Livestock well: drilling

The next day Paul pounded the well casing pipe into the ground.  The pipe went into the ground faster than I expected - especially since earlier the large pay loader could barely budge the pipe.

Adjusting the pounding clamp

Here is a short video of Paul pounding the pipe into the ground.   The last part of the video shows him removing some sediment from the bottom of the pipe, though by the time I took the video it was mainly dirty water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF97LdmdLLk&feature=youtu.be


The previous post showed the 'shoe' that was welded on the bottom of the pipe.  At the top of the pipe is another 'shoe' to protect the pipe as it is being pounded into the ground..  This 'shoe' is removable.   Note, I placed a number of temporary sturdy boards over the concrete casing to make movement around the site easier and safer.

The pipe was pounded 25 ft into the ground.  However Paul discovered the bottom of the pipe was in clay and no longer gravel.  With the hook he pulled the pipe up almost three feet to get it out of the clay.

After the pipe was in the ground he pumped water out of the pipe using a 3 hp pump that can pump at about 50 gallons a minute.   Notice the dirty sandy water.

After a while the water cleared up.  Or so I thought.  When Paul collected water in a 5 gallon bucket there was a small amount of sand on the bottom.   I thought it was so small as to be no problem.  Maybe, if all I was going to do was run a small pump for the livestock water trough.  But since I have a few old irrigation pipes I plan to get and run a larger pump to pump enough water to water the corral and some surrounding area.  The larger - more expensive - pump would more likely draw some sand and I wouldn't want to damage or wear the pump out sooner because of the sand.

Sand residue from the pumped water

Paul said in the past that sometimes after hours or a day or two the sand would clear up an quit.  He also tried placing the pipe at different depths. Since I had water starting at a depth of 8 1/2 ft he could try different levels and still have enough water.

He tried a few different levels.  The sand cleared up sooner or slower at various levels but we always still had some sand.   We ran the pump into the night and would see in the morning how much sand was in the water.

Livestock well: prep

I hired Paul Erickson to drill (pound) a 6 inch pipe for a livestock well for me to replace the old pipe that plugged up with sand. I should have done this last year before my failed efforts to get a well pipe into the ground with "do it myself' methods.  Paul has the equipment and expertise and did a great job in getting the pipe into the ground.

I believe Paul is the last of the pounding drillers left in the Valley.  His truck is a 1969 model.

Paul set up his drilling rig and prepared the pipe on a Monday evening May 12.

Paul hadn't used his drilling rig in a week and we discovered a bird nest in the back of his truck.

In position.

In my 'do it yourself' plan I had the bottom of the pipe bent into a point, cut and drilled holes in the pipe.  Paul didn't like this as it affected the integrity of the pipe and he was concerned it would fail when pounding it into the ground.  I believe his pounder had 2000 pounds of pressure.

So Paul cut off the bottom 8 ft of my pipe.

Then he welded a bottom 'shoe' on the pipe.  The 'shoe' is super hard steel and protects the bottom of the pipe when it is driven into the ground.

Daisy wasn't so sure about this strange guy welding the pipe.

Once Paul left for the day Daisy checked out his trailer and drilling rig.

Sunset

We had a break from the rain today.  I worked on fixing more fence.  Here are a few sunset photos while I was working.

Horses: dirty and fence

We have had rain the past few days.  After the first day of rain it looked like the white horse rolled in the mud.   The next day she was clean.

The white horse has the ability and tendency to eat the grass on the other side of the fences.  She has cracked a couple of old fence boards.  Sunday afternoon she broke a fence post and then boards and got into the NE pasture.  The smaller horse didn't couldn't follow her.  After a bit I was able to herd the white horse into the corral.  After fixing the fence and releasing the horses from the corral they quickly went to where the fence had been broken.

The bottom part of the rotted broken fence post.

Fixing the fence

The fixed fence and disappointed horse.

More calf photos and video

As I mentioned earlier I have six calves.  The seventh cow hasn't had her calf yet.  The previous owner said she calved later than the other cows last year.  It has been almost a month since the last calf has been born.  I hope the bull was still around last year by the time this last cow started again to go into heat.

Now that the cattle are in the pasture it will be harder to notice soon when the last calf has been born.  If it is a boy calf it could be hard to band until Fall as after a couple days the calves run like lightning.

So far: three boys and three girls.  The next calf will be the tie breaker.  The first three calves were girls and the last three were boys.  It would be nice to keep the boy streak alive as boy calves command more money.

Follow the link to see 20 new photos of the calves when they were still in the corral.

 https://plus.google.com/photos/109566462412251958234/albums/6024966456412504241?authkey=CLu5lJWT8YW-Ug


Here is a video of the calves running around the corral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RoJcACupH4&feature=youtu.be


Finally, here are a few photos of the cattle in the pasture.  Notice in the second photo how Rose goes left when the herd goes right.  What an independent and adventurous girl!

