Before the snow flies and the ground freezes

The end of November and the beginning of December and the ground is not frozen!! This past week we saw warm temperatures in the 40s F. (Yay!) I've been busy taking advantage of this good weather as soon (like today!) the snow will fly and I won't be able to do much work outside.

I've been working more on my loading corral. I finished the south side of the corral - or at least the posts. I plan to make the last panel a gate so I put that off till another day as I can work on that after the ground freezes.

Note: the white piece on the green gate is because a few years ago a steer tried to jump the gate and came down on top of the gate bending it. The white piece is my patch once I hammered the gate back into shape.

Here is the corner post I removed. Even though you can see signs of rot, the post was solid in the ground. In photo 2, the hole is 35 inches deep.

Here is the south side now that I rebuilt the fence. Leaning against the fence is one of the two remaining 8 ft wood corral panels I have left to use. It later went on the north side of the loading ramp. I don't have a 'before' photo, but trust me, this fence is now so much better and solid.

Except for the corner railroad tie, all the ties are 10 ft long and set into the ground 30 inches. The corner tie is 11 ft long and set into the ground 35 inches. The panels are about 5 ft high. Later I plan to nail one more level of boards a little higher on the ties - then the cattle won't even think about trying to jump the fence.

Sunset and stars

As I was working on my loading corral rebuild this evening here is the sunset I saw.

Then the crescent moon along with Venus and Jupiter came out. I hope you got to see it as the three won't be this close for many years.

Day after Thanksgiving

The day after Thanksgiving and I had some kind of malaise. Maybe it was from eating so much during the Thanksgiving meal. I had planned on getting up early to go shopping but when I woke up around 7 am I went back to bed. It was cold and dark and I didn't feel like shopping. What did I need anyway?

I went uptown around 9 am. Not much warmer but it was light outside. A valley inversion was starting up and today it 'took', which made the day sunless and a bit gloomy all day.

I was later shopping this year as last year I was out and about around 6 am. This year it seemed there were less people out and about at all the stores. A salesman at Office Max told me the first hour was very busy then it died off. There were only a half dozen vehicles in the parking lot when I was there after 10 am.

I wandered about and ended up buying nothing - unlike last year. I found I can buy the camera I am interested in over $20 less online than in a store. None of the DVDs interested me. Either I had already seen the movies, else they were lame movies I had no interest in. I did see a number of people each buying a number of DVDs.

I visited the Sportsman Ski Haus store. Not too busy and John, a salesman, was very helpful and knowledgeable about cross-country skis, snowshoes, and back country GPS units. All of what I want and all of which cost mucho $$$.

Then it was on back to home. I found three more dead pocket gophers. The temperature by mid afternoon reached 37 F so I was able to dig through the ground's frozen top layer to find new gopher tunnels and set more traps. I have about 3/4 of the hayfield 'cleared'. It doesn't look like I will be able to reach the southern property boundary this year. Hmmm... I am like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the hill over and over.

I heard a shotgun blast from over on Wyatt's property. Kelly said it was fairly close to my fence. No idea if that person got his deer. Kelly got a 4 point buck yesterday before Thanksgiving dinner. Hunting season ends Sunday at sundown so Kelly took whichever buck came by yesterday. It wasn't the larger one he was trying to get. He also has a doe tag.

I am working on the loading corral again. I have 14 feet on the south side left to re-fence. The remaining two posts are solid but I decided to replace them as all the rest of the posts are now railroad ties. The other day I had taken down the 14 ft of the old fence and today I removed one of the posts and dug a new hole for a railroad tie. Because I am using wooden corral panels as my new fence the post holes are in different locations. I ended up digging a 30 inch deep hole for my new post. Lots of rock in this spot as you can see in the photo later.

This tie is the same length as the others I put in the ground this past Summer: 10 feet long and 9 inches on one side and about 6 inches on the the other. Either I am stronger or this tie is not as heavy as the other ties as I was able to - relatively - easily drag this tie from my pile of ties to the hole and then lift it into the hole. For some reason the previous owner hadn't removed two spikes from the tie so I had to pound them out before using the tie.

It was dark by the time I got the rocks filled back in the ground around the tie and tamped down to make the tie solid. One more post to go. It will be a race to see if I get it done before the ground really freezes or it snows.

I felt better once I got the railroad tie in the ground. I actually did some work today.

Photo 1: yes, this pile of rocks came out of that hole
Photo 2: The hole is 30 inches deep - though it doesn't look like it.
Photo 3: railroad tie before I put it in the hole.

