More beaver action

Due to my recent head surgery I hadn't been over to the river in a few weeks now. I went and checked on the willow trees a few days ago.  The beaver had a field day while I was gone. It went crazy.  It ate willows I thought it couldn't get to.

Look at this willow tree!  Finally I had got this tree to grow.  It was large and tall and beautiful.  Who would have thought the beaver could climb so high and over the wire fence around the tree.  Incredible.

Even on this small willow tree the beaver got up and chewed off part of the tree.

And this is the willow tree I had earlier protected and re-protected.  Instead of digging the river band and going under the fencing on the other side, the beaver dug into the bank and under the wire on this side.  I took this photo after I had added another wire fence on the lower right where he had dug.  That stopped the beaver.

But.. you can see the cut trunk.  Before I had added the extra wire a few days ago the beaver got inside and gnawed 95% of the trunk and the trunk tipped over.  Today I seen the beaver gnawed off the trunk that went past the fence and then took it somewhere unknown.  He couldn't get back inside the fence to finish the earlier gnawing.  How the beaver reached from outside the fence to gnaw the trunk, I have no idea.  How tall can that beaver be?!!!

Donna tells me to let it go, and let the beavers eat the trees.   No... that ain't happening.   I read that beaver trapping season in western Montana starts November 1.  I imagine I could get a permit earlier as the beaver is causing damage; but I will wait until later to put an ad out to find someone who wants to trap this beaver.

Cattle into the NE pasture

Since I had rebuilt the fence I let the the three cows, two calves, and Muscles into the NE pasture.  The cows immediately walked right in.  The calves were surprised and stood and watched.

"No Tails" calf and Diamond's calf, the youngest calf.

Muscles was further out in the north pasture.  So I walked out and encouraged him to go to the NE pasture.  It took a bit as he has trouble walking and we had to take a few short breaks.

Here is a 34 second video of Muscles walking:  https://youtu.be/junTQ2LZW7A

After I put these cattle into the NE pasture, I let the rest of the cows and calves into the north pasture as it has more grass than their pastures.   These cows and calves then wanted to go into the NE pasture or the corral to join the other cattle.  They mooed and mooed at me to let them into those areas.  Nope, that didn't happen.

Fence rebuild between two buildings

Two years to the date that I was going to start this fence rebuild, I finally finished the rebuild on the 25th.  September 24, 2019 I had got the posts out to start the rebuild.  I planned to start work on the 25th.  If you remember, later on the 24th I passed out and fractured my skull.  On the 25th I went to the hospital and spent 12 days there.  So I didn't start the fence rebuild that year.  The old fence was falling apart in spots, so I put up some temporary corral panels to help support the old fence.

I planned to do the rebuild in 2020 but it was delayed.  I had other items to do first; I didn't want to do the rebuild when I had cattle in the NE pasture; I got side-tracked; the weather changed; etc.; etc.  This year, the same was going on and the rebuild wasn't started.  But I recently got the other projects done.  I wanted to put cattle into the NE pasture again this Fall but I waited a little longer.  Since my recent head surgery went well, I started the rebuild earlier this week.  The rebuild is not a big job, and I did a little each day (as I'm supposed to be resting).  On Saturday, the 25th, I finished.  Or mostly finished as today I had a few more staples to nail into the rails.

It took two years, but it is now done.  And it is stronger than the old fence, and looks much better.  I thought I had some photos of the old fence, but I can't find any.

This isn't a photo of the old fence, but is a similar looking fence elsewhere in the yard.

The new fence.  32 feet long.  12 feet fence.  4 foot new gate.  16 feet fence.

Of course I added wire to the rails.  Otherwise the cattle will put their head through the fence and push and potentially break the rails.

Just after I finished the fence Donna called.   Her car quit as she was driving on the highway.  She also called my neighbor Curtis as I wasn't in my house to answer my phone.  Curtis and I were going to go and jump or tow her car.  But Curtis's pickup wouldn't start.  He used his car to jump start his pickup, but then the pickup wouldn't stay running.  He had some strange starting problem.  So I went with my pickup to help Donna.  I couldn't jump start her car as her car wouldn't do anything.  Even when Donna turned the car headlights on, nothing.  So I towed her car to my place.  As I turned into my driveway the tow strap broke in two.  Seriously!  What next?!

By hand I pushed Donna's car off the road and down my long driveway.  Once I was done Donna tried her car's headlights.  They came on.  She then tried to start her car, and it started right up.  Really?!  After I got the car home it now runs?

