Into the yard

Time is getting close to selling my calves at the auction, and about time to wean them.  I haven't mowed my yard grass all Summer.  Instead of mowing the grass I decided to let the cattle eat the grass and let them into the yard this afternoon late as I had to protect stuff in the yard from the cattle.  It should take a day or two for them to eat the grass.  I plan to start weaning the calves on Wednesday.  Then the cows can go into the NE pasture to eat.  Hope everything goes to plan.

First stop for the cattle was the main corral.

Then into the backyard.

Of course several calves quickly went to near the caragana.  I had re-put up the fence to protect the caragana.  Hope it works this time.   What the cattle ate of the caragana in the Spring when they got through the protecting fence hasn't grown back.  That is why the lower part of the caragana has less leaves.

More shrubbery photos

Kari sent me a couple photos she took of the shrubbery removal work.

5th anniversary

This afternoon was the fifth anniversary of when I passed out, fell, and cracked my skull.  I made it through that and I am still going on five years later.   Since then, no passing out. No throwing up.  No shingle vaccine or flu shots.

Lights, shrubbery, Bigfoot

Today Donna's daughter, Kari, and her husband, Michael, came over for some yard projects at Donna's place.  They planned to fix/replace the tall yard light in Donna's yard.  It is old, the bulb went out a few years ago, and the bulb isn't made anymore.  Time for a new light.  The light is very high on a pole.  Too tall for most ladders.  Kari's and Michael's tractor was too small to reach the light.  I drove my tractor there.  Even standing in my tractor's bucket Michael was just short of reaching the light.  So we put a ladder in the bucket then he could reach the light.  He replaced the light, and now Donna has light.

Kari and Michael's dog, Max.

The light replaced, now it was time for the shrubbery.  If you remember from this Summer I had to chainsaw part of the shrubbery so the well's pump could be replaced.   The rest of the shrubbery was half alive and half dead.

The initial thought was to chainsaw the dead parts.  But it is hard to chainsaw this shrubbery.  And hard on a chainsaw if you remember how I had to replace my chainsaw's chain and blade after I chainsawed it earlier.  Kari and Michael wanted to remove the entire shrubbery.  They have a plan for new shrubbery next year around the well.

Instead of using a chainsaw, use my tractor.   Initially we hooked a chain to my tractor and one of the shrubbery's root and I pulled it out.

It was hard to reach or find other shrubbery roots.  So I used my tractor's bucket to push and lift and remove the rest of the shrubbery section by section.

There was a smaller shrubbery next to the driveway that was more dead than alive.  I used the tractor's bucket to remove that shrubbery.  I don't have any photos of that shrubbery.

I then used Michael's chainsaw to cut some low branches on other trees.

While I cut those branches Kari and Michael worked with their tractor to gather the shrubbery and pile it elsewhere on Donna's property.  Here is part of the shrubbery.  More to come.

When the chainsaw ran out of gas, I was done cutting branches. I could have put more gas in the chainsaw and cut more branches.  But we had enough cut.  Time for me to stop.

Some of the branches I cut were large enough to use as firewood.  I don't like wasting things.  So I took them home to cut for woodstove logs next year.

While we were working in Donna's yard Bigfoot watched us.

So that was my afternoon today.

Welding chisel

A few weeks ago when I was out riding my bicycle I came across a couple putting a number of items next to the road in front of their property.  These were items they were giving away.   I stopped and looking and saw this...

What is it?   It is a chisel to use to remove the bead and stuff when welding.  This guy got it when he learned to weld, but doesn't weld anymore.  I took it to give to Curtis as he welds.  Curtis said he already had 5 of them and didn't want another one.  So I kept it.  It will be kind of nice to have a handle when using a chisel.

