South hayfield fence rebuild

Since the hayfield south pasture fence rebuild went so well I decided to continue fence rebuilding.  I have a gate I wanted to install in the SW hayfield corner.  That way in the future if my southern neighbor wants my cattle to again eat the grass down in their small pasture I can easily run the cattle into their field and not have my cattle move through a larger area of my hayfield.

As you can see below, in order to move my cattle from my south pasture to my neighbor's pasture, this new gate can be used in conjunction with the corner hayfield south pasture gate I had installed last year.

I also wanted to replace the barb wire gate that was starting to fall down in the middle of the hayfield's south fence.  This is a gate for the Bonneville Power people to access the towers for their easement.

For two of the railroad tires I had a problem digging their holes.  The holes go 30 inches deep and in the middle of two holes, 20 inches deep, I ran into large tree roots.  No trees were around.  No trees since forever.  But larch tree roots decay extremely slowly.  These roots were many, many decades old.

I had to use a somewhat sharp metal bar to break the roots so I could remove them from the holes.

Old tree root removed from the hole

I hadn't planned on rebuilding the fence until later this year. The cattle won't be in the hayfield until after the second hay cutting grows back late this Summer or Fall. However the new renter has a horse and plans on bringing it to this pasture once the horse is trained.  Since the fence rebuild is a complete rebuild it is much easier to be able to take the entire fence down before rebuilding it.  And I could take my time now.  So I rebuilt my fence that borders the pasture now, finishing June 29.  I have a minor section of fence that borders the yard and I left that fence alone.  Their caragana hedge also blocks the way on the other side of the fence.  So the need to rebuild that fence is low.

Again I replaced all the mostly broken wooden posts.  I replaced the 5 and 1/2 foot metal t-posts with 6 foot t-posts.  I had noticed that after I rebuilt the hayfield south pasture fence and made it higher, the deer would now jump over the lower south hayfield fence to reach my alfalfa field.  So I made the south fence higher.   The deer still can jump over the fences but the higher the fence the more they think about it and the more likely they may stay in the neighbor's field and leave my field alone.

Again, lots of posts.   From the corner to the middle gate is 40 posts.  From the gate to the yard is another 17 posts.   The total length including gates is 506 feet.

Hayfield South Pasture fence rebuild

For a few weeks in May I rebuilt the fence between the hayfield and south pasture.  I did this when the cattle were still in the corral and before they were set loose into the pasture.  No more do I have to worry about the cattle breaking into the hayfield from the south pasture, like what happened several times last year.

I replaced the old galvanized gates with standard tube metal gates.  These metal gates were the first gates I installed 15 (?) years ago to replace a barb wire gate that was falling down.  They were the only metal gates I had at the time.

I redid the barb wire.  What was a five strand fence is now 9 strands between the north end and the gate, and 11 strands between the gate and the south end.   The old barb wire was patched in many places.  I removed most of the patches which took extra time.  Below is an example of one of the old patches.

I replaced all the old posts.  The wooden ones pretty much only held the wires apart.  The old metal t-posts were 5 and 1/2 feet long and I replaced them with 6 foot metal t-posts.  Every fourth post is a wooden post, the rest are metal posts.  As you can see a few photos above I added a few more railroad ties and boards around the gates.   North to the gate are 27 posts, for 216 feet.  The gate to the south side is 34 posts for 272 feet.  Add in two 10 foot gates and the extra railroad ties and boards for another 6 feet each.   The total fence length is 520 feet of fence.

The old fence had some field fence attached to help keep the cattle from breaking through.  The new fence of 9 and 11 strands is so narrow and tight the cattle can't get their head through the fence.  I still plan on re-attaching the field fence to this new fence anyway, and adding more field fence I have (to get rid of it sitting around) to make the entire fence have field fence attached to it.   I haven't done it yet as I worked on a few other things first, including another fence rebuild (more about another day).

This evening as I walked along the fence counting the posts, cow #7 (Maria) was near the fence.  She quickly moved away from the fence as I walked by.  She remembers how I shouted at her other years as she was along the fence sticking her head through and pushing against the fence.  She can't do it now so I didn't say anything.  But she remembered.

Strong rain and hail storm

Last night as I put last year's hay bales back in the hayshed it rained lightly.  It quit raining once I had the bales in the shed.  It didn't rain any more overnight, nor this morning and early afternoon.  If I knew the weather forecast was wrong I would have left the bales out of the hayshed.  That way I could have moved more of this year's hay bales into the hayshed today.  I don't want to move last year's hay bales until I could leave them out until I get all of this year's bales in the shed.