Now I am caught up on my cattle and calf photos.
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Calf 6

The sixth calf was born on Thursday May 15, three days after calf 5.  Another boy.  Another afternoon birth which I again missed.

Initially Tammy and I thought  the calf would be born a couple days earlier when we saw the mother lay down.  But when she stood up the birth area bulge retreated back into the cow.

I'm not sure how the calf got manure on him so soon.

 "Meet my new son.   Now cleaned up."

Here is a short video of his mother licking him and the calf squirming around.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNzASVklADA&feature=youtu.be

Calf 5 - White faced

The fifth calf was born on Monday May 12, two days after the fourth calf.  Again in the early afternoon.  The calf was up and drinking from his mother by the time I discovered he was born.  He has no name yet.

Not only does he have a white face but also a white belly and the very tip of his tail is white.

Here is a short video of the newborn calf drinking and walking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGluInecyvY&feature=youtu.be

Calf 4 - Beulah's calf

The fourth calf born was born mid-afternoon on Saturday May 10, just three days after the previous calf.  Again I just missed the birth as the calf was sleeping and clean and Beulah was working on eating her afterbirth. 

This is the first boy calf born and my uncle Larry and aunt Diane wanted to name him.  The name they chose: Buster.  I have a few all black calves so if Buster is not feeding from his mother it is kind of hard to tell him apart from the others.

Tired from being born

Photo Tammy took of Beulah and Buster

Beulah is a big girl.  I was afraid if she was a mother like Momma - over-protective - then I could be in trouble.  But Beulah is a concerned but relaxed mother and I have had no problems with her.

Here is a short video of Beulah licking her newborn calf and then starting to eat her afterbirth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpGLzJvBreI&feature=youtu.be

Swapping gates

I changed two of the corral gates.

First, I replaced the corral gate to the yard.  Last year I had bought a real heavy duty gate - a bull gate - and decided to use it in the corral rather than in a pasture fence.  Also, the corral/yard gate had a wheel as the gate would drag on the ground after you opened the gate. The wheel helped support the gate, but wasn't perfect as the wheel would sometimes get caught, especially in the snow or mud.

Old and new gates

Since this new gate is very heavy I selected a heavy solid railroad tie and then poured 340 lbs of concrete around it to hold it in place.  The post is solid.

Daisy inspecting and helping.

The new gate opens on the right side and not the left like before.  Because the horses had pushed the old post to make it lean when scratching on it last year I needed to replace the post. With a square railroad tie the most the gate will open is straight out to the side.  Due to the position of the gate to the barn I was concerned the room between the open gate and the barn would limit a person when driving in and out of the corral if I had the gate open on the left and move to the right.

You may also notice I replaced the tall white pole with another railroad tie.  The hole for the new well is not yet filled in and it was relatively easy to take out the pole now before the hole is filled in.  I didn't need a tall pole for a fence post.  I don't know why the previous owner placed a pole here.

The new gate has a spring lever to lock the gate.  I drilled a hole in the post for the bolt to go into to hold the gate closed.  This also helps to keep the gate from sagging.  Metal 16 ft long gates have a tendency to do that.

This new gate is not perfect.  At the very most open position the gate brushes the ground because of gate sag and the ground is higher at that spot.  I haven't figured out a solution yet.

The second gate to be swapped was the gate that leads out to the north pasture.  I replaced this gate with the one I had taken out of the corral/yard fence.

Another reason to replace this gate is that it also drug on the ground when mostly open.  I had installed the gates lower than I install them now.  But also the cause of the lean is that I drilled the two bolt holes in the center of the railroad tie.   However the railroad tie is warped and not straight.  That caused the gate to lean down the more it was open.  Below you can see where the new bolt hole is located.  Another reason to swap gates is with the old red gate I can't re-position the height of the hinges.  With the 'new' green gate I can adjust the hinge height. I felt more comfortable with the new hole up in addition to being left of the old hole.

I had to drill into the post a little bit for the top bolt.   That is because the railroad not only is bent a little to the side, it is also bent slightly towards the gate as you can see in the second photo below.  I can adjust how far out the bolt protrudes from the post.  Because of the position of the railroad at the other end of the gate I didn't have much room to extend the bottom bolt.  It was easier to draw in the top bolt to make up for the sag and keep the gate more level.

The 'new' gate.  It also has a sliding bolt that goes into the railroad tie to help prevent sag and provide a secure closure.

A feature I add to the  gates hung near railroad ties is to nail a 'hanger' to support the gate when open, and to prevent the gate from swinging.

How the 'hanger' works.   This photo was taken just after I finished installing the green gate.  I work till dark.