Eating from a hay bale

This morning after moving my irrigation pipes I discovered Maria and Diamond were eating from a hay bale I recently put at the hay shed.  They had figured out how to get through one of the wooden gates.  They either tore or ate some of the net wrap around the bale and were eating the hay bale when I found them.  I got another corral panel and placed it to block them from the hay bale.  They weren't too happy about that.

This is how the bale looked before the cattle started eating from the left bale.

I also laid a tarp over the area they had eaten.

Eaten bale

Red/Orange screwdriver

I finally found my red / orange screwdriver yesterday.  When I was starting my irrigation I moved a few items out of the path for the water from a sprinkler.  Behind a railroad tie holding a gate, and under a couple of pocket gopher traps, was my screwdriver.  How it got there is a mystery.  If I didn't know better, it was like someone placed it there.

So...  Happy I found my screwdriver. 

Then this morning I used it when moving the sprinkler lines.  I needed it to pry loose the hook for the second to last pipe and my screwdriver was gone.  It turns out a hole wore in my back pants pocket.  I don't remember the exact last pipe I last used the screwdriver on other than the first pipe, for which I always have to pry the hook.  I spent 20 minutes or more covering the 40 feet between where the pipes were and where the pipes are now for the entire length of the sprinkler line.   The hayfield grass is short as I has recently cut it for hay, and the north pasture grass is also short.  You'd think I could easily see a red / orange handle in the green grass.

Nope.

*sigh*

Why do I bother sometimes?

I still haven't come across my favorite two wrenches for loosening pipe bolts.  A day or two after I first set up the sprinkler lines last month I discovered the two wrenches missing.  I believe I set the wrenches down on the ground after using them, and did not put them back in my pants pocket.  One wrench is my only 9/16 ratcheting wrench so it is nice and useful to quickly loosing and tighten pipe hooks.

This afternoon it rained.  I sewed a patch over the pocket hole.

Irrigation restart

I finished assembling my irrigation pipes and restarted the pump late this afternoon.  Before starting the pump I cleared the weeds away from the foot valve.   Normally the river is not weedy but weeds do grow in river bends where the water is deeper and the bottom is silty and not gravel.

As I was drying off after wading in the water to clear the weeds I started the pump.  I got dry and dressed while the pipes were pressured up.  I didn't see any sprinklers going as I walked to the hayfield.  Then I realized I forgot to open the sprinkler valves when setting up the sprinkler lines.  I ran as fast as I could to open the valves but it was too late.  The mainline pipes came apart due to the pressure.

The last three pipes shot away from the mainline when a wire holding one pipe to another came undone.  Two steel pipes and one aluminum pipe.  With the water flowing I had to go get the tools and sledgehammer and rubber boots and then try to put the pipes back together.  I got one steel pipe connected to the mainline.  Then the aluminum pipe.  But I could not get the last steel pipe reconnected to the mainline.  The steel pipes can be difficult to attach to the aluminum pipes, and with water filling the pipe it was harder still.

As I walked back to the river to turn off the pump I saw the rubber gasket from the first steel pipe laying on the ground.  So that is why that steel pipe slid into the aluminum pipe so easily.

With the water turned off I fixed the mainline pipes.  I restarted the pump.  With the water flowing I noticed one sprinkler head would get stuck at either the 2 o'clock position or the 8 o'clock position.  Don't know why, but sometimes when the sprinklers sit a while they act up.  I replaced the sprinkler head.

Now I have about a week of moving pipes before I can quit for the year.  Because I made and added the 44 foot pipe my mainline is off.  It is about 15 feet too long.  I'll have to wing the end sprinkler lines back away from the road when I get those pipes there.

I lost about a half hour fixing the mainline pipes and restarting the pump.  I was furious that I forgot to open the sprinkler valves.

Bales stacked in hayshed

Today I finally picked up my bales out of the field and stacked them (mostly) in the hayshed.  I planned on doing this at the beginning of the week but everything kept slipping.  Because Diamond has not calved yet and is in the NE pasture I needed to put her and Maria somewhere so I could move about with the gates open.  That meant the fruit tree area.  The trees and bushes a..r..e  protected but the replacement heifers this Spring put pressure on the protection.  They did get past the middle apricot tree's protection and ate 99% of the tree's leaves.  It appears that killed the tree.

So I had to spend a little time Monday and Tuesday beefing up some of the protection.  Especially around the nice pear tree.  I've been putting that tree's fence rebuild off for quite some time.  Yesterday I finally did it.  It took longer than I expected so I didn't get to moving the bales till today.