Good thing I didn't move last year's bales out of the hayshed today.  A strong thunderstorm came in suddenly this afternoon after 4:30 pm.  I was patching/strengthening fencing in the fruit tree area when I saw a savagely dark blue line of clouds come from the west / southwest.  Once the clouds were overhead they didn't look as dark blue.  So I thought we'd only get some minor rain.  Then it started to rain large drops here and there.  Steadily the rain picked up.  Then the wind.  Then pea sized hail.  And lots of hail for a long time.  The ground was white, and water began to pool as it rained much faster than the ground could absorb. With the strong wind I ran out and got my bicycle wind spinner which was leaning over and spinning wildly.  It took less than 30 seconds and about a half dozen steps total but I got majorly wet.

Hail piled up here and there.  While it was definitely cooler after the long storm, I was surprised that the piles of hail that came out of the rain gutters were still there at sundown, six hours later. And water is still standing in pools here and there.  I have seen intense rain storms when I lived in the Midwest, but this was one of the more intense storms I have seen here.  Officially we had .85 inch of rain from this storm.  Later when I went to work on my fence rebuild it looked an inch of water was in my bucket of nails and water.

Six hours later some of this hail still had not melted.

Here is a 1 minute 52 second video of the storm: https://youtu.be/WFuDW6ggFuY

Hayshed work

Yesterday and today were warm and dry.  So I figured it was time this afternoon to start putting hay bales into the hayshed now that they were getting dry.  First I had to take out the 20 hay bales left over from last year.  Several of those hay bales had slumped against the back wall and that slightly pushed out two of the poles holding the wall up.  I used the tractor to push the wall back straight.  Nothing goes smooth as the extra haybine sat right where I needed to drive the tractor to push the wall.  And the haybine jack has sunk slightly in the ground the past year.  So the haybine hitch was an inch too low.  I had to use the tractor's loader to lift the haybine and set the jack on a block.  Then I could hook it up to the tractor.

Back and forth checking the one pole until I had it where I needed and nailed it back in place to the roof.  Calvin and his son came over as I was finishing the nailing.  I had Calvin move the tractor and push the second pole for me.  That saved me from having to go up and down the ladder multiple times.

It was getting late by the time I started to move this year's hay bales into the shed.  Also it started to sprinkle rain after I moved the first bale.  I moved seven bales.  Enough for two levels.  That is all I want for the back row.  If the bales slump again three levels puts too much pressure on the back wall.

Then I moved last year's bales back into the hayshed.  I did so because the forecast is for rain tonight and tomorrow and I don't want those bales to get wet.

I dislike moving last year's bales too much.  The more I move them the greater chance that the twine will get hooked or slip or start to come off the bale.  I had three or so bales that happened to.  Once I had the bales back in the hayshed I spent time raking up the hay that fell or flaked off the bales.  I think I have a pickup load of loose hay.  For now I left the loose hay in the corner of the hayshed.

First pocket gophers of the year

When I cut my hayfield I was surprised not to see any dirt mounds from new pocket gophers.  By now the gophers are on the move after raising their young this Spring.  Now, a week after I cut the hayfield, I have found a half dozen dirt mounds along my southern fence / SW corner.  They are moving in from Wyatt's field.  I wonder if the hayfield grass and alfalfa was too tall and thick for the pocket gophers?  You wouldn't think so as the pocket gophers live underground.  I have caught and killed two of them so far.  Need to nip it in the bud before they get established and invite their neighbors in.


The heifers that ate the rhubarb plants seem to be doing fine.  Two of them, Little Red and Little Beulah (of course), went to the south pasture within 24 hours of being in the middle pasture.  They found a weakness in the middle pasture fence along the river and walked the narrow strip of land between the fence and river until they reached the south pasture.  I got them back into the middle pasture.  The next afternoon those two were again in the south pasture.  This time they brought Red, Sugar, #60, Speckles and Speckles' calf with them.  By later afternoon Red and #60 were bellowing for their calves as the cows' udders were full.  I let them back into the middle pasture.  The next afternoon Little Red and Little Beulah, Red, Sugar, and Red's calf were in the south pasture.  Again in the evening I let them back into the middle pasture.

Today Little Beulah, Red, Toby and a calf were in the south pasture.  After I laid some tree branches over the fence spots along the river where the cattle had pushed the wire down, I let the whole herd into the south pasture.  It was time to rotate pastures anyway.  Of course my spoiled divas went to the gate to the hayfield and bellowed and bellowed at me to let them into the hayfield.  The hay bales are still in the hayfield and everyday it rains.  I don't want to put wet hay bales into the hayshed.  And the grass is growing nicely in the hayfield.   I didn't let the cattle into the hayfield.  The pastures are full of tall lush grass.


