Broke pitchfork handle

In between putting out another large hay bale for the cattle I will share some of the hay from the heifer's large hay bale to tide the cattle over.  I use a pitchfork to carry the hay from the heifer's feeder over to the wooden feeder in the main corral for the other cattle.   The hay can be tightly wrapped in a large hay bale.  And I can try to move a large amount of hay.  My pitchfork handle broke off.

Usually one can knock out the handle from the bottom.  But not this time as the bottom wasn't open.  I had to drill out the part of the wooden handle still in the metal fork.

I have a couple other pitchfork but they are not the same.  One is smaller and has a metal handle.  The other pitchfork has 5 tines, not six.  Not as useful for moving hay.

Initially I thought I may be able to whittle down the end of the broken handle.  But then I found another handle that was a little thinner and one I barely had to whittle down.   I gave the new handle a try and it has held up weeks now.

Cleaning snow off roof

We have warmed up finally from our recent cold February.  It was above freezing today and is forecast to be in the 40s the next week.  Much moisture is predicted.  This time rain.  

Yesterday afternoon I used the tractor to clean again the snow out of the corral and back of the yard.

After I had cleared the snow off much of the house roofs three weeks ago, it snowed again over and over.   With rain now predicted before the snow can melt I want to get the new snow off the house roofs again.  I don't want to chance rain on snow making it too heavy for the roofs.   But I didn't want to get up on the house roof again.  I have mostly rerecovered from the last fall and I don't want to go through that again. 

I got out my snow rake.  This afternoon I raked off much of the snow from the house roofs.  I stood on the ladder.  I also made sure the ladder was standing upright as much as possible.  Therefore I had to be careful not to lean back much when standing.

The house looks much better now.

River iced over

The river had mostly iced over a few weeks ago.  Then a day or two of slightly above freezing temperatures and the river opened up a little bit again.  Then cold temps returned and the river immediately froze over again. We were predicted to get slightly above freezing again this weekend (back to normal high temperatures) but the prediction now has changed.  Warmer yes, but slightly below freezing for high temperatures.  And now more snow through Sunday.  The snow started last night and is more than predicted so far.  Yup, whenever I finish clearing the snow, it then starts right back up again.

Before last weeks cold wave, this area was open in the middle.  Now I can walk on it and no cracking of the ice.

Here you can see where it didn't freeze completely over.

Bruises better

I heard from my doctor's office yesterday.  No signs of a cracked rib, lung damage or kidney damage due to my fall from the house roof.   I'm getting better faster than I expected.  My arm and thigh are slightly sore.  My back is better.  It's not like it was.  The back changes day to day where or how it is sore.   But it is much better.   No problems now getting in or out of bed.   Sleeping on my right side in bed can be annoying.  Sleeping on my right side on the floor is fine.  I think that is because, even though the mattress is firm, it still presses against the side of my chest area, while that area is not against the floor when I lay there.

Cold night. Frosty heifers.

Our coldest night of the Winter was early this morning.  -16 F.   The cattle did ok.  Here are photos of one of the replacement heifers.  The heifers' Winter coat of fur got frosty.  The heifers more than the cows.  Probably because more cows and they stay close to one another so they don't get as frosty.

Cleared snow in corral

Today after I put out another large hay bale for the cattle, using the tractor I cleared most of the snow out of the corral.  Less snow gives more areas the cattle can lay other than just in the loafing shed.  And would be less moisture, and mud, when the snow melts.  I also cleared most of the snow out of the south corral where the replacement heifers are located.

Back pain and snow clearing

Nothing is easy lately.   I am still recovering from the fall from the house roof.  Each day the arm and thigh bruises and aches are better.   But Wednesday morning I woke up to pain in the side of my back when I got out of bed.  Midway between the shoulder and hip.  What in the world?  Where did this come from? I didn't have this pain earlier after the fall.   The only thing I can imagine was that I was physically active on Tuesday.  We had cold weather Monday and Tuesday and six inches of snow and strong wind.  I spent time shoveling snow around my well pump house.  The pump house is insulated, but shoveling snow around it better protects it from freezing from a strong cold wind.

