Hat stuck

My ranch was built by someone much shorter than me.   The door in the former chicken coop (?) and now tool storage building is shorter than average.  I have to lean down slightly so as to not hit my head.  Still, there are times I do.  ...And let the swearing begin.

This is the last time I hit my head on the top of the door frame.  This time my hat got stuck in the top of the door.

Haynes. Feeder. Snow.

Time to put out another large hay bale today.  I saw that since yesterday Haynes is back to pushing the feeder around now that the weather is warmer.

Here is where the feeder started and ended.

The feeder stopped here.  You can see Haynes then decided to push the feeder back somewhat in order to get it going again in another direction before giving up for now.

The new spot for the feeder.  I shovel the snow away as I don't like putting the bale onto snow.

Moving the feeder to the new location.  As you can see the feeder is not completely round anymore.

Pail handle breakage

When I clean the ashes out of my woodstove each day I use an old metal pail to hold the ashes. The pail holds two gallons.   The pail was from the old days when paint came in metal pails and not plastic ones like they do now.   Yesterday when I carried the pail to toss the ashes out in the pasture one of the handle attachments came off.   I'm not sure how the attachment stayed on over all these years. Glue?    To fix it I added screws to where the attachment came off.

A Coast to Coast store must have sold the paint.   Man, they haven't been around for decades.  https://dfarq.homeip.net/coast-to-coast-hardware-stores-history/

To fix the handle I added screws.  The second photo shows how the handle is still attached on the other side.   I like the metal attachment.  The plastic attachments on pails and buckets these days don't last for me and can't be fixed.

Another bicycle pedal problem

I thought I fixed my bicycle pedal problem last week.  After I installed a newer pedal and rode a few miles, I thought the problem was solved.  Today the temperature got above freezing and the snow was off the roads so I went for a longer bicycle ride.  I was a little past Donna's place when I stopped to check my newer pedal as it felt wobbly.  I discovered the pedal was no longer screwed tight to the crank arm.  I went to Donna's place to borrow a wrench so I could tighten the pedal.

With the wrench I discovered I could not tighten the pedal.  The threads in the crank arm were somewhat stripped.  The previous pedal was in the crank arm so tight I had a lot of trouble to unscrew the pedal to remove it.  I wonder if that pedal messed up the threads somehow.  When installing the newer pedal it seemed screw in fine and be tight.  Or so I thought.

I tried glue on the pedal to see if that would hold the pedal in place long enough for me to ride home.  Nope.  I tried wrapping the pedal's threads with a piece of duct tape.  Maybe this will work.  I tried it.  I didn't get far and the tape came off.  The pedal would stay on the crank arm if I was careful when riding.  I made it home.

The crank arm's threads are stripped.  I looked in my odds-and-ends bicycle part pile and found an extra crank arm.   Which is amazing as this crank arm is the arm with the chain ring on it.  I was able to take off the bad crank arm - and that was a problem as it didn't want to come off the bicycle.   I installed the new crank arm and newer pedal.  I went for a mile-long ride and it seems to work.

The old crank arms are brownish colored and the newer crank arm is the typical silver color.   So my bicycle now has a brownish crank arm on one side and a silver crank arm on the other side.  Oh well.  At least it works now.

Riding from Donna's place with a loose pedal made the thread worse.  Even so, at Donna's place I knew I would have to replace the crank arm anyway.  So who cares if I made it worse, just let me make it home.

The newer crank arm.  I say 'newer' and not 'new' as this is an old part from a junked bicycle.

Bicycle pedal, wind chime, suet

The last time I rode my bicycle before our recent Winter weather, one pedal on my bicycle froze up.  I had ridden 25 miles by then, and a mile from home the pedal froze.  I never had that happen before.  When I had a pedal problem on a very rare occasion, the pedal would be very loose as the bearings ground down or some would fall out.   This time the bearings stopped turning.  I made it home slowly by pedaling with one leg.