Either Mama or Diamond broke a wire on a fence protecting one of the small apricot trees.  They pushed the fence up and ate over 90% of the tree's leaves.  *sigh*  They have plenty of grass but they are obsessed with eating tree leaves.

Dog chase

In between rain showers I rode my bicycle several times.  In the afternoon as I rode on the road I was chased by two small dogs, although it was mainly one dog as the other got a late start and couldn't quite catch me.  The one dog that ran along side and tried to get me was was a barky little dog full of teeth and fury.  Usually when one get beyond the dog's territorial zone they quit chasing.  This dog kept chasing me.  I think it followed me more than a half mile before giving up.  Then a half mile later a car raced by me and pulled into the next intersection.  Two young guys came out and came at me.

The one guy was mad because I "let" the dog chase me.  What?!  I "let" the dog chase me???!!!

He told me that when the dog chased me and tried to attack me I should have stopped and not let the dog chase me.  I was dumbstruck.  This guy should have been apologizing to me for his dog chasing me and trying to bite me.  I told him I wasn't stopping and getting bitten by his dogs.

"They are just little dogs and you are bigger than them!  Do you know how far we had to go to get our dogs back?!"

I understand differences of opinion and usually just let it go.  But I don't suffer fools gladly.  Both these guys were idiots.

I told them, little or not, these dogs were trying to bite me and I wasn't about to get bitten.

Then he told me then I should have turned around and headed back.

What?!!     What an idiot!

I told him that dogs are territorial.  Turning around would just further upset the dog and I wasn't getting bitten.  The best thing to do was leave their territory.  The dog would quit chasing and go back home.

He whined some more at having to retrieve his dogs.   I told him that he needed to control his dogs so they wouldn't chase me.  He then said, "Sometimes shit happens."

"And it my fault you can't control your dogs?!  No, it's not my fault.  You need to control your dogs!"

Both these guys were millennials.  The second guy looked as stupid as he sounded.  As they walked back to their car the second guy made some stupid remark about this being my fault and I was an idiot.

Really?!   I said something back.   Something along the lines of 'you need to control your dogs, dude.'  I was getting madder by the minute and trying to not really go off on them and just only reply to their idiot remarks and not 'up the ante' by telling them explicitly how stupid they were and using profanity.  I had to bite my tongue.

This is a first.  In all my years I have never had someone upset with me when their dog chased and tried to bite me.  Usually they are apologetic or else they tried to pretend it wasn't happening.  I've never been told that I shouldn't have 'let' their dogs chase me.

Well, these guys got a little piece of my mind.  I'm still upset at these two fools.  Then I remind myself it could have gone differently.  A few months ago a friend was jogging on the road a few miles away.  A guy in a pickup driving by tried to run him over or off the road.  Paul said he was mad and flipped the guy off as he drove off.  The guy came back and they exchanged words and then he tried to run Paul over again.  The third time he came around Paul said he took off across the ditch and through a famer's field.  Another guy witnessed this and followed the guy in the pickup.  Eventually they drove past my place and a third of a mile north, on the bend, the first pickup lost control and went off the road, through a neighbor's mailbox, into a number of small trees down in the ditch and field, and totaled his pickup.  Law enforcement carried him out of the ditch on a stretcher and to the hospital and apparently jailed once he recuperated and was released from the hospital.

There are some doozies out here!

Rain the day after

I was tired today.  I got up briefly when I awoke with the realization I hadn't latched the side barn door last night when I gave Mama and Diamond some of the loose hay from the baler.  Mama and Diamond didn't realize they could push the door open so all was fine.

I went back to bed and dreamt and dreamt.  I got up after 11 am.  After a bit I sat then laid on the couch.  Daisy was laying/sleeping on the couch's top.  I then had dreams of me dreaming.  Crazy.

Dream A had dream B.  Then in dream A I would realize I had just had dream B.  Before waking up from Dream A I then had dream C and the same thing happened where I realized I was dreaming.  Dream A then had dream D and the same thing happened.  Then I woke up briefly to see it was 12:15 pm.  I quickly fell back to sleep and dreamed until 12:35 pm when Donna arrived to help me move the cattle.

