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.