I got to somehow get the inside of the camera's lens cleaned of dust.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Fence rebuild by the road
Monday, July 7, I started to rebuild a little over half of the hayfield fence by the road. I had rebuilt the rest of the fence a few years ago after a semi truck flattened part of it.
The section I started rebuilding needed rebuilding. A little over a year ago Tammy helped get the baby calf off the road and back into the hayfield after she crawled through the fence. This section had only four strands of old and loose barb wire on bad posts.
Also my neighbor Dave said their cows were open as they had no bull. While people tell me no fence will stop a bull, I can at least make it hard for Buddy the Bull to get out of the hayfield if the neighbor's cows get too enticing for him. For a bull the old fence would be like getting out of a paper bag. So this fence rebuild just moved up the priority list.
I thought I could get this rebuild done in three days. Over optimistic as usual. The temperature of around 90 degrees also slowed me down. I lost a little bit of weight.
Why I had this timeline is that Friday I would go on an all day hike and Saturday Wyatt was bringing the hay. My neighbor wanted my cattle in his field to eat the grass down and I wanted the cattle out of the south pasture so I could leave the gates open. To get from the south pasture to the neighbor's field we had to pass through the hayfield. I couldn't have the fence down when the cattle were passing through the hayfield in case they made a run for it and couldn't be herded.
Day 1: Monday. I spent over four hours taking down the four strands of barb wire and the posts and boards supported by the wire. I wanted all the posts to be consistent intervals of 8 ft so that meant replacing all but three or four posts as only that number of posts on 8 ft intervals were solid. The rest of the day was spent starting to pull old posts out and putting new posts in.
The old fence was mainly wood posts with some metal posts added later as fixes. My new fence started as three metal t-posts then a wood post. Once I ran out of 6 1/2 metal posts and went to using 6 ft metal posts I switched to two metal t-posts to a wood post. Metal t-posts are less maintenance as the staples work loose on wood posts over time. I don't have enough of either metal or wood posts to make a fence of one type of post. And I find wood posts are better 'anchors' when using a wire stretcher.
Even though the cattle weren't in this field, having a fence down and 'open' made me uneasy.
Trapped one pocket gopher near where I was working.
Day 2: Tuesday. I finished adding the newer posts. The new fence has 76 posts. I added almost 70 posts. This makes the fence around 600 ft long. I just started to string one barb wire when it got dark. Also the mosquitoes were horrendous. I had to keep applying spray as I would sweat it off in the heat. I had to cover 100% as the mosquitoes would quickly find the spots I missed.
Day 3: Wednesday. I thought I could string all the barb wires. But I forgot the old wire was old. One strand was very old and brittle and could not be used. Just rolling it up caused it to break numerous times.
In the evening my older neighbor Daryl came to help. Its sad... a few years ago he had a brain injury and is not the same. We mainly talked. He wanted to be of use so eventually I had him place some wire clips on metal t-posts. He tried. I could place three or four clips to his one. He worked with me until dark, staying even after the mosquitoes came out to eat us alive.
I had other distractions and ended up with only three stands strung. No matter, I will finish the rest Thursday in time to move the cattle.
Day 4: Thursday. While the old fence had four strands of wire, over the years I have been accumulating rolls and rolls of used wire. The new fence would be six - and maybe seven - strands of wire. I got 5 strands in place before it was evening and I had to move the cattle. Five strands were high enough to keep the cattle in the hayfield if needed.
Day 5: Sunday. Once I rest and recover from stacking the hay bales I can surely finish the fence. I'm tired of fencing and want to be done with this. I only got the sixth strand strung.
Day 6: Monday. I had a little room for a seventh strand of barb wire and strung one. Done. Finally. Also finally got the wary second pocket gopher who had kept burying the trap with dirt.
The new fence uses three strands of the old barb wire: one at the bottom and two at the top. The remaining four strands - the important middle section - were newer tougher strands of barb wire.
The strands are tight and the fence solid. I feel much better about the fence.
Before...
After...
An example of patches to the old fence.
All the staples and wire after taking down the fence.
