Show jumping at the Event

Sunday I attended the show jumping event at Rebecca Farms. I met Colleen there at 11:30 am and we stayed to the end, which seemed to come early. Do I have a lot to write about the show jumping event? Ummm.. not a whole lot as we were engaged in conversation much of the event. I guess I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to the horse jumping competition when I had an attractive woman to look at.

Let's see? What do I remember about the show jumping? A number of rider's horses knocked over poles on some of their jumps. One horse slid to a stop and turned and its rider, a man, fell from his saddle. He held on to the saddle and horse knowing that to step on the ground meant automatic disqualification. He eventually slipped from the horse.

Colleen is a knowledgeable horse woman and she explained interesting things about horses to me.

Another hot sunny day and part of my legs got a slight sunburn. In the mountains to the west I could see smoke rising. It appears yet another forest fire. I've lost count. They are all around us. Hwy 2 was closed for a while near Essex due to a fire that jumped the fire lines. At sunset the smoke plume from the fire in the west mountains lit up a nice red. It was pretty actually.

After the Event was over Collen and I went out to eat. Thai food. My favorite.

I had a very nice time with Colleen. She seems very nice. Life is good.

Oh... and Larry. I know you and Diane advised me not to mention to Colleen that I trap gophers... but... I did anyway. She didn't run for the hills. She told me she had some gophers on her property and had to get rid of them.

Anyway, here are a few photos from the show jumping event. The best photo was taken by Peter and Edwina. Apparently they were at the Event also, and judging from the photo, not far from where Colleen and I sat. Funny... I missed seeing them at the Event.

In this first photo you can see the fire's smoke plume in the background.

Cross-country at the Event

After I sprayed some weeds this morning I went to watch the cross-country races at the Event at Rebecca Farms.

I rode my bicycle, and on the way to the Event, I had to cross an area where the county is rebuilding the road. This section was gravel and after crossing this section my rear wheel was out of true. I had thought I had broken a spoke as I have been doing that occasionally this year. My bicycle wheel is old and has many miles on it and broken spokes happens more frequently these days. I loosened my rear brakes to lesson the rubbing on them. Not much I could until I got home. To my surprise at home no spokes were broken, it was just one had loosened up quite a bit.

The other 'hassle' with my bicycle was that my rear tire was flat when it came time to leave. (The tire's tube has a slow leak which I can't easily find and fix.) I have been adding air each day and that lasts, I had filled the tire before I left today, so I imagined a sharp rock did my tube in. Wrong again. I had a pump along and added air to my tire and it held the rest of the day.

I didn't get to the Event until 1:30 pm. I was in time to see the last half dozen or so riders in the CICS class - the top class. I went to the "Duck Pond" first and watched these riders. The top riders jump the two carved ducks. I believe they are the only riders to do so. The other competitor classes jump the logs and shorter obstacles.

The next class to run the course was the Prelimimary class. Apparently this class is the middle class between the Novice and Intermediate classes and the CICS classes. I was told each class has several levels within each.

Since there was a half hour until the Preliminary class I walked the course to the Trout Ponds. These are two water courses side by side with one pond having three carved trout in it. The hillside above the Trout Ponds provide the best viewing on the course. No shade, but the best viewing. From here you can see over half the course.


At the top of the hill overlooking the trout ponds is a large jump. Then the rider needs to control her horse on the downhill as at the bottom is a large jump, then immediately a small jump into the water. Cross the water and jump another obstacle before going out for a turn then two more obstacles in and out of the next pond before a wide turn and a long run to the next obstacle.

I could tell the level of riders on how they approached going downhill to the water. Some didn't appear to hold their horses back; others noticeably slowed their horse down. A few times a horse would balk at the jump and the rider would have to retry. Each "refusal" was a 20 point (second?) penalty. Three refusals at one obstacle and the horse was disqualified.

A few horses looked like they would crash or not make it over. All did but a few seemed to rub their belly doing so. Most people around me were more knowledgeable than I and some would comment about how a rider was lucky to have a good horse to make up for her inexperience.

Two times during the day a rider fell off the horse. Each time it was not at one of the water jumps. One time it was the section before where I was and the horse came running.

"Loose horse!!!"

Course officials chased the horse down and the ATVs and golf carts roared into action rushing to the rider. I never heard how the rider fared though each time an ambulance wandered over to the rider. More than likely as a precaution. I spoke with a few mothers of riders and they hold their breath when their daughters run the course.

I say "her" and "daughters" as 98% of the riders are women. It is unusual to see a man race the course.

I chatted with a number of people who came and watched from my vantage point, which was the best, though without shade. People from the valley and people visiting. I may have 'missed' concentrating on the riders for over half the time I was there as I was deep in conversation with various people.