Donna must have a short in her car.  She was able to drive it home (I followed to make sure the car didn't quit again.)  She will have to take her car in to a mechanic later to check it out.

Deer killed

The road outside my driveway is getting dangerous.  Last week, before my surgery, one afternoon I was riding my bicycle back from getting apples from a neighbor.  I was riding with one hand, and using the other hand to make sure the bucket of apples stayed on my bicycle rack.   I saw a car approaching from behind.  The car was a tenth to two-tenths of a mile behind me.  I figured it would catch up to me about the time I had to turn left into my driveway.  In the past I would then ride in the middle of the lane or middle of the road just before I got to my driveway.  The cars would slow down, (usually they drive over the speed limit of 35 mph), and then I can turn into my driveway.   This time as I approached my driveway and started to turn left into the driveway I was surprised to see the car trying to pass me on my left.  What?!!  What an idiot! The road is narrow, only 22 feet across.   There is no room for two cars and one bicycle on the road, much less room for a car to pass when I am in the middle of the road and turning left.  I had to veer back to the right to the middle of the road and he stopped trying to pass.  I then was able to go to the left side of the road and stop.  He passed on my right and I don't know what he was trying to say as he drove by as I chewed him out up-and-down for being such a stupid driver. I was furious at his behavior.   As he drove off I saw his vehicle's license plate was from Washington State.  To my Washington state relatives, you need to keep your idiot drivers to stay in Washington and not come to Montana, or I'm going to get hurt by one of them.

Anyway...  why I mentioned the near death experience with the car, last night another vehicle hit a deer at my driveway entrance. (I didn't see the vehicle's license plates.)  I was riding down my driveway to go get more apples from the neighbor when I heard a loud bang as a SUV drove by my driveway entrance.  The SUV continue to drive away.  In the ditch outside my entrance a doe was trying to get up and couldn't.  I saw the SUV had stopped a couple tenths of a mile down the road.  I didn't want to agitate the doe so I rode after the SUV.  But they took off.  I didn't see how damaged the SUV was.

I got the apples.  I also filled the water trough for my cattle at the neighbor's pasture.  When I got back to my driveway I saw the doe was laying.  Her head was up.  Maybe she was just stunned and still recovering.  I left so as not to agitate her by being close. 

This morning I checked and the doe was dead.  I could see one of her front legs was completely broken.  And she appeared to also have internal damage.  I had to drag her off so she wasn't next to the road.

If we had less cars and people driving on the road it would be very nice.

Bear scat?

The past few days among neighbors talk has been going around about bears walking up and down along the river.  A grizzly and her cub, and a back bear.   A person south of me living near the river has a game cam and has seen the grizzly and her cub, and a black bear in August and again in September.  Donna said a person who lives near the river and along the road north of me a few miles has also seen bears on their game cam.  And someone north of there seen a bear in person.  And more sightings a few miles north of me.  So... the bears appear to be walking up and down along the river.

Today when I carried some boards into the NE pasture from my recent fence rebuild work I saw this between my corral loafing shed and my hay shed.

Does this look like bear scat to you?

I have the NE pasture's gates closed, and the pasture is fenced.  How did this get here?  Oh yeah... I am rebuilding a fence section and there is an open spot there.

Tonight I moved the pails of apples for the cattle into the garage and off my house's entryway.

Stock trailer fix, tarp fix, etc.

I had surgery Friday morning.  It was planned and not due to an accident.  So I worked and worked Thursday to fix the stock trailer and the hay bales tarp as I wouldn't be able to do it for a while after surgery, especially since I would be in the hospital for a day, and who knew exactly how the surgery would go for me.

First I had to clean the manure out of the stock trailer.  Harder and longer to do when the manure is a day old and drying.   I checked the floor boards again.  I decided to replace two more boards in addition to the 5 or 6 I took out the previous day.  So about half the floor boards were replaced.  I had odd and ends of extra boards.  I had to trim or cut off some of the boards to make them fit.  It was getting dark when I cut the length and width of the last board to make it fit.  The metal bar that was bent down, I bent back up into place.  Some day later I will find another metal bar to add to replace the bad metal bar.

Earlier, after I had washed the trailer and was waiting for it to dry, I had added another tarp to cover my hay bales.  My previous - old - tarp had ripped in the wind even though I had tied down the tarp.