Only a few wooden posts were reused. Here are the boards and posts not reused.
I love my wire stretcher!
Seven strands of barb wire. The seventh strand is partially hidden in the grass.
For the section with 6 ft posts the top two strands are closer together than usual. No matter. More strength against when the deer jump the fence and snag the wire. Less chance of breaks.
Now that my fence has been upgraded my uncles and aunts may have trouble finding their way back to the ranch. The old fence was pretty unique.
Lastly, after I finished the major rebuild I checked the section I had rebuilt back in 2009 after the semi-truck flattened part of the fence. This section has almost an equal number of wood posts and metal posts. I found three wood post were very loose. I added three metal t-posts to support those wood posts. Also quite a number of staples were working their way out of the posts and were loose. Some staples were missing.
The section I started rebuilding needed rebuilding. A little over a year ago Tammy helped get the baby calf off the road and back into the hayfield after she crawled through the fence. This section had only four strands of old and loose barb wire on bad posts.
Also my neighbor Dave said their cows were open as they had no bull. While people tell me no fence will stop a bull, I can at least make it hard for Buddy the Bull to get out of the hayfield if the neighbor's cows get too enticing for him. For a bull the old fence would be like getting out of a paper bag. So this fence rebuild just moved up the priority list.
I thought I could get this rebuild done in three days. Over optimistic as usual. The temperature of around 90 degrees also slowed me down. I lost a little bit of weight.
Why I had this timeline is that Friday I would go on an all day hike and Saturday Wyatt was bringing the hay. My neighbor wanted my cattle in his field to eat the grass down and I wanted the cattle out of the south pasture so I could leave the gates open. To get from the south pasture to the neighbor's field we had to pass through the hayfield. I couldn't have the fence down when the cattle were passing through the hayfield in case they made a run for it and couldn't be herded.
Day 1: Monday. I spent over four hours taking down the four strands of barb wire and the posts and boards supported by the wire. I wanted all the posts to be consistent intervals of 8 ft so that meant replacing all but three or four posts as only that number of posts on 8 ft intervals were solid. The rest of the day was spent starting to pull old posts out and putting new posts in.
The old fence was mainly wood posts with some metal posts added later as fixes. My new fence started as three metal t-posts then a wood post. Once I ran out of 6 1/2 metal posts and went to using 6 ft metal posts I switched to two metal t-posts to a wood post. Metal t-posts are less maintenance as the staples work loose on wood posts over time. I don't have enough of either metal or wood posts to make a fence of one type of post. And I find wood posts are better 'anchors' when using a wire stretcher.
Even though the cattle weren't in this field, having a fence down and 'open' made me uneasy.
Trapped one pocket gopher near where I was working.
Day 2: Tuesday. I finished adding the newer posts. The new fence has 76 posts. I added almost 70 posts. This makes the fence around 600 ft long. I just started to string one barb wire when it got dark. Also the mosquitoes were horrendous. I had to keep applying spray as I would sweat it off in the heat. I had to cover 100% as the mosquitoes would quickly find the spots I missed.
Day 3: Wednesday. I thought I could string all the barb wires. But I forgot the old wire was old. One strand was very old and brittle and could not be used. Just rolling it up caused it to break numerous times.
In the evening my older neighbor Daryl came to help. Its sad... a few years ago he had a brain injury and is not the same. We mainly talked. He wanted to be of use so eventually I had him place some wire clips on metal t-posts. He tried. I could place three or four clips to his one. He worked with me until dark, staying even after the mosquitoes came out to eat us alive.
I had other distractions and ended up with only three stands strung. No matter, I will finish the rest Thursday in time to move the cattle.
Day 4: Thursday. While the old fence had four strands of wire, over the years I have been accumulating rolls and rolls of used wire. The new fence would be six - and maybe seven - strands of wire. I got 5 strands in place before it was evening and I had to move the cattle. Five strands were high enough to keep the cattle in the hayfield if needed.
Day 5: Sunday. Once I rest and recover from stacking the hay bales I can surely finish the fence. I'm tired of fencing and want to be done with this. I only got the sixth strand strung.
