Tree stump 22 stopped smoldering, and cattle

Yesterday stump 22 was still smoldering a little bit.   Today it has stopped smoldering.

Last Monday's view

The view this morning

In person the difference in the tree stump hole is more noticeable than what shows in the photos.


Yesterday I put out another large hay bale for the cattle.   A few times earlier this week I caught Toby in the hayfield standing at the yard fence and staring across to the NE pasture and the heifer's large hay bale.  The hayfield was getting eaten down, and while the cattle weren't complaining, it was time to put another hay bale out.

The cattle saw me carry the hay bale with the tractor.  Before I could get out of the corral they came slowly walking from the south hayfield towards me.  I had already closed the gate to the middle pasture so I could bring the bale out and not be disturbed.  Once I placed the bale in the metal feeder I let the cattle into the pasture and the hay bale.   The bale was at the west end nearer the river and among the trees.  I had to lead the cattle halfway before they saw the bale and started to run to it.

For some reason Sugar started fighting with Mama while running.  They were going around and around when cow #90 joined in the attack on Mama.  I disrupted and distracted Sugar and she then decided to leave and go to the bale.  Mama and cow 90 went around a few more times.  Once all the cows had passed they decided to quit their fight.  And by now Mama was getting the upper hand and cow 90 wanted to quit.

These females!!!  Any perceived insult, no matter how minor, and they want to fight.

This morning around 9 am the cattle started filtering into the hayfield.  Toby stood in the hayfield at the yard fence and stared at the heifer's hay bale and mooed a number of times.  No heifers were visible, and Toby stared at the hay bale, so I don't think any of the heifers are in heat.

I walked out to the cattle's bale in the pasture. Three cows were eating from it.  The bale showed signs of being eaten.  I guess the cattle prefer the short hayfield grass and alfalfa over dried hay.  The cattle spent the day in the hayfield grazing.  Eventually Toby quit staring and went to eating.

Barb wire move

I had planned this year to build a building to house my baler, hay rake, haybine and stock trailer.  You know how my year went so you shouldn't be surprised that, that's not happening!

Before building the building I first have to move the stuff I stacked by the hayshed last year when I moved it out of the hayshed.  If I only knew I would be building a building here I wouldn't have placed the stuff here.

The equipment building will go along the 'buffalo' fence on the left, which means the wood there has to be moved.  A domino effect as I plan to move the wood to where the barb wire and extra pallets sit.  Which means...

Last week I finished the barb wire move.  I had to wait a day after moving the wire off the pallet for the pallet to unfreeze from the ground.  Then I could move the pallet and restack the wire.

Also, in the background of the following photo I took the 'opportunity' to go through the long boards and poles that had been sitting on the hidden wooden feeder for many years.  After discarding (into firewood) the boards and poles not worth keeping any longer, I restacked the remaining boards and poles.   Also I put the wooden feeder on pallets to get it off the ground and prevent further rot from the ground.   Nothing is simple or quick to do.  At least most of the stuff right against the hayshed, and the wooden fence posts, do not have to be moved.

Here you can see the end of the feeder under the poles.  Also a side view of the boards in the background that have to be moved.

The past few days I have started to move boards.  First I had to remove nails and screws from a stack of boards hidden from view to the right of the visible stack of boards.  I had two years to do that and never found the time to do it.  So I made time now.

The weather forecast is iffy for the next week. Probably further slowing my move.

Tree stump 22's hole

Stump 22 is still smoldering a little bit.   If you look at the previous post's photo of the stump's hole taken three days ago and compare it to the following photos you can see a difference.

Tree stump 22 bonfire

I thought I was done with tree stump bonfires for the year.  Back when I was burning the last of the weed hay on tree stumps I ran out of hay but had one more stump that looked to be rotting.  I put some branches on the stump but the wood was damp and a fire wouldn't take.  Whatever.  I'll burn the stump next year.

Then when I discovered several stumps need a bit more burning (background smoke in one of the following photos), and I had extra newspaper to start fires with, I started stump 22 on fire.  It would be nice to get rid of the stump as it was short enough to be hidden in tall grass and tall enough that one wouldn't want to drive over it.

The stump wasn't as rotted as I thought.  Part of the stump burnt, and the rest smoldered... slowly.  Cold nights and heavy frosts slowed the soldering down.  Since the weather forecast was for snow on Friday, each day this week I would put more branches on the smoldering stump to get the fire going again. 

I then dug around the stump to expose more of it to the fire to speed things up.

The following four photos show the same fire from four sides.

Still more burning needed.

By Friday, after about a week of burning, the stump was still smoldering, but now it was far enough below ground level that when it stops smoldering I can rebury the stump.