Last night Daisy came in the house shortly before I was done watching my recorded TV program.  She settled down on my lap and went to sleep and started snoring. Once the show was over I turned the TV off.  I didn't have the heart to move Daisy so I quickly fell asleep sitting on the couch.  I figured Daisy would wake and move within a couple hours.  I woke up at 5:30 am with Daisy still sleeping on me.  I moved her aside and went to bed as I was tired.  20 minutes later - after I fell asleep again - she wanted outside.  I let her out and went back to bed.

Yesterday Wyatt discovered that Donna's baler problem was a bad bearing.  A new part is over $500.  Donna planned on going to the farm implement 'boneyard' in St. Ignatius, 80 miles away. I said I go with her this morning.  Call me just before you are ready to go.

Donna called at 8:08 am to tell me that she had called them and they were going to look for a baler with her part.  They'd call back in a half hour.  I told I was going back to sleep.  Call me then.

Donna called at 8:52 am to tell me they didn't have the part.  They gave her a name of a place n Oregon that might have the part.  I told her I wasn't going to Oregon.  I went back to bed.

Donna called me at 9:03 am to tell me the Oregon location had the part.  It cost $300 and they would ship it to her.

I went back to bed.

At 9:30 am I heard the phone ring.  I didn't answer it.  Probably a telemarketer.  They left a message, which telemarketers usually don't do.  I got up to listen to the message.  It was a telemarketer saying they could get a lower credit card interest rate for me.

I went back to bed.

I woke up after 10 am.

I woke up at 10:50 am.

I woke up at 11:30 am.

I got out of bed at 11:45 am.

12 hours of sleep.  I was still a little tired.  I had kept waking up from active busy dreams.  So I wasn't getting a full rest even when sleeping.

I didn't have time for my morning "wake up" bicycle ride.  I don't drink coffee and instead as a replacement go for a short 5 to 10 mile bicycle ride to wake up and get going for the day.

I put gas in Jan's riding lawnmower; figured out to open her new vacuum cleaner so one could empty it; and cut a dozen branches from a tree of hers.

I washed two loads of laundry and finally had breakfast a 1 pm.

I gave some apples to Diamond, Maria and her calf and let them into the fruit tree area.  In the afternoon I hauled the hay bales from the hayfield and stacked them in the hayshed.  I had to have Curtis quickly help me two times as I squeezed two bales in a row.  He operated the tractor's loader lever while I pushed on a neighboring bale.

It was 86 degrees and hot.  And guess what?  I was tired when I shouldn't be.  And my hip - which apparently has arthritis - was bugging me.  I should have gone on a bicycle ride as that energizes me and makes my hip feel fine.  Instead I laid down for a minute and woke up 1 hours 15 minutes later.

Really??!  I had to sleep some more???!!

I had a small lunch at 6:30 pm and went out to lay out my mainline irrigation pipes now that the hay bales are out of the hayfield.  Naturally some of the cattle were nearby so I had to shut the gate each time after getting a pipe from the stack in the pasture.  Also slowing me down was something I ate was disagreeing with me which led to multiple bathroom breaks.  I came up with the idea of moving the steel pipes using a wheelbarrow's handles.

Instead of moving the last four pipes (tomorrow!) tonight I decided to finally go on a bicycle ride at sunset.  12 miles of riding energized me but it was getting dark by the time I got home.  So much for my day.


My 'new' bales are more dense than my previous bales.  They are also a little smaller at 5 feet in diameter than my older bales.  The density helps to stack them better as they don't seem to settle much.

Three bales did not fit inside my hayshed.

My supervisor approves.

Maria hiding behind the newly fenced pair tree.

I put corral panels around the two mature apple trees.  I still caught Diamond with her head straight up trying to reach the tree leaves and apples.

Diamond's udder is still not ready.

Pregnant Diamond.

Cattle jailbreak into the hayfield

You'd think with the fence rebuild I did this year, along with the gates upgrade, the cattle couldn't get into the hayfield.  Well... where there is a will, there is a way.

A neighbor I talked with this afternoon is familiar with cattle and this evening he stopped over to look at my heifer who still has not had a calf.  I don't have a "cattle" glove so he couldn't reach inside to double check if there is a calf.  He watched her side and feels he could see the calf turn or move based on parts of the heifer just before the hipbone that would go out or go in.  The mystery is... when will she have her calf?!