Day 6: Monday. I had a little room for a seventh strand of barb wire and strung one. Done. Finally. Also finally got the wary second pocket gopher who had kept burying the trap with dirt.
The new fence uses three strands of the old barb wire: one at the bottom and two at the top. The remaining four strands - the important middle section - were newer tougher strands of barb wire.
The strands are tight and the fence solid. I feel much better about the fence.
Before...
After...
An example of patches to the old fence.
All the staples and wire after taking down the fence.
Only a few wooden posts were reused. Here are the boards and posts not reused.
I love my wire stretcher!
Seven strands of barb wire. The seventh strand is partially hidden in the grass.
For the section with 6 ft posts the top two strands are closer together than usual. No matter. More strength against when the deer jump the fence and snag the wire. Less chance of breaks.
Now that my fence has been upgraded my uncles and aunts may have trouble finding their way back to the ranch. The old fence was pretty unique.
Lastly, after I finished the major rebuild I checked the section I had rebuilt back in 2009 after the semi-truck flattened part of the fence. This section has almost an equal number of wood posts and metal posts. I found three wood post were very loose. I added three metal t-posts to support those wood posts. Also quite a number of staples were working their way out of the posts and were loose. Some staples were missing.
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Picnic in the Park: Erik Ray
Now that Tammy has left I am attending the Kalispell Picnic in the Park music events again. She didn't like the music played there and we stopped going.
Same old, same old. Never on time for the music. I had to finish working on a fence before I could go.
The event seems to be the same. Bring your own chair or sit on the lawn. Same amount of people attending. One difference is I don't remember so many ugly and/or fat people attending. Hoo Boy!
The music was good. Erik Ray was a one man band. He played mostly acoustic guitar with a little harmonica and kick drum tossed in. For a zydeco number he played accordion and appeared to sing part of the song in Cajun. The songs were mainly old time blues and old time country with a little rock, zydeco, swing, and polka tossed in. A few songs were originals.
For the zydeco song he had a couple of girls from the audience accompany him on washboard.
Here is a short video:
Same old, same old. Never on time for the music. I had to finish working on a fence before I could go.
The event seems to be the same. Bring your own chair or sit on the lawn. Same amount of people attending. One difference is I don't remember so many ugly and/or fat people attending. Hoo Boy!
The music was good. Erik Ray was a one man band. He played mostly acoustic guitar with a little harmonica and kick drum tossed in. For a zydeco number he played accordion and appeared to sing part of the song in Cajun. The songs were mainly old time blues and old time country with a little rock, zydeco, swing, and polka tossed in. A few songs were originals.
For the zydeco song he had a couple of girls from the audience accompany him on washboard.
Here is a short video:
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Rain clouds
We had some rain on Monday. Not much where I am located. Apparently more elsewhere in the Valley. After all the heat we could use more rain.
Monday, July 14, 2014
Cattle at the neighbor's
No, not a jailbreak this time. Kyle asked if I could put my cattle on his five or so acres to eat the grass down. The grass is tall and he is worried that once the grass dries it will be a fire danger. Since July started the rain has stopped and the temperature has soared. Our high temperatures have been in the upper 80s to 90 degrees and things are starting to dry out.
Moving the cattle was a matter of coordination. Thursday was the only day I could move them. Saturday was hay day and I needed the cattle out of the south pasture to allow me to leave the gate open for Wyatt to deliver the hay. Friday I was going hiking most of the day.
To get the cattle to Kyle's field I had to go through the hayfield. I was in the process of rebuilding part of the hayfield fence along the road and I had to wait to move the cattle until I was done with the rebuild - else (and what did happen as the rebuild drug on) had enough fence up to stop the cattle from easily getting out.
Thursday evening I had enough of the fence up. Then I had to check Kyle's fence. Two sides of his fence were bad with one of these sides pretty bad. I spent some time adding old wire of mine to parts of his fence and pounding staples to hold loose wire to fence posts.