With the cold and wind the cattle mainly strayed in the loafing shed and corral, and out of the wind.  Their hay bale was out in the north pasture.  So they didn't have to go out to the hay bale and the wind I put some hay in their wooden feeders in the corral.  I put out a small hay bale and then using a pitchfork pried hay from the replacement heifer's hay bale and carried in over to the cow's feeder.  It was work but not painful work and I didn't feel any back problems the rest of Tuesday.

Wednesday however it was different. I tried to shovel some snow but that didn't last long as that activity was painful.  I had a dental appointment that afternoon.  Fortunately my pickup was a 4-wheel drive.  I took some ibuprofen, which I rarely take, and drove to my dental appointment.   I was having the start of a crown replacement.  Also at the dental office was a nursing student.  She wanted to take photos during the dental work so she could share them with her college medical class.  I gave approval to take photos.

After the dental work I stopped at my doctor's office.  He was out that day.  But I got an appointment made for Thursday.  Thursday I saw my doctor and described what had happened.  I wanted an x-ray of my back.  Either I bruised the back and ribs, or maybe cracked a rib.  Maybe the physical work on Tuesday caused the crack to worsen or have an impact.  Sometimes I think the painful movement is due to a bad bruise.  Somethings I think it is due to a cracked rib.  Did I sometimes hear the rib move?

No word back from the doctor's office.  He was waiting for an x-ray technician to look over my x-ray.  I hope to hear on Monday.

I'm find the back muscle is involved in more activity than I would have thought.  Certain movement lets me know to try to avoid doing that movement again.  Some movements I can't avoid.  Getting in or out of bed hurts a lot.  I'm doing that much slower now and in a different way when I can.

Today is the first day since Wednesday that I feel slightly better and didn't have to take any ibuprofen.  Or maybe I'm getting better at avoiding certain movements.  I did do some minor shoveling of snow the tractor couldn't reach.  It didn't hurt like the other days.

Wednesday when I started my pickup it struggled to start.  Like it wasn't getting gas.  After a few attempts the pickup then ran fine.  No other problems the rest of the day.  On Thursday, the engine wouldn't turn.  Like the battery was dead.  I put a battery charger on.  The charger didn't seem like the battery was dead.  When I tried to start the pickup the headlights came on and were bright.  Still no turnover.  One time I overrode the headlights and turned them off before trying to start the pickup.  The pickup started right up.   The rest of the day and multiple stops the pickup started right up.   Friday was grocery shopping day.  Again the pickup acted like Thursday.   This time turning off the headlights made no difference.  I let the battery charge an hour.  A few more attempts. Same thing.  Then another attempt and the pickup started.  The rest of the day and multiple stops, no problem.   Next week I will try again and see if the pickup acts the same way.

Normally I shovel the snow off the driveway and back yard.  That's not going to happen for now.  Friday it was time to put out another large hay bale.  I put a bucket on the tractor and cleared snow from a new area for the hay bale.  An area closer to the corral as Monday and Tuesday are predicted to be colder and windier again.  Once the area was cleared for the hay bale I used the tractor to clear the snow off the driveway and backyard.  Quicker and easier to do with a tractor.  I need time to recover and allow my back to heal.

February has been the coldest and snowiest month of this Winter and is predicted to be colder and snowier for at least another two weeks.  I can't wait for March to arrive.

What chased the cattle last week

I figured out what chased my cattle last Wednesday.  I talked with some neighbors to see if they saw anything.  Then a woman who lives north of me stopped me when I was bicycling and told me last week her son saw two dogs chasing the cows and then trapping one of them along the fence.   She said the one large was a large white dog, a Pyrenees dog.  The other was a medium sized dog.  She has seen them before in the area and said they are not her neighbors' dogs.  She thinks they may come from across the river and on the ridge.

I talked with a neighbor, Shane, to the south of me.  He has dogs, but not large or white.  He said several weeks ago he saw two dogs, one large white dog and a medium sized dog.   They were in the field south of my pasture, and west of his place, and they looked to be doing something.  He later went out and found what looked to be a deer carcass out there where the dogs had been.   He thought the large dog was a Newfoundland dog breed.  But Newfoundland dogs are dark, most black colored.  Shane also thought these dogs came from across the river and up on the ridge.