Cattle movement.  Time for the three remaining heifers to go out to join the herd - and the bull.  It went fairly well as the heifers went where they were told.  Except for one black heifer, #90.  She veered away from the open gate and the other two heifers who ran through the gate.  #90 ran along the fence.  By now the whole herd came running from across the middle pasture.  I had to go two-thirds the way down the fence line to herd the heifer back to the open gate.  After another veer away from the gate the heifer circled around and went through the gate just as the herd caught up to us on their side of the fence.  I got the gate shut in time.

Then it was time to move Mama and Diamond from the south corral to the fruit tree area and grass.  They still haven't had their calves otherwise it would be easier to have them be with the herd.  Mama and Diamond had just finished eating their hay bale last night so the timing was excellent. This move also had a hiccup.  I was able to herd Diamond through the small gate in the board fence but Mama didn't want to go through that gate.  Going through meant stepping on a few flat concrete blocks I have in the ground.  They used to be borders to my garden when I had one.

Mama didn't want to step on the concrete.  Herding her was going nowhere.  She knew what I wanted her to do but she refused to go through that gate.  Eventually I had her go through the NE pasture gate and then through the large green gate into the fruit tree area.  It helped that Diamond was already in the fruit tree area otherwise Mama would have preferred to stay in the NE pasture.

Where was Donna when herding Mama?  She was in or by the safety of her car.  Donna is convinced Mama is out to get her.  Donna is not afraid of any other cattle, or either of the bulls I have had, but Donna has seen Mama in action and knows how fast she can be.

Moving the heifers allowed me to see what mischief they had been up to in the fruit tree area.   A few days ago Donna had gotten some of my rhubarb. I have metal panels around the rhubarb and either Donna didn't re-latch the panels securely, or the heifers saw her in the rhubarb area and then thought if Donna could get in then so could they.  I found one panel laying on the ground and all the rhubarb and strawberry plants were eaten.  I hadn't weeded the area this year and the heifers also ate all the weeds and grass growing there.  Nothing was left.

Plants are all gone.

Toxicity:

Rhubarb stalks contain oxalic acid, which is toxic when eaten in large amounts. Most animals avoid rhubarb, but hungry animals will eat almost anything. Use a process of elimination to identify the animal eating your rhubarb and then take action to protect young, tender stalks.

Symptoms of rhubarb poisoning in grazing animals include diarrhea, depression, trembling, and drinking and urinating more frequently. Animals are rarely poisoned by consuming small amounts of leaves, but in large amounts, rhubarb leaves can cause kidney failure and even death.

Hungry animals?  You can see in the photos there is plenty of grass where the heifers were located.  This heifers are greedy and willful and that is why they had to eat everything.  Other years before I had different fencing around the rhubarb the cattle would reach and sample rhubarb leaves but tended to avoid eating them.

So I am going to have to keep an eye on these heifers over the next few days.  Hopefully splitting the leaves among the three animals means the amount was low enough to not cause problems.


That's not all.  I had protected a small black walnut tree growing in the fruit tree area.  The heifers pulled the two metal rods from the ground and moved the roll of fencing protecting the tree.  Then ate the tree.  One of the rods was still through the fence roll.

After I replaced the tree protection

This photo is of my other black walnut tree that is in the front yard.  The heifers weren't able to get to this tree when they were in the front yard eating grass.

I have a small current berry bush.  The heifers figured a way to bend the wire fencing and got in to eat that bush.

I could see where they had attacked other fencing protection for trees and bushes and those held.  You know, they have lots of grass, but these heifers want what is protected... just because.


These flowers had not flowered when the heifers were in the front yard.  Otherwise I am sure they would have figured out some way to eat them.

I counted the hay bales.  It appears I made 57 of them.

It is fortunate I finished the baling yesterday.  It has rained lightly off-and-on all day today.  It never dries completely between rain showers.  The forecast is for this to continue all the way through Sunday night.  Having wet hay for this long could mean mold.

During a break this evening I went for a bicycle ride.  I needed to ride to charge my energy back up.  Otherwise after moving the cattle and having breakfast I fell back asleep for the rest of the afternoon until almost 7 pm.

During my ride I rode by three fields with hay on the ground.  I am very surprised.  One field by the school was cut a week ago last Tuesday and Wednesday, two to three days before I cut my field.  When I was rushing about trying to fix my baler's belt on Tuesday I drove by this field.  The farmer had only baled a couple of rows and his tractor and baler were in the field.  Today I saw that he had only baled about a dozen rows.  The rest of the hay is wet and brown on the ground and the tractor and baler is sitting in the field.  He has a big new tractor and newer baler.  I saw him cut his field.  He has a newer mower/conditioner (moco) and was zooming along the field to cut it. He looked to be moving more than twice the speed I was able to when cutting my field.  He has the horsepower and baler speed to have finished baling his field by now.  His field is maybe twice the size of my field - at most.