It was evening by the time I could move the cattle. In the past when I let the cattle into the hayfield they either headed to the two power line towers else hung a left to go towards the house and barn. Eventually they would circle the field to check their boundary but I didn't want to wait that long as it could be a while. I asked my neighbor Dave to be a second person in the field while I herded the cattle to the right when they entered the hayfield. All he had to do was stand, occasionally wave his arms when the cattle approached him, and walk as the 29 cattle moved and spread out. I did the herding.
Initially the cattle just wanted to stand and eat the tall grass when they entered the hayfield but in less than 15 minutes I got the cattle through the gate to Kyle's field. The bull went right along with the other cattle and was no problem, which is fortunate as I forgot to bring my sorting stick. Good thing no cow was in heat at that moment.
I moved a water trough to the field and filled it with water and moved the salt blocks over there too.
Sunday I finally got time to set up the float control on the garden hose to allow automatic water refills and now don't have to refill the water trough several times a day. The trough holds a lot of water but with 90 degree temperatures the cattle drink lots of water.
Sunday morning Dan's red Angus cow was in heat and Buddy the Bull was interested. More than just interested, he was possessive. If any other cattle got near her he pushed them away. He rammed one of my little steers into the fence pretty hard. Note to self: Buddy may be gentle, but don't ever get between him and his girl.
The next three photos are of three different attempts to mount her. She was not yet in 'standing heat' so she would move each time.
Notice one of my little steers (the black one) got run over when she was trying to get away from Buddy. Yes, he is poking her.
It's a lot of work for the bull when the girl keeps running away.
Even the red Angus's calf couldn't get near its momma while Buddy was 'interested'.
Excitement is over for now. This group is heading back to join the others in the shade of the trees.
Moving the cattle was a matter of coordination. Thursday was the only day I could move them. Saturday was hay day and I needed the cattle out of the south pasture to allow me to leave the gate open for Wyatt to deliver the hay. Friday I was going hiking most of the day.
To get the cattle to Kyle's field I had to go through the hayfield. I was in the process of rebuilding part of the hayfield fence along the road and I had to wait to move the cattle until I was done with the rebuild - else (and what did happen as the rebuild drug on) had enough fence up to stop the cattle from easily getting out.
Thursday evening I had enough of the fence up. Then I had to check Kyle's fence. Two sides of his fence were bad with one of these sides pretty bad. I spent some time adding old wire of mine to parts of his fence and pounding staples to hold loose wire to fence posts.
It was evening by the time I could move the cattle. In the past when I let the cattle into the hayfield they either headed to the two power line towers else hung a left to go towards the house and barn. Eventually they would circle the field to check their boundary but I didn't want to wait that long as it could be a while. I asked my neighbor Dave to be a second person in the field while I herded the cattle to the right when they entered the hayfield. All he had to do was stand, occasionally wave his arms when the cattle approached him, and walk as the 29 cattle moved and spread out. I did the herding.
Initially the cattle just wanted to stand and eat the tall grass when they entered the hayfield but in less than 15 minutes I got the cattle through the gate to Kyle's field. The bull went right along with the other cattle and was no problem, which is fortunate as I forgot to bring my sorting stick. Good thing no cow was in heat at that moment.
I moved a water trough to the field and filled it with water and moved the salt blocks over there too.
Sunday I finally got time to set up the float control on the garden hose to allow automatic water refills and now don't have to refill the water trough several times a day. The trough holds a lot of water but with 90 degree temperatures the cattle drink lots of water.
 |
| Before I hooked up the float control. |
Sunday morning Dan's red Angus cow was in heat and Buddy the Bull was interested. More than just interested, he was possessive. If any other cattle got near her he pushed them away. He rammed one of my little steers into the fence pretty hard. Note to self: Buddy may be gentle, but don't ever get between him and his girl.
 |
| Don't even think of getting near my girl. |
The next three photos are of three different attempts to mount her. She was not yet in 'standing heat' so she would move each time.
Notice one of my little steers (the black one) got run over when she was trying to get away from Buddy. Yes, he is poking her.
It's a lot of work for the bull when the girl keeps running away.
Even the red Angus's calf couldn't get near its momma while Buddy was 'interested'.
Excitement is over for now. This group is heading back to join the others in the shade of the trees.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Moon, tree and Daisy
Saturday night's moon.