One couple, Guy and Pam, are from the Valley. They have horses, don't do Eventing and participate instead in "reining". Pam described it to me as a western - and not so formal and snobby - version of Dressage. She rides two horses in the reining events and her husband rides one. They told me about a big reining event the first week of August here in the Valley and I think I will try to attend and watch some of the participants. She told me the organizer is putting up a $100,000 purses so the "gods" will show up to participate. By "gods" Pam explained the top competitors, the ones she aspires to be as good as.

Guy and Pam also ride a number of the trails around the Valley on horseback. She prefers that to hiking. They usually ride trails outside the Park due to the hassle of riding in the Park due to rules and restrictions, the crowded trails, and the snotty comments from hikers who don't like to share the trail with horses. During hunting season they ride in the Park.

I got a number of good suggestions for good trails and views to hike on and plan to do so.

Pam wore a tiger stripe blouse. It looked good. I like that look but most women can't carry it off. She also pinned her hair back in a style different from the rest of the women. In this heat almost the women had their hair in ponytails. Pam also had a wicked fun sense of humor. Too bad she was married.

I told Guy and Pam I was going on a date Sunday with a woman who rides a horse and that if our date goes well maybe I'll see them on a trail on horseback. Later a women who had overheard me say that, and who was involved with and knowledgeable about 'Eventing", warned me to be careful with these horsewomen as they are intense. I explained that Collen wasn't one of the Eventing participants.

After the cross-country event was over I walked my bicycle over part of the course to where the horses were stabled. One of the sponsor's pickups drove up beside me and the women asked if I wanted to ride around with them. I had my bicycle with, and there were already women in the pickup's bed, so I declined. I got the impression that it was "my loss." Probably true. This evening was the Event's bar-b-q and I think there was dance afterwards. I have a feeling males - other than Fathers and a few husbands - would be in short supply.

Tomorrow is a full day of show jumping so I imagine the ladies wouldn't get too rowdy tonight. But considering how buff, tanned, and toned many of the women were, one never knows what sort of 'trouble' one could get into.





The trout ponds, starting with the big jump on top of the hill, then the race down to the water.



This horse is balking at the jump. The horse in the next photo shows the horse after the jump exiting the water of the second pond. In the background is the course. The preliminary riders race between the two hills. The top class riders goes up and over them, down, then up and over the second one.



An example of how the Event tries to make the obstacles have a theme and be fun.



Lastly, here is a photo of women riders coming out to support a fellow rider. This looks like a group you'd wouldn't want to mess with.



It was a hot day and most all the younger women watching were dressed 'appropriately'. Hoo boy! That often was a distraction from watching the horses race.

Tonight's moon

I took three photos of the moon using different settings on my camera. I am not sure which one I like the best as the moon changes color depending on the camera's setting. The second light is from a building's street light.

It wasn't that dark when I took the photos, but, you know, I have a cheap camera. It was still light enough outside I thought I'd get a photo of the moon rising over the pine trees. Do you see any pine trees? No, I didn't think so.

Dressage

This afternoon I took a break from tree watering and weed spraying to ride my bicycle over to Rebecca Farms to attend "The Event" for a little over an hour at the end of the afternoon.

And yes, the photo is of a statue representing the cross-country race leg of "The Event".

Hmmm... flowers by the statue. A woman's touch?

Today the competitors were doing Dressage. I've seen youtube videos of horses performing dressage. The one video of the horse performing to the song "Lady Marmalade" is a favorite of mine.

Last year I did not watch the dressage events at Rebecca Farm. This year I watched the end when the top riders competed. I discovered that dressage at the Farm is not performed to music.

I haven't a clue how dressage works other than each horse has to perform the same routine. The routine has slow and fast sections and different trots and gallops, stops and back ups. I have no idea how the routine is scored, and when the scores were announced, no idea if they were good or not. My only clue was when they said the score put the rider in first or second place. That was a good score. I had the horses I liked, I guess that is all I needed.

A grassy berm surrounded the area and as the few trees are relatively young, there was no shade. There weren't that many people there, probably mostly other competitors and their families, some former horse women, and then the curious like me.

After the competition was over I wandered the grounds. I ran into Johnny who cut my hay years ago. He is still busy cutting hay and had taken much of today off as the fields he was working on are located the east side of the valley where they had the most rain last night. He brought his kids along and I counted seven, appearing to range in age from four to 12. His wife wasn't along - probably home resting welcoming the break. All the kids wore pants, including the girls. Back when he hayed my field, the girls that helped load the hay bales all wore dresses.

Because of the dry year, he and most others are not getting as much hay. He already sold what he has cut, and is even wondering if he will have enough hay for his cattle this winter. He is also getting $20 more a ton this year over last. Hmmm... it may be a good idea to get hay now and not wait till Spring.

I wandered through the trade goods tent. You can tell this sport is dominated by women by what items were being sold. More clothes, more crafts, more class than with items surrounding men's sports. You just wouldn't see a booth selling the "No Bounce Sport Bra" at a male sporting event.

In the one photo you can see ae cameraman. Lots of professional photos are taken and sold to the competitors. In the second photo is a male competitor - a rarity. Last year I saw only a few men competing. This is overwhelmingly a woman's sport.

