Automatic float valve

I bought a metal automatic float valve for the livestock's water trough.  No more overfilling the water trough!!!  Yay!!

http://www.miller-mfg.com/page/1/Product-Detail.jsp?groupId=776&prodId=90933


It was easy to assemble.  The problem I had were my garden hoses.  I was using old cracked and leaky hoses  that were fine before but now with constant water pressure I can't have my hoses leak.  Because the float is permanently mounted I had to split the garden hose and have another hose go over to the horse's water trough.  Because the horses don't drink as much water as the cattle I don't need the float on that trough as the water in that trough lasts two to three days.  Currently I refill the cattle's water trough twice a day.

After lots of adjustment replacing hoses and washers I got a leak free set up.  The float works great.

This is one less thing to worry about when I go to Washington State for the Labor Day weekend.  My neighbors said they would refill the water troughs when I was away, but I didn't want that they had to come over twice a day and stand around for 20 minutes of so.

The cattle out in the field which is getting drier.

2013 Bonfire 3

Last Wednesday, August 21, Tammy and I burnt for the year, tree stump number three.  This was a small stump that had worked its way up out of the ground as the top started peaking through the dirt a few weeks ago.   This is an area I walk frequently and I never saw a tree or tree stump here before.

Since it was a smaller stump it didn't take as long as usual to dig around.

I had to put a 'crazy in heat' heifer in the loading corral so we got a later start.  It was dark by the time we got to the stump.  We still had to toss tree branches and stuff to burn around the stump.

It was a nice night with a full moon.

We had a bottle of wine.

We burnt the stump down in three hours.

Before...

After.

Sitting near the fire at the start.

The embers cooled down quick and I filled the dirt back into the hole yesterday.


For 13 more photos, follow this link:

https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/5912230822077400897?authkey=CN6pruqR16C8aQ

Sudden storm

Sunday evening a thunderstorm suddenly blew in from the south.  Lots of wind, a good amount of lightning and hardly any rain.

The wind was so strong that the dirt blew in the corral where the livestock ate and trampled the grass to death.  I was emptying a water trough in the corral when the storm blew in and the dirt and dust was overwhelming.  I got the garden hose out and wet the dirt down.

Later in the house a loud clap of thunder struck seconds after a bright flash of lightning.  Both Tammy and Daisy about jumped out of their skins.  Daisy hid under a coffee table.  Needless to say Daisy didn't go out that night.

Monday morning I picked up the small tree branches around the yard.  I put the larger willow branches in a bucket of water to see if they will start roots.  Some of the willow branches I have stuck in the ground in the past near the river have taken root and started to grow as trees.


The following photos shows where I had to add some extra wire to the field fence to protect the willow tree from the horses. Otherwise the horses put their head over the top of the field fence and would eat the willow tree.

I also had to put some wire around the bottom of the small willow trees by the river.  Some of the willow trees would disappear and I thought they didn't make the transition from branch to tree.  Then last month I discovered the largest willow tree had been reduced to branches floating in the river.  An animal had eaten through all the branches at the bottom. I don't know if the animal was a beaver or a river otter.  I have not seen signs of other trees or brush being eaten.

So few of the branches transition from branches to trees that I placed wire around a half dozen that have started to grow as trees by the river.

So far I haven't walked the pastures to see if any trees blew over. Looking from the house I don't see any more trees down. Bob and Jan lost another Lombardi poplar to the storm.

Feeding apples to the cattle

Tammy fed some apples to the cattle the other day.

First off was Momma...

Then Baby and the other cattle got into the act...

Daisy is chilling out in the grass watching us and the cattle.

 
In the 1 minute 3 second video Tammy starts off by feeding an apple to Baby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfKygNVJus

Baby got it bad again

So much for a 21 day cycle for cattle to go into heat.  Saturday morning, 19 days after she last started going into heat, Baby went into heat again.  8:10 am to be exact as that is when she started her mooing.

Since the cattle are just in the hayfield and don't have access to the river, and Baby was just mooing and not running around crazy, I let Baby be instead of putting her into the loading corral.

Off and on during the day Baby would moo and call for a boyfriend.  Come evening she took it up a notch as she started to walk the fence line with the south and middle pastures stopping to moo and look towards the river.  One of the cattle across the river would moo back which encouraged Baby to moo more.  When the cattle across the river quit mooing then some cattle at the potato farm would moo and Baby would start up again.