I was surprised the two other fields were cut and the hay down.  They were cut sometimes after I cut my field and I cut my hay at the very last one could cut and still have it to dry and bale.   Didn't this farmer know the weather forecast?  And why both of his fields? They are large fields.  They were nice fields.  They are irrigated, and I had seen this Spring the farmer fertilizing his two fields.  Crazy.  I wonder if he can salvage his hay or if it will get moldy.

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

I got my haying done.  Amazing.  Especially after the disaster of yesterday.

Yesterday I ended up raking the entire field.  There were clumps of 'not dry' hay here and there, and since the raking was going well I did the entire field.

It did sprinkle briefly while I raked.  Again it was sunny when the rain fell.  Ironically on the radio the song, "Walking on Sunshine" was playing as it rained.

Rain cloud

Then at 2 pm I started to bale the hay.  I got about 10 feet when one belt broke / came undone.  No idea why.  I had earlier run the baler without hay to make sure everything turned and worked.  Why would the belt break at the start of putting hay in it when there was no pressure from a bale of hay?

I rethreaded the belt and discovered it was 10 inches too short.  What?!   I checked and doubled checked I threaded the belt correctly.  Yup, it was.  I remembered one belt had a short piece added and wondered if it was this belt.  I searched the hay over and over for a short piece of belt.  Nothing.

In the past I had a belt get twisted.  I unlaced the belt, untwisted it, and rethreaded the belt and re-laced it.  I didn't have to perform any extra stretching to re-lace the belt.  I tried to come up with some method to stretch the belt together but had nothing.  I asked my neighbor Curtis for ideas.  With a 10 inch gap he thought it couldn't be stretched that much and that a piece of belt was missing.

I looked through the hay again for a missing piece of belt.  Nothing.

By now it was 4 pm.  I called the John Deere dealership to see if they could fix the belt.  They are located south of Kalispell on the other side of town.  Rush hour traffic was bad but I drove there.

My baler is very old.  Apparently balers don't come with 12 inch belts anymore.  They didn't have a wide belt in stock to patch my belt.  They had a 6 inch belt and they could cut 12 inches and turn the belt sideways.  That wouldn't cover the 10 inch gap. They looked up the belt's specifications and found the length is supposed to be 40 ft, 6 1/2 inches.  My belt was 40 ft, 3 inches.  What?   3 inches versus 10 inches?  What gives?

They suggested I remove another belt from the baler and we measure it to get my baler's belt's length.  Back across town and rush hour traffic.  Traffic was so bad I had to wait for a green light in order to turn right.

I removed the belt next to the broken belt.  The left side of the hook pin - which was next to the open space of the missing belt broke off when I tried to pull it out.  I had to remove the hook pin to the right.  Against the other belt, and, oh, I am left handed.  I had 3/4 of the pin removed when the pin broke off.  It was very difficult but I finally got the entire pin removed and the belt off the baler.

I tried a different road around Kalispell.  Traffic was bad that way also.  The dealership closed at 5:30 pm and it was now 5:35 pm.  The repair guy stayed after work to help me.

We measured the second belt.  It was an inch shorter than the broken belt.   What?!

When the broken belt had come off it ruined the lacing.  So that had to be redone. Which meant trimming a few inches on each side of the belt in order to put new laces.   I decided to add the short section.  It wouldn't be the 10 inches but would add three or four inches to the belt's length.  I could always trim the length if too long.

The repair department manger also stayed as the repair guy could not write up the work order when the repair was done.  He helped with the repair to make it go quicker.  The adding of new laces is time consuming and labor intensive.  Especially since the tool they had was for 6 inches.  That meant they had to do it twice, and to count the number of lace pins correctly so they would match the other side's pins.  The pins have a long and short side and they had to be matched.   Here is an example of what they lace pins look like.

One sets the pins in a 'tool'....

and then uses a vice to squeeze the tool and force the lace pins through the belt.

It took the three of us two hours to repair the belt.  The cost of my repair: $418.  About $56 for the lace pins, lace hooks, and belt.  About $361 for labor.  The dealership charges $125 an hour for labor.  My belt is no longer carried or sold by John Deere but one can buy a new aftermarket belt for $471.

Crazy.