Two different camera settings of the same moon.
Two different camera settings of the same moon.
 |
| What a cutie-pie,watching the moon with me. |
Saturday, July 12, 2014
10 tons
Today I got hay from Wyatt. 330 bales to fill my barn. About 10 tons. Wyatt has a bale collector and he brought the hay over using the new gate I put in my fence between my pasture and his field. The gate made delivering the hay much easier and quicker for him.
However...
The electrical lines hang low over the gate. Much lower than the rest of the wires beyond the poles on each side of these wires. Fortunately Wyatt noticed wires before his bale collector could snag them. It is Saturday so no use calling the power company. Wyatt got his little D-9 cat and lowered the ground.
The ground is now lower than what I'd like. I'm afraid that when the cattle are in this pasture later the calves can crawl under the gate. The hay is all delivered and once the power company raises the lines we can fill some dirt back in.
Wyatt's bale collector has a sticky valve and each time he had to fiddle with it. It made me nervous each time.
One stack of 55 hay bales. All total I got six stacks delivered. The stack is 7 bales high: two bales higher than I can reach from the ground. I had to use a ladder to get the bales from the top two layers down and into the barn. It would take me 35 to 40 minutes to move all the bales into the barn. Moving all the bales took much of the day. A temperature of 90 degrees was no fun.
A full barn. Only room for five more bales.
None of the bales broke when I moved them. This is what flaked off the bales when I moved them. A half bale or more of hay. I gathered the loose stuff and piled it in the barn. Good thing I didn't get five more bales.
Each time I moved a stack I got soaked in sweat and covered in hay.
Here is a short video of the bale collector unloading its bales:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73SjT-aq1Uc&feature=youtu.be
However...
The electrical lines hang low over the gate. Much lower than the rest of the wires beyond the poles on each side of these wires. Fortunately Wyatt noticed wires before his bale collector could snag them. It is Saturday so no use calling the power company. Wyatt got his little D-9 cat and lowered the ground.
The ground is now lower than what I'd like. I'm afraid that when the cattle are in this pasture later the calves can crawl under the gate. The hay is all delivered and once the power company raises the lines we can fill some dirt back in.
Wyatt's bale collector has a sticky valve and each time he had to fiddle with it. It made me nervous each time.
One stack of 55 hay bales. All total I got six stacks delivered. The stack is 7 bales high: two bales higher than I can reach from the ground. I had to use a ladder to get the bales from the top two layers down and into the barn. It would take me 35 to 40 minutes to move all the bales into the barn. Moving all the bales took much of the day. A temperature of 90 degrees was no fun.
A full barn. Only room for five more bales.
None of the bales broke when I moved them. This is what flaked off the bales when I moved them. A half bale or more of hay. I gathered the loose stuff and piled it in the barn. Good thing I didn't get five more bales.
Each time I moved a stack I got soaked in sweat and covered in hay.
Here is a short video of the bale collector unloading its bales:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73SjT-aq1Uc&feature=youtu.be
Monday, July 07, 2014
"Grandpa" pants bites the dust
I gave up on another pant of pants today. They were a pair of pants Tammy hated. They were a loose fit pair of jeans and Tammy called them "Grandpa pants". Two and a half years ago when Tammy moved here there wasn't a patch on them.
In the photo they don't look too bad, but trust me, lots of rips where the patches were coming apart. More than I feel like patching.
I still have two pair of patched up pants in my "homeless" collection.
In the photo they don't look too bad, but trust me, lots of rips where the patches were coming apart. More than I feel like patching.
I still have two pair of patched up pants in my "homeless" collection.
Sunday, July 06, 2014
July 4th weekend
On the 4th of July I attended a birthday celebration for my neighbor Jan's dad. He turned 100 years old the end of May. This weekend the family and friends got together at Kelly's house to celebration his long life. Lots of food.
I got another horse. The two horses weren't eating the grass down as fast as I wanted them to. I'd rather they eat the tall grass before it drys out. The horses are in the NE pasture and haven't even gotten to the fruit tree & garden area yet. The sooner they eat that area the better.