Saturday after I got home from the hospital I had to fix the tarp again, especially as lots of rain was forecast that evening and Sunday.  The second tarp I had added on Thursday was blown down from the previous tarp tear.  My previous tarp tie down could have used more twine to tie it in place.   Even though I am recovering and not supposed to do much, I knew this opening would bug me and I would eventually do something.  Donna also knew I would also do something and insisted she would be around when I would do something. So I got a ladder right away and climbed it and readjusted the tarp and added lots more twine to hold it in place.  It appears to have worked as the tarp has not moved / slid down again and the hay stayed dry in the rain.

For a brief time Sunday afternoon it rained really hard.  No hail, but one of my downspouts produced icy looking snow.  It was gone a day later.

I'm supposed to take it easy.  And I... have.  For the most part.  I guess.   I'm back to collecting apples that have fallen from the neighbors' trees.  I rode 29 bicycle miles today.  I herded my cattle into my southern neighbor's field this afternoon.  I shook some of the apples from her tree and tossed them over the fence for the cattle.  Good thing that I was wearing my bicycle helmet as at one point a cow stuck her head through the fence as I reached down to get an apple and we hit heads.  The bicycle helmet protected me as the surgery had been in my head.

I also started the fence rebuild I had planned back on September 25, 2019 before I got injured Sept 24.  Since then that fence rebuild was delayed or put off over and over as other things took priority over and over or I got side tracked.  Today I took the remainder of the old fence down and put in one post for the new fence before it got dark.  Hopefully I get the fence rebuilt this week and do not get side tracked or injured again.

Toby is gone

Today I took Toby to the livestock auction.  Tomorrow, Thursday, is their sale.  I had planned on taking Toby to the auction on Thursday.  The auction starts at 10:30 am.  I figured I could get up very early, load Toby starting at 6 am, then get to the auction after 9 am.  But Rascal has gotten me to let him outside at 6:30 am and I found it was still somewhat dark outside. And due to Toby's very large size, I can't use the loading corral as he wouldn't fit through the head gate at the end of the loading corral.  Instead of risking a delay, I decided to take Toby to the auction today.  I would have all day to do it, and I wouldn't have to start early.

It was very good I decided to switch to today.  It was a long day.  And we made it, but - what a day!

I started at 9 am.  Donna and Curtis helped me.  Because the loading run wouldn't work. I put Toby in the south part of the corral on Monday afternoon.  Then Tuesday I backed the stock trailer up to the smaller gate by the water trough, opened the stock trailer door, and secured the area around the gate and stock trailer so Toby could only go into the trailer and not out past the gate.  I put some hay and apples in the front of the trailer to allow Toby get acquainted with the trailer as he would have to step up to get into the trailer. (In the loading corral the cattle have to only walk across and into the trailer as I ramped up the ground to the trailer level height.)

This morning I looked and all the hay and apples were still in the trailer.  Toby hadn't gone in to eat them.  So I would have to encourage him to step into the trailer.  Uhhh... no go.

I got some temporary corral panels to make the area smaller.  Toby didn't want to go in the trailer.  He didn't even want to get close to the trailer.  He knew what was up.  Around and around I herded him.  Then he turned and put his head under a corral panel and lifted it up and tossed it on his back and then ran out and to the west end of the corral.  The corral panel was bent badly, and that is not easy to do, but Toby did it easily.

Herding Toby back to the east gate was not working.  He wanted to be at the west end of the corral and wanted to look at "his girls" out in the pastures.  So I decided to move the stock trailer to the west gate, which was not easy.  This gate so wider so I had to put a two corral panels between the stock trailer ad the west fence.  And tie them down.  Toby looked the corral panels area as an area to go as he didn't want to go in the trailer.  I carried another corral panel in an attempt to herd Toby as he has more room to run and I didn't want to get run over.  But Toby didn't want to go anywhere near the stock trailer.  Around and around and around.

West gate.

Then Toby ran to the east gate.  Should I go back there?  Less room to roam and run.  The first attempt to set corral panels back there to reduce his area to run failed as he ran past.  After a few more attempts to use the west gate failed, Toby ran to the east gate.  This time I got the corral panels in place and he stood there.  This time I got my second pickup and drove it to block the area outside of the panels.   I also put a couple of steel fence posts in the ground and tied them to to corral panels. Then I moved the stock trailer and the rest of the corral panels back to the east gate.

Around and around.  He was starting to want to try to get through the fence.  At one point he broke a fence board and was trying to get through the fence but we all yelled and I hit him with the sorting stick and he backed off.  Man, trying to catch him after he got out of the corral would have been a nightmare!