Back home I tried to install the belt I had taken off the baler to measure.  That belt was now short by about 3 or 4 inches.  What?!   I had the tension released on the baler.  What happened?  I then remembered that Wyatt helped me untwist a severely twisted belt last year, we used his tractor to pull on my baler's spring tensioner to reduce even more of the tension.  I got a jack and used it to push on the tension roller.  I was getting my missing space back.  One more crank and I can put the lace hook in and secure the belt.  The jack slipped off the roller.  After a few more tries of jacking I got the belt laced and hooked.

Now on to the 'broken' belt.  Well... now with the new piece the belt was a little too long.  The belt I had replaced last year(?) was a touch loose and I could still bale hay.  To cut the 12 inch belt and re-lace it would take too long.  So I went with the belt being loose.  The lace hooks for this belt (I had two as the dealership didn't have 12 inch lace hooks) were difficult to slide in and lace the belt.  Eventually I got the hooks in and the belt laced.

It was after 9 pm now. I had lost 7 hours to the broken belt.  I had to try and test the baler.  It worked.  Before dark I was able to go around 1 1/3 rows and make four bales.  The next morning in better light I could see several bales were not entirely even.  One side was a touch shorter.  I think it is a result of the looser belt.  It affects the other side of the bale.  To compensate I learned to feed the hay in that side more than the other side and I would get a straight bale.  When I have time in the off-season I will shorten those belts.

It was windy this morning and that made for light to no dew.  I was able to start baling the hay at 8:45 am.  I needed an early start as I pretty much had my whole field to bale before night.

As you can see in the following photo, it was windy.  Some times the wind would blow/roll part of the windrows.

The sky was clear when I started.  But as the day went on clouds appeared.  Then early afternoon I saw rain to the north along the mountains.  Just before 4 pm a rain cloud came overhead and it started to rain lightly.  I had two hours of baling left to do but I stopped.  It sprinkled lightly for 10 to 15 minutes.  The sun came back out and I took a short nap in the tractor while I waited for it to dry.

It wasn't completely dry when I saw another rain cloud forming west of me and coming this way.  This was a larger cloud and I wasn't sure if this was the start to solid rain.  So I started baling again.  I made one bale when it was started to sprinkle again.  This time it only last 3 to 5 minutes.  No rain clouds looked to be forming so I waited almost an hour and half for the hay to dry.

At 7 pm I started baling again.  The hay was damp, but not wet.  The temperature had dropped quite a bit by now so not much more drying would be happening.  I finished baling around 9 pm.  Rain clouds were again forming north of me.

I cleaned up the corners and elsewhere of slightly missed hay.  I had a small starter core of hay in the baler.  I didn't want to leave it in the baler so I tried to dump it out by the barn. But the hay core sat in the belts and would not come out.  I had to use long pry bars, and after lots of effort I was able to finally pry the bale out of the baler and put that core in the barn.

I will have to count tomorrow in better light, but I think I made 56 bales.  By far a record amount for my field.  I was going to run out of baling twine so I had Donna run to the store for me in the early afternoon to buy more twine.  I used it on the last half dozen bales.

It is raining tonight and the forecast is for rain for the next three or four days.  So I had to finish baling by tonight.  I made it and succeeded but the stress level the past two days has been high.

Heifer problem

At a quarter to three this morning as I was falling asleep I heard a loud bang.  Then nothing.  I decided to get up and look outside.  It was a full moon so I could see somewhat.  I found the fence by the driveway was broken.  The top board on the wooden fence is 16 ft long and it was on but one end was tilted up and the other end tilted down.  Inside the fruit tree area was three heifers,  The fourth heifer, cow #7's last year calf, was in the back yard.  The heifer had knocked the board loose when she jumped the fence.

I ran and closed the gate to the road.  I opened the corral gate and the heifer went inside.  I left her in the corral for the night.  Before going back to bed I nailed the board back on the fence.
 
In the morning I let the heifer out of the corral and herded her back into the fruit tree area to be with the other heifers.  Beulah's heifer mounted #7's heifer and #7's heifer just stood there.  She was in standing heat.

I went about to hand raking the cut hay in the corners by the patio.  A few minutes later I saw #7's heifer walking down the driveway to the back yard.  This time she cleared the fence without knocking a board loose.  I had the corral gate already open but by now I had the corral gate to the north pasture also open as I planned on later driving the tractor and baler out to start baling.  I ran and closed the gate to the north pasture.  I put the heifer into the loading corral as there is grass growing there.  She hadn't had anything to eat in the corral last night, and since she was in the fruit tree area for a short while, I figured she wasn't hungry.  She was mooing for the bull but she also took time to eat grass.