Once the cold retreated, in my odds-and-ends collection of bicycle parts, I found another pedal.  I put it on my bicycle.  Due to the snowy roads I only rode a few miles.  But the pedal works.

The strong winds we had did a number on things.  One of the old fiberglass panels on my patio blew off.   The bicycle cat blew apart.   This photo showed how the bicycle cat looked before.  The wind blew the cat and bird away.  No idea where.   The wheels were still here, but damaged.  I took the rest of the ornament inside the house.  Eventually I will fix it as I have an old damaged ornament with a cat still on it.

The chime I hang from my house entrance was blown apart.  Since the pieces are metal I found three of the 'cows' on the ground nearby.  I got them fixed and all put back together today.

The suet cage I hang by the front window was now near the ground.  The wire holding the suet cage in the air is attached to the TV antenna.  The wind must have shaken the antenna pole around and pulled the wire from where it was attached to the house to hold the suet cage in a particular spot.  Yesterday I got a ladder and a broom and swept some snow from the roof so I could go up and nail the wire back to the house.  I've had a few birds show up now that the suet is hanging again.  And the birds give Rascal something to look at and talk to.

Otherwise, the temperatures are warmer and getting closer to the freezing mark.  We still do get a little snow.  I shoveled an inch or so of snow off the driveway yet again today.

Lots of snow

The weather forecast predicted 8 to 14 inches of snow from Wednesday through Thursday morning - and we got it.  Lots of snow when I woke up this morning and it snowed steadily non-stop all day.  I'm sure we got at least 8 inches of snow so far.

Today was a day to put out another large hay bale.  The good news was the temperature stayed above zero overnight and reached the teens in the afternoon.  No problems starting my tractor.  No problems using the tractor's loader as the hydraulic oil flowed.  I was able to lift the metal feeder up and move it over to where I placed the new hay bale.   First I shoveled a large circle as I don't care to place a hay bale on a half a foot or more of snow.

With all the snow I spent some time clearing parts of the driveway using my shovel.  My tractor can drive through the snow, but I don't like the hard packed snow where the tires had gone when I later shovel the driveway.  So I shoveled a path from where the tractor is stored in the backyard out to the NE pasture.  In the pastures I don't care in the tractor packs the snow down.

Then at 6 pm - Boom! - the wind took off.  In a matter of a couple minutes the wind went from 7 mph to 28 mph with gusts to 40 mph.  I checked the weather forecast and we now are under a blizzard warning until tomorrow morning.  This blizzard came almost out of nowhere.   Good thing the cattle has a few hours to eat hay before the blizzard arrived.

A few minutes ago I went outside and checked on the water trough.  I saw the cattle were now in the loafing shed and out of the wind.   The path in snow I had shoveled this afternoon is now mostly gone. Also, it is still snowing.

Winter.  Winter.  Winter.

The cattle this afternoon before I let them out of the corral to the hay bale.

Haynes the bull.   What? Is he now wearing long ear-rings?

This one stood outside much of the day.

Cold, but warming slowly

It was a cold weekend.   Our overnight low prediction of -30 F was actually -33 F.   We easily set a new record low for two days due how cold it was overnight Friday/Saturday.   By 5 degrees one day, 7 degrees the next day.  The coldest it has ever been in Kalispell was -38 F.   So setting daily record lows is not a problem.  Old Man Winter is aiming for the all-time record low.

Sunday was better.  Not as cold with a low of only -16 F.   Last night was colder than predicted, by a lot.  The overnight low was -28 F.

At least Sunday the high temperature was warmer as we reached -2 F.   Sunday was a day to put out another large hay bale.   The diesel anti-gel seemed to have worked as the tractor started and ran.  The hydraulics... another story.  Initially the loader lifted but struggled to do so.   I let the tractor warm up.  Even after a half hour of warming the tractor up, the hydraulics didn't want to work.  I added just a little more hydraulic oil to the tractor.  That was slow as the oil didn't want to move fast as normal when poured out of the container.  Still I waited and let the tractor warm up more.  No hydraulics.  Then I figured I would drive to the hay shed and then maybe the hydraulics would start working.  I had to do something else as just warming the tractor up was not working.  After a few minutes at the hayshed, and stopping and restarting the tractor a few times, the loader finally would move.

