Persistence

Wednesday I started on my annual war on weeds. I sprayed four tanks of herbicide on the weeds. I covered all my yard, the fruit tree and garden area, the ditch along the road, all around the hayfield on the fence line, and a few areas in the hayfield.

*whew* Carrying 40 lbs of liquid on my back for hours and hours got to be tiring on my shoulders and my legs.

The good news is that I covered all the areas I listed in one day and four tanks of herbicide. In the old days it would have taken me days and many more tanks of herbicide to cover the same area. So... I am making progress in my war on weeds though it often feels like I am not.

I called this blog post "persistence" as I am persistent in my effort to eradicate weeds and gophers. The weeds and gophers are persistent right back at me. Even after all these years of spraying, chopping, and burning I still find a few fresh snowberry plants coming up along the fence along the ditch. You'd think after all these years they give it up and die.

The Western Salsify weed is prevalent in the hayfield. While not a noxious weed I find them annoying nonetheless. You'd think that with all my efforts in past years there would be few of them left. There are less of them but it is hard to tell if that is because of my efforts or because this year is dry. With all my other activities I doubt I will be able to attack the salsify weeds like I'd want to. And that will mean when they go to seed in the next few weeks it will drive me crazy.

And the gophers... I trapped another three pocket gophers today and the same two kept filling the traps with dirt. I found one of my traps missing. I searched but could not find it. The missing trap was nearer the neighbor's house so I asked them if they saw the trap. They have several dogs which they keep fenced in their yard but maybe they got out and got to my trap. No, they hadn't seen my trap. Hopefully I will come across the trap like before.

I need all my traps as when I walked the hayfield I found lots of new dirt mounds in areas I had trapped and cleared of pocket gophers. I've noticed the recent pocket gophers that I have trapped are smaller so this year new crop of babies have moved out into the world.

Little projects add up

Today was a day of small projects. I:

• added more wire to the middle pasture/hayfield gate to strengthen it
• added a twisty stay wire (I don't know the official name for it) to a longer than normal stretch between posts in my north fence. This item is two wires wrapped around one another. You twist it on a strand of barb wire and the barb wire will slip between the two wires. You keep twisting and eventually all the barb wire strands are imbeded in this twisty wire. The barb wire strands are then held in place but more importantly they are all joined as one unit so when the cattle stretch through the barb wire they stretch against four or five strands and not just one strand.
• repaired a broken barb wire strand between the north and NE pastures
• fertilized my yard
• pruned the tree branches they cattle had munched on in the NE pasture, fruit tree and garden area and the yard. The cattle were in the corral so I gave them the pruned tree branches so they could eat the leaves. I swear, some cattle would rather eat leaves than grass.
• replanted cabbage, broccoli, cucumber and zucchini plants as almost all of them that I had planted earlier died. None of my watermelon or cantaloupe plants survived. Half of my sunflower plants died. Only two of ten pepper plants lived- though it looked like something ate the leaves as the stems are left (no deer tracks in the soft dirt). All my tomato plants live, though they are smaller than desired.
  
• found two large parsnips growing among my raspberry plants. I noticed them as they were starting to go to seed. How did they get there?
• checked gopher and pocket gopher traps (only caught two pocket gophers with four other pocket gophers filling the traps with dirt)
• chatted with Jan when I was checking traps in the corner of the hayfield kiddie corner to her yard as she was out doing yard work
• bought groceries
• in the evening I chopped a number of burned tree stumps with an ax. I completely got rid of two stumps and put the dirt back in the holes which was no easy task as the holes were big and deep. I chopped on two other burned stumps and got rid of over half these stumps by the time it got dark. I think I will have to burn the rest of those stumps - I'll get a better look and understanding tomorrow.

