arm length would have allowed.

I replaced the wire with clothesline rope.  With my uncles Curt and Larry's help we got the lines real tight.

As you can see, with the wet clothes hanging on the line, no sagging.

Another item checked off my "to-do" list.

Barn rewire

Back when my uncles and aunts visited me in early June, they helped me re-wire my barn.  Earlier this Spring I discovered that the power from the barn to the outlet for my water trough pump had little power.  The electric line from the barn to the outlet was buried underground.  The electric wire was so old I thought the insulation had deteriorated and was leaking electricity.

My uncle Larry has had some experience wiring and re-wiring a number of projects and he offered to do the barn re-wiring after we looked at the wiring inside the barn.  The wiring was very old.  The wires were wrapped in cloth and not enclosed in plastic as is done now.

So, from just replacing the wiring between the barn and the outlet outside, the project morphed to rewiring the entire barn.  In doing so we moved and simplified stuff.  For example, the barn had an outside light socket on the south side near the peak. There was no light bulb in the socket.  I never used the light and I don't remember my dad doing so.  I usually access the barn via the large barn door on the north side and rarely use the small door on the south side.  I got rid of the light socket and the switch that controlled the light, and indirectly another inside electric outlet.  That simplified the wiring.

I also moved the light inside the barn over to the center of the barn.  The light switch that controls that light was inside the barn near the door on the south side.  When I store hay in the barn this switch often gets covered.  I had Larry move the switch closer to the barn door on the north side.  I also had him add an outlet there also.

While Larry worked on the wiring, my uncle Curt and I dug up the old outside wiring and then dug a new trench for the new wire.  From the crooked trench line you can tell I dug this trench.

Even though this trench was inside the corral, and near where the old wiring lay, I still came across old tree roots.

We placed the underground wire inside PVC pipe to protect it from the soil and water. Here Curt is putting the wire through a section of the pipe.

How the pipe looks in the hole.  We buried the pipe and wire about 2 ft deep.

Several cattle inspecting the work after the trench was filled in with dirt.  Even though we shared the corral with the cattle, they were relaxed and for the most part stayed away and in another part of the corral.

Inside the barn Larry worked long and hard.  It took all day to do the re-wire.  By the end he was tired and his feet were killing him.  He did a great job though.

When going over the barn wiring before we started, Curt noticed that one of the two feeder lines attached to the barn was not connected.  By the way, the wire going to the left is to the old light socket.

The day we planned and prepared for the work I had a circuit breaker on my house turn off.  I had my uncle's motor home plugged into my house, and between their electrical usage and mine, a circuit breaker tripped.  At the time we didn't know exactly what the problem was and I had to call an electrician. By the time he arrived around 6 pm, the breaker had cooled off and could be reset completely on.  These circuit breakers are different in that they don't flip all the way off when tripped; they just are not 100% on.   The other odd thing was that the breaker was just for the entryway and refrigerator.  When the breaker tripped I lost power to half my house even though the breakers for those areas were 100% on.

Anyway... when the electrician was here I had him test the barn and he found I only had half power.  Makes sense when one of two lines are not connected.

So we replaced the electrical wire between the overhead wires attached to the barn and the fuse box inside the barn.  I made sure to attach both wires.  Because the old wires were not colored - both were black - we were not sure how to attached the black and red wires.  We had a 50-50 chance of correctly attaching the wires and for once we beat the odds and got it right the first time.

I also talked to the electrician about how the wires from the house were attached to the garage.  I've had the garage light act flaky where sometimes it would work and other times it would not.  The reason I had my uncle's motor home attached to my house for electricity was that when hooked up through the tool shed (who gets its power from the garage) was that the garage ground wire glowed from the electrical current.  The electrician told me how to better ground the wiring to the garage to solve these problems.

Here is the old way the garage received power.

It is good my barn is now up to date with its wiring. This should greatly reduce the chance of an electrical fire.