Thanksgiving

I had a nice Thanksgiving. While I had invites from Jackie and from Kelly and his wife, I had already committed to eating with Sue Ann, Bill and his wife Marilyn at Sue Ann's house. I made a green bean casserole and also brought a bottle of wine.

The turkey and all the food turned out great and we ate lots and I was very full at the end of the day. Bill made two pies. We ate an apple/cranberry/currant pie after the meal and Bill brought Sue Ann and I each a slice of his gooseberry pie to eat the next day. Yum!

After the meal and before eating the pie we went for a walk around Sue Ann's neighborhood. It was a little chilly and even I was feeling a bit cold by the time we got back to Sue Ann's place. Poor Marilyn was cold. We warmed up with hot chocolate and tea along with a slice of pie. Sue Ann has an electric fake fireplace and a few of us stood by it for a bit when we first got back.

The neighborhood isn't fully developed as you can see in the photo. The college age son of Sue Ann's neighbor's saw a mountain lion when he went out to his car a few days earlier. The night before Thanksgiving Sue Ann thought she saw the mountain lion when she went out to toss her garbage.

While Sue Ann rents her duplex - which is nice - the rest of the houses are ritzy. Some houses go for several million dollars. The neighborhood is built in the woods around a golf course.

Some houses had really nice statues.

More on the mountain lion

Today I chatted with Jim about the mountain lion that killed his wife's two miniature horses. The horses were fine that Saturday night as their grandkids had visited and were playing with the horses until dark. Debbie found her horses on Sunday morning when she went out to feed them. They were both in their pasture relatively close to the house. Neither Jim nor Debbie heard anything Saturday night.

The two horses were a bloody mess. They think the male horse put up a fight as it was really torn up. One of its legs was broken and almost off. Poor Debbie as she is heart broken.

A Fish and Wildlife official came out along with a guy and his tracking dog. The dog ran around my pasture and howled but couldn't pick up the mountain lion's scent. They gave up. Jim chained the horse carcasses to the fence posts and then called a couple of his buddies with mountain lion experience and they came over that night after 10 pm when they came back into town.

Between dark and his buddies arrival a mountain lion was back. They had four dogs and they chased the lion across the river where it went up a tree to escape the dogs. I am not sure if the tree was one of the scrubby trees along the river or if the lion made it to the ridge and the pine trees. The guys shot the lion and brought it back. From their arrival it took less than an hour.

Jim now is not so sure the lion shot was the one that killed his wife's horses. Two weeks later a neighbor who lives up on the ridge to the north a half mile to a mile away watched two mountain lions chase down a deer in her yard. It could have been those two lions that killed the horses and the lion that got shot merely took advantage of opportunity to feed on the dead horses the next night. Or maybe the three ran together and only one got caught in the darkness.

Lots of mountain lion activity in the Valley this Fall. Tonight I spoke with Sue Ann and she told me a couple days ago a neighbor's son in her subdivision in Columbia Falls surprised a mountain lion when he went outside the house. Sue Ann is not happy as this means she will now have to carry bear spray when she goes on walks in the woods near her place.

And since there may be two more mountain lions in my area I'll have to be careful if I am out in my pasture after dark.

Ice from cattle trough

With all the rain we had a few weeks ago water got into my cattle trough. With no cattle currently I prefer the trough to be empty of water.

With this colder weather I found a way to remove water from my cattle trough. At night the water turns to ice and during the day when the temperature is in the 30s and 40s the ice partially melts. For several days now I have pulled pieces of the ice floating in the trough and placed them against my small English Walnut tree.

Yes - the tree is small as one of the cattle got their head through the fence a few years ago and ate the tree down. Hence the wire now nailed to the fence.

That the ice has been there a few days now is a testament to the cold temperatures and the shady location. You can see how one piece of ice has partially melted where it rests against the right side of the white metal pipe.

Burning grass

The county has open burning until the end of this month. As it hasn't rained (much) lately I decided to burn a little grass along my fence. This is grass the swather doesn't cut.

The weather was cool (around 40 F) and cloudy with a light breeze from the SW. A perfect direction. Not that the wind direction mattered much as with the cool, cloudy and damp weather the fire didn't burn beyond the tall dry grass. Low grass to the ground didn't want to burn which was fine with me.

I only burnt the corner. I didn't feel like burning along the fence to the road at this time.

Yes, the patio fence is on my list of fences to rebuild.

Burning log

Tonight as I was stirring the mostly burnt but still smoldering logs in my wood stove one log jumped out of the stove and onto the floor in front of the stove. YIKES!!!

Fortunately the log fell onto the metal floor covering that the stove sits on, though some embers fell onto the throw rug in front of the metal covering. I quickly brushed the embers back onto the metal.