Domestic day

I didn't get much done Thursday. Another hot 93 degree day. Slept half the afternoon away. I washed clothes, made a cherry pie, watered part of the garden, and checked the pocket gopher traps. That's it.

I am trying to re-establish a routine since Brian left, but I don't seem to get much done. It gets dark by 10:30 pm now so I am aware the days are getting shorter. I have lots of projects to do before winter and none seem to get done. That may be contributing to my current 'Cancerian' moodiness.

The hike scheduled for tomorrow was canceled. I was looking forward to it. I even suggested getting a 5 am start (that is how much I want to hike) to beat the heat but the answer was still no. Hiking 18 miles in 90 degree temperatures had no appeal to the others.

I set up a date with Colleen for this weekend. That part of the day went well.

It is trying to rain now. The soft sounds of thunder in the distance has been present for a while; and now lightning in the distance appears off and on. More like heat lightning than sharp bolts. Hopefully this type of lightning will keep down the fire starts. We don't need any more forest fire starts. The rain probably won't amount to much more than 'settling dust'. But then, I didn't think the cloud buildup at sunset would get as far as to actually rain. Thunderstorms around here usually lose energy after sunset and dissipate.

Ah, my favorite radio station is now back on the air. The earlier lightning over towards Creston knocked the station off the air for a while.

Fencing and venting

It didn't get quite as warm today as the weather forecasters had predicted. Our high was only 87 degrees. I didn't know that though, so instead of sleeping in to get 8 hours of sleep, I got up early planning in the afternoon to take a shower and sleep when it was hot.

I wanted to check my hayfield fences before I let the cattle in the field in a few days. Instead of working on the fences the day before letting the cattle in, I decided to work on them this morning when it was still cool.

I figured I would be done by noon. Wrong. First I checked for loose posts and along the way repaired broken barb wire along the road caused by the deer and broken barb wire to my south caused by the neighbor's horses when they tried to eat my pasture's grass as the four horses on the 5 acres have eaten all that pasture's grass to nothing. I also had some boards to re-nail to posts and each other.

I was done with these repairs by noon. I then had to add about 20 steel posts to the existing fence where old wood posts were rotted and loose. I also added u-shaped nails where they were missing from barb wire and posts.

I had done the road's fence and was kiddy-corner from Bob and Jan's house when they were outside. I ended up pulling the birch tree off their fence from where it had landed after snapping off during last Wednesday's storm. I also cut off the small branches so Jan could toss them into their trailer to haul to the dump. Then I took a break, drank some root beer, and chatted with Bob and Jan. So it was late afternoon by the time I finished repairing my fences.

While working on the fence I noticed some weeds and snowberry bushes making a comeback along the fences. That stuff never goes away completely. I sprayed a tank of herbicide along the fences and ditch. I had some herbicide left so I re-sprayed part of the NE pasture. I had sprayed the NE pasture twice already, but with the rains of the past week, dormant weeds when I sprayed last are now coming to life. It never ends... over and over I spray. Even behind the garage I found one snowberry bush growing. As much as I have chopped, dug, and sprayed over the years, no snowberry bush should be alive. And here it was.

I checked my pocket gopher traps. This was one of those days were they would fill the traps with dirt. Four out of six traps were this way and the other two traps were ignored. As I repaired the fences earlier in the day I stepped over mounds and mounds of dirt from pocket gophers at the other end of the field. I'll never get rid of these pests! Speaking of never getting rid of stuff... the goatsbeard (salsify) weeds are still going to seed. I hate looking at them!

Enough already! Go to seed and go away. You won, I'll never get rid of you even though I tried mightily.

At the end of the day I decided to pick the rest of my raspberries. Too late. They are all dried up. The 3 lb plastic margarine container full I had picked several days ago are all I got. 80% of my large raspberry crop has gone to waste.

My apricots are close to being ready to eat. In case something happens before I pick them I decided to eat a few before they are completely ripe. That way I can say I had some apricots from my tree.

So by the end of the day with a lack of sleep, and feeling like I am not getting things done around here, and as my zodiac sign is Cancer, I was in one of my Cancer moods.

Picnic music: Deja Vu

I have been tired much of the day and almost didn't go to tonight's concert in the park, which would have been a shame as I'll explain later.

My eye bothered me last night. You know, the one that got poked by the tree branch. I woke up numerous times last night to drink water. My eye felt worse when I closed it. I think I scratched the eye lens and the scratch rubbed against my eyelid. I also felt the scratch today whenever I hadn't had water for a while and my eye felt dry. Thankfully my eye feels much better tonight. Bob and Jan told me they had felt their scratch for weeks when they had gotten a scratch on their eyes.

It didn't help that last night's overnight low was 63 - unusually warm for here. It is hard to cool the house down when it doesn't get cool overnight. Tonight isn't much better as it is still 61 degrees at 2 am.

