First snow

It started snowing this morning.  First snow of the season.   Darn.  It couldn't have waited until November before first snow.   The temperature was in the low to mid 30s much of the day.  Much of the snow on the grass lasted all day.  It did melt off the road, and while still wet, I was able to ride my bicycle to get 19 more miles for the month.   760 miles this October barely made it the third highest milage total in 48 years of riding in an October.

Not much snow fell, so the cows could still eat from the hayfield and I didn't have to put out a bale for them.

Tamarack needles are turning yellow

It is Fall.  Time for the leaves to turn colors and fall. They have.  Now it is time for the Tamarack (western larch) tree needles to turn yellow and fall.

And here is the last tree branch pile, and the oldest pile, I have in my pastures.   Maybe next year I will cut up some of the larger branches and get rid of the rest.

Burnt almond color

You know I painted the barn this past Fall.  I currently am trying to paint the tool shed before the weather stops me.  Earlier this year did I realize I would be in the painting mode?  No.   But I am thinking about it now.  And maybe repainting the house.  Not this year.  Next.  

I am trying to remember when I last painted the house.  I didn't blog about it for whatever reason.  I had to look for photos from when I did the painting.  I found a few from back in 2009.  I didn't have much of a camera back then, so not many photos.

So, 15 years ago.  The house paint is still decent.  The garage, which was painted after the house that year, not as good.  So that is what is getting me to think about repainting the house and garage.

Back then the house was white.  And I painted the house an off-white?  I forgot the name of the paint color.

While I am fine with that color, it is time for a new color.    Earlier this week when I was out riding my bicycle in a subdivision I came across a house nearly done being painted.  I liked the color.  It was different, but not a crazy color.  I stopped and asked the guy there what was the name of the paint color.  Burnt almond.    He said it was a masculine color as guys like the color more than women do.   He got the paint from Home Depot and the brand was Behr.

burnt almond color behr exterior - Google Search

Yesterday Donna and I visited her daughter and I got to see the new barn she bought from Amish builders.  A very nicely built barn.   I forgot to take my camera for photos.  Afterwards Donna stopped by Home Depot so she could buy some paint stain.  I looked at the Behr paint samples to get a card for burnt almond.   The card didn't look like the house color.  Huh?   I asked the paint guy, and he asked what the paint's sheen was as that can make a difference in the sunlight. No idea.

Then Donna and I drove by the house.  The guy wasn't home.  Donna liked the color. And she said it was different.

Today I rode by the house again.  The guy wasn't there.  I brought the paint sample along with me.  From a distance it didn't look like the house color.  Then I held the sample right against the house paint.  Very close.  How?

As you can see in the photos from my camera the paint can change.  Or is it my camera doing that?

Anyway, next year my goal is to paint my house this color.

The house from a distance away.  (The housing subdivision is built around a golf course.   When my hiking friend Patti was still alive she lived in this subdivision.)

The charcoal black and white adds to the color I think.

These two photos were taken seconds apart.  Yet the color is slightly different.

The paint sample card held against the house.   As you can see in earlier photos the further away from the house the card doesn't match the color.

Yet the camera must be changing the color.

We'll see if I get the house painted next year or if some other project sidetracks this effort.

Mower Conditioner recall fix

This morning I finally got a call regarding the recall on my new mower conditioner.   Back in August the local John Deere dealer called me asking about the part number on the hydraulic cylinder that allows me to turn the mower conditioner to the side.   The part number was the one being recalled due a potential problem.

Lately I thought about calling the dealer asking if the replacement part has arrived yet and when they plan on replacing it.  But I would forget and do some other projects.  I'm sure they waited until the repairs slowed down before coming out to replace the cylinder.  

The good news is that the repair guy that came out as Jack.   He is the person I prefer to fix my equipment as he did a good job in the past while the other repairmen didn't do a good job each time.

So my mower conditioner is fixed.

75 pocket gophers

I may be done trapping pocket gophers this year.  I'll see if any gophers decide to move back into the hayfield or the pastures by the end of the year.  I had only three traps for much of the year so trapping was slow going.  In the Fall Donna gave me three of her pocket gopher traps.  Now that she has horses on her pasture her pocket gophers decided to leave so she didn't need the traps now.  So my trapping picked up speed as I now had six traps.

I ended up trapping 75 pocket gophers.  That includes a pocket gopher trapped on Ruth's property to my south and one pocket gopher on her granddaughter's property where I get apples for my cattle.

And I even trapped a pocket gopher on my big island.  That is a first.  I never ever had seen a pocket gopher or pocket gopher dirt mounds on the island before.  How did this pocket gopher ever get to the island?  It had to swim.  I guess it did.   And why the island?   Pocket gophers have tunnels two or three levels deep.  On the pasture's low areas near the river I don't have pocket gophers as they don't want their tunnels to flood when the water level gets high in the Spring.  The gopher on the island could have survived next Spring as the island doesn't flood, but I imagine some of his tunnels would have gotten some water in them.  Anyway, I trapped the pocket gopher on the island.

Here are some of the hawthorn trees on the island.   Back when I was checking the trap a few weeks ago that is when the high wind event started and had wind gusts up to 52 miles per hour.   I was on the island and didn't feel the wind.  I could hear the wind and see the dirt blowing from the ridge to my west.  The dense hawthorn trees slowed the wind down.

Tool chest

Jan is working on cleaning her garage and getting rid of stuff.   Her former husband had a half dozen tool chests.  One tool chest was from her husband's father she wanted to get rid of.  Either to me, or she would put out by the road for free.  I took the chest.  Whenever I get around to organizing my tool shed I will put some of the tools in the chest.