The river had frozen over along my middle pasture.  Earlier when I had looked for tracks I saw dog tracks on the snow covered ice.  Saturday it got warm and up to 40 degrees under a sunny sky.  So the ice melted in the center of the river.  No more ice bridge.  Until today.  Overnight the temperature dropped down to 10 above and the wind blew.  Still blowing. It is cold outside today.  The cattle are sheltering in the loafing shed and out of the wind.  I imagine the river iced over again.

Today I called the county animal control department and talked with Paul.  He was the guy who was called when the neighbor's cattle from up on the ridge and to the south got out and came down to the field south of mine.  People initially thought they were my cattle.   So Paul knew where I was located.  He will check around up on the ridge for these dogs running around and will talk to the owners.  I hope this ends the terrorizing by these dogs.  I noticed today two cows have a slight limp in a back leg when walking in the corral.  Probably from jumping over a fence.

This isn't a photo of dog who chased my cattle.  But I included a photo in case you didn't know what a large Pyrenees dog looks like.   Not what you want chasing cattle.

Fell from the house roof. I'm alive.

I am very, very, very sore.  Today I fell from my house roof to the ground.

Earlier I got my ladder out to close the upper barn door.  Over the Summer the latch had turned and now the wind was strong enough to have a little breeze through the upper barn and blew the door open.  I closed the door.

Since I had the ladder out, and our temperature was in the upper 30s and snow was melting, I thought I would shovel some snow off the house roof.   It doesn't get windy often, and with the snowfall earlier this year the snow fell down and wasn't blown off the roofs. The snow hardened and now couldn't be blown off the roof.  Last week I had got on the ladder and in several parts of the roofs I shoveled the snow I could reach by standing on the ladder.  Those areas had melted and now one could stand on the roof without a fear of slipping.

On the SW corner I shoveled the snow I could reach while standing on the dry roof.  Then I went to the roof next to the south part of the patio.  Again, I shoveled the snow I could reach standing on the dry roof.   Then on to the roof on the east side of the patio.   Again, I shoveled the snow I could reach while standing on the dry roof.  Then I got onto the ladder to climb down.

As soon as I was on the ladder the bottom end of the ladder slipped out.  I had the shovel in one hand but I reached out to grab the gutter on the house.  The ladder went so fast I couldn't reach the gutter.  Down I went.  I was on the ladder when the ladder and I hit the concrete patio. I was on my right side when I hit the ground.  It knocked the wind out of me.   I slowly got up and off the ladder.   No broken bones.   I didn't hit my head.  But my right side is very sore.  From just below the shoulder to just above the elbow.   My elbow must have been pushed against the side of my chest as that is sore.  Less than other areas.  Then from just below my hip to just above my knee.

Earlier when I cleaned the other parts of the roof I had the ladder very straight.  With the wind, when I was on the roof I was concerned the wind may blow the ladder sideways and over.  The last time I had put the ladder against the house I had the bottom of the ladder slightly further out.  The ladder was on dry clean concrete and I wasn't concerned it would slip as it never had done so in the many years and many times I leaned the ladder against this part of the house.  I was more worried the wind would blow the ladder over.  Well, that didn't happen.  And I had no problems climbing up on the ladder and onto the roof.  So I am surprised the ladder slipped out from under me when I got back onto the ladder.  And it happened so fast.

I put the ladder away.  It was now 2 pm.  I decided to lay down in bed and rest.  Rascal was very happy I did as he lays against me when I lay down and sleep.  "Not so much against me in certain areas Rascal."  I slept almost non-stop until 5:15 pm, and that was after having 8 1/2 hours of sleep earlier.

When I got up now and moved around I was still sore but now I was getting stiff in those spots.  Moving around did help in easing the stiffness.  I went out and checked on the cattle.  I moved slow.  I gave them a little extra hay - slowly.  Then I went to check my mail.  I decided to ride my bicycle.  A slow and stiff start, especially my thigh muscle.  But moving eased the stiffness.  I decided to ride a little further.  Then a little further. Then further.  I ended riding 3 miles.  It helped.

I don't feel the soreness a lot now when I'm still. But kneeling to put a log into the woodstove is not fun as I really feel the stretching of the leg muscle. Shortly after I fully keel and stop movement then my leg muscle feels fine.