I got more corral panels to line the fence area.   Around and around and around and around Toby and I went.  Fortunately he never charged at me.  I got tired of going around. I decided to pull in some of the corral panels and make the area smaller.  I moved the pickup against a different corral panel.

Around and around.  I wanted to make the area smaller one again.  I untied the corral panels from the steel fence posts.  Around and around and then quickly Toby went and put head under a corral panel I had just untied and lifted it and tossed it on his back and ran out into the west end of the corral.  Another corral panel bent.

I didn't want to move the stock trailer back to the west gate.  Instead I used the second pickup to herd Toby back to the east gate.  Around and around the corral we went.  Many times.  A few times I almost got him to the east and somewhat in the corral panel area, but before I could position the pickup from fence to barn feeder to block Toby he ran in front or behind the pickup.  Over and over we went.

Finally I blocked Toby in and he couldn't get around the pickup.  Then Curtis and I moved the corral panels to make the area smaller.  A little more around and around and suddenly Toby ran over to the stock trailer and jumped inside it.  What!  Wow!  I quickly ran over and shut the trailer door before he could back out.  I barely got it closed and locked in time.

Toby was so big I could barely close the inside gate to keep him in the front half of the trailer.  When I did so, he freaked out and barely turned around. The trailer bulged, and the gate catch almost came undone.  Half the trailer won't work.  I opened the inside trailer gate and led Toby be in all the trailer.  Before we got going he turned back around so he was facing forward again.

Finally!  What I thought maybe could take an hour to do, took over 2 and 1/2 hours.  It was after 11:30 am.  Man, it was a good thing I did this today and not Thursday.  I would have never got it done in time for the auction.

I left everything as is in the corral.  I put a strap around the bottom of the trailer door.  The slide half of the door only has a latch on the top half, and I don't trust the cattle wouldn't push the bottom out and then the door off somehow.

Donna and I were on our way at 11:45am.

15 or so minutes in, when I was driving 55 mph on the highway the pickup and trailer seemed to start moving side to side a little bit.  Wow.  Watch out  Slow down.   I did.  Back to normal.  So the rest of the way I mainly drove 45 to 50 mph to be on the safe side.   A couple of times a could feel a little trailer sway start to happen so I slowed down.

I got to the auction near 2:30 pm.  A little longer than normal drive.

When I unloaded Toby at the auction place, he backed up to step outside.  A floor board in the back of the trailer cracked.  Toby got out of the trailer fine.  He was okay.  The auction people herded him to his pen.  Toby looked even bigger when walking in the auction corral.

I looked inside the trailer and in the middle of the trailer I saw one floor mat looked odd.  It looked like part of the mat was going through the floor.  I went in, pulled the mat up and saw at least half a board was gone.  The mat had gone way down.  Almost near the road?   Oh, my goodness!  It is a miracle Toby didn't break through the floor and get hurt.  I am sure he weighed over 2000 pounds.  I've carried more weight when hauling calves, but their weight is not on just four legs.  And I seen a metal bar in the very back had broken off at one end and was hanging down.

The trailer swaying back and forth a few times must have happened because Toby broke the floor board and had to quickly move and shift his weight.  Since he never got injured, I guess it was good I didn't see the floor board break before arriving at the auction place.  How could I have fixed the floor board on the road with Toby inside?

After unloading Toby Donna and I drove across Missoula to Red Robins to get something to eat.  I had hardly ate anything that day.  I actually started to feel a little hungry, and after my head injury I rarely feel hungry.

It was almost 7 pm when we got back home.  I got the second pickup out of the corral and parked it.  I put the corral panels away.  I had to use a sledgehammer and also jumping up and down on the two panels to straighten the bent rungs up and down and side to side.

I got the trailer mats out.  I saw the broken floor boards were worse than I earlier had seen.  Five boards need to be replaced.  It was getting close to dark, so I went and got and filled three pails of apples from a neighbor.  By then it was dark.  I'll wash the trailer tomorrow and also see if I have any strong and thick boards I can use to replace the broken boards.

I had already pulled the floor mat up before we drove back home where I took this photo.

The view during the drive.  I was busy talking and forgot to take my usual photo of the Swan Mountains and the waterfall.

Flathead Lake from the south and near Polson, MT.

This Summer there was a large forest fire.  At least eight buildings were burnt.  And forest.  There were better images of the burnt forest but I didn't get photos of them as I was to busy looking.