Other than moving the cattle to my south pasture I didn't do much. I worked on my bicycle tire, checked the pocket gopher traps, visited Bob and Jan, and slept. I had to struggle to get energy after waking up in order to go to the concert. I was tired and it was around 90 degrees yet again - for an incredible 16th time this year. I thought about skipping the concert but finally willed the energy to get moving.

I rode my bicycle as I hadn't ridden it over week now. And exercise invigorates me which helped me wake up and be alert.

I arrived after the convert started, as usual. The band is Deja Vu. They play classic rock songs, and play them well. You gotta love a band who includes a song by Buffalo Springfield in their set. The lead singer is a woman with a husky voice. For the Buffalo Springfield song it sounded like Melissa Etheridge was singing the song. For songs, she sounded like someone else.

Somethings Happening Here

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, now, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down
Stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

A radio station was giving away free cups of ice cream. After leaning my bicycle against a building's wall I joined the line.

I stood in line behind a woman who greatly reminded me of an ex-girlfriend. While she was alone in line, she had a ring on her ring finger, so I didn't engage in conversation with her. The last thing I needed was for her to sound like my ex-girlfriend. Then I know I've lost it.

Behind me in line was Scott Johnston, who owns and runs the Montana Radio Cafe radio station. I had spoken with him at a Picnic in the Park concert two years ago when Francis and Linda had visited me. He didn't remember me, which isn't surprising. As we stood in line I chatted with him about his radio station and the music and changes I had noticed lately. I also told him I missed listening to the station after he had lost power for almost a day after last Wednesday's storms.

I got a cup of huckleberry ice cream. Where is my Uncle Curt now that there is huckleberry ice cream?!

The ice cream was good, and when the line was shorter I went in the line again for chocolate chip ice cream this time.

As I was eating the second cup of ice cream an attractive blond woman came out of the crowd over to me and my bicycle and looked at my bicycle. She made some comment about my bicycle, of which I have now forgotten what she said. It was a positive comment, but my bicycle is 11 years old and has many, many miles on it. It looks it. I don't lock my bicycle when I go in many stores because... who would steal this beat up bicycle?

Anyway, we had a conversation about bicycling (she bicycles), hiking (she hikes), bears (we traded bear stories from Many Glacier), horses (she has one and rides some of the trails), Kalispell (she is a native), among other small talk. She mentioned some names like I should know them, and of whom I later deduced were owners/employees of a local bicycle shop. Initially I wondered if she confused me with someone else, which has happened here in Kalispell.

She appeared to be around my age, and during our conversation mentioned she was in her 50s. Ok, my age or older. But she looks darn good. Quite attractive. And no, I don't have a photo. You'll have to trust me on this.

Now, my bicycle is not all that. Obviously my bicycle was pretext to start a conversation with me. So... since our conversation went well I asked for her phone number. The problem is that neither of us had any paper or a pen. (I know, I should have listened to my uncle Larry). She went to someone else nearby to ask, and I turned to the couple I was standing next to, and had chatted with earlier, and we both came back with our names on pieces of paper. After exchanging the slips of paper she disappeared back into the crowd. How she noticed me, I don't know. I can't pick people out of a crowd.

I plan to call her in a few days or next week once I come up with a hike or some activity for us to do.

My Uncle Larry was right when he told me to attend these concerts to meet women, and had chastised me for missing the one concert at the start of the season. And here I was attending the concerts to just hear live music.

Then 15 to 20 minutes later a woman came and stood near my bicycle. When I looked her way she looked back with a look that she was open to conversation. What's going on here tonight? What's in the air? Is classic rock music concerts the place to meet women?

I am not in the habit of collecting numbers. And while this other woman had attractive eyes and a nice face, she weighed too much for my tastes. Since I am making that comment, you know she was fairly overweight. So I didn't talk to this second woman and concentrated back on the concert, of which I hadn't heard when talking with Colleen.

So it has been a different day for me. I better get to bed so I can hopefully get stuff done from my to-do list, especially if I am possibly going to embark on a new relationship as relationships sucks up time. And I still have the Goat Haunt trip and several trips with Brain to write up. Where does the time go?

Moving cattle

Today I moved the cattle from Jim's pasture over to my south pasture. It wasn't hard at all. Actually the cattle started the move without me. Mid afternoon I went out to the north pasture to remove my gopher traps and found 18 of the herd in my corral around the barn. Okay.... I guess they had looped around the other side of the river and came to my pasture. Usually they spend the afternoon heat along the river and in the shade of the trees.

Nine cattle were in Jim's pasture mooing as they wanted to be where the action was. I did a quick walk around Jim's pasture to check the river front and seeing no more cattle opened the gate to my pasture. This was not the shortest distance to my corral so the cattle wouldn't move to the gate until I herded them through it.

After I closed the gate three stragglers, one of whom was "T-bone", came up from the river bottom. I reopened the gate for them.