It is going to be some days before I am back to normal.  I also will have to move the muscles and stretch them and keep active so I keep my full movement and not end up with a slightly smaller range of movement.  I haven't really looked to see how bruised I am.  When I first went to bed I looked a bit at my upper arm where I was sore.  It was red.

Where I fell.

I even dented one of the ladder steps with my upper body.  That is not easy to do.

Cattle through multiple fences

Yesterday was the last of a large hay bale.  The cattle usually finish the bale before noon.  Then near sunset I will take some hay from the heifer's large hay bale and put it in the wooden feeder in the main corral.  Then let the cows into the corral to eat this hay.  Then keep them in the corral overnight.  Then the next morning put a new large hay bale out in the north pasture.

Yesterday was busy inside the house most of all day.  Clean my woodstove.  Then talked on Skype with my friends in Germany.  I hadn't talked with them for a year so our talk was 3 hours long.  Then I had to talk with insurance agents to help my brother.  His house insurance company was canceling old insurance policies in that state that were in one of their "books" as they called it, and his was one of the insurance policies being canceled.

I finally got outside near sunset to give the cows some hay.  I discovered 2 cows and the bull were in the north pasture.  One cow in the middle pasture.  4 cows in the hayfield.  6 cows in the south pasture.  The cows in the hayfield and south pasture were all the way over near the far fence. 

To get to the other pastures the cows went through and/or over fences.  They went through the 5 strands of barb wire to go from the north to the middle pasture.   Then at the spot where the one cow had gone over the fence to the hayfield weeks ago, at least one did.  Then at the spot where the one cow had gone through the fence to the south pasture weeks ago, the 6 cows did it again breaking the 5 barb wire strands.   Near this spot in the middle pasture one or more of the four cows went over the fence into the hayfield.   I have another large hay bale in the middle pasture as a backup.  None of the cows went there.  They all headed south and to the other pastures.

What is going on?!

I got all the cows from the pastures and into the corral.   I also noticed that the top board in the corral fence between the north pasture and the corral with the heifers was broken.  The lower boards were fine.  The top boards are only there so the cattle don't get the idea of trying to jump over the remaining boards.  

This morning I put out a new large hay bale in the north pasture.  When I opened the corral gate to let the cows and bull out of the corral, they just stood there looking.  Always before they immediately started walking out to go to the hay bale.  I walked to lead them out.  They just stood there. I then got in the tractor and backed up towards the hay bale.  After a bit the cattle walked out and to the hay bale.

I then parked the tractor and got the tools to fix all the broken fence locations.  Shortly after I got to the first spot, the north/middle location, the cattle all walked back to stand outside the corral near the open gate and near the heifers.  Usually when I let the cows out of the corral the heifers will call out for them as the heifers want to join them.  The cows ignore the heifers.  I don't think they cows walked back today because the heifers were calling.   I let them be.  After a while the cows all walked back to the hay bale to eat.  A short time later all but one or two walked back to the corral.

What is going on?  There is nothing out there other than the hay bale.   After a while they all walked back to the hay bale.  This time they all remained there eating hay while I fixed all the rest of the broken or damaged fences.

When there is a large hay bale in the pastures I usually close the gate to the corral. When not eating the cattle will lay under the trees close to the hay bale.   This time I left the corral gate open.  This evening at sunset I checked on the cattle.  All the cows were in the corral.  Ok.  If it makes you feel safe, fine.

Something must have chased the cows that they would go through the fences, and the next day they were leery of going out there again.  Something overnight or during the day?  I didn't get a chance today to go and walk around looking for other tracks. Weeks ago when one cow would jump a fence I walked around the next day.  I did see a few dog or coyote tracks.  Or wolf tracks?  But not many tracks.  Donna says I should get a trail camera to try to see what is going on.   Maybe.   I'll see how the cattle are tomorrow.

North / middle fence

Middle pasture and hayfield fence close to the north pasture fence.  When I was moving snow for the hay feeders I also moved some snow to the fence so the cows wouldn't try to jump over the fence after doing it weeks ago.  The snow didn't stop them.

Middle pasture and hayfield fence at the spot closer to the south fence.

South pasture fence

Corral fence.  The board is too high to try to jump over. What broke the board?

One of the cattle's earlier walks back to stand outside the corral.

Tractor

Wednesday I got my tractor back from the John Deere dealership.  Before Thanksgiving my tractor started to act up.  The tractor is a stick shift.