The problem was the smoldering log was hot and now with more air started to flame again. Smoke rose. I quickly got a towel and grabbed the log and tossed it back into the stove. *whew!*

Still a fair amount of smoke got into the house. I have my air cleaner on high to clear it out and it is taking longer than I would like. I guess I should have earlier opened the doors to air the house out even though the temperature was in the 20s F.

This is a first for me but at least no fire started.

Raking leaves

When I returned from North Dakota I found a yard full of leaves. My brother keeps mom's yard immaculate and would be appalled. I usually don't mind leaves as they deteriorate and replenish the soil.

However... it is another matter when you shovel snow. Wet heavy snow. The leaves stick to the snow and in addition to having to toss them with the snow, the resulting snow piles look ugly with dead leaves on them.

So I raked the leaves in areas where I will shovel snow this winter. And I raked leaves in some area I won't shovel snow as it looks odd to have half a yard clear of leaves.

Here are some before and after photos.

Election judge

I served as an election judge for the November 4 election. I was assigned to a different precinct for this election. I am not sure why, whether it was because I was in North Dakota when the initial assignments were made, or whether the chief judge in my former precinct wanted her friend back as a judge. During the primary election I had filled in at the last minute when her friend had to back out due to another commitment.

My precinct this time was in Kila, almost 15 miles west of Kalispell. Initially the county election department asked me to work in Trego but that was over 30 miles from my place. Too far.

My fellow judges and I met at 6 am at the Kila Country Church where the election would be held. The polls opened at 7 am. It was early but I got there by 6 am. There wasn't much traffic on the roads and I wondered if my fellow drivers were other election judges on the way to their polls. It was early enough that most of the traffic lights were still set to blink either red or yellow.

Having driven through Kila once in my life I had never been to the church. In the dark I almost missed it. Fortunately I saw the "Vote here" sign on the church as I drove by. The church building was new and modern, and as Kila is a small town I expected an old traditional looking church.

Eileen (our chief judge), her husband Lou, and Naomi were inside preparing the polls. Shortly after I arrived our last judge, Ted, arrived. All these judges had worked together for a number of elections and therefore they knew what they were doing and were efficient about it. This was different than my previous election teams.

I was youngest judge. Lou was quite elderly and older than Eileen so initially I didn't realize they were husband and wife. Naomi was also in her 60s or more likely 70s. Ted seemed to be closer in age to me as he appeared to be in his 50s. The others kidded Ted about his appetite and I found out why. It seemed like he was always eating. For all he ate I would have expected him to be heavy.

Lou was old enough that - even though he had a dry sense of humor -I sometimes wondered if his mind was wandering. He also had the slow speech some of the pretty old people have. He was the judge that handed out the ballots and gave the instructions to fill in the ovals correctly and make sure to vote on both sides of the ballot. Some people politely waited as he slowly spoke but knowing how to vote just wanted the ballot and be on their way. As time went on Lou, perhaps to save his voice, would look at the older voters and ask "You know how to vote, don't you?". When they said "Yes" he handed them a ballot and saved his voice.

Before handing out the ballot Lou had to tell me the ballot number for me to mark in the poll book against the person's name. This was to keep track of the ballot in case the voter spoiled the ballot and needed a new one. This happened only once. One couple was suspicious as to why we were doing this thinking this is how the government knew how they voted. We had to explain, once they voted and before putting the ballot in the machine to be counted, the stub at the bottom of the ballot that had the ballot number would be torn off and tossed into another box so no one would know how they voted.

Lou also had to stamp each ballot before handing it out. The stamp was red ink and his hand was red within a few hours.

Because we were in a church everything religious was to be covered. A portrait of Jesus was taken off the wall and placed down a side hallway out of the way. Eileen found a large tablecloth and covered another religious item that could not be taken off the wall.

The pastor showed up early afternoon. This being a country church he looked like any other rancher. In fact he and another church member had been out elk hunting earlier that day. They didn't get anything as the weather was rainy/snowy and definitely snowy higher up the mountains. They quit hunting because it was snowing so hard they couldn't see much.

The church had a small kitchen and the pastor made us a pot of coffee. I don't drink coffee so he made hot water and I had my choice of tea or apple spice mix. This helped as the temperature in the church was set low and was a little cool. I was fine but the older people felt cold. It didn't help that when the polls opened at 7 am the line stretched out the door for 20 minutes or so and the door was held open.

As this team of judges was efficient we were ready before 7 am - another difference from my prior experiences where we could have used a couple more minutes to get ready. Being ready this time was good as we had people waiting to vote 20 minutes before the polls opened.