The owners brought Cowgirl, or as Tammy named her last year: The Bitch. I left Cowgirl in the corral for the afternoon so the horses could get to know one another over the fence. Maybe that would minimize the fighting to settle the pecking order once they were all together.
Cowgirl is smart. When I entered the corral she knew I was going to go over and open the gate to the NE pasture. There was a little ruckus when the horses got together but not too bad. The white horse did want to fight and several times she would walk over to and then back up to Cowgirl to start a kicking war but Cowgirl would walk away. They seem friendly enough today.
Now that Tammy has left I am dropping cable TV and its $75 a month cost. I only got cable because she wanted it. No cable means getting out the old outside TV antenna and pole I used before getting cable and reassembling it. I did replace the old twin-
To make the project more complicated is that I have a TV, DVR and a home theater (receiver) setup. Because of how cable TV worked due to the fact they wanted me to use their DVR I had to do a convoluted cabling setup to access the cable TV online guide while still having DVR ability with my DVR.
For a time I split the cable from the antenna to go to the TV and the DVR but I found that splitting the cable resulted in a loss of signal strength and would lose some channels. I had a signal amplifier but found that picked up a few weak channels but 'overloaded' a few strong channels and therefore 'lost' them.
I found the antenna direction is important as there are two pair of stations where I would get one or the other pair with a small window of getting all four stations.
Finally I figured out a way to cable things together without splitting the antenna cable. I *think* the DVR will still record TV shows- at least it does when I have everything turned on - I'll see once a timed show is recorded. I didn't try a timed show as, after last evening and today, I am tired of working on this.
I spent time on the sound until I figured out the sound had been turned down to 1 and that was the reason I could not hear anything.
I was surprised to get 28 over the air channels when conditions are right. I have almost 20 potential channels once I eliminated the QVC channel and the religious channels.
The antenna is actually old UHF and VHF antennas. I hooked the TV up to the big top antenna, whichever one that is. I left the smaller antenna and hooked some old speaker wire to it and ran it down to connect to my short FM antenna wire in the house. I was hoping this would give me the boost needed to get my favorite low powered FM radio station. My newer digital home theater receiver will not pick up the station while my old wooden console stereo will. If I could get another decent radio to get the station I would get rid of the console stereo.
Alas, the extra outside wire had no effect on the receiver. It may be the wire's fault for when I hooked the wire up to the console stereo the reception for this station actually got a little worse. Someday I'll find a solution.
My antenna pole is actually a little higher than before. I added a chain link fence pole left over from my corral rebuild. To minimize disruption on really windy days I attached a few wires from the pole to the house.
I got another horse. The two horses weren't eating the grass down as fast as I wanted them to. I'd rather they eat the tall grass before it drys out. The horses are in the NE pasture and haven't even gotten to the fruit tree & garden area yet. The sooner they eat that area the better.
The owners brought Cowgirl, or as Tammy named her last year: The Bitch. I left Cowgirl in the corral for the afternoon so the horses could get to know one another over the fence. Maybe that would minimize the fighting to settle the pecking order once they were all together.
Cowgirl is smart. When I entered the corral she knew I was going to go over and open the gate to the NE pasture. There was a little ruckus when the horses got together but not too bad. The white horse did want to fight and several times she would walk over to and then back up to Cowgirl to start a kicking war but Cowgirl would walk away. They seem friendly enough today.
Now that Tammy has left I am dropping cable TV and its $75 a month cost. I only got cable because she wanted it. No cable means getting out the old outside TV antenna and pole I used before getting cable and reassembling it. I did replace the old twin-
To make the project more complicated is that I have a TV, DVR and a home theater (receiver) setup. Because of how cable TV worked due to the fact they wanted me to use their DVR I had to do a convoluted cabling setup to access the cable TV online guide while still having DVR ability with my DVR.
For a time I split the cable from the antenna to go to the TV and the DVR but I found that splitting the cable resulted in a loss of signal strength and would lose some channels. I had a signal amplifier but found that picked up a few weak channels but 'overloaded' a few strong channels and therefore 'lost' them.