The difference is that the stick shifts are different gears for different speeds.  But it is not for forward or backwards. There is no reverse on the stick shifts.  Forward, Reverse and Neutral is controlled by a lever on the steering column.  You can also see a "N" on the console display.  When the lever is in the forward position a "F" appears on the console. And "R" for reverse.

The tractor has a clutch pedal, but one doesn't need to use it to go forward or backwards. All one needs to do is to move the lever.  My problem was that after 10 seconds the tractor would automatically go to Neutral mode and the tractor would stop moving even though the control lever did not move.  A flashing "N" would then replace a "F" or "R" on the console.  One would have to move the lever back to the neutral position to reset it.  Then one could move the lever back to forward to backward.  After 10 seconds, the same thing happens.   Kind of hard to move the tractor when this happens.   And hard, and time consuming, to put a large hay bale out for the cattle.

Initially after numerous attempts the control lever would work and keep the tractor moving.  Then when one has to shift to move the other direction, the same problem would happen again.

The tractor is so new it is still under warranty.   I called the John Deere dealership.  Of-and-on when the repairman could come out to check the tractor.  Toss the Thanksgiving holiday in and Jack the repairman didn't make it out until December.  He spent hours working on the tractor.  He had a laptop to connect into the tractor as things are more electronic now-a-days, especially the control lever.   Maybe a connection was acting odd.  Looking at the connection it looked fine, but he said he would order a new connection to replace the one the tractor had in case the connection was the problem, and then come out to install it.

In the meantime, after he had checked the tractor out, now the tractor control lever consistently would go to neutral.   Never would it start working non-stop.  Moving bales got slower.  Then I realized that if I didn't let the clutch pedal out all the way, the problem wouldn't happen.  If I let the clutch pedal out all the way the problem happened.  I didn't have to use the clutch pedal to move the tractor, but I grew up driving stick shift and always press the clutch pedal when shifting gears.   Riding the clutch pedal is not good for the vehicle.  Fortunately I didn't have to drive that much when moving a bale.

Weeks passed.  I called the John Deere dealership.  Now Christmas and New Years holidays got in the way.  Finally earlier in January Jack came out to work on the tractor.  He had the new connection.   Opps.  It didn't match the connection the laptop complained about.  Finding the right connection is difficult as there are multiple connections.  They are located under the cab of the tractor.  To find them one lays under the tractor, or looks and reaches from the back of the tractor and under the cab.

He also downloaded a software update to the tractor in case that was a problem.  Nope.  He found a connection that matched the new one and replaced it.  Nope.  That didn't fix the tractor.  Each time he came out he spent three to four hours working on the tractor.

No fixes meant the tractor had to go into the shop.  Then I had to work around that.  I need to put out a new bale every three days.  I worked it out that I put a bale in the middle pasture and a bale in the north pasture.  That would give me six days.  I had to work it out that the six days would be Monday to Saturday as I imagined it would take more than a day to fix the tractor and I didn't want the six days to be over a weekend as they don't work, or get parts delivered on Saturday or Sunday. 

So this Monday was the start.   They had to come get the tractor and haul it to the dealership which is located on the opposite end of town.   The delivery guy told me when he picked up the tractor that he already had another delivery to the Seattle area on Friday, so Thursday would be the day of  return delivery.  I hoped they could get the tractor fixed by Thursday. 

Finally things went right.  I went for a bicycle ride late Wednesday afternoon and when I got home there was my tractor.  Jack was able to find the right bad connection, replaced it, and the tractor is now fixed.  Finally.  And this was on a new tractor with less than 100 hours of use.

Now that the tractor is working I spent some time clearing snow in the pasture before giving the cattle a new large hay bale today.  I don't like setting a hay bale on the snow.  Prior I used a shovel to clear a spot for the hay bale.  Using the tractor I cleared a larger area that is good for three or four hay bale placements as I like to move the hay bales each time.  This spreads the manure placement and reduces the hoofs from messing up the ground when the ground is not frozen.

You can see Fritz around the hay feeder.  He is the smaller one in the middle of the photo.

Another cow through a fence

What is going on with my cows?   Several days ago no cows through or over a fence.  So I thought I was done with this behavior.  Today I found a cow in the south pasture.  A different cow than the previous one.  And a different pasture.