I may have more tools in the future.  Last week I had my neighbor Curtis drill a hole through a lag bolt.  I had drilled a hole through another lag bot and broke three drill bits and it took me over an hour to drill the hole.  It took Curtis less than a minute when he used his drill press.  Curtis has lots and lots of tools.  He insisted I take a number of drill bits he picked up and gave me.  Then he talked about a truck he bought to repair.  When he bought the truck he found lots of tools in the truck.  He doesn't want the tools.  I said I would maybe take them another day.

So a tool chest may be handy for me even if it is an old tool chest.

Fall leaves

Beautiful day today.  We got warmer than predicted as we reached 74 for a high temperature.  Tomorrow's prediction is for cold and rain.  So I got some stuff done today, as tomorrow pretty much not much will get done.  And I rode 31 miles on my bicycle.

Here are some pictures of the trees.  Some trees have lost most of their leaves - the box elder.  Other trees - yes and no.

Here are some of the box elder trees.

The transparent apple tree has lost its leaves.  The other apple tree (pie apple) still has its leaves.

The pear (left) and apricot (right) trees still have their leaves.

Woodstove

Tonight I used my woodstove to heat the house. The first time since I last used the woodstove in the Spring.  It has been colder this past week.  Outside temperatures with highs in the 50s and lows of 20 degrees.  Inside the house it was now 53 degrees.  Time to heat the house up.  And the woodstove did.

Garage's extension roof fix

My detached garage must have been built back in the early 1940s.  At some point someone built a small extension when cars got longer.  While I could park my former car in the garage I can't park my pickup in the garage as the pickup is too high for the extension.  Probably around 20 years ago I added metal roofing to the extension as the plywood was bad and the shingle roofing was deteriorating and I didn't have plywood or shingles at the time.

I also caulked the gaps between the roof and wall.   The caulk lasted a while but is not really there or working now.  Instead of adding more caulk I nailed a small sheet of metal over the spot.  Actually two sheets of metal.

The longer sheet I got from Curtis as he has a scrap pile.  That sheet was a foot or so too short.  Then when I was riding my bicycle I saw a shorter piece laying at the side of the highway in the ditch.  I brought it home.

I bent the two pieces into an "L" and then nailed them into place.  It looks like it will work as I see no gaps anymore.

Donna says I should tear my garage down and build a new better garage.  But this garage works.  I use it as a storage building.

Willow trees

It looks like the work I did last year to protect my willow trees by the river from the beavers is working.   The beavers haven't gotten to the trees so far.  And the trees are growing taller than they ever have been.  Here are some photos from about 10 days ago.    The trees have lost more of their leaves since then.

Walnuts

My younger, now larger, walnut tree produced walnuts for the first time this year.  21 walnuts.   Much less than what my other walnut tree produced before the Winter freeze got to it.

Normally I have to pick the walnuts off the tree but this year the 52 mph wind gusts knocked most of them off for me.

I didn't wait to shell them from the green husks or breaking the hard brown shells.  This year the walnuts were a little different.  I don't know if it was because this was the first time for this tree, or if the hot/cold quick temperature change this Spring which affected lots of other trees and plants did a number on the walnuts, or if I didn't wait long enough before I broke their shells, but the walnuts inside the shell were smaller and soft.  Oh well, I still ate them.   And the brown shells were harder.  A nutcracker wouldn't work.  I had to use a hammer to break the shells.

On to the next year for walnuts.

Stump 2 in 2024, plus fallen tree cutting

I ended up removing another tree stump this year.  This was not planned.  Earlier I had decided to remove a pile of branches next to a tree stump and I didn't realize until the branch pile was removed that the stump was wobbly due to the deterioration at its base.

The pile of branches was an old pile.  One of two piles I have left in the pastures.   When I burned stump 1 back in July I used a bunch of branches from this pile of branches to feed that fire.  Then when I was checking pocket gopher traps in the south pasture this Fall I carried off a few tree branches each time to cut and use in my wood stove this Winter.  And then there were no more branches worthy of the stove.  Time to get rid of this pile of branches, and haul it off and dump it in a low spot where I don't harrow.

One pickup load of branches.  Then I was back to push on the tree stump.  It went over easily.  The part that went into the ground was mostly deteriorated and soft.   I chain sawed the rest until I ran out of gas. By then it was getting dark.

This afternoon I went back with a wheelbarrow and axe.  I cleaned up what I had chain sawed yesterday and then did a little chopping to remove that last of the stump to be a bit below ground level.   Good enough.  Now there is one less tree stump I have to drive around when harrowing.

Yesterday when I unloaded the pile of branches, and since I had the chainsaw with me, I cut the branches off the fallen tree.  The only branches left on the tree are the ones holding the tree trunk off the ground.   I'll get rid of those branches another day.

Cattle into the hayfield, and heifers that were sold

This morning I let the cattle into the hayfield.  The pastures are pretty much eaten down and the hayfield grew nicely after the second hay cutting.  The last week's overnight low temperatures have been in the mid to low 20s so the grass and alfalfa aren't really growing anymore.  And I won't be asked if I plan on doing a third hay cutting of my field. 

Before letting the cattle into the hayfield I gave them a bag of apples.  It is near the end of apples are most have fallen from the trees.

The two smaller animals in the back are the heifers I am keeping.

Now, into the hayfield.

My heifers were sold at auction on Friday.  I did better than I expected. They weighed 510 pounds each and sold for 2.97 a pound.  I got more for my heifers than I did for my steers.  That was a first for me.  And this was the most I ever got for heifers.   A handful of other sellers with heifers near my heifer's weight sold for a little over $3 a pound up to 3.16 a pound.  But I was near the high end of the market.