I had to move the salt blocks so I went to get a wheelbarrow. The cattle were all in the corral and not pleased to not find water in the water trough nor salt blocks where they remembered them being. They tipped one water trough over to show their displeasure.

They gathered round and mooed at me as I passed through the corral. As I left the corral to get the salt blocks one of them came outside the corral to the north pasture and stood and mooed at me.

"I want water. I want salt. I want service and some attention over here waiter!"

I know, I know.

I retrieved the salt blocks and took them and the wood container to the middle pasture. The cattle followed me. I dropped the container off under a pine tree and continued on to the south pasture picking up another container and dropping it off in the south pasture. I put two blocks in this container and two other blocks in another container already in the pasture. The cattle all followed me, though a few wanted to be next to me or run ahead.

The cattle followed me everywhere. I was able to get back to the middle pasture and close the gate before they could follow me through the gate. They stood outside the gate in dismay. The cattle just wanted to be with me. There must be something in the air today as several women later showed a strong interest in me at the concert tonight.

As you can see in the photo the south pasture still has plenty of grass. I now need to figure out when I will let the cattle into the hayfield. I need to have the cattle on bloat blocks for 48 hours just before they enter the hayfield and start eating the alfalfa. The initial rush of alfalfa can cause them to bloat and die, else run up an expensive vet bill as the vet would have to cut them open to release the fluid and gas from bloating.

Ruby

FYI, I finally replied to your last comment on my post "Company and cattle".

Soaked and Lightning

I didn't need to spend this morning watering my garden, fruit trees, and berry bushes. It rained tonight, and rained good. Naturally no rain was in the forecast.

After spending the morning watering the plants, and picking raspberries (which are past their prime), I then had breakfast then caught up on my sleep. With these hot temperatures I am splitting my sleep time between night and afternoon.

Dan stopped by with three bloat blocks for the cattle. He is still cleaning up from last Wednesday's storm. His home phone still does not work. When things got uprooted the phone wires were pulled from the ground. He only has two trees left now. One of the trees that fell, fell on the highway. This was better than the other alternative: his house. He had another tree fall on one of his loafing sheds. Fortunately he had moved the cattle from that pen to another earlier that afternoon.

After my early afternoon nap I was ready for the heat of the day and outside work - once I woke up. The cattle will be returned to the south pasture tomorrow. While Jim's pasture still has good grass by the river, the neighbor across the river told me Sunday that he plans to let his cattle and bull into the property across the river this Wednesday. My cattle have been spending time the past days along the river and along the neighbor's fence. Yes, there is a fence, but I've been told fences won't stop a bull from reaching a heifer in heat. I don't care to witness this and will move my cattle to the south pasture in preparation for them to go into the hayfield once they have been on bloat blocks for 48 hours. All my pastures border the river, but I believe the south pasture has the least chance of the cattle spending time along the neighbor's fence.

It may sound harsh, but I don't want my "girls" to have sex with that bull. It is a Hereford bull on top of that - not that I discriminate - but with cattle, black is better.

With the river level much lower since the last time they were there I wanted to check the river and island in the south pasture. I ended up adding to my two-strand fence. I also fenced off a finger of the island - no sense letting the cattle go down the finger as they may get a 'wrong' idea from a different view of the area.

Our high temperature today was 97 degrees. Even though I was working by the river it was in a low area with lots of trees. Yup, the sweat poured off me. My t-shirt got soaked. My sunglasses were soaked and I couldn't use my shirt to clean their lens so I took them off. Later as I bent down to pull a weed a small tree branch poked my eye. My vision is still good, but my eye is sore.

On the way home I checked out a tall pine tree in the south pasture that had apparently blown over in last Wednesday's storm. Another big one down. The pine had grown right next to a western larch (tamarack) tree. The pine was on the NW side of the tamarack and had blown over to the NW. Another thing for my "to-so" list: trim the branches from the tree to let it dry for later cutting into firewood.

After returning home to drink "gallons" of water - and waiting out a few light rain sprinkles where the rain fell from nowhere in a sunny sky - I went to check gopher traps and cattle.

No gophers found. I think they have gone underground for the year. Too bad as I only caught 80 of them this year. This is less than the 82 I caught last year. And I know more are left to catch next year as a few areas I had heard them chirp their warnings a week or so ago are areas I hadn't trapped yet.

The cattle... a few were in Jim's pasture next to the river. The rest were elsewhere. They know the way home. I went to check on more gopher traps, then it started to rain really hard. I took shelter under a tall pine tree and stayed dry the 20 minutes or so it rained.

As I checked the remaining gopher traps the clouds were preparing for another rain. They were moving and darkening and several long lightning bolts flashed to the ground to the south. Thunder slowly rumbled across the darkening sky.

After checking the remaining gopher traps I noticed a dozen cattle were in the north pasture. Tonight they figured out how to cross to the north pasture and not back to Jim's pasture.

Five were still in Jim's pasture and they hugged the fence mooing. They wanted to join the group in the north pasture. I didn't want them split overnight and went to herd the dozen back into Jim's pasture.