This was a bigger cow so it didn't make it over the fence.  And this fence doesn't have an additional wire fence.  So the top three barb wires were either broken or pushed down by the cow as it went over and through the fence, and one metal fence post pushed to lean.  I had partially straightened the fence and post when I took the photo.

The cow was standing near where it had gone through the fence.  I opened the south pasture gate so the cow could go and join the rest of the cows.  The rest of the cattle were in the NE part of the middle pasture by the gate to the north pasture.  They weren't near the hay bale I had placed in the middle pasture on Sunday.

Before dark I fixed the fence and tightened and reattached the barb wires to the fence posts.  By the time I was done it was too dark to go walking about to see if I could see other tracks in the snow.  Tracks other than one made by cows.  I'm starting to think something is chasing these cows through and over the fences.  A dog?  A coyote?  Something else.  Maybe even Bigfoot as Donna is fond of Bigfoot.

Cow on and over a fence again

What is up with this cow?  The end of December I posted about a cow that jumped on and over a fence into the hayfield.   Days later she did it again.  The second time she did it at the fence section next to the one she jumped over before.  Also that day another cow broke a fence wire and got into the north pasture.  By the time I went out there everyone was near one another in three fields.  I got them all into the corral and gave them some hay.  I fixed all the fences.

Today I found the one cow back in the hayfield.  She went over the fence section she last went over even though when I repaired the fence I made sure it was high.  A metal t-post was bent, two strands of barb wire were broken, and the rest of the fence was a little bent.  This time I let the cows in the middle pasture go first to the corral for more hay.  Then I opened the hayfield gate to let that cow join the other cows in the corral.  That cow just stayed in the hayfield and followed the other cows along the fence toward the corral.  I called and called for this cow.  Finally she came over to the gate where I was standing and holding it open.  As she started to step through the gate area her front foot slipped slightly in the snow and she quickly turned around and ran back into the hayfield.  What?  Knock it off and come through the gate.  She stood and stood and stood and watched me and the gate area.  Then looked over to the cows in the corral.

Okay.  I'm not wasting any more time.  I left the gate open and went off to dump my fireplace ash out in the pasture.  I then shoveled some snow to clear an area where I will put a new hay bale tomorrow for the cattle.  A few days ago we had about 5 inches of snow, and last night maybe another inch of snow.

Then I went back to the hayfield gate.  That cow was still standing out in the hayfield.  What is wrong with you? Go through the gate and join the other cows in the corral.  So I had to go out into the hayfield and through the snow and herd the cow to the open gate.   The first time she turned and ran away from the gate as she got close to it.  Again I went out, and after some herding around and around, the cow finally went through the gate and then to the corral.  By the time she got to the corral a lot of the hay had been eaten by the other cows who had been there a while by now.

Tomorrow I will have to repair the fence. I don't know why this cow is making such an effort to get over this fence.   The hayfield is covered in snow and there is nothing there for this cow to eat.

Gate down

Yesterday I saw something odd out on the hayfield / south pasture fence.  The area around the gate looked odd.  I got out my binoculars and saw that half of the gate was down.  I thought I had installed the gates so this wouldn't happen.  Nothing like this happened over the years.

I have lag bolts up and down.  So the gate wasn't lifted off the bolts.  I guess the hinge on the top part of the gate must have slipped down.  How?  Who Knows?  No cattle are in the south pasture.

I put the gate back on the bolts and readjusted and tightened the hinge.  The gate should stay in place.

2024's bicycle miles

I rode 6540 miles in 2024.  My goal was 6000 miles.  Last year the milage total was only 5770 miles.  Since Na Nina was predicted for this Winter, and that usually means colder and snowier for us in the NW U.S., I tried to make the 6000 mile mark earlier than usual as I didn't want to ride many miles if it was cold and snowy.   Been there, done that for cold snowy bicycle riding; and I'm getting older.

I made 6055 miles by the end of November.  Goal accomplished.   Since La Nina now became somewhat late and milder than predicted, we have been about average to a touch above average for moisture and temperatures.  Cold enough I couldn't do much ranch work outside but decent enough to keep riding my bicycle.  That is why the yearly total was 6540 miles.