And the forecast for snow on Friday and Saturday?  Didn't happen.  The stump continues to smolder.

Tree stump dirt and hay bale

The temperature this afternoon actually got above 40 degrees for once in a long time.  The ground is still frozen, but not as solidly as before.   After getting a large hay bale for the heifers calves I decided to try to push dirt into the tree stump holes from my recent burnings.

A few stumps of note.   First is stump 11.  Earlier, when cleaning up the rest of the stump's nearby tree branches, I found part of the stump still remained after the burn.

Stump 11

The stump was somewhat soft so I used an axe to get rid of side roots.

Stump 11

I used the tractor to scrap the top off the rest of the stump.   I think I lowered the stump to be below ground level.   The ground is somewhat frozen so I will wait till Spring to see if I need to do more with the stump or I can cover it up.

Stump 11

I was also able to scrape out and remove a few unburnt side roots from other tree stumps.  I eventually filled the tractor's bucket with unburnt stump remnants.

Stump 12 was the most dug out stump.  The ground looks soft but it took some effort to break it up and scrape it back into the hole.  The explains the later photo showing a chunky pile of dirt in the hole that I couldn't make flat.  Another Spring job.

Stump 12

Stump 12

Many of the other holes will also need Spring work.   I couldn't scrape much of the frozen ground itself to smooth things out.  The following photo shows an example.

Stump 16

I put another hay bale in the NE pasture for the heifer calves.

I put the bale at the east side of the pasture so the calves can get some exercising walking to the bale to eat.

Fallen tree

It was windy last Friday/Saturday.  That must be when the dead tree fell over.  So... another tree to cut and clean up.

Today I cut the branches and peeled the bark off the tree.  I'll take a chainsaw to the rest of the tree some other day.

Tree stump reburn

Last Saturday, now that rain and snow ended all the tree stump smoldering and settled the ashes, I found three stumps still had parts left unburnt.  For one stump, when I fill the hole in with dirt later I will also use the tractor to pull up and out the unburnt side root.  The other two stumps, I used branches and debris from a tree branch pile I am cleaning up to have a few mini-bonfires to get rid of the rest of those stumps.

I figured I would dig a little dirt away from the stumps.  For one of the stumps I found much more of the stump to burn that I expected.

Stump 17

Normally the amount of paper I had brought has been enough to get the fires going.  Not this time.  The branches and wood were still a little damp. 

Stump 17

I went home to get more paper.  But it was getting to be late afternoon so I planned on waiting until Sunday afternoon when it would be sunnier and warmer to burn the stumps.   But this pile of wood did finally catch fire.  I waited until Sunday to burn the other stump.

Stump 17 the next morning

On Sunday there was still some of the stump left especially a side root at the bottom of the photo.  So I got more wood and lit another fire.

Stump 17

Stump 17

This time the small bonfire finished off most of the stump.  The remainder will get reburied once the stump is done smoldering.

Stump 17

Sunday's bonfire to burn stump 16.

Stump 16

Before and after photos of stump 16.

Tractor cab repair

This Summer when I was cutting my field of weed hay I drove under one of the power line towers.  I can drive the tractor though/under the towers.  I can pull a disc or baler and drive through the towers.  But pulling a haybine is different as the total width is greater.  Technically I can fit but I only have an inch or two to spare.  So normally I don't cut hay under the towers.

However, I was determined to get all the pennycress weeds and forgot about how tight a fit it was.  I ended up scraping the top part of the tractor cab.  Where the antennae comes out of the cab is a slight bump and I scraped it open before I was able to stop.  I talked with my neighbor Curtis about this and he told me the hole could be fixed with a fiberglass repair kit.  It was on my to-do list for later.

When it was still warm the end of October Curtis helped me repair the tractor cab.  First thing we discovered was that the bump over the antennae was not cracked and twisted like before, but gone.  Hmmm... I vaguely remember scraping the cab on something else....   (It's been a heck of a year!)

I spent several hours that afternoon, and several hours the next morning searching the field and pastures for the broken off piece.  Couldn't find it.

We were still able to repair the hole - it just was more work.

But we fixed it.

Okay.  So it isn't as pretty as it was before.  Next year I can do some more touchup and paint work.  The important thing is that the repair will keep water out of the cab.

Calves and trees

While they have plenty of hay to eat, the calves get bored, are mischievous, and get into trouble.   Their latest (mis)adventure is they have taken to breaking off branches of two of the new evergreen trees I recently planted.   When I looked out this morning I thought the trees looked odd.  One heifer was still there tearing branches off a tree when I walked up.  I placed a roll of wire fencing around each of the two trees.

These photos make the calves look thinner than what they actually are.