As I crossed the middle pasture to north pasture I saw a big lightning bolt flash from high in the sky to the ground to the NW. Then the thunder roared overhead and I half ducked down. I need to move the cattle fast and get out of here.

A number of cattle came out of the trees across the river and stood on a gravel bar trying to figure how how to join the north pasture cattle. I went to the shallow part of the river bank and called them. They wouldn't come and kept looking at the other cattle above the high river bank. I guess I need to show them where to cross the river, but I didn't want to cross the river again. I had dried out from my afternoon river crossing where my pants legs slipped into the river and got soaked. And I didn't have my river crossing shoes with me. Last night I went barefoot on the gravel bed, but I didn't feel like doing so tonight.

It began to rain again and the cattle didn't want to be herded as they had just discovered the north pasture and the fresh grass. I went to open the gate between the pasture but it began to rain hard. I ran for cover under a tree. I turned around to find the dozen cattle that didn't want to be herded were following me. I ran in the rain and opened the gate. The five in Jim's pasture came to the gate and I had to herd them away. The dozen in my pasture came to the gate and a couple walked through but the others milled around - they didn't really want to cross into Jim's pasture.

By now the cattle across the river had crossed over to Jim's pasture and were running to join everyone. I had to do some running and cutting off of cattle, and some cattle in Jim's pasture came out as others entered, but eventually I got all the cattle into Jim's pasture and the gate closed. I had to do it faster and harsher than I like but I didn't have time to walk and talk them into doing what I wanted. It was raining and lightning. I didn't count the herd as they were excited and running and milling and I was breathing water.

I ran home soaked to the bone. When I saw myself in the mirror I looked like a near drowned wet rat. The shower felt so good!

After Brian and cattle

Brain left this morning for the West Coast. He has never seen the ocean in person. While visiting Glacier is nice, we have seen lots of the Park these past five days, and it was time for something new. Besides Saturday Brian has seen a bear (two bears: a grizzly and black bear) to keep alive his 'always seeing a bear in Glacier Park' streak.

So this morning around 8:30 am off Brian went.

Now I need to get back into my everyday routine. This morning I watered much of the garden before it got hot. The plants have grown a lot over the past week. They have much more to go before harvest.

This afternoon was partially spent on catching up on sleep. This evening I checked some of my gopher traps, before getting sidetracked by the cattle.

Saturday morning three of the cattle (Dan's) had made a jailbreak into John's pasture. John is Jim's northern neighbor. Earlier in the morning I had heard mooing but seen some of my cattle in the east side of Jim's pasture, and seen the neighbor's cattle across the river walking up and down the ridge. They moo a lot when they do that.

Jim's wife alerted me to the jail breakers and I ran over with a small pail of alfalfa treats. Jim, John, and John's wife were in John's pasture kinda trying to herd the three cattle to the SW corner and the small gate. Most of the rest of my cattle were on Jim's side of the fence. I shoo'd them away from the gate and opened it. I easily herded two of the jail breakers through the gate. The third one, a heifer, was busy eating trying to ignore us.

I herded the third one towards the gate and she ran past the gate to the corner. The distance between the gate and the corner was a fence post length. She ran and slipped through the barb wire fence. Not gracefully as she was in a hurry to get across. Well... now we know how the three cattle got into John's pasture.

The fence was good earlier but apparently when the cattle put their heads through the fence to eat the "greener" grass on the other side some of the staples fastening the wire to the fence posts came out and the loose wire made an opening to let them slip through the fence.

I offered to help Jim fix his fence but he said he would handle it and for me to go on my planned sightseeing day with Brian. Besides, since Jim would be working on the fence, his brother-in-law then offered to wash Jim's logging truck after he washed his logging truck and this made Jim happy.

Jim had some wire but I gave him some extra barb wire I had. Later he told me he and John worked on the fence and added a few posts to the ones that were bad. He hadn't met John before so this was a way to bond with his neighbor as guys like to bond over doing things instead of merely standing around and talking.

I also learned that John was a "horse" person and not fond of cattle. Hmm.... Sometimes I think horse and cattle people are similar to dog and cat people in their preferences of one animal over the other. Of course horse people are wrong, cattle are better.

Back to today, I noticed that some of the cattle were along the river on Jim's pasture and a few others were across the river. Then I noticed they were and had been across the river across a wider area. That is fine as long as they stay on this side of the fence beyond the trees.

Then I heard mooing on and against the ridge. The cattle hadn't found a way across the fence did they? *sigh* I took my shoes and socks off, rolled up my pants, and waded across the river.

A few cattle were along the river down a bit where the river bank was deeper and looking across to the cattle still on Jim's pasture. Then I heard a loud splash when one jumped into the river and then walked across to Jim's pasture. The other two walked over to their typical shallow wading across spot and crossed the river.