Bite

Several weeks ago I had a pain in my left side along with some deep itching. The pain was more intense at night after I relaxed for the day. With help of others I determine it may have been because I lifted a heavy object, then put further stress on my body by carrying my 5 gallon backpack sprayer a number of times during the day when I sprayed weeds.   After a few days the pain went away.

Now several nights ago the itching returned without the pain. The itching was more near the surface of my skin.  Then last night my skin was sore and tender from the left side of my back around to my front left side.  My front was more tender.  The skin was not red, nor did I have a rash.

I was puzzled.  This morning I looked in the mirror.  What I thought was a wasp/yellow-jacket bite was something else.  Because the bite was on my back I couldn't get a good look at it.  This morning when I went over to help Bob and Jan I had them look at it.

The prognosis: a spider bite.  The bite had two puncture marks, not one like a wasp/yellow-jacket sting, or a bite from a tick.  My bite was most likely from a regular spider and not a hobo, brown recluse or black widow spider, both due to how the bite looks and my lack of symptoms from a bite from those types of spider.

Bob and Jan gave me some Benadryl to help with the symptoms.  Some medical web sites recommend getting a tetanus booster shot if one has not had a tetanus shot in the last five years.  I'll need to do that Monday. In the meantime my skin really itches in a band from the bite around to my front and is still tender in spots.

Spraying weeds

I've been spraying weeds for a while now.  Yesterday I went back over the area I had sprayed in the north pasture so far to catch the weeds I missed and to catch the newer Canadian Thistle weeds that popped up.   I estimate I had to respray 10% of the weeds.  It was nice to be able to cover large areas on a tank of herbicide.   I am now back to smaller areas per tank.  I have lots left to spray.

I am wearing yellow tinted sunglasses while I spray.  Partly because of the sun, partly because the glasses protect my eyes from potentially drifting spray, and partly because the glasses makes the difference between the dead and living knapweed plants stand out.

Here are views with and without the sunglasses.  The "yellow" photo doesn't really capture what I see using the sunglasses as the dead plants look more reddish than what appears in the photo.

Critters

It looked like I would get a number of cherries this year.

I planned to use some netting I had to protect the cherries from the birds as another year I lost most of my cherries to the birds.  I didn't act fast enough as Tuesday night I discovered over half the cherries were eaten.  A half dozen cherries were somewhat ripe and I ate those.  A few unripe cherries are left but the odds are the birds will get those.

I also noticed that now that I weeded the strawberry patch, the robins clean out the strawberries.  I found more ripe strawberries on the plants when they were smothered by weeds and grass than I do now.  I often find a robin on a post watching over the patch and it doesn't fly away until I get close.

The robins are hatching their second batch of young as today I found half of one of their baby blue shells near my corral gate where it was dropped off.


The cattle made work for me today.  One of them crapped on the side of the water trough and part of their crap went into the water trough.  I had to drain an almost full trough, clean it and refill it.  *sigh*  Cattle, unlike horses, have no concept of where to crap.  When they have to go, they go right then and there.  Horses will pick areas to serve as a bathroom.


A few days ago this insect decided to "guard" my doorbell. It stayed there all day. It was gone the next day.

Tuesday the mosquitoes were bad, as usual due to the high water this year.  While checking the pocket gophers traps I took a little time to whack a number of Canadian thistle weeds as they are now starting to form flowers.  All of a sudden I was stung on my arm.  I looked down and found a half dozen wasps or yellow-jackets on my pants.  They had a nest in a hole in the ground somewhere where I was standing and I unknowingly disturbed them.  I ran off waving my arms and that usually solves the problem.  Not this time.  The ones on my pants hung on and when I stopped they moved to sting me.  I got stung on both forearms, my right leg on the side of my knee, on the other leg, and on my butt.  I am sore.  In the past I've found the wasps/ yellow-jackets who live in the ground have a nastier sting than other wasps/ yellow-jackets.