Flathead Lake.

Apple tree. Walnut tree.

Here is a photo of the apple tree out in the pasture.  This is the tree that a nearby tree fell on last year breaking off half the apple tree.  As you can see the remainder of the tree is doing well.

Here are a couple of photos of my larger walnut tree.  It didn't leaf out until late this year.  June I think. I was starting to wonder if the tree had made it through the Winter.  It did.   But I don't see any walnuts on it this year.  Do walnut trees take a year off producing walnuts?  Or did this very late start this Spring didn't give the walnuts a chance this year?   Unlike fruit trees, I never saw blossoms on the walnut tree any year.

Hay tarp and fence boards added

Here is a photo of the tarp I used to cover my hay bales.

I added boards to the other side of my north/middle pasture gate.  I had thought the barb wires would be enough to make a fence, but after I added boards to the other side of the gate, Toby now would stick his head through the fence wires on this side of the gate in order to reach and check the cows standing on the other side right next to the fence. 

One time when he was really bulging through I yelled at him to "knock it off and get back!".  When he did, a few staple nails holding the wire to the fence post popped off.  So.. time to added some boards.

I don't know why, but the middle board makes me think of a guitar.  I might start calling this gate, the "guitar gate".   The middle board is one I got from my neighbor Curtis when he was sawing a log using his sawmill.  I decided to add a couple more small boards to complete the fence.

I also had to straighten the two fence posts.  Between the tight fence wires naturally pulling the two ends posts sideways over the years, Toby's stretching through the wire caused more tension and sideways slant to the posts.

More of Diamond's baby calf photos and video

Yesterday I had a photo of the youngest baby calf.   Here are some photos and video from earlier this week of the calf.  He was in the correct pasture and was near an older calf.  But when I got closer he ran off.  That unnerved his aunt and his mother and they came running over to check on the calf.

Here is a 36 second video of the calf and his mother and auntie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqzSvCAqhRs

Toby

Apples, branches, Toby and a wheelbarrow

Back to a mixture of doing things.

I worked at picking apples off the ground for me and several neighbors.  From Ruth's granddaughter's trees I got several buckets of apples.  From Rusty's trees I got four buckets of apples.  I don't feed the apples all at once to the cattle as that many apples may not be good for them.  But I did give the cattle several buckets of apples.

The other day when I parked my baler under the box elder trees by the pole shed, I stepped up on my baler's wheel to look up on top of the baler to see if a tree branch was above or rubbing on top of the baler.  As I stepped up to look at the branch I didn't notice another thick branch and whacked the top of my head scratching the skin.  This hurt and made me very unhappy.  The branch above the baler wasn't touching the baler.  But today I decided to trim a few other branches nearby. I had noticed a few other branches were now right against my toolshed roof.

I loaded the branches in my wheelbarrow and planned to haul them out to the pasture.  Toby decided he wanted to check them out and stopped me from pushing the wheelbarrow.  I quit and let him be.  No sense arguing with a bull.  Toby and the cows like eating box elder tree leaves.

Here is a 1 minute 11 second video of Toby and the branches and the wheelbarrow: https://youtu.be/RPL1q3IlKiE

Later, after the cows and Toby left, I put the branches back into the wheelbarrow and hauled them off.

I decided to check on the willow trees and beaver action.  My latest fence fix seems to have worked,  My previous fence fix... I 'm not sure.  I saw part of the top of that fence was bent down a bit.  Whether the beaver got over, I'm not sure.

Here is another willow tree.  You can see the fence wire around the tree has worked.  Still, the beaver reached up and gnawed off a side branch.

I accidently took another picture in the area.  I like the photo so I kept it.  The photo shows some willow trees the beavers didn't get to, and a tall fence wire I had put up to stop the cattle from reaching over to eat the willow trees.

On the way back to the house I saw Diamond was along the fence mooing.  What's up Diamond?   Oh, your calf got into the middle pasture and you are calling her back and she is not listening to you as the calf wants to check out the other cattle.  I had to go to the middle pasture and try to herd the calf back to the north pasture.  The calf is really leery of me and would run away.  I tried to herd the calf down the fence line to the gate.  But, around and around.  Finally the calf ran to the fence and slipped through the three fence wires and back into the north pasture and her mother.

I put a tarp over my hay bales outside of the hayshed. I also put a few temporary corral panels around the bales. Later I will put a few metal posts in the ground so the cattle won't push the corral panels around in order to reach the hay bales.

It is raining tonight.