She started to roam and run along the fence line and I made preparations to put her into the loading corral.  But then Baby and part of the herd came to the water trough and I gave them some apples.  Then Dan's Hereford came and she has a grudge with Baby.  They started to fight but as the Hereford outweighs Baby by a few hundred pounds, Baby lost though she put up a good fight.  When not fighting the Hereford would mount Baby even though the Hereford is a heifer.  Baby would stand there until she couldn't take the weight anymore.

All this activity distracted Baby and she stopped her mooing and calling for a "boy".  Hopefully she get over her horniness tomorrow.

Pears

While mowing the grass that the horses didn't eat in the fruit tree and garden area I noticed pears have started falling from the pear tree.

The pears look good but they are hard and dry to the taste.  I guess time is required for them to ripen more and soften up.

Fair in Eureka

Tammy is going to be selling her Tastefully Simple products at the Lincoln County Fair in Eureka this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  She has a spot outside on the fairgrounds as all the inside the building spots were filled. Thursday she and I drove the 60+ miles to Eureka to set up her tent and tables.

Tammy's tent

View from the fairgrounds.

Before heading home we stopped at the Powderhorn Cafe in downtown Eureka.  It is a very small place.  The cook (owner?) was friendly but one heck of a relaxed dude.  Maybe a little stoned?  Who knows.


I had a regular size:

The Big Timber 

Pastrami, Roast Beef, sauteed mushroom, red and green peppers, onions on a Fresh baked bagette, garlic herb mayo.

Tammy had a regular sized:

Sidewinder Grinder
Ham and swiss cheese, onions, lettuce, tomato with our herb mayo.

Both our sandwiches were very good.

We were the only customers at 6 pm on a Thursday.  About the time we left the owner took down his open sign though he said he was still open to the locals who knocked on his door to get some food.

Another crazy heifer

I had another heifer start to go 'crazy in heat'.  Wednesday evening I heard some mooing from the herd.  When I finished digging around a small tree trunk in the middle pasture I walked back through the hayfield.  One of Dan's heifers - Number 4 - was mooing and standing at the gate to the middle pasture.  She walked along the fence and looked toward the river.

She saw me and came and mooed at me.  Then she walked the fence to the new gate in the NW corner of the hayfield.  She mooed and looked through the gate off into the distance to the potato farm with its livestock.

The rest of the herd was grazing in the south half of the pasture.

Uh-oh.  I just went through this with Baby a few weeks ago.

So I opened the gate to the corral and Number 4 came in looking for a "boy" to satisfy her.  I got her into the loading corral and supplied her with hay and water.  A bunch of work but better than chasing her around the fields.

She spent 24 hours in the loading corral.  She mooed a lot.  I woke up to mooing from her and from part of the herd in the hayfield near the fence who were mooing in sympathy.

Number 4 didn't go off the deep end as bad as Baby had, so after 24 hours I let her out to rejoin the herd.  She was happy to rejoin the herd.  She forgot all about needing a "boy" to satisfy her.

That is two 'crazy in heat' heifers in one year.  What's up with that?

Henry V

Tuesday night I attended the Kalispell performance of Montana's Shakespeare in the Parks.  Tammy was in St Ignatius holding a Tastefully Simple party.

Their mission:

Montana Shakespeare in the Parks is to make quality, live theatrical productions of Shakespeare and other classics accessible to communities in Montana and surrounding states with an emphasis on under-served, rural areas who would not otherwise have this opportunity. All performances are offered free, making Shakespeare in the Parks available to everyone.

This year they performed Henry V.  A summary of the play's plot can be found here.

Each year the company lugs this stage around the state.

The play was ok. Lots of talk of war and battles.

I rode my bicycle to the performance at the local college and got there shortly before the play started.  Quite a few people were already spread out on the lawn.  Most people had brought their folding chairs so I had to sit on the hill in the back.  Unfortunately where I sat the actors had to compete with Hwy 93 traffic noise in the background.  I understood most of the play except when the actors had a heavy English or French accent.


Scenes from the play:

Henry V is in the middle.

The King of France

Most actors did double duty and played two roles.  Notice one of King Henry's soldiers - the one on the right - also played the King of France.  The actor on the back left wearing a brown hat playing a boy soldier here is a woman.