I plan on letting the heifers out to be with the bull on Thursday, the 20th.  But I decided since #7 was being a pain I would let her out to be with the bull now as she was in heat really bad and was obsessed with getting satisfaction from the bull.

The cows, and of course Toby, checked out the new heifer when I let her into the middle pasture with the herd.  Later as I was raking hay I saw the heifer walk to the middle/north pasture gate.  She had her tail sticking out as she walked.   She wasn't going to the bathroom.  She had just been satisfied by the bull.

Bathroom break

Disaster day with the haying.  I only got four bales made.  I'll write more about it tomorrow if I survive.  Things are not going well.

Making rain while the sun shines

The weather forecast had a greater chance of rain this afternoon than on either Saturday or Sunday.  But the opposite happened.  Less rain clouds today than either Saturday or Sunday.  The word is "less" as there were a few rain clouds around, just not over the ranch.

That is not to say the ranch did not get rain.  Mid afternoon the sun was shining and it rained lightly for three to five minutes.  Later in the early evening I had a brief light rain shower that lasted a minute or so.

Raining lightly as the sun shines

So disaster was avoided today.  The forecast is for no rain Tuesday.  Based on the poor performance of the forecasts lately... we'll see.

The hay is pretty much dry and can be baled tomorrow.  I checked a few rows and in thick windrows I found slightly green moist hay underneath.   Not much, not too bad, but not ideal.

Since I had the baler hooked up to the tractor, greased and ready to go for tomorrow, I hooked the hay rake up to the pickup.  Before dark I had raked seven rows.  The rows have plenty of hay in each so I didn't need/want to rake two rows together.  To make room to rake each row over I did have to rake two rows together.  I wasn't keen on raking my windrows as I don't need to rake two rows together to make a decent row to bale, but for peace of mind I may end doing so.

Thundershower

This afternoon I heard a few rumbles of thunder, then it rained for a little bit.  The cloud was right over the ranch.  Fortunately it lasted less than 5 minutes and was not heavy.  So I survived that one.  Then like yesterday a bigger and bluer - much bigger and bluer - cloud was to the SW.  Again, fortunately, the cloud went SE to over Flathead Lake and away from the ranch.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is pretty iffy.  Today no rain was forecast... well, until today.  Tomorrow scattered showers are forecast.  So we'll see if I survive tomorrow.

The hay is drying.  But it is not ready to bale.  Probably Tuesday.

Hayfield cut

I finished cutting my hayfield at 6 pm.  Mid afternoon, while cutting, one big raincloud was to the West then came over.  It sprinkled for several minutes.  Just enough that I had to use the tractor's windshield wipers several times.  I kept cutting.  It could have been worse.  Twenty minutes later a larger and bluer raincloud formed to the SW.   That cloud acted normally.  That is, it headed to the SE over Kalispell and to Flathead Lake.

My cutting the grass stirred up the pollen.  It was flying through the air as I cut.  I was glad I had a tractor cab.  Even so I was sneezing a lot.   Even now my eyes are itchy.   The brief rain sprinkles made the pollen stick to the haybine.  I had to use a brush and an air compressor to clean it off the haybine when I was all done cutting.

I didn't start cutting the hayfield until after 1 pm.  This morning I moved the four heifers from the yard over to the fruit tree area.  The yard was mostly eaten down.  Overnight the heifers got half of the tarp off the little shed over the well.  Fortunately they hadn't gotten to tearing off the shed's roof shingles (yet!) when I found the tarp off the shed.

I had planned on moving the heifers from the yard to the NE pasture, then to the fruit tree area later.  But it took longer to eat the yard, and I prefer to have the fruit tree area eaten down before letting the heifers re-join the herd (and bull) on the 20th.  Better the heifers in the fruit tree area than the whole herd.

The problem?  While I had upgraded the tree protection in the NE pasture earlier this week, I had done nothing in the fruit tree area.  I spent the morning patching fixes to the fences around the trees.

After I cleaned the haybine and put it away I saw a large beautiful bald eagle circle nearby low over my cut hayfield.  It seemed like it was going to slowly land but instead it reached down in the field and picked up something then flew away to the trees in my pasture.  I could see it carrying some animal in its talons.  Not a mouse.  Bigger.  No gophers or pockets gophers in my hayfield.  It must have been a smallish bird.

Making hay until the sun sets

I worked all day on cutting my hayfield and I'm not done.  With no real dew this morning I started cutting at 9:40 am and quit at 10 pm.

