Fritz the bull

Yesterday afternoon I got my new bull, Fritz. I named him Fritz after the owner.  Donna went with me.  The owner had two bulls for me to choose from.  Both bulls looked good, but we all agreed on which bull seemed to be the better-looking bull.

Fritz was born early Spring, in February or early March.   He is a big boy already and looks to weigh 800 pounds or more.  He is well built and has good features.  The owner has nice cattle which is why I asked if he would raise a bull for me and not make it a steer. The last bull the owner had bought cost him $7000.  Fritz cost me $2000.  The most I ever paid for a bull.  But that is how it is in the cattle business these days.  This year I got the most I ever for my calves.  So of course this year would be the most I ever paid for a bull.   Especially since his genetics appear to be very good.   In the evening I got the sale report from the livestock where I sold my calves. Young bulls like mine sold for around $2000.

I loaded Fritz up and brought him home.  I placed him in the south corral.  I want him to get adjusted to his new home.  I didn't want him out in the pasture with the other cows in case he decided to immediately try to go back home.  Earlier when I put out a hay bale for the cows I also put out a large hay bale in the south corral for Fritz.  I plan on keeping Fritz in the corral for about a week then let him out to join the cows.

Fritz seems to be doing well.  He does want to go and be with the cows in the north pasture.  At times he moos or calls them.

Fritz seems to have big balls, or testicles as Donna calls them. I wanted to get a photo showing them, but he would always stand with a leg blocking the view of them when I tried to take a photo.

Here are photos from this morning.  Light snow today.  I'm glad I got Fritz yesterday and not today.  The road by my place is slick as ice from the snow.  This evening looking out my front window I saw a vehicle go in and then out of the ditch.  A few minutes later I noticed other cars going slow and some with flashers on as they drove.  I thought it may be because of the vehicle that had gone in and out of the ditch.   I went out to check my mail and saw a pickup had gone in the ditch past where the first went in the ditch.  The other vehicle had used the owner's small approach to get out of the ditch.  So I think this vehicle may be another vehicle.   This vehicle didn't appear to have hit the fence.  Since the fence is solid I slowly and carefully walked over and told the owner about the vehicle in the ditch.  I was right, even though the headlights were on the owner hadn't seen the vehicle in the ditch.  I think it took two tow trucks to get the vehicle out of the steep ditch as I saw two arrive later.   Again, I was glad I didn't have to drive today to get Fritz.

In the afternoon a heifer and a cow took a break from eating hay and came over to meet Fritz.

Isn't Fritz a nice looking bull?

Donna took a photo of the view from my place after we unloaded Fritz.

Time for hay bales for the cows

Today I put out the first large hay bale for the cattle this season.  The hayfield is eaten down pretty well.  No sense over doing the eating of the hayfield.

Because my new bale spear is three long spears, and not one long and two short spears like the old bale spear, it can be difficult to use the spear to lift up the metal hay feeder as the two lower spears want to go into the ground.  With the ground still not frozen I was able to lift the one feeder in the north pasture where the hay bale would go.   So I went and lifted the other feeder in the middle pasture and moved it to position for the next hay bale.  So that is done.

The feeder I put the bale into is the feeder that some legs caught on frozen manure this past Spring when pushing the feeder with my tractor.  The feeder then became a little oval and not round.  Today after I lifted the feeder on its side, the feeder was sitting in a manner where I could use the bottom of the bale spear's attachment and the tractor's arms to push down on the feeder.  I think the feeder is now more round and not oval.   The feeder I fixed is the one in the background with the hay bale in it.

The cows saw what I was doing and came and stood by the gate to watch me work.

Once the hay was put out, I opened the gate and the cows took off to the hay.

12 cows can eat at the feeder at the same time.  I have 15 cows.  So I put out a few piles of hay from the bale nearby so all can eat in the beginning.   The rest of the time the cows rotate when they eat and all don't eat at the same time.

Willow trees by river

It appears the willow trees near the river survived another year from the beavers.  Yay.

New gate installed

The daylight is getting shorter and the temperatures are getting colder, and a little more rain happening every now and then. Less is getting done by me, and projects that would take a day now takes multiple days as I do more than one thing each day.

This project is now old, but before election day I put a new gate into a fence.  Last month when Kelly came by to check things out before hunting season opened, we walked along the fence near where he hunts.  In the lower area near the river in addition to the barb wire fence years ago I had attached some wire sections to make the fence higher.  At that time it was to use up some of these wire sections.  But also make it so the deer didn't jump across the fence.  There was a section where two wire sections meet that were leaning.   Kelly asked that when hunting season opened, since the cattle wouldn't be in this pasture, if he could move these two pieces apart so it would be another area where the deer could cross.  Sure.

Then in the weeks since that visit an extra gate that I have caught my eye.  I should put that gate in the fence near that area.  Kelly wouldn't have to separate two wire fence sections and the gate would provide another crossing point if I ever need to herd cattle back into the pasture if they had made an escape.

I found a couple of not-so-perfect railroad ties to use as posts.  I also found I had two lag bolts.  These were larger than normal lag bolts.   I never could use them in my traditional gates as the bolts were too large. On this gate's hinges I could drill the hinge holes to be a little larger.  And I did.

The next step was to make it so the cattle can't lift the gate off the bolts.  Normally the top hinge is slidable so one can have the top bolt facing downward to hold the gate in place.  But these hinges don't move up and down.  Both bolts would have to face up.  To prevent the gate from being lifted off the bolts, I drilled a hole in each of the hinges.  I would put a nail or wire through the hole to hold the gate in place.

Easier said than done. My drill bits this size were not so sharp and the bolt was very hard solid metal.  I broke all three bits in drilling the first hole.  And it took me over an hour.  To drill the second bolt I went to my neighbor Curtis to ask for advice how to do this better.  He has a drill press, and he drilled a hole in the second bolt in less than a minute.  Gee.  I wish I asked him sooner about this.

Everything was ready.  Now to find the time to do this.  First I needed to finish painting the barn, and other projects.  Then the weather slowed things down.  The day I planned on installing the gate was the day, or day after, hunting season started.  Kelly came by to open the fence liked we had talked about.  I told him of my new gate plan.  He had time so he and I installed the posts and the gate.

I hadn't readied everything and my electric drill hadn't been charged much.  The drill didn't have power to drill a small hole so I could start screwing the lag bolt into the railroad tie.  We ended using a screwdriver and a drill bit to make a starter hole. The lag bolt still didn't want to cut into the railroad tie and screw in.  We used a hammer and sledgehammer to pound the bolts in further - several times - before the lag bolts would then take and screw the rest of the way into the ties.

I'm not used to working with other people on my projects. I got talking and distracted and ended up doing what I normally do.  I made the hole for the top lag bolt at the top of the hinge and not the bottom.  How can I get the gate on both lag bolts?  I couldn't make a new hole as it would be right next to the current hole and would not stay.

Trial and error.  I pounded the top bolt up a little and the bottom bolt down a little.  I tried turning the bolts a little sideways and not straight down.  The gate still would not quite fit onto the bolts. In the above photo you can see the hinge has two spots the bolt goes through.  I pounded the two spots to be closer together.  Almost, almost - not quite.  So close.  I pounded one on of the holes to make it a touch wider and then pounded the hinge so the bolt would slip through the hinge.  Finally - done.  I hope I don't ever have to take this hinge off the railroad tie.  How that would done - who knows!

Here is the fence section I am talking about.

Where the gate will be installed.

The new gate installed.

An accidental photo of my shoes as I worked.