Through and under the trees I followed the trails. I found some cattle and some cattle found me. I walked part of the main fence line and did not see trails in the tall grass across the fence. I also could not see the mooing cattle. I heard a chainsaw on top of the ridge so that sound might have been what was riling the neighbor's cattle.

I circled around and went on the trails to the south. A few cattle heard me and came up the trail to find out who was making the noise. They were nervous as they weren't sure if they were in trouble for being here. The three original cattle had followed me and when they joined up with the new two they all went down another trail.

I went on other trails through the trees and tall grass. I found quite a number of other cattle in a clearing they had found. I couldn't count them as the grass was taller than me and them. It was dusk and I decided to let them be. They knew how to get back home. Or so I thought.

I recrossed the river. The cattle on the part of the land between the two-strand fence and the river were now making their way onto Jim's main pasture as I was there. To do that they had to cross down then up across a muddy spot. They didn't like to do so as they sunk a bit into the mud and had to pull their legs out of the mud as they walked.

One heifer so disliked the mud that she leaped across the muddy section. It was amazing as I never seen cattle do that. It is one thing for a dog, cat, or human to do that, and quite another to see a 700+ lb heifer do that. The other cattle couldn't "fly" like the one heifer but they attempted their mini-leaps.

The other cattle I had seen in the tall grass were now on the river bank across the river - but across from the border between Jim's and my pastures. One (not sure if a steer or heifer) walked across the river to this side but Jim's river bank is steep and it walked around and around in the river looking to get into Jim's pasture. Other cattle stood on the other river bank and watched before following. The river was deep and at one point the initial one turned around. By now several others were walking across the river as they were either getting tired of waiting else thought this one had found a route.

The initial animal then came in my direction where the river bank was shallow but between me and her the water got deep. I couldn't tell if it was swimming or if its feet still barely touched the river bed. It made it to a "mud bar" and climbed on it. By now the other cattle had found a spot on the steep bank where they could pull themselves up and all but two did so. The one on the mud bar did not want to cross the water/mud to get to the shallow bank where I was and turned around and then followed the others up the bank.

Two more were wandering around my river bank as they apparently didn't want to pull themselves up that bank. The problem was my bank was steeper and I had fenced it on top. They crossed back to the other side and re-looked at their options. Then they came across again and pulled themselves up onto Jim's pasture.

That wasn't all the cattle. I walked Jim's river bank looking for the others. Back at the property boundary I saw the others across the river from my north pasture. They could cross over to the shallow river bank on my side but didn't see it as they were focused on Jim's pasture which was "home" and where the other cattle were (though they now left the river area and were in the east end of the pasture). I also didn't want the herd split between my and Jim's pasture and they probably didn't want to be split either.

To get back to the shallow river crossing on Jim's pasture they would have to follow one of their newly created trails back around the bend on the river. That meant going away from where they wanted to be. Darkness was falling. The cattle couldn't figure out what to do.

I went back to the shallow crossing, took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and re-crossed the river. I followed the trail to where the cattle were until they saw me. Then I returned back the way I came calling out every so often so the cattle could follow my voice through the tall grass.

By the time I took my shoes and socks off and rolled up my pants the cattle were there. They followed me across the river and then waited while I put my shoes and socks back on and rolled my wet pants down. The pants had dipped in my four river crossings and were wet from the knee down. And my socks were wet from being used to dry my feet. One shoe was wet as it had rolled down the bank and into the river one time after I had taken it off. *sigh* So much for keeping dry.

The cattle followed me back to Jim's pasture. Once they saw the rest of the herd at the far end of the pasture they took off running. Fair weather friends.

So it appears the cattle are all together for the night. It was too dark to count them.

All is well until another day. Jim still has a good amount of grass in his lower areas near the river. But you know cattle! Grass is... what? Yup, greener on the other side of the river.

Rain

It rained Tuesday and Wednesday nights!!! Yes.. rain! Even if the forecasters said we only had the slightest of chances, we got rain!

Tuesday's rain started during the concert which I had mentioned in an earlier blog post. It rained a number of times past midnight. The next morning the ground was soft. Yes... soft! It had been baked hard. The corral smelled of old wet manure from where the cattle piled it up around the feeder.

Then Wednesday night we got rain again even though we had only the slightest of rain chances. This time with the rain came thunder and lightning and supposedly even a couple tornadoes south of Flathead Lake. Yes... tornadoes! We never get tornadoes out here.

There were lots of widespread damage and power outages around the Valley. I didn't have any damage.

Here are several news stories about the damage:

• widespread damage
• winds rip roof from area

Brain and I were in Glacier Park near Logan Pass when we first saw blue rain clouds to the SW. We were driving along Lake McDonald when the lightning flashed in the distance over the Valley and the Swan Mountain. The lightning was frequent, sharply defined, and lit the sky. I have lived in the Plains and have seen tremendous lightning storms and by those standards this lightning was impressive. The weather forecaster on TV originally was from Kansas many years ago, and he said that being from the Great Plains he never had been impressed by western Montana's lightning and thunderstorms - until now.

