Sun

The snow has quit.  We had sun today for most of the day.  The temperature was a little cooler but the sun felt warm.  I was able to finish shoveling the snow from the back yard.

Morning

Afternoon

The cattle were enjoying the sun while at their feeder.

Christmas full moon

Snow.  Snow. And more snow!!!  I thought it was supposed to quit by now, but Christmas morning I woke up to two more inches of snow.  That makes 22.2 inches for December.  We have 11 inches of snow on the ground.  I thought El Nino meant we would be warm and dry in the Pacific NW this Winter. We are well above average for precipitation in December.  Now the weather forecasters say El Nino's effect won't start until January.  They say that when the month is almost over and we are above average in precip.

I'm tired of shoveling snow.

Anyway.... for something different.  Here are photos of the Christmas full moon.  We won't have another full moon on Christmas Day until 2034.

I took one photo using the camera's flash so you can see that the moon is indeed full.

More snow than predicted

1 to 3 inches of snow was predicted for Monday night to Tuesday morning.  I woke up to 6 to 8 inches of snow.

Time to get out the snow shovel.

In the morning I shoveled paths to the various buildings. I spent the afternoon shoveling the driveway.  I had half the driveway shoveled when Curtis and Rusty drove over in Rusty's pickup with a snowplow blade on front.  Rusty plowed the rest of my driveway and then plowed the back by the tool shed.  Tomorrow I will finish the little bit by the garage and then back by the pole shed.  I want to toss the snow by the garage over the fence.  I didn't want the pole shed snow pushed against the wood piles and will shovel it elsewhere.

My mailbox took a hit as someone slid against it and broke stuff up. You know how bad Montana drivers are (I'll try not to get started, but seriously... signal for a right and then turn left in front of me?  was one of three insane Flathead drivers when I drove uptown on Monday).  The mailbox post is somewhat upright, but it is badly cracked and is not solid.  The mailbox front is bent.  With all the snow and frozen ground I am not sure what I can do now.  A permanent solution will be added to my "to-do" and "fix-it" list for next year.

Flaking

I moved another large hay bale for the cattle today.   The twine had rotted and came apart on the bottom letting some hay flake off when I lifted the bale off the wood pallet.  The twine was not plastic.  It's... I don't know... natural.  And more susceptible to rotting.  I think the twine started rotting when Dan stored the bales at his place.

I got a pitchfork and a wheelbarrow and gathered the hay up and took it to the feeder for the cattle.  Hay is too expensive to waste.  And I want to make sure I have enough hay to last the Winter.

Twine

Two gates in hayfield fence

Several days of snow and it looks like - for sure - that this is the end of fencing for the year.  I doubt the snow will melt till closer to Spring. On the corral split fence I did get the rest of the fence sections covered with the wire.  I found pipes to add to the fence but the snow came before I could unscrew the dead submersible pump from one pipe and the fittings from the other pipes.  Eventually I get around to it.  Today I spent much of the day shoveling snow off the driveway and off part of the yard.

Now that I have a little time I can write about one other major fence rebuild I did earlier this year...

Back in July I rebuilt part of the hayfield fence.  I replaced the last internal barb wire gate with a metal gate.  This is between the hayfield and middle pasture.  I also added a new metal gate to the south pasture / middle pasture corner where it meets the hayfield.  In the past when I herded cattle between the south pasture and the hayfield, sometimes some of the cattle would go to the south pasture's NE corner instead of the gate in the middle.  Now if they do that I can just open the gate in this corner.

It took me a week to replace the middle pasture gate, add the south/hayfield gate, and rebuild the fence between the gates.  To ensure I finished before I had to let the cattle into the hayfield I even skipped hiking that Saturday.  It was a good thing I skipped hiking that day as I only finished the fence work several hours before the cattle had to be moved.

Old fence and gate (the old barb wire gate is in front of the reddish metal gate laying down)

New fence and gate.  (looks a little bit more sturdy, doesn't it?)