I found the antenna direction is important as there are two pair of stations where I would get one or the other pair with a small window of getting all four stations.
Finally I figured out a way to cable things together without splitting the antenna cable. I *think* the DVR will still record TV shows- at least it does when I have everything turned on - I'll see once a timed show is recorded. I didn't try a timed show as, after last evening and today, I am tired of working on this.
I spent time on the sound until I figured out the sound had been turned down to 1 and that was the reason I could not hear anything.
I was surprised to get 28 over the air channels when conditions are right. I have almost 20 potential channels once I eliminated the QVC channel and the religious channels.
The antenna is actually old UHF and VHF antennas. I hooked the TV up to the big top antenna, whichever one that is. I left the smaller antenna and hooked some old speaker wire to it and ran it down to connect to my short FM antenna wire in the house. I was hoping this would give me the boost needed to get my favorite low powered FM radio station. My newer digital home theater receiver will not pick up the station while my old wooden console stereo will. If I could get another decent radio to get the station I would get rid of the console stereo.
Alas, the extra outside wire had no effect on the receiver. It may be the wire's fault for when I hooked the wire up to the console stereo the reception for this station actually got a little worse. Someday I'll find a solution.
My antenna pole is actually a little higher than before. I added a chain link fence pole left over from my corral rebuild. To minimize disruption on really windy days I attached a few wires from the pole to the house.
Saturday, July 05, 2014
Corner fence rebuild
Over the past few weeks I have been working on rebuilding the corner fence between the hayfield and south pasture where it meets my two southern neighbors' properties. This was a little complicated as it was four fences, a new gate, and coordinating the work to be when the cattle were rotated out of the south pasture.
I first replaced the old rotted corner post with a railroad tie. When I unhooked all the barb wires from the old corner post it fell over. I used a railroad tie because of the post's strategic position, but also because I was adding a gate and needed a solid post to hold a 16 ft gate. The reason for the gate is two fold:
Then other things intervened and I didn't get back to the fence until the cattle were again rotated out of the south pasture.
First, I rebuilt about 30 feet of fence east of the corner post.
Second, I reattached the fence dividing the two southern neighbor's properties.
Lastly was the biggest part: I hung the gate and rebuilt and additional 102 feet of the southern pasture fence. I wanted to rebuild more of the southern pasture fence but ran out of time before the cattle had to be rotated back into the south pasture. As it is I delayed their return by a day or two as the last bit of fence work took longer than expected.
Start...
Finish...
Start...
Finish...
While the gate between the hayfield and south pasture is a distance away, I didn't want to add another gate here between the hayfield and south pastures, especially as I needed a second railroad tie to make a solid anchor for the hayfield/south pasture fence. Instead of my usual two to three boards and wire to tie two railroad ties together as an anchor post, I made a ladder of boards to tie the two ties together. I can climb up and over that part of the fence.
The rebuild looks like it will last my lifetime.
Once the cattle were let back into the south pasture they had to immediately check out the new fence work.
The rebuilt fence has posts on 8 ft intervals instead of the uneven intervals of the patched fence from before. To further strengthen the fence I twisted "stays" on the barb wire to connect them in the middle between the fence posts.
Whoever originally built my fence 'bent' it so the end came to meet the two neighbor's boundary. I found the survey marker next to the original corner post.
I removed all of the old posts in the south pasture fence. The old posts were a combination of rotted wooden posts barely hanging on, short 5 1/2 ft metal T posts, and these four bent railroad rails. They look to have been from a small gauge railroad. I think the rails were bent when the previous owners got them and they buried them in the ground like that. They must have been hard up for fence posts.
The old fence had four strands of barb wire. With T posts of only 5 1/2 ft the fence was not high. I put in a combination of wood posts and 6 and 1/2 ft metal T posts to make a higher fence. I restrung the original four strands of barb wire even though the wire is very old and a little brittle. It was too much of a hassle to replace the old strands when I wasn't replacing the entire fence. I added two more strands of new barb wire interspersed among the old four strands. I used a fence (wire) stretcher to make sure the sections I rebuilt has tight wire. The old barb wire was better than it looked as none of broke when I stretched it tight.