We were chatting and he was about ready to leave at dusk when I looked out at the hayfield.  At the far end and SW corner I saw the cattle in the hayfield.  From their position and grouping it appeared they had just entered the hayfield no more than 5 or 10 minutes at the most earlier.  He came out with me to help herd the cattle back into the south pasture.

So how did the cattle get in the hayfield?  It was through the south hayfield/pasture gate.  I have a four inch eyehook screw in the railroad tie that I chain the gate to hold it in place.  The cattle pushed on the gate and the screw came out of the railroad tie.  The railroad tie is old and had a crack.

We quickly herded the cattle back into the south pasture.  He waited by the gate and I ran back to the toolshed and got a large chain to wrap around the gate and railroad tie.  Tomorrow I will make a permanent fix to the hook and gate.

The rain has got the grass growing again after I cut my hayfield but the alfalfa hasn't really started growing yet.  So I don't think the cattle would have bloated if I hadn't caught them, but it is better they are not in the hayfield at this time.

The hay bales are dry and tomorrow I will put them in the hayshed.  Many of the cattle were standing around and try to eat from the haybale near where they had entered the hayfield.  With all the grass... they were messing with the haybale!  As the bale is net wrapped I don't think they damaged the bale.

Re-bale

Last night rain came up in the weather forecast for today.  A 20% chance.  Well... with hay on the ground, 20% is like 100%.   The rain chance wasn't to come until the afternoon.  In the morning I debated on either going for short morning wake-up bicycle ride or re-bale my bad hay bale.  It didn't look like it would rain anytime soon, but the dew was dry.  So I decided to re-bale the bad bale.

The old full bad bale and the about a third of a net wrapped bad bale ended up making four inches short of a full bale.  Funny how re-baling keeps breaking the hay down with a result of a denser bale.

I set the wrapping to be 2.5 times in case I had another net wrap failure.  It wrapped perfectly this time.  And the bale was even from side to side.  Probably my best bale yet.

I parked the tractor and baler with plans to clean it later this afternoon.  Less than 15 minutes later it began to rain lightly.  Wow.  Once again I made it by the skin of my teeth.  If I hadn't re-baled when I did I would not have been able to re-bale today.  It rained off-and-on most of the afternoon.  The hay would have not dried out.  We had .14 of an inch of rain overall today.  I had to delay putting the large hay bales into the hayshed as this evening they were still wet on the surface.  It may take a day or two before they are dry.  I never did clean the baler.  Tomorrow.

Late this afternoon I took a bicycle ride.  The field with hay down that I had seen Friday was still down.  That meant it suffered Thursday's rain and now today's rain.  The hay is pretty brown.  This same field got wet and brown during the first cutting back in June.  I saw another field that had about eight rows of hay down and the tractor and haybine sitting out in the field mid-row.  It looked like he started cutting this morning.  Another local farmer who doesn't pay attention to the weather forecast; doesn't think 20% means it will rain; or doesn't care.


The rain clouds made an extremely gorgeous orange sunset tonight.  I wish I had my camera with me as the sky was a fantastic color.

Bale with net wrap, irrigation pipes, and Toby

Today I unrolled the bale I had made filled with net wrap. It was really filled with net wrap!  I started from the SW corner of the hayfield, unrolled to the north end, then east, then finished up midway back to the south end.

Then I had to turn the net wrap over and dump the hay out to the ground.

I had a lot of net wrap.  I think I could have wrapped all my bales I had just made with what was wasted.

Then I went to re-bale the hay I just unrolled.  As I had most of a bale already in the baler I quickly made another bale.  After ejecting the bale I discovered it was another one of those bales that was partially wrapped.    I have to figure out why this happens sometimes.  This is my third partially wrapped bale out of 20 bales made.

I unrolled this bale.  The core was warmer than I expected.  The very start of the bale was wet hay.  ???   I decided that since it was too late to wrap the bale and then move all the bales into the hayshed this evening I would wait to re-bale this bale till tomorrow.


I went to re-start laying my mainline irrigation pipe into the hayfield.  Last evening I worked with Myron on a few pipes.

One pipe had a small leak so we cut it out and replaced it with good pipe.

The pipe I had cut a leak out of last year was shorter, which was fine.  But I plan to replace my steel pipes in the hayfield and I now want the 40 foot aluminum pipes in the hayfield to be 40 feet.   First, I want to change the length of the pipes that go from the pasture to the hayfield.  What were the odds of laying 50 or so 20 and 21 foot steel pipes and the last pipe's valve would end up directly underneath the gate to the hayfield?  So I had to have two 40 foot sections between valves to get around the gate as 80 feet is too long between valves.  I had Myron lengthen my shorter than 40 feet aluminum pipe to 44 feet.  That longer pipe now moves my valve four feet into the hayfield past the gate.  65 feet between valves still should allow for sprinkler overlap.