This election was busy as we almost always had someone waiting to vote. It did slow down the last hour. I guess people were in the mood to vote early and not wait until the last minute.

Our precinct, being rural, covered a large area. To help some people the election department had another small polling place in Lakeside which is about 14 miles south of Kalispell.

Still we had one woman from Niarada vote in our precinct. Wow! Niarada is a long way from Kila. I would have thought she would have requested an absentee ballot to save her from such a long drive.

Niarada is represented by the A on the map. Kila and Lakeside are also shown on the map.

Our precinct was an odd shape. People in Kila living north of Hwy 2 voted in another precinct. Other people in Kila voted elsewhere. People living Marion, MT voted in our precinct. *shrug* Go figure.

We did have one glitch in the beginning when our voting machine would not work. Somehow the card that ran our machine was for another precinct and therefore would not recognize any ballots. A hour later we got the correct card and Eileen and Ted fed the earlier ballots through the machine to be counted.

This team never had to handle a provisional ballot. For this election they ran out of provisional envelopes. Eileen called and asked the election department for more and was told they were running out. Eileen got some envelopes from the church pastor and we used them to seal the ballots for privacy for later verification and counting.

We had a young (mid 20s?) couple who were suspicious of the voting machine and wanted their ballot hand counted. The husband teased his wife by calling her a Democrat. From her reaction she obviously wasn't a Democrat. So they must have been on the other side of the political spectrum. Hand counting ballots was a new thing and we ended up with 3 ballots for hand counting later by the election department. Another 20 something man had requested his ballot be hand counted.

No campaign materials or buttons, etc was allowed in the polling place. An overweight woman wore an Obama t-shirt and Eileen asked her to zip up her sweatshirt in order to cover up her t-shirt until she voted and left the polling place.

"No I won't!" she loudly told us.

Eileen again politely asked her and again she was indignant and refused. Eileen informed her it was against the law to have campaign related material in the polling place. She again refused with a tone of "you can't make me". Eileen told her she can go over and read the prohibition on a poster we had taped to the wall and told her she would have to leave the polling place if she wouldn't zip up her sweatshirt to cover the Obama t-shirt. She grumbled but reluctantly zipped up her t-shirt. We all noticed that when she left she already had her t-shirt most way unzipped again. *sigh*

Other people with McCain or Obama pins complied and removed their pins when we asked them to do so.

With the slow last half hour we were able to begin preparing for the poll closure at 8 pm. Combined with the other team members efficiency we were out of there by 8:45 pm. The earliest I had finished on other elections was 9:30 pm.

As I got out my glasses for sharpening my vision for night driving one lens popped out. One small screw popped out and was lost in the carpet forever. I don't need the glasses; they are just nice. I took them back to Walmart a few days later and they replaced the screw and fixed my glasses for free.

We had 643 voters which is a few hundred more than the precinct I previously worked at. I noticed the demographics at this precinct was older voters and more blue collar working people than the Whitefish precinct. Only one or two hot chicks. and they were not alone. I also noticed that quite a number of people looked older than their age when they got into their 40s and older. For people around my age I began to ask myself, "I don't look that old, do I?" Yikes!!

All in all things went smooth and it was a good election.

Gopher count

I trapped four more pocket gophers Sunday to bring this year's total to 115, one ahead of 2004's total of 114. I won't be able to exceed the next highest yearly total as that is 209. Getting almost 100 gophers in a couple of weeks before the ground freezes is beyond me.

I added up all my yearly totals and came to 1015 pocket gophers trapped. I thought I had reached 1000 trapped last year but I must have been counting pocket and regular gophers.

Leaning tree down

A good part of my afternoon was cutting down the "leaning" tree. If I remember right this tree blew over into the next tree in the summer of 2001. Over the years I have cut away at this tree. First I cut off the branches. The leaning tree initially was so tall it went out past the truck of the tree it fell against. I had cut the leaning tree trunk shorter so it didn't go past the standing tree trunk. Over the years the winter winds have enabled the leaning tree to fall further down against the standing tree.

To get the leaning tree to the ground I cut a section off the top of the trunk. The trunk dropped down a bit but then stopped. I had to cut the last remaining branches near the bottom of the trunk that were supporting the trunk so the tree would fall down. It did with a loud crash.

Since I would be standing way up on tree branches that the leaning tree leaned on, I didn't want to use a chain saw. A little too risky, especially as I would be all alone. So I used a couple of handsaws. It took a long time to cut through the trunk due to its thickness and because I didn't have good footing.

I looked for photos of this tree over the years but couldn't find any. Hmmm... where did they go? Here are the photos I took today.

Garden and pheasant

I dug up my garden. Or I should say my "pathetic" garden.

