My day could have been better. I'm still moving irrigation pipes. Today I was out of bed by 6:30 am and out moving pipes by 7 am. I am moving 31 or 32 pipes but it takes longer to do these days. My extra irrigation line is now in the pasture and after I start that line I have go the length of the line to straighten the sprinklers as the cattle like to rub against them and knock a number of them over. Tonight they had knocked a lot of the sprinklers over. Also in the pasture I see weeds and pull them while moving pipes. So what took an hour and 15 minutes to an hour and a half in the hayfield each time now takes me 2 hours or more. Tonight it took me 2 and 1/2 hours to move pipes.
The past so many days I have been moving a few of the mainline pipes from the hayfield back into the stacking area in the south pasture. I'm taking it slow as moving all the mainline pipes in one day is hard work and wrecks my day. This morning I decided to do a little extra and moved the last of the pipes. Since these pipes are closer to the pasture I moved more than usual. But all the pipes are now moved. I decided to weigh the steel pipes and the aluminum pipes. The 21 ft steel pipe weighs 60 to 61 pounds. So you can see carrying 13 of these pipes, with the last pipe a distance of over 600 ft, is tiring. The 40 ft aluminum pipe weighs 35 pounds. That is why the longer aluminum pipes feel so much lighter than the shorter steel pipes.
After stacking the mainline pipes I decided to trim more branches from the fallen tree.
This evening I would be moving one irrigation line to this area and it appeared the line would go under the tree. So I spent hours using a handsaw to trim some branches, then some more branches, then more branches, as I wasn't exactly sure where the line would go. I figured it would be the middle of the tree. I was wrong. The line ended up being at the very leftmost end of the tree. The one area I had not trimmed. I also had stacked the cut branches at the left end of the tree. Again, I discovered it was near where the line would go. Could I be more wrong? So I had to do a little trimming of branches tonight when moving the irrigation line. All the work from this morning was not needed at this time. I didn't have my camera with me. I'll try to take it tomorrow to show you what I mean.
Before going back to the house to have breakfast I checked on Diamond. Still no calf. Then across the river I saw the Mama cow walking on the grass. And following her was "No tail" (#80). Really?!! They were following part of the path Toby and Maria had made when they went up river to the neighbor's field. I went and got my river shoes and shorts. When I got back Maria was in the north pasture watching the others across the river. I chewed her out for earlier making a path through the tall grass and trees. Then I saw Toby on the gravel bar across the river. He stayed there as I went onshore to follow the path through the tall grass and trees. On and on I went. At one point I went a slightly different way as I didn't want to duck lower to get through some close trees. Unfortunately I slipped off the bank and partially into the river. My shirt and I got soaked. Oh well, it was now a hot day. Over 90 degrees today.
Instead of re-crossing the river and into my neighbor's field Mama and No Tail continued on a path through the tall grass and trees. On the edge of the trees there is a fence. I discovered that the many years since I was last up here the river banks had eroded at the north end and two fence posts were down and over the bank, and one section of the fence was down. Mama and No Tail walked past the downed fence and to a different neighbor's field and were eating grass. I herded them back across the fence. I then spent a lot of effort getting the posts and wire up enough to make a fence. I don't want the cattle to come back this way when I don't notice.
Mama and No Tail were part way back. So I had to herd them some more. Instead of the path they went into the river and walked downstream. And going downstream was how they did it. That is because the river had shallow and deep parts as it turns this way and that. At one point only their head, neck, and the top of their back was out of the water. No way could they walk upstream against the current in that deep section of the river. Toby now saw us. He was in the grass and on the path. Once the Mama and No Tail walked downstream he followed them using the path. Toby is not the problem; it's the cows. Toby does what the cows do and follows them.
Back in the middle pasture Mama's calf was now drinking from her. No Tail was calling her calf - over and over. The rest of the cattle were spread all out across the middle pasture and her calf wasn't nearby.
My cattle weren't the only ones to cross the river today. A guy Donna and I know has some of this cattle in an area closer to Donna. Donna left me a phone message this evening that his cattle crossed the river and was at another neighbor's field.
By the time I got home I was exhausted. It was now 2 pm. I had breakfast and drank more water and then went to bed at 2:30 pm. I slept hard. After 5 pm I had a spam phone call. Getting out of bed to answer the phone I had painful charley horse in my left leg. I eventually got up at 6 pm. I was still tired. I ate lunch and at 6:45 pm went out to move irrigation pipes again.
What a day.
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