To replace the hayfield 40 foot aluminum pipe I just lengthened I bought a used 40 foot aluminum pipe from Myron.  Well, it was 40 feet after we added a three foot pipe to it.

I brought one of my valve openers to test on the valves Myron had bought for my planned steel-to-aluminum upgrade.  The opener doesn't work on the valve.   The valve size is correct, but the valve's collar doesn't fit around the valve.  My steel valves from pre-1945 have a smaller bulge the collar wraps around than what the newer aluminum valves have for a bulge.  I'm not going to replace all my steel valves as I have lots of them in the pasture.  I'm not going to modify my valve opener's collars as they need to work on my steel valves.  It appears the only option is to buy new valve openers for the planned valves.  Myron thought they would cost over $100 each.  So my planned valve upgrade is on hold for now.  Anyway, with harvest in full swing Myron doesn't have time to work on my valve upgrade.  I was happy he found time to fix my few pipes Friday night.

So this evening as I was adding a collar and hook to my 21 foot steel pipe so it would securely attach to my 44 aluminum pipe Toby came to see what I was doing.  He had been in the middle pasture mooing for Diamond and Maria over in the corral.  So I was leery when he came over.  I picked up my tools and walked to the nearby gate.  When he started to come faster and put his head down I tossed my tools towards the gate and ran and jumped up on the gate and over it.  Toby stood at the gate and shook his head at me since he was not happy I wasn't opening the gate so he could go visit the two in the corral.  After a bit he wandered off slowly eating grass.  Now, when I had the mainline pipes in the hayfield the cattle weren't interested in the grass growing where the pipes lay.  Since I removed a few pipes to work on them with Myron there was a small gap in the stack of pipes.  Of course Toby was now interested in the grass in the small gap.  To reach all the grass he would push some pipes around.    Don't break them Toby!!

After he moved off I gathered my tools and parts.  I found everything but my screwdriver.  It has a red/orange handle and it is easy to see especially as the grass is not tall.  I looked and looked and cannot find it, which is infuriating as the area is less than 20 feet to the gate and about five or six feet wide.

Finally I gave up looking for the screwdriver.  I decided to move the sprinkler line in the middle pasture over the fence to get ready for when I hook it up after I finish laying the mainline pipe.  I was not quite halfway across the middle pasture when Toby noticed me and came from the south pasture.  Not wanting to be between gates when Toby is in this kind of mood I quit moving pipes.  I walked to middle/north pasture and brought that pipe with me into the north pasture.  I moved it over to the hayfield.  Toby walked over to the fence by where I was laying the pipe and looked at me and shook his head.  He still was not happy I wasn't opening the gate for him.  I am glad he doesn't realize that with some effort he probably could break the fence down.

Most everyone was frustrated this evening.

Second hay cutting baled

I got my second cutting of hay baled on Wednesday.  It was a long day.  A very long day.  I got up at 7 am to move irrigation pipes. I had to get more diesel for my tractor.   Then the county weed department called.  I have been after them for a month to spray the weeds in the property across the road.  Their department has a communication problem among employees as they didn't share my contact information and would go to the wrong places.  Even on the phone with me they were in the wrong area.  I finally got them here and showed them the weeds and how to access the property.

So I didn't get a chance to add to my 5 1/2 hours of sleep.

Days ago I had gone over most everything on my newer baler except for resetting the net wrap.  Supposedly it is a good idea to reset the net wrap start if it had not been used in a long time.  But I couldn't figure out how to do it.

At the start of baling a problem rose immediately.  The pickup is controlled hydraulically.  I had tested it days ago and it worked fine.  When I started baling the pickup wouldn't lower.  I fiddled around with the hoses and lever, etc. but to no avail.  Eventually I manually lowered the pickup to get it to work correctly.

I must have PTSD from the disastrous start to baling this Spring as I was aggravated that a problem happened in the exact same spot at the exact same time when baling.

This newer baler has some things that happen automatically as the baler has some electronic controls.  A person sets the bale size electronically.  As the bale is formed you can see the size increase on the monitor starting once the bale size reaches 30 inches.  At the final size - which I set to 60 inches - the baler automatically, after a few seconds delay, starts wrapping the bale.  No more do I have to get out, tie the end of twine to some hay and toss it into the baler, hydraulically move the twine arms, cut the twine, then tie the end of the twine to the baler grill to avoid the twine getting sucked up into the baler when making a new bale.  Now I sit there and in seconds the bale is wrapped.  The monitor tells me when the wrapping is done and that I can now hydraulically eject the bake.