In the following photo are two railroad ties for the rebuilt fence. The wood pieces are a rotted post and another 'patch' board from the old fence.  Usually I found the 'silver/white' metal t-post with a red cap to be 5 ft 6 inches long.  Certainly in the ground it looked that short.  (The metal post can also be seen in the first photo on the left side of the old gate.)  But once I finally got the post out of the ground I found it to be 8 ft long. You can see half of the post was in the ground from the dirty coloration on the lower half.  Apparently dad or the previous owners pounded the post halfway into the ground to make it even with the other posts.  What a waste of a post.

In the end I was slowed down by a nest of black wasps or hornets who had a hole right under where I had to rebuild the fence to finish up work.  You can see some of the wasps coming out of their hole just below the rock.  I had placed the rock over their hole and the next day they had this new hole.

At this link are 15 more photos of the fence work: https://picasaweb.google.com/109566462412251958234/MiddleFenceGates?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNujqr73g_32sAE&feat=directlink


Photos of Daisy while I worked on the fence are at her blog post: http://tallpinescat.blogspot.com/2015/12/daisy-helping-with-two-middle-pasture.html
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Cow fight

This morning Mama and a black bronco-faced cow got into a fight.  I don't know what triggered the fight, but you know female cattle, they hold grudges and fight dirty.  Without calves the cows udders aren't producing, but notice each cow goes for the other's udder even though there is nothing to latch on to or drink.

Today I fed them small bales and they got into this fight at feeding time.  The longer they fought the more the other cattle could eat the hay and the less the fighting cows would get. Mama realized this as she was trying to quit fighting so she could eat.   So more than likely it was my racist Black cow that started the fight as she didn't want to quit.  I have two black bronco-faced cows and late afternoon one of them was moving slowly like she was stiff and sore.  Probably the one who was fighting earlier.

At the end of the video watch the black bronco-faced cow glare at Mama, the brown cow.

They fought for much longer than I recorded.  The video is 2:16 long.

https://youtu.be/xGJ7Jb-l61Q

Corral split fence Winter work

I thought I was done building fence for the year [after all it is mid December now] - but.. surprise! - we had some warm weather last week and the snow melted and the ground thawed.  I love El Nino and global warming.

So I have been able to continue to work on the rebuilding of the fence that splits the corral.   One day I dug and placed another railroad tie.  Another day I nailed boards to that tie, then dug and placed the last railroad tie.  Another day to cut and hang boards on the last two railroad ties.  Today I finished nailing those boards.  It feels so good to have all the ties in the ground and the boards up.

A side effect of taking so long to complete the fence is that I salvaged enough cut log sides this year for the entire fence.  If I'm going to go for the "redneck ghetto" look (as Tammy had called it), I might as well go all out.


The following photo was from 2011 before I rebuilt the corral fence - outer and the split.   Looking back... man, that fence looks flimsy.  I'm talking about the outer corral fence, not the inner fence that is falling down.

This photo is from 2014. 

Here is how the fence looks today.

The "back" side of the fence.

I had a decision to make: which side of the railroad ties to place the boards. It is preferable to have the boards on the side the cattle would push against so the boards aren't pushed off the ties.  If so, then I put the boards on the wrong side of the ties.  That is because I place to hold Buddy south of the fence when he is not ready to romance the cows.  But I decided to place the boards on the north side of the ties because I walk on the north side 90% of the time and I prefer to see the rounded side of the boards instead of the cut back side of them.

Then what about the potential of the boards being pushed off the ties?  I nailed the boards with lots of thick long nails. Still...  if a cow sticks her head through the gaps in the fence and pushes to reach grass on the other side a board can break or pop off.   So I started to cut to length and nail wire fence on the back side of the boards.  I have three sections of fence done with four more to go.

Today the cattle are in the corral eating small hay bales.  I feed Rose south of the fence since the cows still push her around.  Being on the same side of the fence as me she wanted to "help" me with the wire fencing.  Rose... standing on the wire fence is not helping.

Rose

Beulah

Red Angus cow with Buddy in the background.

Panda and other cows

Post, snow, hay

The past few days have been warm. It also was rainy.  All the snow melted and the frost came out of the ground.  Yesterday was nice and I worked outside.  I worked some more on the corral fence that I wasn't able to complete before it got cold and snowed.  I have a 27 ft gap to close.  I lined up the remaining railroad ties and boards I need for the fence.  I sharpened up the chainsaw and cut a thick board in half lengthwise to make two long boards.  Before it got dark I was able to dig a hole and place one railroad tie in the ground.  I now only have one tie left to put into the ground to complete the fence.