It was planted late. Much did not grow as heavy rains came before the seeds could get established. Then the deer ate much of what did grow.

In addition to the corn and zucchini I had earlier harvested in September, I harvested:

• 2 carrots
• 2 parsnips
• 8 green onions
• 16 beets

Around noon a pheasant came wandering through my front yard then headed off into the hayfield.

Delightful Friday

What a beautiful day! Usually it seems that when the clouds leave overnight they return after sunrise the next morning. Not today! I woke up to clear skies and they stayed completely clear all day until sunset when they moved in from the NW.

With clear skies overnight we had a cold temperature as it got down to 19 F at my place. The grass was white with a heavy frost and the ground was hard.

I spent the morning inside waiting for the temperature to get above freezing. Joyce was attending her brother-in-law's funeral so my primary hiking group didn't go hiking. It was a shame as it was a beautiful day for a hike. Oh well, I am going hiking with Patti tomorrow. How can I go a week without hiking?!

Surprisingly I was in the mood to clean and dust inside the house. Maybe it was because my mood was better with the sunshine or maybe it was because I could see all the dust in the sunlight, or both. I hadn't dusted since Spring and everything was coated in a heavy layer of dust. It took a long time but I washed all the living room furniture, tvs, a table, lamps, etc. This included the chair, couch and loveseat as they are all leather. I have a large wood console stereo system with a design facade which was a pain to clean. You know, I don't worry about thieves as who would want to steal a console TV and a console stereo? Who even uses record players anymore?

I still have more tables and chairs to dust and my knickknack shelf. But it was now after noon and above freezing. When I was outside beating the dust out of a couch blanket covering I realized how nice it was outside. Time to switch gears.

I did some work in the pasture. I found that yesterday's strong wind stripped off all the rest of the yellow tamarack needles. At least I got to see them a few days after getting back to Montana.

Here are how they looked when I first got back a few weeks ago.

I checked on my gopher traps. I caught two more pocket gophers. I'm up to 111 for the year. I also moved another trap as after a few days there was no activity. For the east half of the field I am past where I left off in September but not quite to where I was in August. The west half still has not reached where I was in September. I guess it is all moot as I am nowhere near the area I had cleared last year at this time.

Kelly has been by most every day this week hunting deer. The deer sightings this week have been up and down. Tonight he saw a 5 point buck interested in a doe but it was a little too dark and the buck was a little too far away for him to confidently take a shot. It is getting into full rut now so the bucks are not thinking as clearly and cautiously. Funny how females do that to the males.

I cut the rotted ends off some of the posts I had replaced in my loading corral last August, then split some more logs for firewood. I finally finished the logs I had from when my uncles and aunts visited me in 2007. I have now started on the larger stack of logs I cut and stacked last Fall. Hopefully I can get through these logs sooner than later though I expect I won't finish them until next year (another 2 years 2007 - 2009) *sigh*

As I mentioned earlier the clouds moved in around sunset. Here is Friday's sunset. Not as pretty as the previous night's sunset, is it? I barely caught the sunset as a lot of the pink quickly disappeared by the time I got my camera.

By the way, see the "skeleton" tree? That is the same (tamarack - or western larch) tree that was bright yellow in the earlier two photos. Fall in Montana is usually a fantastic sight when the tamaracks turn bright yellow.

Gophers

Earlier this week I finally got out and reset my pocket gopher traps. Since I have been away and not trapping them I had to start all over again at the northern fence boundary in the hayfield.

I found quite a number of fresh dirt mounds in the NW corner. This is the area where the gophers move in during the Summer after I trap out the pocket gophers. Since I trapped out the gophers this Summer the pocket gophers now moved back in.

*sigh*

The traps sat for a few days as I had no ambition to check them in the rain. Thursday I checked them and found I had trapped one in the very NW corner. A big fat pocket gopher. I found a few other traps had dirt stuffed in them so I cleaned the dirt out and replaced the traps.

That makes 109 pocket gophers for the year. I need 6 more to exceed 2004's total of 114. Otherwise I've always trapped over 200 a year. (I am not counting my first year as I started trapping them in August and only had one or two traps).

November sunset

The weather has been all over the place today. Clouds, a little sun, rain, a little sun, graupel, clouds, strong winds as a cold front came through, rain, then clearing at sunset. Sure... the skies clear off at sunset to let the warm air leave. The temperature is now already below freezing.

I was out in the pasture when the graupel came. It was quite white for quite sometime. I was getting wet. I finally gave up and returned to the house. Once I got back to the house it quit.

I took a photo of tonight's sunset as the skies were clearing.