The first bale did not wrap correctly.  When I didn't reset the wrap in the beginning I thought what was the worst that could happen?  The bale wouldn't wrap.  Wrong.  The worst that happened was that the net wrap was somehow sucked into the bale as it was being made.  I started with a partial roll of net wrap and all of the roll was sucked into the bale.  Now that I am done baling I will have to unroll that bale and try to get the wrap out of the hay and then re-bale the hay.  That's for another day.

I had an extra roll of net wrap.  So I loaded it into the baler and set it up according to the instructions.  I was paranoid and several times while baling I checked to see if the wrap was being sucked into the bale.

It wasn't.

When it came time to wrap the second bale, it wrapped.  But not correctly.  I had the baler set to wrap the bale 1.9 times.  Once the bale was ejected it appeared the bale wasn't even wrapped once.  I had to unroll the bale, pull the net wrap out of the hay, and re-bale the hay.  Which is a pain all the way around.

I changed the wrapping to be 2.3 times.  The third bale was wrapped.  But part of the wrap had a tear.  I didn't have to re-wrap the bale but it was disappointing.  I had my newer baler and was looking forward to nicely wrapped bales and the first three were poor.  Not a good start by any means.

But things improved.  Most all the remaining bales were wrapped correctly.  I had two problem bales.  Over halfway through I had another bale that was partially wrapped which I had to re-bale.  The other problem bale was one that would not stop wrapping.  Panicked, I stopped the PTO and checked the baler. I was afraid all my net wrap was being sucked into the bale.  I couldn't find anything wrong.  When I re-started the PTO the monitor informed me the wrapping was complete.  After I ejected the bale I found it was way over-wrapped.

Over-wrapped bale

I also expected the bales to be level.  Because one can't see into the baler as the belts block the view, the monitor has two bars showing the bale "level" so one can see if one side of the bale is higher or lower than the other.  It so, one adjusts the hay intake to be more on the other side of the baler to even the bale out.

As you can see I need practice.  Not sure how I got a barrel shaped bale, as seen below.  In the background of the previous photo you can see how a number of bales came out, that is one side is a little smaller than the other.

A few other quirks were as seen below.  I don't know why the net wrap didn't go all the way to the side of the bale.

Overall I am pleased with my newer baler. I am certainly happy I don't have get off the tractor multiple times when wrapping each bale.


While I was making hay bales Donna was also making bales.  Since I have more than enough large bales - so much that not all can fit into my hay shed - I wanted some small bales.  This way I didn't have to buy extra small bales from Wyatt.

Donna encountered my hay field jinx.  When setting up her baler's tongue position somehow the PTO's collar got stuck in the hitch's bolt.  I had to get a crowbar to pry the bolt and PTO collar loose.  This has never happened to Donna before.

She was cruising and making small bales fast.  My initial estimate was that I could hold at least 180 bales in my barn to supplement that bales I had left over from last year.  The first 150 plus bales were made without a problem.  Then her baler started to have knotter problems.  By the time she had to quit she had made 174 bales.   The barn could hold more, but I believe the amount of small bales is more than enough for this Winter.

Wyatt was out camping at a lake and not available to fix her baler's knotter problem. I haven't a clue how small balers work.  Donna took her baler home.  She came back by the time I was finishing re-baling the second partially wrapped bale from before.

Then it was time to move irrigation pipes for the second time that day.  It was dark by the time they were moved.  Then I had Donna drive my pickup while I loaded bales into it.  We got all 174 bales in the barn with multiple pickup loads.  It was 11:30 pm by the time I was done.  The day's high temperature had been 93 degrees and it was still around 70 degrees by the time I was done.

I was exhausted and covered head to foot in hay residue.  But it all had to be done as rain was in the forecast.  It briefly sprinkled shortly after I got my small bales in the barn.  It rained a little overnight and then most of the rain came this afternoon.  Two tenths of an inch.   Another close shave in getting my hay done without it getting wet.  My hay is excellent.

Today I was tired. Very tired.  I got up at 7:30 am as I had one last move of the irrigation pipes.  This evening I completed irrigating the pasture and turned the pump off.  Later, once I lay the mainline pipe back out across the hayfield, I will irrigate the hayfield one last time.