Today no work on the fence.  It started snowing before noon.  It started snowing as I left on my bicycle to run an errand.  I didn't expect it to snow as heavy as it did.  15 miles later I was back home safe and sound.  Lots of snow on the roads but I didn't fall or get hit by any vehicles.  I was wet from the wet snow that stuck to me as I rode.

Then I gave the cattle a few more small hay bales so I could get the tractor through the corral so I could move another large bale out to the pasture for them.  I decided to only feed them one large bale this time instead of two.  I found the hay I got through Dan is a little stemy.  Several days ago the cattle were in the corral one morning asking for hay.  When I checked their feeders I found both of them up to the ring with hay.  But it was stemy - they had eaten all the good stuff.  It took them two days to finish up the stemy hay.  With only one bale at a time that means only one day at a time of stemy hay for them to finish.

My racist black cattle allowing one red cow to eat from the end of their feeder.

The cattle are fat and happy.  Even Mama is the heaviest I have ever seen her.

Rose on the left and Mama on the right

I so like my tractor.  It made the hay move so much easier than pulling the bale behind the pickup.

I put each new bale in a different spot so one area doesn't get overdone with manure and leftover hay.  The feeder behind the tractor is in the previous spot.

Fat lip

Early evening when I gave the cattle their hay bales one of the cattle suddenly pushed me hard against/into the hay feeder.  I got up and turned around and saw it was Buddy.  He was impatient to get to the hay and had tried to push me out of the way.  I moved slightly and he came in beside me.  As I got the twine off and tried to spread the hay out to the end of the feeder Beulah came in on the other side of me.  Neither Buddy (not that I really tried) nor Beulah (who I tried) would move.  I was stuck in the gap between their necks.  I had to climb into the feeder to get away - muddy manure feet and all.

My face must have gone against the feeder when Buddy pushed me as I have a fat lip now.  I usually keep an eye out for Buddy but in the early darkness and crush of cattle I didn't see him come around behind me.

When I went out late evening to feed the cattle again I kept an eye on Buddy.  This time he came to the end of the feeder to reach the hay and I tossed part of the bale his way before he would come around to the side.

Homeless collection pants

It was a rainy day today so I spent most of the day inside the house.  I turned my attention to the two pants in my '"homeless collection".  Even with more time to patch them - or maybe cause I had more time to look at them - I decided to not patch either pair.  Both pair went into the wood stove and are ash now so I can't change my mind.

I almost didn't have any pants without patches (I know! Crazy isn't it?!) but last week when working on the fence I ripped the knee of a good pair of pants and now have a patch on the knee.

It seems as if I can not have a pair of pants without a patch.
It won't be long next year before I have a new pair of pants to restart my homeless collection. 

Inversion gone

The inversion that settled in for the past week is finally gone.  We saw the sun today. I had to wear sunglasses.  It was a beautiful day.

Two large hay bales for the cattle

Last week the cattle went through the first hay bale in three days.  Fast.  But I hope that was because there wasn't a lot of grass before the snow and then the cold snowy weather temporarily increased their food intake.

For the last four or so days I have been feeding the cattle small bales from the barn.  That way I get the cattle into the corral so I then can move large hay bales out in the pasture without the cattle getting in the way.  And I wanted to use up some hay from the barn so I have some room inside the barn.  That's why I fed the cattle for more than just one day.

But Tuesday it was time to go back to the large hay bales.  With the small bales I don't feed them just once or twice a day, but four times a day.  I spread the amount out over four times to closer mimic their eating habits when grazing grass, which is somewhat like: eat for several hours, chew cud for several hours, then eat for several hours.  I don't mind feeding the cattle four times a day... for a short while.  Weeks of that does get old.

When in the corral waiting for their next feeding the cattle also tried to get to the weedy hay.   They reached over the front barrier and somehow they moved the pallet in front and started to chew on a few bales.  So each day I would toss a bale of weedy hay on the ground in the loafing shed for them to lay on.  Even so they ate much of the hay and weeds - more than I expected.  The weedy bales smelled bad from the wormwood/sage weeds.

