Life among the Tall Pines

Wednesday was a nice day.  According to the weather forecast, the last nice day until next week.  Rain every day.  Then next week's highs will only be in the low 40s.  Not good as I still don't have the third and last roll of asphalt roofing installed on the tool shed roof.

Why not on Wednesday?  I had to move the irrigation pipes one last time. With below freezing temperatures at night I can't just turn off the pump for a day or two and move the pipes later.  I thought of a way to irrigate the rest of the NE pasture and the fruit tree and garden area.  But to do so I had to re-position the pump and move all of the main line pipes. That takes time.

Instead of dragging four sprinkler pipes from the north pasture I decided to use four pipes still in the fruit tree area.  Mistake.  I hadn't used these pipes yet.  After starting the pump I found that two of the pipes had bad gaskets, and since I don't have gaskets for these pipes, I had to unhook a number of pipes then drag two pipes from the north pasture to use as replacements.  Then another of the pipes had a bad 'clapper'.  Or I should say,  no 'clapper'.  The water ran out of the nozzle but the part that hits the stream of water and moves the sprinkler head was broken off.

Once the pipes were replaced I found the sprinkler head on the last pipe now wasn't working as the water flow was mostly blocked.  Using a wire to clear the obstruction didn't work and once again I had to shut everything down, then take the sprinkler head off to remove a large pine needle.

Donna stopped by briefly; I spoke with Curtis about my tool shed roof and installing a vent; and Dan came over to pay me for the heifer he bought from me last week.  Dan took his last three calves for the auction.  Instead of driving all the way to Missoula he took them to the receiving station at the Majestic Arena on Tuesday.  The loading of the calves went smoothly.

While the morning was foggy and cool, it cleared by early afternoon.  So I took time to remove the tarps to allow the roof to dry.

So, by the time I was done with the irrigation it was 4:30 pm.  Where did the day go?  Especially as I had not eaten breakfast yet.  I had just grabbed a piece of fruit or a roll in between moving or fixing pipes.

I had decided on installing a roof vent on the tool shed as the building gets pretty hot Spring, Summer and Fall was there is no ventilation in that roof.  I went to Home Depot and got a basic roof vent.

Then Kelly came by to hunt.  I went to work on the roof vent just before 6 pm.  I had at most an hour to work on the roof.  I got the bumpy felt problem fixed.  I marked a location between studs where I wanted to place the roof vent.  That was it.  It was getting dark and I decided not to cut the hole in the fading light.

Then I covered the roof again to guard against Thursday's rain.  Now that I don't have to tarp the hay bales to protect them against the irrigation sprinklers, to cover the roof I used a large long plastic sheet in place of the tarp with the tear.

Who knows when I will finish the re-roofing.