I went back to bed and slept until 2 pm. It took me another 45 minutes for me to get the energy to get out of bed.  After breakfast and a shower I fell back asleep on the couch for a few more hours.  In the evening I went out for a 15 mile bicycle ride and that re-energized me.

I'm getting old for this.

Turkeys and raking hay

This morning as I slept after moving irrigation pipes I heard strange bird sounds.  When I got up I found turkeys on my fence.

Monday afternoon I finished cutting my hayfield.  Today I raked the hay.  First I raked two rows into one row.  After that I re-raked each row to ensure the bottom row of the two-into-one rows was flipped up and got air to dry.  The hay will be dry enough to bale tomorrow.  This is good as now there is rain in the forecast for Thursday.  I think the rain is coming only because I cut my hay.  The rain chance is now up to 60%.  It will be a very busy day tomorrow.

Second hay cut start

It looks like we'll be having a string of warm dry days.  So I can finally get my hayfield cut.  It's past time as the alfalfa is blooming like mad.

We have been having very heavy dew in the mornings the past week and this morning was no exception.  I got started cutting around 12:45 pm and even then the alfalfa/grass at ground level was still damp.  While my alfalfa and grass is not as tall as in the Spring it is still dense.  I thought I would be able to cut my field faster this time.  Barely.  In the Spring I cut in first gear then as it warmed up and dried more in the afternoon I was able to cut in second gear.  This time I had to cut in second gear for an hour, then was able to use third gear.  Finally at 5 pm I was able to use fourth gear.  While fourth gear seems slow I am happy to use that gear after being stuck so long in the slower gears.

So... I am not done cutting the field.  Usually it takes just over a day.  But in the Spring I could start cutting around 10 am and could cut until almost 10 pm.  I still have irrigation pipes to move so I stopped cutting at 8 pm.    I think I got two-thirds of the field cut and should finish cutting tomorrow afternoon depending when the dew dries.

When I came out of the house after getting some stuff to eat I found all these turkeys.   The hens seemed to be in a bad mood as several were fighting with one another.

As I went back to cutting the turkeys went back into the uncut field.  They must have had their "area" as I later saw a big circle of matted down alfalfa and grass.  Below they are coming back out of the uncut field.  I waited for them.

The turkeys headed out of the field.  It looks like the cars slowed or stopped as the turkeys crossed the road.


Below is the fence I rebuilt this Spring.  I strung 11 strands of barb wire on the fence.  You'd think all those strands would stop the cattle from putting their head through the fence.  As you can see, no.  This is the second time I caught Mama putting her head through the fence to eat from the hayfield.  You'd think the barbs in the wire would hurt, especially as the wires are strung tight.

Rodeo at the Fair

Another year and its time for the rodeo at the local fair.  Donna and I attended the rodeo on a cool and cloudy Friday night.

The guy in the following photo is not doing trick riding.  He was bucked off but his hand got stuck.  He was running along the side of the bucking horse.  The two wranglers came to help.  With their help he got back on the horse, freed his hand, and then got off onto one of the wrangler's horses.  I bet his hand and arm were very sore the next day.  But it could have been worse.

Before the Indian races a young boy came out and performed a traditional dance.

Before the Relay Race the Indians held a regular horse race.  One guy fell off his horse going around the first bend.

The start of the Indian Relay Race is always chaos.  The horses are high strung and ready to go.  The starter tries to get the racers behind the starting flag but everyone is milling around and the horses are ancy to run.  The riders at the front of the pack get an advantage.  Some riders are facing the wrong way and turning their horse when the starter waves to start the race.

One of the two horse transfers during the race.

For every race winner a photo is taken of the rider and their horse and apparently the extended family as all of a sudden a large group of men, women and kids rush the field to be in the photo.

Here is a 31 second video taken during the Indian Rely Race: https://youtu.be/Zj-RGJTyhsw

Barrel Racing

This year the rodeo had a good rodeo clown.  Not the same old corny jokes.  He made a few local jokes and would whip off a few one liners that were not canned or stale.   He also was an excellent trick rider and made a comedy act out of his trick horse riding routine.  He was good.

Calf switch

There was mooing off and on during the night.  By the time I woke up at 6:30 am I suspected the wrong calf was in the corral with Maria as there was mooing from the corral and mooing from the middle pasture.  I got up and went outside. Red in the middle pasture was calling for her calf, who was in the corral with Maria.  I let Red's calf out of the corral.  Instead of going to the middle/north pasture gate both Red and her calf walked along the fence trying to find a way to get together.  I ended up walking all the way to the gate near the river.  The herd was in the middle of the middle pasture except for Mama who was standing by that gate.  Once I herded Mama and Red away from the gate I was able to leave the gate slightly open and herd Red's calf through the gate.  The calf immediately went to drink from Red.