Momma is home

Monday I went and got Momma and brought her home.  She had been away for 44 days and should have gone through at least two cycles of being in heat.   Chad said he saw the bull "with" Momma the other day.  Now the countdown begins to April to see if Momma gives birth.

Chad and Christine had Momma in a pen separated from the herd when I arrived.  Momma was not happy about that.  Momma ran around and around and at one point Chad had to jump up on the fence to get out of Momma's way.

Once I let Momma out of the stock trailer into the corral she quickly zeroed in on the cattle halfway down the hayfield taking a siesta in the shade.  After a little running around the corral and mooing Momma remembered that she needed to briefly go away from the herd and around the barn to reach the gate to the hayfield and the herd.

She ran mooing to the herd.  Once she reached the herd she continued to run along the fence with the herd now running and following and all excited.  After a short time they settled down to grazing while I washed out the stock trailer.

Later when the herd was near the yard Tammy took an apple out to Momma.  But Momma was still leery and hung back behind the other cattle who were clamoring for the apple.

The pasture where Momma spent the last 44 days was mostly dry. I didn't see any green.  Momma always looked a little thin and she certainly does now.  My pasture and hayfield are drying up but at least I still have green grass.

When Tammy was trying to give Momma an apple Baby ignored Momma as Baby loves apples.  Later in the evening I saw Baby sucking Momma in the hayfield.  I wondered if Baby would have gotten over that during the past 44 days.  I guess not.

Tree gopher

I finally caught the pocket gopher living under the large pine tree's roots.  I chased him or her from large tree root to large tree root.  It kept filling the trap with dirt.  It also filled the tunnel so I had to search for another tunnel.  Each time the tunnel followed under the root itself with a quick jump to another root.

Even though the pine tree is huge I was concerned.  While the large roots are too large for the gopher to eat, it could eat all the smaller sub roots and hairlike roots.   So I was determined to get this gopher.


I gave up on the pocket gopher near the wasp hole.  Each time I checked  on the tree gopher I poured dirt over the wasp hole and even put a small rock over it.  Each day I found the wasps dug a hole under the rock and through the dirt.  I had flattened the pocket gopher dirt mounds and have not seen signs of new activity so maybe the gopher moved also.  Once the weather cools and the wasps are not active I'll go back and search for that gopher.

Summer snuggie

The hot August days may get to 90 degrees F but Tammy likes to wear her snuggie in the evenings when it starts to cool down.  Snuggies aren't just for Winter.

Well casing removal

Back in the middle of July, since Wyatt was available with his tractor, I had the second concrete casing removed from my corral well.

I had lots of time before Wyatt arrived so I wrapped the casing really good with chains.

The view after the casing was removed.  As you can see, the big rain event when Tammy and I were in Las Vegas in May, washed down dirt into the water I had dug, covering the water.

Now to come up with a permanent solution.  I had a discussion with Kyle, my pump person.  His dad, Tony, was also there and he ran the business for many years before he retired.  Tony is very experienced with sandpoint wells - much more so than his son.  He strongly encouraged me to go the sandpoint route, and after talking with a couple neighbors who have sandpoint type of wells, I am going in that direction.

I had a 11 ft long 2 inch thick pipe with three foot of a sandpoint pipe at the bottom.  I have concerns about the pipe being thick enough to hold enough water to also do a little irrigating of the back lawn without the pump running dry.  I got conflicting views as to whether the 2 inch diameter of pipe is enough so I plan to go a little larger.

To be determined:

• the pipe diameter
• the pipe length
• how to get the pipe into the ground
• the size of the pump

I also have to determine what type of casing I will put in the ground.  I checked on concrete casings and the sizes made now doesn't match the size I have.  An alternative may be a large metal culvert if I can find one.

Spraying, gophers, and wasps

Not much exciting going on lately.

The cattle are behaving. Baby is back to normal now that she is not in heat.

I am spraying weeds.  My big effort last year worked well.  I got rid of most of the weeds.  Now to keep the pressure on.  Another year I had beat back the weeds, I slacked off the next year and the weeds came back with a vengeance.  I notice the weeds I do have look young.  The seeds from past years are sprouting.

I have finished the NE and north pasture and the hayfield.  In the past a tank of herbicide would take 45 minutes to an hour to empty.  With less weeds, it takes me 2 and 1/2 hours to empty the tank.