Wednesday I went back to check my pocket gopher traps and whack a few more Canadian thistle weeds. I carefully whacked the weeds where I thought I had encountered the wasps/ yellow-jackets on Tuesday.  I whacked the weeds with no sign of the pests.  Maybe it was because I stood in a different spot as I whacked the weeds.  Wrong!  A little later I got stung and as I ran off I saw what I think is the hole they came from as I saw lots of them flying just above the ground there.  So I got stung on the top part of my arm this time to match the sting on the underside of the arm yesterday.  The odd thing is that I got stung on the part of the arm with less feeling and sensation as my arm was crushed in an accident when I was much younger.  And I definitely felt the sting.  My arm was a little swollen for the rest of the day near where the stinger stuck me.  I did get the rest of the thistle whacked in that part of the pasture.


I trapped a mouse a few days ago.  Usually I don't get mice in the house in the Summer, but with our cool weather this Summer one decided to come in early. Or to avoid the owls which are back each night.  He or she had a light touch and would often lick the peanut butter off the trap without triggering it.  I hadn't realized the mouse had cleaned the trap until one morning when I had gotten up early to use the bathroom and I heard it scratching my paper garbage bag.  Finally I had to wedge a peanut from the peanut butter deep into the trap's curl before I caught the mouse with the light touch.


Ants have started to come into the house and I got the Terro ant killer out to get rid of them.  The ants have been lining up all day to eat the poison.

Strawberry patch weeding

I spent several days last week and on Sunday weeding my strawberry patch.  It has been years since I completely weeded the patch.  Usually I get half to two-thirds done before something else requires my attention.

This year, due to the wet weather, the patch was especially overgrown.  The following photo is when I only had 1/4 of the patch left to weed.  The whole patch was like what you see at the far end.  Yes, it was bad!

If these were not such great and hardy strawberry plants I would have given up on it and plowed it under and started new.  But I had gotten these plants a year after I came out here from a woman who pastured her horses here.  She had brought them from Miles City, Montana for her strawberry patch so they had to be tough plants.  And these plants are ever bearing, which means I get strawberries up until it freezes in the Fall.  And the strawberries taste very good.

So I painstakingly pulled weeds and grass for hours and hours.  My hands were sore.

The strawberries next to the rhubarb had been weeded once earlier this Spring.  That is why they look better.

I was surprised to find as many plants as I did among the grass and weeds.  It was a challenge to save the plants as the grass roots grew in and around the plants, and sometimes pulling grass also pulled up the plant too.

Completely weeded.  For now, as I have no illusions that I got all the roots.

Not only did I find strawberry plants among the thick grass, I also found a number of strawberries as the birds could not reach them.

Tuesday night I let the horses into the fruit tree and garden area in order to eat the tall grass down.  This is how I protect my strawberries and rhubarb.  Even if the horses didn't eat the plants, they do like to roll in the dirt.

Yes, the grass is a little tall in the fruit tree and garden area.

Hereford and the patio fence

Sunday afternoon I caught one of Dan's cattle breaking the patio fence.  You know the part I am talking about: the section of fence the cattle keep abusing.

Now that I wrapped the part upper and lower boards with barb wire he couldn't pull this section of fence down.  Instead he broke part of the fence. Notice he pulled out a small roll of chicken wire and he was trying to get more stuff out from the patio when I caught him.

He wasn't at all guilty about what he was doing so I had to shoo him away and re-fix the fence.  I moved a section of hard wire to this spot so it should prevent more mischief.  At least until they come up with something new.

This afternoon when riding my bicycle back from Bob and Jan's house I found one of Jamie's Corriente cattle along his fence.  My herd was along my fence right across the road.  All the cattle were looking across the road at the other. One of my cattle had its head through my fence to eat the grass in the ditch even though there was plenty of good grass in their field. I had to give a talk to my cattle about ignoring that Corriente steer, staying in their field and not to get into trouble and lose their privilege of being in the hayfield.  They listened to me and behaved.

Back to the Hereford steer in the photo.  Dan told me he is the son of the heifer that three years ago crossed the river to 'elope' with the neighbor's Hereford bull. (That story can be found here: Females do crazy things when in lust).  Even though she was a "teenager" and too young to be bred, she safely had this calf and went on to be a fine mother.  After sowing her wild oats she settled down to be a well behaved cow.  Her son seems to have taken after his mother and gets into trouble.