Then I had to find Maria's calf.  This wasn't too hard as she was walking around calling for her mother.  I was able to herd her to the middle/north pasture gate and through and over to the corral, and then reunited her with Maria in the corral.  Once they were reunited and the calf drinking Maria just gave me a look.  I then told her this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't walked up the river.  I went back to bed.

It was all quiet the rest of the day on the cattle front today.

Diamond still has not calved.

Both times when I herded calves I had to cross the line of irrigation sprinklers.  Later when I got up for good that late morning I found one of the riser pipes had unscrewed and came out.  A fountain of water gushed out of the pipe.  I got soaked when I screwed the riser pipe back into the irrigation pipe.  I tightened it good using a pipe wrench.  I am on the way back from the river now for moving pipes.

River walk

Three days ago Toby and Maria decided to go on a road trip that evening. The river level is low now. As I moved irrigation pipes they had walked up the river and were on the river bank across from the north pasture. At the end of the irrigation move they were on my side of the river where my north pasture meets Calvin's field. It would be dark soon and I wasn't going to herd them that evening. Toby and Maria would either walk back to the middle pasture or walk up the river bank and find the gate open from the river to Calvin's pasture.  In case they entered Calvin's pasture I closed Calvin's gate to his driveway and told him.

*sigh*

The next morning Toby and Maria were back with the herd in the middle pasture.  After I finished moving irrigation pipes that morning Maria came down near to the river along with some calves.  We both stood and stared at each other.  I did not trust that she wouldn't walk up river again.  She looked guilty as she stopped and stood and didn't continue walking to the river.  It was like she knew I would be unhappy if she walked up river.  Eventually I left.  Later I seen she didn't walk up river and did rejoin the herd.  I decided it was time to switch the cattle from the middle to the south pasture.  And this would maybe cause Toby and Maria to forget about walking up river.

After only a couple days in the south - their favorite - pasture the cattle showed up in the middle pasture today mid-afternoon.  A few hours later Calvin came over and informed me one cow was in his pasture.  Yup.  It was Maria. She must have walked up river all that way.  I went out and opened the gate to my pasture and she immediately walked through.  I herded her to the NE pasture and put her in there to be with Diamond and Little Beulah.   A few of the other cattle, and Toby, were near the middle/north pasture gate.  Maria's last three calves all lost their ear tags as Maria teaches them to stick their head through a fence and tear their ear tags off.  A calf without an ear tag that looked like her calf was near the gate so I let it into the north pasture and herded it into the corral/NE pasture to be with his mother.

Maria is not happy at being in the NE pasture and she has been mooing off and on this evening while standing at the gate and looking over at the cattle in the middle pasture.  Tough.  You go on a river walk, you then go into the NE pasture.

Beaver, rain and crazy time

This afternoon I added a board to a railroad tie.  The hayfield/north south pasture gate's bolt slides into the railroad tie to hold the gate shut. After I rebuilt the hayfield/south pasture fence I went back and redid the wires that attached to the railroad ties to loosen them.  Well... after all the irrigating the fence still slightly pulled the railroad tie away from the gate.  The bolt only went into the tie a half inch or so.  So I added a two by six board to provide more of an area to hold the gate's bolt.

In the evening I had a little time before I would move my irrigation pipes so I walked to the river to check on the willow trees on the river bank.  Yup.  The beaver was at it again.  Last month the beaver dug under the wire protecting a large willow and decimated it.

The willow - having been eaten in past years by the beaver - had multiple tree 'trunks' growing. Only one 'trunk' was left and below you can see where the beaver climbed up on the 'trunk' to eat the 'trunk' down from the top.

I had put some extra wire to block the beaver from totally eating the 'trunk'.  It seemed to work as the 'trunk' was still there today.  Still, I added even more wire for protection.

Since the beaver couldn't get to that tree, the beaver then pulled down the wire fencing around three other largish willow trees and climbed over the fencing.  As you can see below not much is left of those trees.  After I protected those trees last Fall with wire fencing the willows grew to over 10 feet tall this year.

I added more fencing, and rods as posts, to protect those three trees so they can grow back.


This last willow is still protected from the beaver.  However the cattle lean through the barb wire fence to eat what they can reach.   Beavers... Cattle... they all love willow trees and work hard to eat them.  It amazing they can grow.