They also had a harness.  Last year when I was lifted up to trim my box elder trees, I wore a harness I borrowed from Curtis in case I fell.  I didn't fall.   So now I have a harness of my own.  I didn't take a photo of my harness, but the blog post from last year shows the harness I borrowed from Curtis.

https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2023/10/trimming-box-elder-trees-by-patio.html

Replaced a railroad tie

I replaced a railroad tie to fix a gate between me and the neighbor to my south.  When the cattle returned from that field earlier this year they bumped against the railroad tie as they crowded through the gate.  The railroad tie was old and decaying.  It now had a 'wobble'.  I plan on letting the cattle into that pasture soon.  So time to fix the railroad tie and gate.

Since the railroad ties are 8 1/2 ft or longer I initially thought I may just be able to reuse the railroad tie as a shorter fence post.  But I found that was not possible as the tie was now too short. Why the tie had a 'wobble' was that the tie broke off at ground level.  I got another one of my railroad ties from my pile.

Slowing me down was removing the railroad in the ground.  The deeper I went the more solid the tie was.  The tie was 30 inches in the ground.  From 20 to 30 inches deep the tie was solid.  I had to get a crowbar to help me work the tie out of the ground as I didn't want to dig a large hole around the tie.

The bottom of the bad railroad tie

We had a little rain yesterday I had to work around.  And since this project was more work than expected, meant it took me some time yesterday and some time today.   But the tie and gate are now fixed and most likely tomorrow I will let the cattle into the neighbor's field.  Each day I worked on the tie the cattle came and then stood nearby mooing at me to hurry up and let them into the neighbor's field.

Looking into the neighbor's field.

Looking into my field.   The 'new' tie was not as wide.  So I had to do a little work to be able to attach the boards across to the railroad tie.  In the right photo you can see how I added small boards to the railroad tie so the side boards could reach.

Overall look to the neighbor's field from my hayfield.

A side view of the cattle in the south pasture wanting me to let them in the neighbor's field.

Last night this was the sunset as I worked on this project.

Irrigation platform rebuilt

I got the irrigation platform rebuilt.  A good time to do it.  I'm not irrigating, the river level is low, and the weather is great.

As you can see the old platform was shot.

Before I rebuilt the platform I made steps in the side of the riverbank.  As you can see the bank is steep.  I was having trouble moving up and down on the bank and had to work hard to avoid slipping into the river.

The rebuilt platform.  It took a bit to do.  I had to come up with a new platform.  Fortunately I have a number of short boards.  And they were the right length and I didn't have to cut any.

My old platform had a few metal posts.  I moved two of them as the new platform is a little wider.   And I added two more posts in the riverbank to support this heavier platform.

The new platform is solid and wider and now it is easier to hook up the pipe that goes into the river especially as the filter on the end makes the pipe heavier and awkward to move.

How to support the platform?  Ah... the metal posts had a few holes in them.  And I had few scrap pieces of rebar that fit in the holes and was as wide as I needed.

After the platform was done I redid and moved a short simple fence from the irrigation shed to the river.  I had this fence to keep the cattle from accessing the riverbank here.  So the cattle wouldn't get to the pipe. And no need for them to be on such a steep riverbank.  And it worked over the years.  But this year a few calves got here.  Apparently they got over the log at the end of the fence.  So moved the end of the fence to where the log goes into the river.

And I spent some time removing more of the waterweed.  While irrigating I kept it away from the irrigation pipe.  But the waterweed doesn't stop growing.   It is easier now to remove more of it than in the Spring when it is colder and the water higher. 

Here is the waterweed before I started to remove some of it.

And there are some fish in the river.

Here are some smaller fish.  They are easier to see as they just below the surface of the water.

There were some water bugs walking on the river.  On occasion sometimes I heard a fish come out of the water.  Probably the fish came up to catch one of the water bugs.

And there was a dragonfly flitting about.

I'm glad I got this all done as the weather forecast is for rain over the next three days.

More tree branch trimming

I used my pole saw again to cut tree branches.  I have a tree out in the middle pasture that died.  It was a smaller tree between two other trees.   The tree looks small but to reach the top dead branches I used all 27 feet of my pole saw and barely reached the top branches.

And the wild turkeys passed through as I was working on the branches.   In the previous photos you can see the metal feeder in the background on the left side.  So the turkeys were fairly close by.