Dead and dead looking bodies

Saturday I saw a dead body.   When my hiking group was driving back from the east side of Glacier Park on the Going-to-the-Sun road we came upon a traffic accident.   A motorcycle and car were off on the left side of the road in a pullout near a restroom. Another car was in the ditch on the right side of the road.  In the middle of the road was a man's body covered with a tarp.  He was lying on his back and his hands and lower legs were sticking out from under the tarp.

The Park rangers were directing traffic around the body.  We never saw the ambulance or the sheriff's department SUV coming under we were out of the Park and halfway to Coram, MT.   News reports claimed the accident happened just after 5 pm, and I don't think we drove by until after 7 pm.  That's a long time for families to drive by with their kids and have the kids ask why the man was lying under the tarp in the middle of the road.

Seeing a dead body sticks with a person.

Then this morning I thought one of Dan's steers was dying.  Number 10 was lying on his side with his legs sticking straight out.  He was near my yard fence among the other cattle who were all sitting or laying normally while taking their morning siesta.  Number 10 did not stir when I approached.  His ear twitched and he was slowly breathing. So he was alive. His eyes were mostly closed and it seemed as if his eyes were rolled up.  His side was large.  I was afraid he had become bloated and was dying.

I called Dan and left a message then went outside again.  By now Number 10 was sitting up but was groggy.  While I filled the water tank and watched and waited he woke up and eventually began chewing his cud. He was all right.  Apparently he was just sleeping very soundly.  I've never been around cattle who didn't wake when I approached them.

Dan came over to double check and the steer was fine.  All the cattle were very relaxed. The horses too as when waiting for the steer to wake up I noticed several of the horses laying down and sleeping.  That wasn't as unusual as the horses tend to lay on their side with legs out when they sleep.  Usually the cattle I observed sleeping tend to curl up like a cat when sleeping.  They sleep on their belly and tuck their head by their side.

I'm glad I didn't have another dead body.

Tree cement

When my uncles and aunts were visiting me in June, my uncle Curt suggested I put cement in a rotting part of my willow tree.  Years ago there were a few more major tree trunks sections in the willow tree and dad cut them off.  Over the years one of the cut trunks rotted and insects got into it.   My uncle suggested I dig out the loose rotted stuff, then spray the hole with an insect killer, then seal the hole with cement.

I did as he suggested.  This was all the cement I had. I used 90 lbs of cement.  It did not reach the top.  The slope of the cement is steeper than it looks.  I am undecided whether to buy another bag of cement and try to make the cement plug reach the top of the stump, or use whatever (I forgot what it is) my uncle told me to use to seal the cracks in the rest of the stump.

Loading corral's east side

This is old news now as I finished the work on July 1, but here are the photos of the east side of the loading corral.

After I moved the head gate I rebuilt the east side fence.

I strung a rope to ensure I would have a straight line.

Even in an area should have had no trees since the 1940s, I came across a small tree root when digging the hole for a railroad tie.

Here is the old fence taken from inside the loading corral.  I already started taking the fence down when I thought of taking this photo.  I had already removed the orange baling twine wrapped around the top of the fence.  The middle post is only being held up by the fence boards as the post had rotted at ground level.  The right photo shows the new fence and gate.

Before and after photos taken outside the loading corral.  This view also shows how far back I moved the head gate and east side fence.

Looks like my rope trick worked: the fence line looks pretty straight.

Next step after the fence rebuild, moving the railroad ties.  Some of the railroad ties I had gotten at auctions were not in the greatest of condition.  I had used them as the bottom of the pile, which did them no good.  I put the new pile of ties on old posts to keep them off the ground.

The fillies checking out the new fence and new location of the railroad ties. 

Before and after from outside the loading corral.

View of the fence, gate and loading corral.  The gate is 12 ft.  The fence is a little over 17 ft. with the two fence sections at 9.5 ft and 8 ft long.  The last work item is to rebuild the loading ramp fence inside the loading corral.  I plan to do that later this year.