So Tuesday afternoon, while the cattle were occupied by a few fresh bales of hay, I drove the tractor through the corral to get to the large bales and then take them to the pasture.

I plugged the tractor's engine heater in a few hours before I started the tractor and the tractor started right up.  The last time I started the tractor the temperature was in the 30s and I had to turn the diesel engine over a few times before the tractor would start.

I forgot to mention that the last time I used the tractor's bale spear to move the large hay bale I was rushing to get it done before dark and I didn't put the bale spear on correctly as the spear wasn't hooked on top. I sheared the two cotter pines that secure the spear onto the tractor.  I was able to move the bale once I hooked the spear on correctly.  On Black Friday I bought two new cotter pins at Ace Hardware.  This time I made sure I put the bale spear on correctly.  Then I put in the two new cotter pins to hold the spear in place.

The following photos shows the cotter pins in the bale spear when the spear is not attached to the tractor.

Cotter pin

Note: the rod between the loader's arms is suppose to be slightly bent.  Supposedly this way the rod provides stability between the arms without being rigid.


I put two large hay bales out in the north pasture.  I then assembled the new bale feeder for the second bale.  These feeders allow 12 cattle to eat at one time.  With 14 cattle now no one has to wait their turn.  And since I have some cows that do not want to eat next to another cow, two feeders should cut down on fights.

I positioned the feeders in the same area of the pasture but some distance apart.  In the evening when I let the cattle out - including Rose from her part of the corral - to eat from the feeders most all of them followed their trail in the snow to the first feeder.  But shortly one cow noticed the second feeder and she ran over to the new feeder all excited.  Then another cow saw the second feeder and she ran over.  I quit watching, but knowing these cows they will run from one feeder to another so as to "not miss out on the good hay". They were over it by Wednesday morning once they realized both bales have the same type of hay.  In the corral with its two wooden feeders Buddy, Beulah and a few other cows - the larger ones - tend to stay at one feeder and not run between them.


Since I have extra wooden pallets I set the bales on them to keep the bales off the ground and dry.

The two hay bales

Rose

My racist black cows are still picking on the red cows.  Rose is at the bottom of the pecking order among the red cows.  It doesn't matter that I have two feeders; usually a black cow is at each feeder and one will chase Rose away from the feeder.  A black cow will even take a break from eating hay to chase Rose away.

I would chase the racist black cow away so Rose could go back to the feeder but when I went away a black cow would come back to chase Rose away.

I noticed, that while they couldn't get to all of the weedy bales under the loafing shed, the cattle's attempts caused several bales to tip over in the protected area.  I took one bale and laid it out in an open area under the loafing shed roof.  Rose then came over and ate the good grass among the weeds.  She was able to eat until the cattle ate all the hay in the two feeders and then came over and chased her off so they could eat the rest of the weedy hay.

So I opened the gate to south of the barn and let Rose in by herself to eat the hay in the south feeder.  She ate there the rest of the afternoon until I put more hay out for the cattle after 5 pm.  Then Rose wanted back in with the rest of the cattle.  How much hay she got then - I don't know.

Btw - now that I bought another hay feeder yesterday -guess what? - someone has two feeders for sale on Craigslist today.  Yup.  Same old story.

Ranch Black Friday

This Black Friday I got items for the ranch.  Murdoch's was having 15% off store wide on most items.  Did that include large ag items?   When Donna's daughter and son-in-law visited Murdoch's Friday morning they were told that the large hay feeders were included in the 15% offer.

In the afternoon, after getting some tools at Ace Hardware's Black Friday sale, I visited Murdoch's.  Mid afternoon and their parking lot was full, with lots of shoppers in the store.

Yes, the hay feeders were 15% off.  So I bought another bull level heavy duty hay feeder to match the one I already have.  I used that feeder all last Winter with no ill effects to the feeder from the cattle pushing on it.

The way it seems to work - when I want a feeder or second feeder none are for sale at auctions, in the sale papers, or on Craigslist.  When I have one and don't need another one they are found for sale.  Rather than waiting even longer for a second feeder I bought this one 15% off for $675.  Metal feeders are not cheap.