From Glacier Park we could see over part of the Valley an oval of semi-clear pinkish skies due to the sunset I was hoping it wasn't over the ranch as it meant no rain. Once we entered the Valley I seen this area was much north of the ranch. *whew*

The rain was coming down heavy once we were in the valley, and had pretty much ended by the time we reached the ranch. I could see pools of standing water from the recent rain.

Along the highway and three miles from home there were no working stoplights - or any lights for that matter. Flathead Electric coop workers were out working on the power lines. As we drove down the highway there were no lights. Brain worried I had no power. He was looking forward to cooking supper after a long and tremendous day of hiking.

About a mile from home we saw lights on at the homes and businesses. I had power though I had apparently lost it earlier, and now had to reset my electronic devices flashing at me.

The rain was very needed and welcome. We need more rain as today when digging for gopher traps, I found the rain - like beauty - is only skin deep as the ground under the shallow top layer is completely dry.

Picnic music: Raymond Charles

July 17th's Picnic in the Park concert was by Raymond Charles and the Caribbean Authentics. Apparently they are a band that is mainly plays in the northeastern U.S. Too bad, as they were an excellent band and one I would like to listen to again some day.

The concert started at 7 pm, and even with Brian along and driving, I was still late to the concert. The usual large crowd was there so we had to sit in the back. We sat even further back than usual as the grass was wet in areas from the lawn being watered (heavily) that afternoon.

The band announced the next song selection and got applause. Then we heard thunder and saw a flash of lightning and the crowd applauded even more. "Bring on the rain!" was heard from the crowd. It is so dry we will take rain anytime, even during a concert.

It wasn't long before the first scattered rain drops fell. Quite a number of people folded up their portable lawn chairs and left. "What happened to wanting the rain?!" Brian and I moved next to a building under a roof overhang and out of the scattered rain drops.

When it looked like the showers had passed we moved to a bench to sit on. It wasn't too much longer before it began to rain again, harder this time. The rain felt good and the 90 plus temperature began to cool. We stayed sitting on the bench. Besides we were sitting under a tree and partially protected from the rain.

Intermission and the raffle prizes giveaway was chaotic. So many people had left the organizer was concerned she would be announcing winning tiocket numbers forever before finding winners. At one people she mentioned as a joke that even if you didn't have a winning ticket, if your ticket's number was close, fake it that you won. Hey, the 6 lbs of dog food was not raffled off this night.

During the second half of the concert, more sprinkles. When it again appeared the rain passed we moved up to a closer bench as the protective awning over the soundboard blocked our view of the band. Again the scattered raindrops. I did not complain. We stayed put even though we were now not as protected under a tree.

Fortunately the real rain did not appear until the concert had just finished. We got pretty wet walking back to Brian's car.

Though the crowd became a fraction of its initial size by the end of the concert, the remaining people were enthusiastic. Normally the dancers were mostly kids with only a few adults occasionally dancing. The reverse was true this concert as plenty of adults were dancing with only a few children.

One young woman in a tight red top and hippieish long blue skirt brought a half dozen full size hula hoops and shared with other dancers. She was fantastic with the hula hoop and seemed to twirl it effortlessly anyway from below her knees to around her arm above her head. I noticed it was harder than it looks when she showed others some moves and they struggled to keep the hoop twirling. Not only was the one woman easily twirling the hula hoop, she was dancing very nicely while doing so. Impressive. She had good moves and my thoughts turned to... um... well... um... dancing?

The music was reggae and Latin American. The band had three members who played guitar, keyboards, and steel drums. The music was happy, dance oriented, infectious. It especially had an effect on the women in the audience as many were dancing. Even Jen, the concert organizer, took time to dance to a number of songs. It appeared the music was making the women horny.

One young woman in a white dress was dancing with and around her man in order to get him to dance. I told Brian if he would dance a little with her and not try to look cool he would be getting "lucky" tonight.

Brian pointed out she was already pregnant. Oh. She didn't appear to look too pregnant and he still could get "lucky". She wanted to dance so bad and was all over him for the rest of the concert as they were on their feet for the rest of the concert.

Brian was amused - and so was I - by three late teen girls who danced. They had no clue how to dance to reggae music and appeared to be dancing to music to another concert. That didn't stop them as they energetically danced to a number of songs they were hearing in their minds.

After the hula hoop woman gathered her hoops and left, and the dance area was empty a few 20 something men wandered out there to dance by themselves. They were not dancing with one another, and it appeared they just couldn't stop from dancing a "funky goove". One guy initially appeared to be dancing a rain dance and later switched his dance style to something more suited to reggae. When a Bob Marley song was played another guy seemed to be even singing along to the words. No women went out and danced with them. Hmmm.... I think women just like to dance with one another.

Ya know.... this music was so fun and danceable even I was tapping my toes. And during the last song when everyone was on their feet, I may - though I will never admit it! - just may have been swaying to the beat.