I hauled the bale to the metal feeder.  I wanted to move the feeder over to a different spot as that spot - Haynes only pushed the feeder a little bit this time - had manure.  Since the loader was "iffy" working I lowered the bale a bit and used the tractor to push the feeder over.   Not so good.   This should be no problem.  But a feeder leg went against a frozen pile of manure and the manure would not move.  So the round metal feeder is now an ovel shaped feeder.  I can still put a large hay bale in the feeder.

To further move the feeder I had to do it by hand once I got the feeder over that frozen manure pile.  Grunt.  Grunt.  Grunt.  I did it.

Then to put the bale into the feeder.  Now the tractor's loader did not want to work again.  I had to stop and restart the tractor a half dozen or so times and finally the loader would work.    In went the hay bale and then the cattle were let out of the corral to eat the hay.

A 20 minute job took an hour and 40 minutes.

Today's high temperature reached 1 F.   Above zero.   Hurray!  I shoveled some snow off the driveway this afternoon.  I also walked to look at the river.  Yup.  Frozen.  Not 100%, but close to that.  You can see where the main flow of the river is at that location.

Downstream from the previous photos you can see how end of the open water froze and would push up the ice as it froze.

Afterwards I tried to clean manure out of the loafing shed.  Prior to Wednesday night I had all the manure cleaned out of here.  I wish the cattle wouldn't drop manure where they stand and lay.  The manure freezes and makes it hard for the cattle to lay.  I spent time cleaning the manure.  What I could.  The manure was so frozen it was also frozen to the ground.  I used a sledgehammer and still couldn't remove a number of the manure piles.  It was like breaking hard rocks with the sledgehammer.   The area is a little better, but not close to ideal.

Wamer temperatures are forecasted.  But now 6 to 11 inches of snow is predicted from Wednesday morning to Thursday morning.   If not one thing from Old Man Winter, it's another.

Cold, cold, cold

Our high temperature today was -13 F.  Wind chills as cold as -47 F today.   The overnight low is predicted to be -30 F.  It is -18 F right now.  It is cold.   The temperature in my house was 39 degrees when I got up. The windows inside were frosted over. I've gotten the house warmed up to the mid 60s finally.  Burning a lot of firewood. 

I spent an hour and a half outside and shoveled walking paths through the snow.  I'm not sure how much snow we got as the wind blew it around.  There are snow drifts, and there are areas without snow.   I walked to the river.  The river is almost all frozen over.  The pasture has lots and lots of smallish pine cones that blew off the tree.   Only one tree blew over in the north pasture.  I didn't see any downed trees in the middle pasture.  I didn't walk to the south pasture as it was so cold my face was freezing up due to the wind.

The cattle are hanging in there.  They are eating from the large hay bale.   The wind is much less today.  By 1 pm the wind slowed down from the 20s mph to the teens, and dropped the wind chills to the upper 30s from the mid 40s below.  At least we had sun today which made it feel warmer than -13 F.  Some cattle stood out in the corral and not just in the loafing shed when not eating hay. 

Otherwise my day has been burning wood to heat the house and sleeping by the woodstove. Wake up, put some more logs in the stove, then fall back asleep.   Rascal even came to lay next to me a few times when I was near the woodstove.  Usually he will walk through the area but not stay.  I guess his long fur keeps him warm unlike my previous cat who liked to be near the woodstove.

I can't wait until next week when the temperature gets above zero again.

The inside of my windows at noon today.

 

Winter artic has arrived

Overnight a very cold artic cold front arrived.  Yesterday I rode 26 miles on my bicycle.  Today it was hard to just walk outside.  And even harder to stay warm.