When spraying in the hayfield I noticed some fresh pocket gopher mounds of dirt.   Once the cattle are gone I'll take care of them.   I did find in the middle of the middle pasture a few fresh pocket gopher mounds.  The middle of the middle and nowhere else? Where did these pocket gophers come from?   I am working on trapping them.  I got a few but the last two are a challenge.   One pocket gopher is among a large tree's roots.  When I do find a tunnel among the roots the gopher will fill that trap and tunnel with dirt and I struggle to find a new tunnel among the large roots.

The other pocket gopher tunnel is near a wasp hole.  About 18 inches away.  The first time the gopher filled the trap and hole with dirt. The next time the gopher appears to have abandoned the tunnel hole as I saw wasps come out of it.  I've given up for now as the wasps sting me when I try to find a new tunnel nearby.  And since these are ground wasps their sting hurts a lot more than other wasps or bees.

It must be because of the hot and dry summer but there are a lot more ground wasp holes around than normal.  Usually I come across one each Summer.  This Summer... I must have "discovered" a half dozen to eight of them.  "Discovery" is usually painful with several stings.  When I toss a shovel full of dirt on the small hole with one or two wasps flying around I quickly discovered that there are a lot of wasps outside the hole so tossing dirt to seal the hole does not trap most of the wasps inside.  It just makes the wasps outside the hole really angry.

2013 Bonfire 2, part 2

As I mentioned earlier, the first bonfire on the very SW tree stump did not burn all of the stump. On July 25 Tammy and I had another bonfire over that tree stump.


I did the same as last time and uploaded the fire photos to an online album.

https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/5912230822077400897?authkey=CN6pruqR16C8aQ


Here are a few interesting photos...

To me the fire looks like a phoenix rising, or a dragon.

In this photo the fire looks like a little goblin facing us and reaching up with his right hand.  The goblin's face is behind the fire (the stump not on fire) in the center top.

On our drive back to the house a number of deer were running around the pasture.

Deer eyes.

This bonfire did the trick as the stump was mostly gone the next morning.  The pile of ashes were still smoldering so I let it continue.  When I returned a week later to fill in the hole I found the pile of ash still had a little bit of heat so I left the hole for another time to fill.

Apricots, etc.

When I was adding to my fences in the fruit tree and garden area I was surprised to find six small apricots.  Especially since the past Spring was cold and wet and it seemed as if hardly any fruit trees blossomed.  The apricots trees are the first to blossom and I didn't see any blossoms on them this year.

The apricots may be small but they tasted way better than the apricots I buy at the store.

It looks like there will be a decent crop of apples on each of my apple trees, and on the apple tree out in the pasture.  However due to our hot and dry Summer I have a feeling the apples will be smaller than usual.  Some are falling already and they are all going to the cattle as they are small.

No cherries this year.

I was shocked to find a few dozen small pears on my larger pear tree.  This is the first time either of my two pear trees produced pears.  After all these years of having the trees I had given up on ever getting pears from them.

Again due to the hot and dry Summer, and my lack of time to water them, the serviceberry and currant bushes only produced a few berries.

New baby surprise

Here we go again!  The month of August and an unexpected birth.  This time the newborn was a baby horse and not a calf.  Though not totally unexpected as the horse owner knew her mare was pregnant.  But based on the one and only time the mare was with a stallion, the owner said the due date was in two weeks.

Based on the pregnancy and how fat the two large mares (Cheyenne and Chairokee) had gotten from eating so much, the owners decided last week to take these two horses out and replace them with two other skinnier horses.  Thursday slipped to Saturday which then had a conflict come up.  Today was touch and go but the owners did manage to bring a mare and her colt late in the afternoon with plans to take Cheyenne and Chairokee. 

Earlier in the afternoon Chairokee came in the corral to drink some water.  She then whinnied loudly then raced out of the corral back to the far end of the pasture by the river.  Shortly thereafter Lily and Sierra came into the corral to drink water and then they raced out of the corral into the pasture.

What's up with the horses?

No other commotion so I continued on with my work.

Later in the afternoon the owners brought the new mare and her 2 1/2 month year old colt.  We put them in the loading corral until the removal of the other two horses were completed.  Chairokee came to the corral to check out the new horses.  The other horses stayed out in the pasture.  Strange.  Usually Chairokee and Cheyenne are BFFs and always near one another.

One of the owners walked out into the pasture to get Cheyenne.  She came back with news that Cheyenne had given birth to a filly.  It must have been that morning as Cheyenne was fine last evening when I was in the pasture.