Even though there was no dew the grass and alfalfa was hard to cut.  I had to cut in my lowest/slowest gear until about noon when a breeze picked and the grass/alfalfa changed.  Then I was able to drive in my second lowest gear.  I don't know... but I suspect the grass/alfalfa contained more moisture in the plants until noon and that is why it was harder to cut.  Before going to my lowest gear I tried the third lowest, then the second lowest.  Each time I would have to stop after a short while and clear grass and alfalfa from the haybine then back up a little and recut a short section where part of the grass wasn't cut due to the clog in the sickle blades.   I also had to recut the last (third) row I had cut the night before as a good portion of the row had grass that wasn't cut due to a clog last night.

So.  This slower than usual cutting meant I didn't finish today.  Thinking back, other times it would take me a day then a few hours the next day to finish.  Tomorrow I have about a third of the field left to cut.  A good part of the day.

Slowing me down was a freak accident.  The hayfield has been a hayfield clear of trees since 1941 - almost 80 years.  I have cut hay.  I plowed the field a few years ago.  I planted the oats/barley/peas crops.  I disked the field and then planted my alfalfa crop.  I have harrowed the field every year.   Then where did a stick that looks to be from a tree stump/root come from?  Apparently squeezed out of the ground just to cause me problems.

I hit this with my haybine mid-afternoon in the hayfield.  The haybine has rock guards to help protect the sickle blades but this fit between the rock guard and bent a sickle blade.  I immediately realized something was wrong when the haybine stopped cutting the grass.   The heavy piece of wood bent and did not break the blade, and this stopped the sickle bar from wobbling as the bent blade would not slide in between the rock guards.

Bent sickle blade

Bending the blade back just broke it off.  I have lots of extra blades and got one to replace this blade.  Another blade was partially broke at the end of the blade elsewhere on the sickle bar, and while the blade still cut fine, I replaced it also.

Now, this doesn't sound too difficult, right?  The first blade replacement went quick.  The second?  Not so fast.  This blade was partially protected by a rock guard which meant I had to loosen the guard.  The ratchet wrench that should fit - didn't.  I then got socket wrench and loosened the guard.

When it came time to put the new blade on I couldn't find it.  It was just there and now it was gone.  Also missing was the broke first blade I had replaced.  I looked all around the haybine.  Nothing.  Around the tractor.  Nothing.  The shed where I got my tools.  Nothing.  My scrap iron pile where I toss old  blades.  Nothing.  The path between the shed and the haybine.  Nothing.  Over and over I looked.  For a half hour at least.  I was getting really upset and frustrated.  The blades should be there and they are not.  I have a problem where when doing two things at once the secondary item is on autopilot and in my short-term memory forgotten immediately.  I hadn't a clue where those blade where.  I must have put them somewhere but... where?

Before I went completely crazy (as I was getting really upset by now) I asked my neighbor Curtis to look for me.  The blades - which should be obvious to see as they are large and shiny - must be in plain sight and I just can't see them.  Curtis spent 20 minutes looking and he could not find them.

I have extra blades but I was concerned the missing blades could be in the hayfield and I did not want to drive over them with a tractor tire.  The blades are so sharp they would cut my tractor tire. And with my luck....      But I gave up and got another blade.

The new problem... this blade's holes were not aligned correctly.  I have the extra blades on an extra sickle bar.  I had to use a hammer to remove the blade when normally one just lightly lifts the blade off the bar.  So when it came time to put the blade on my haybine it would not fit over the bolts.  REALLY?!!! Can nothing work right?!!    I had to drill one hole larger (oblong) in order to get the blade on the haybine's sickle bar.

As I was tightning the bolts on the blade I found the missing blades.  They were on the ground under the sickle bar where I had to replace the second blade.  Why neither Curtis or I could see them is strange.  The broken blade - not shiny or new - was on top of the shiny good blade.  And maybe a few small pieces of grass was over the blades?   Again... strange.

Missing blades where I found them under the sickle bar.

So.  All this 'fooling' around cost me several hours for a 20 minute job.

I grabbed some food to eat in the tractor and went back to cutting the field.

This grass and alfalfa is so moisture laden it may take longer to dry.

And not finishing cutting until Saturday?  One day less to dry before next week's predicted rain.  If I get into a rainy period where the hay doesn't dry and begins to mold it would be a disaster.  Especially with such a great hay crop.

Stress level.  High.

But my grass and alfalfa is so thick and high I am struggling to even cut it.  Waiting until July would make it even more difficult to impossible to cut with my haybine.  All around the Valley the hay crops look good this year.  And since I accidently double fertilized my field my crop is even more lush.  Too much of a good thing?