And today was a day to put out another large hay bale.  Yesterday I listened to the weather forecast so I let the cattle into the corral late yesterday afternoon.  That way they could stand in the loafing shed to get out of the wind when it arrived.  And I gave them a small hay bale this morning.

Also listening to the weather forecast I bought some anti-gel for diesel a few days ago.  Last year, due to the very cold temperatures, the diesel in my tractor gelled and stopped the tractor from running.  I don't want that to happen again.  I'll see how well the anti-gel works over the next few days.  Tonight's low temperature is predicted to be -22 F.  Tomorrow night's low temperature is predicted to be -35 F.   Very cold.

The wind blew fiercely all day.   In the 30s to 40 mph with gusts to 54 mph.  The wind is still blowing now.  Suppose to calm down some tomorrow.  Winds chills are now down to -39 F.

This afternoon the temperature was -5 F and the tractor started and ran fine.   The problem was that the hydraulics would stop.  This made it hard to steer and the loader wouldn't work.   First I wanted to pull the middle metal feeder away from the tree and fence and out to an open area in the middle pasture.  I had to use a chain to drag the feeder along.

Where Haynes had pushed the feeder.  He even stretched the tight barb wires.

Then on to bringing the north metal feeder back to be just outside the corral.  Since the loader still wouldn't work I had to drag the feeder back using the chain.

But I had to have the loader work so I could lift a large hay bale and bring it to the feeder.  I ended up turning the tractor off, counting to 5 to 10 and then restarting the tractor.  After a number of times the loader finally would work.   I got the bale to the feeder.  After unwrapping the netwrap from the bale I was able to drop the bale into the feeder.  Because by this time the loader quit working again.  Once the bale was dropped I stopped and restarted the tractor a couple times and the loader would work again.  Cold weather is a pain.

It is windier outside the corral than inside it.  I would have preferred to put the feeder and bale in the corral but with an off-and-on working loader, and the cattle in the corral, it was better to put the bale just outside the corral.

I, and the cattle, should be good for a couple days.  I hope so as this weather is to last until next week.  I want my global warming back.

This morning after I woke up.  And yes, the front also brought snow.   First I had to get my wood stove going as it was 45 degrees in the house.   By late afternoon I got the house temperature up to the mid-60s after burning lots of firewood.

The wind blew the snow all around.  Even inside the pole shed.

The cattle waiting for me to put out a hay bale.

When I went out to move the metal feeders I saw in the north pasture a tree was blown over.  Spruce trees don't have a tap root.  While the ground is frozen, the wind was so strong the tree came out of the ground.

Haynes and a salt feeder

Wiring down the salt feeder had worked.  The salt feeder is remaining in place.   But then I found the end of the feeder was partially off.  I imagine Haynes tried to flip the feeder, and since it doesn't move now, Haynes pushed the one end partially off.  I re-nailed it back together.  I'll see if that lasts.

Later I noticed the middle pasture metal feeder has been pushed some distance away after the hay was eaten down.   Haynes was going for the river again, but the feeder veered sideways and went to the NW corner of the pasture.  It looks to be hung up between a tree and the middle and north pasture fence as the feeder wouldn't fit through.  Tomorrow I'll have to go and push the feeder by hand, if I can move it, so the tractor's bale spear can reach and flip the feeder up so I can move it using the tractor.

Sasquatch

Donna has become a Bigfoot enthusiast.  Last Summer when I sold my pickup camper the people's truck had a Bigfoot sticker on its bumper.  I mentioned it to Donna, and she then found a sticker she could put on her car's rear window.

Well, the auction place I follow had a Bigfoot metal decor at last Monday's auction.  I told Donna about it and she was interested.   Her son-in-law likes auctions and he bought it for her at the auction.   Donna and I went and got Bigfoot this afternoon.  I drove my pickup as Bigfoot is a few inches short of 8 feet tall.   He rode in the pickup bed on the way home to Donna's place.

Here Bigfoot is at the auction and then when he got to Donna's place.