I first replaced the old rotted corner post with a railroad tie. When I unhooked all the barb wires from the old corner post it fell over. I used a railroad tie because of the post's strategic position, but also because I was adding a gate and needed a solid post to hold a 16 ft gate. The reason for the gate is two fold:
- the few times the cattle got out of the pasture, the small four foot opening when I unhooked the barb wire made herding the cattle difficult when they didn't want to go through the opening back to the pasture,
- a larger and easier to open gate will allow Wyatt to be able to drive directly from his field to my pastures and barn when he delivers hay bales to me.
and more importantly
Then other things intervened and I didn't get back to the fence until the cattle were again rotated out of the south pasture.
First, I rebuilt about 30 feet of fence east of the corner post.
Second, I reattached the fence dividing the two southern neighbor's properties.
Lastly was the biggest part: I hung the gate and rebuilt and additional 102 feet of the southern pasture fence. I wanted to rebuild more of the southern pasture fence but ran out of time before the cattle had to be rotated back into the south pasture. As it is I delayed their return by a day or two as the last bit of fence work took longer than expected.
Start...
Finish...
Start...
Finish...
While the gate between the hayfield and south pasture is a distance away, I didn't want to add another gate here between the hayfield and south pastures, especially as I needed a second railroad tie to make a solid anchor for the hayfield/south pasture fence. Instead of my usual two to three boards and wire to tie two railroad ties together as an anchor post, I made a ladder of boards to tie the two ties together. I can climb up and over that part of the fence.
The rebuild looks like it will last my lifetime.
Once the cattle were let back into the south pasture they had to immediately check out the new fence work.
The rebuilt fence has posts on 8 ft intervals instead of the uneven intervals of the patched fence from before. To further strengthen the fence I twisted "stays" on the barb wire to connect them in the middle between the fence posts.
Whoever originally built my fence 'bent' it so the end came to meet the two neighbor's boundary. I found the survey marker next to the original corner post.
I removed all of the old posts in the south pasture fence. The old posts were a combination of rotted wooden posts barely hanging on, short 5 1/2 ft metal T posts, and these four bent railroad rails. They look to have been from a small gauge railroad. I think the rails were bent when the previous owners got them and they buried them in the ground like that. They must have been hard up for fence posts.
The old fence had four strands of barb wire. With T posts of only 5 1/2 ft the fence was not high. I put in a combination of wood posts and 6 and 1/2 ft metal T posts to make a higher fence. I restrung the original four strands of barb wire even though the wire is very old and a little brittle. It was too much of a hassle to replace the old strands when I wasn't replacing the entire fence. I added two more strands of new barb wire interspersed among the old four strands. I used a fence (wire) stretcher to make sure the sections I rebuilt has tight wire. The old barb wire was better than it looked as none of broke when I stretched it tight.
Friday, July 04, 2014
Cattle and horses
Thursday it was time to move cattle from the middle pasture to the south pasture. The last few times one of the cattle was off on its own and I had to go get it before letting the herd through the gate. This time the opposite was true - one of the cattle already was in the south pasture. It had broken a wire in the fence and crawled through.
The rest of the herd patiently waited by the gate to be let through.
In the south pasture.
Photos of the six calves. The seventh cow has not given birth yet.
A short video of the herd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIESyAZinCE&feature=youtu.be
My weed spraying efforts the past few years paid off. Hard to find the remaining weeds in the north pasture.
Usually I worry about animals breaking out of the corral. The horses broke the fence from the outside. Why? I don't know.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
The rest of the herd patiently waited by the gate to be let through.
In the south pasture.
Photos of the six calves. The seventh cow has not given birth yet.
 |
| Four of them |
 |
| Complaining noisy calf |
 |
| Rose |
A short video of the herd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIESyAZinCE&feature=youtu.be
My weed spraying efforts the past few years paid off. Hard to find the remaining weeds in the north pasture.
Usually I worry about animals breaking out of the corral. The horses broke the fence from the outside. Why? I don't know.
Happy 4th of July everyone!
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