The willow protection work took longer than I expected.  I was 25 minutes late to moving the irrigation pipes this evening.  While the cattle all (except Mama's calf) walked the river this afternoon to go from the south pasture to the middle pasture they still found time to knock over the third irrigation line before they went.  So I had to stand the risers up before completely turning the line on.  A line of clouds was approaching with lightning and thunderstorms.  As I moved the last ten pipes of the first line I kept one eye out for lightning as I could see it in the distance.  I don't want to be holding a 40 foot metal pipe if lightning is nearby. The wind was blowing hard and it was raining by the time I moved the last pipe.  As I bent over the valve opener and turned it I could see light on the ground from lightning.

I was soaked by now and decided not to move the second irrigation line.  That area could have 24 hours of water.  After I closed the valve opener for the third line the last pipe in the mainline - two pipes from the valve opener - popped out a bit and leaked water.  It appeared the wire holding the last pipe to the line of pipes broke.

All that effort, getting soaked and dodging lightning was for nothing.  I went and turned off the irrigation pump.  I'll fix the loose pipe tomorrow.  The rain was much colder than the water coming out of the irrigation sprinklers and I was getting cold.

As I walked home I debated my usual habit of climbing over the metal gates instead of opening and closing them.  I did climb over the gates but I did it quickly as I could still see some major lightning in the distance.

Mainline out

Wednesday I removed the extra sprinkler line from the hayfield and placed it in the south pasture.   For the dip I used a sawhorse to hold the line up as it crossed the dip.  As I continued to add pipes to the line Little Red came and started to push the pipe off the sawhorse.  I chased her off.  Now every time I go to use this sprinkler line I have to put the pipe back on the sawhorse. One day the line is off to the left.  The next day the line is off to the right. I also have to stand upright the sprinkler heads as the cattle tip them over.

Thursday I removed the mainline from the hayfield in addition to my usual movement of the two sprinkler lines in the pastures.   Wednesday and Thursday our high temperatures were 92 and 93.  I was dragging by the time I had all the pipes moved.  Today, after moving the sprinkler lines in the morning, I went back to bed.  I slept until 2 pm.

Normally I would have starting cutting the hayfield today or else tomorrow.  But the weather changed.  No more 90 degree temperatures.  Instead it sprinkled rain a few times today.  The forecast is rain from now through Sunday.  The rain chance by Sunday is 90%.  And heavy rain is forecast.  Who knows when it will be dry enough to cut.   If I hadn't lost so much time trying to start my irrigation last month I would have been able to cut and bale my hayfield this week before the rain came.

Newer baler

Tuesday I bought a newer used hay baler.  You know the hassle I had with my very old John Deere 510 baler earlier this year. It is not good to have baler problems with hay down and rain in the forecast.  Earlier this week I saw an ad on Craigslist for a used baler that looked like it would work with my tractor.  I didn't completely trust the info I found on the internet so I doubled checked with the local John Deere dealer concerning this model of baler's PTO requirements.  My tractor has a 65 hp PTO and it seems as if most of the new large balers require at least 75 to 80 hp.  This baler says it only requires 55 hp PTO.

Another nice feature is this baler has both the twine and net wrap options.  I prefer net wrapping large bales.

The baler was located near Ronan, Montana.  67 miles and a drive of 1 hour and 27 minutes away.

Charles, the owner, recently had surgery and his memory wasn't always there.  He believes the baler is 10 years old.  He had checked the baler's monitor and said he had baled less than 1200 bales.  That is not many bales.  He hadn't used the baler since moving to Montana three years ago.

The baler is in very nice condition.  The price of the baler is a little on the higher side for this baler model.  A few thousand more than the highest price for this model of baler sold at some auctions around the U.S. the past few years, but in line with what dealers would ask for a baler like this.

After we went over the baler, engaged in some chit-chat, we agreed on a price.  A little more than I would have liked to pay; a little less than what he wanted.  But who knows when I would again come across a baler that seemed perfect for my tractor.   Time to raid my retirement account again.

I pulled the baler home with my pickup.  The baler is heavy!  It was like I was pulling my stock trailer full of calves. The fastest I drove was a little over 55 mph and that was going downhill.  Usually my highway speed was 45 mph.  I pulled off the highway a few times to let a string of vehicles pass me.  I made it home without any trouble.

Now I need to read the manual and also figure out the baler's monitor.  The baler apparently can be run without the monitor, but using the monitor makes it much easier to operate the baler.

Scenery near Ronan, MT.