Broken bicycle wheel

This past month has been tough on my rear bicycle wheel.  The spokes would break.  Over the decades I have had a spoke break once in a great while, but nothing like last month.  One or two spokes every so often.   My bicycle is 40 years old according to the bicycle's serial number.   I'm sure the wheels are that old also.   Some spokes are tight and some are loose.  I couldn't work on loosening or tightening the old spokes as the spoke's nipple would not turn.  I've never had that happen to me over the decades.

I figured I would 'baby' my bicycle until Spring and then buy a whole new wheel.   Then last Saturday another spoke broke.  When replacing the spoke I noticed the wheel's rim was now broken.  That also has never happened to me.  It must have been because of the age of the wheel as I haven't been carrying heavy items on my bicycle.

I was still able to ride a few miles on Saturday and Sunday, but this was not something I wanted to continue to do.   I thought I would have to find and buy a new wheel on Monday, but Sunday I remembered I still had some bicycle parts from bicycles I had bought at auctions many years ago.  And I found I had one rear wheel.  And it would work on my bicycle was it was a 27 inch wheel and not a more modern 700 C wheel.   Hurray!

Today I transferred the freewheel and the tube and tire to my new wheel.  Everything fits. I trued up the wheel as it had a little wobble to it.  I then went for a 11 mile ride and it all works fine.   Hopefully no more spoke breaks.

Haynes pushing once gain

Haynes... Haynes... Haynes.   

Once again he pushed a metal feeder.  Today I put another large hay bale out in the north pasture.  I looked over to the middle pasture.  I didn't see the feeder.  I had to go over and look around.  I found the feeder once again pushed down the bank by the river where Haynes has first started pushing the feeder a month ago.

I didn't have my camera with me, but here is the photo from a month ago when he first pushed the feeder.  This time the feeder was found to the left of where this photo shows the feeder.  Closer to the river.   Some branches I had left on the ground stopped the feeder.  The starting point of the feeder was farther from the river, but Haynes kept pushing until he almost got the feeder to the river.  He puts some effort into it.  I don't know what is up with Haynes and why he is trying to push the feeder into the river.   He has tons of ways he could push the feeder but 90% of the time it is towards the river.

Today the hay bale went where Haynes had pushed that feeder east of the band of trees.  So I hope that ends him trying to push that feeder towards the river.  We'll see.

Box elder tree trim south of the house

Wednesday and Thursday I did a little tree trimming.    Wednesday I did some minor tree trimming on the female box elder tree south of the house.  Minor in the number and size of the branches cut.  Not so minor in the ladder climbing to reach those branches.   I also trimmed some branches on the shrub just south of the house.  I can now walk under the shrub without having to bend over.

On Thursday I worked on the male box elder tree south of the house.  On Wednesday I noticed and was reminded that part of the tree trunk had died and it would be good to cut the dead part off the tree.   This is a tree that I cut back in 2009 after the top part died.  

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2009/11/owl-ent-tree-part-3-final-photos.html

Since then a little more of the top of the trunk died.   The birds making holes and nests in the trunk didn't help.

Before and after.

Here are some of the holes where the birds would nest.   The birds are gone until next Spring.  Years ago I had nailed boards over the holes.  Here you can see the birds made a new hole under this old hole.  The second photo shows what was inside this hole.

This is where I chainsaw the trunk down to.  The inner part of the trunk is dead, but the outer parts are alive and have branches growing out the sides.  So this is where I stopped.

Here is some of the nest material I pulled out of a hole in the tree.

The trunk was so dead they would break apart when I dropped sections to the ground.

The trunk sections I had cut.

I was high up on the ladder and using a chainsaw.  The trunk was longer/wider than my 20-inch blade and I had to work at cutting around to get a section cut.  Often I would get most of the trunk section cut, then turn off the chainsaw, and then push the trunk section over and to the ground.  One time a section caught my glove as it fell.  The ladder was solid in position and held by side branches and did not slide sideways.  I held on the ladder and branches and the trunk section didn't make me lose balance and fall.  But the section tore my leather glove before it let go of me and the glove.