We locked Chairokee, Lily and Sierra in part of the corral south of the barn so they wouldn't interfere or get Cheyenne too excited.  The owners and I walked out to the far end of the pasture near the river.  The owner got a halter on Cheyenne and they were able to lead her and the filly back to the corral.

It took the three of us to get the two horses into their horse trailer.  Cheyenne wouldn't go into the trailer without her filly and the filly couldn't step up on her own.  And the filly hung by the side of momma. The two horses would walk in circles. Finally one owner led Cheyenne into putting her head in the trailer to get a bite of hay to eat and the other owner grabbed and lifted the colt into the trailer. Cheyenne then got into the trailer to be with her filly.  I closed the door behind them.

Having a newborn filly altered their plans.  They owners only took Cheyenne and her filly and left Chairokee here for another day.  They didn't want another large horse in the trailer with the newborn filly.


The walk back to the corral.

On the walk back to the corral we had to stop briefly for a meal break.  The young filly noisily nursed from Momma.

Safely in the horse trailer

 

Lily, Sierra and Chairokee watching Cheyenne and the new filly enter the corral.

Here is a 14 second video of the mother and baby horse walking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCBNY5OBCU8



I kept the new horse and colt in the loading corral for a few hours so the horses could get acquainted through the fence. The owners said this new horse would be the lowest on the pecking order as she is smaller and more submissive than the others. 

Once I opened the gate Lily, Sierra and Chairokee were more interested in eating the grass in the loading corral as I always had that gate closed to them.  Later after dark Tammy and I heard more whinnying and commotion.  I found the new horse and her colt preferred to stay in the loading corral while the others ran around outside the corral.  Lily and Sierra went off to to eat.  Chairokee was being a jerk running around trying to lord it over the new horse and her colt.  I'll see what the morning brings.

Protecting trees from the horses

In the NE pasture I have around ten small pine trees I planted over the last half dozen years.  The fruit tree and garden area has the fruit trees.  Last year I got kicked by a horse when I shooed her away from eating the leaves from one of my cherry trees.

I decided I need a better protection for my trees.  And the trees in the NE pasture are starting to outgrow the small wire cages around them.  Last year I removed the protection in the NE pasture from all but a few trees.  Now I have had a year to build better protection.  Did I?  What do you think?

The past few weeks were hot and dry and the grass was drying up.  Better late than never so I started protecting the trees in the NE pasture before the horses "discovered" them.  I worked in the evening when it was cooler so it took me a number of days to protect all the trees.

Part of my actions was to dig the dirt around the trees to remove the grass and its roots and make a large basin in which to hold a good amount of water to follow the method of "water deep, not often".

One evening when I was chatting with my neighbor with the four small dogs the horses came over to graze near me.  I had built a cage around a small pine tree but had not added a top to it yet.  Suddenly Lily went from eating grass to biting the top of the tree off.  She did it so fast I could not react.

Tree Lily bit

The next evening I had completed digging the dirt around another small pine tree when it got dark.  I leaned some odds and ends of wire fencing around the tree (as seen below) until I could fasten it into a cage the next day.  The next day I found a few wire pieces moved and the tree bitten in two places: on top and on one of the side branches.

The unprotected trees left to be dug around and protected were untouched.  The horses only went after the trees after I dug around them.

One of the two bigger pine trees.  Before and after.

By the time I completed the NE pasture protection the horses had eaten most of the grass and it was time to let them int the fruit tree and garden area.  I didn't have time to build a nice permanent protection around the fruit trees so I added odds and ends of short wire fencing to the top of the existing fence around the fruit trees.  This way the horses couldn't get their head and neck over the fence and bend it down to reach the trees.  It was not an elegant or pretty but it did protect the trees.

I put wire fences around the rhubarb plants to protect them from getting stepped on as livestock don't eat the leaves.  Not these horses.  One of the horses developed a taste for rhubarb leaves, put her head over the top and ate them all.

I put a top wire fence over my raspberry plants so those survived.

Otherwise my protections worked.  Now to see if I find time to build a prettier more elegant fruit tree protection before next year.


The link is to Daisy's blog with photos of her helping with the trees.  In the photos you can also see the grass was higher than in the photos above.  That's how much the horses ate in the week it took me to protect the trees.  Several horses are getting fat from their endless eating.

http://tallpinescat.blogspot.com/2013/08/helping-protect-trees.html