Of the tree stumps this year I have:

• burned 14
• chopped out one
• have one more to chop out
• burned three ant piles

Of the 14 tree stumps, I have four left to burn again: two major stumps and the two minor stumps I have left after taking an ax to them. When Tammy gets here this weekend we will have a few bonfires and get rid of at least three of the four stumps. Of the fourth stump I have to dig it out more and I am not sure I will have time to do that.

To give you an idea of the work involved in burning these tree stumps, here are a few photos.

Photo 1: After the first burn.
Photo 2: I dug more around the stump after the first burn. This photo was taken from the opposite side of the first photo.

Photos 3 and 4 are from the second burning of this stump.

Photo 5: near the end of the second burning.
Photo 6: what was left the next day. I took an ax to this stump and removed all of it today.

Now for another stump...

Photo 1: first burn
Photo 2: what was left

Photo 3: second burn
Photo 4: what was left

As you can see with this stump the second burn didn't accomplish much. This is one of the stumps I have left to burn.

After the rain

It rained most of last night. It was still raining when I went to bed at 3 am and was done when I got up at 10 am. We must have had plenty of rain as the ground was wet three or more inches down when I dug pocket gopher holes later that day. Also it was easier to stick stakes into the ground when marking my trap locations.

This was a good rain and one I and the grass really needed. A few tree stumps are still smoldering where the roots underground are burning. Several other smoldering stumps were put out by the rain.

It was time to move the cattle to the north pasture for a few days. I saw them get up from their morning break and as they made their way around the pasture I opened the gate to the north pasture. That the gate was open didn't register to them until the first heifer walked through then the others quickly did. The cattle in the middle of the pasture then came running to join them.

They went to the corral and barn right away to check it out. Later when I was walking towards the river they ran over to join me. They were all excited and worked up. A few jumped and twisted as they ran. Whoa! Settle down!

When they got to the river they found the new fence which surprised them. Huh?!

With the cattle out of the middle pasture I moved the half dozen gopher traps from the north pasture to the middle pasture. I ended up setting out all 16 traps as I found 18 holes. The gophers took advantage of the lull to reopen the holes. In the afternoon I rechecked the traps and found one gopher slipped out of a leg hole trap though I found fur on the trap. Darn! So close!

I did find a gopher in another trap. Hurray! Another gopher down. If I only had gotten the first one. I feel I am so close to getting rid of them all.

Beyond that I cleaned up more tree branches. Of the branches I had cut from under the power line I had left them on the ground for the cattle to eat the leaves. The leaves not eaten were black and dead so I tossed the branches in a low area where I don't particularly care for the cattle to tromp around in - though a pile of branches don't seem to stop the cattle.

I also made banana bread and slept for a few hours in the afternoon. Man, I was tired today.

Fencing new

Sunday I built a new section of fence along the river as I now had some posts and wire to extend the fence. I had the old and broken wooden fence posts from where I had rebuilt the fence along the road the semi truck had flattened the fence. The shorter posts work for the two strand fence I build along the river.

I had 14 of these posts. I also cut the ends into points on 20 boards to make it easier to pound them into the ground. These boards go in between the fence posts. I had more boards than fence posts as I was extending the fence and had places for the boards to go in the old section.

Even though this section of river bank isn't as steep or sensitive to cattle moving about on it I decided to fence the cattle out of it to see what happens. I think that without the cattle eating the willow tree branches I place along the river bank they will grown into trees further protecting the river bank.

The downside is that with this section fenced off the cattle have only one area to access the river in this pasture. If this puts too much stress on this area I'll have to reopen the fenced area and find some other way to protect the young willow trees I have planted.

Just as I finished the fence at dusk it began to rain. Yay! I need more moisture. And what great timing!

It was a good and steady rain as I pushed my wheelbarrow of tools home. When I reached the corral it began to rain harder. I was pretty wet by the time I got in the house for the night. At this late hour it is still raining steady and hard. Good! I hope it rains all night even if it means the rain puts out my smoldering tree stumps.

Here are my tools and fencing materials for the new fence and my method of transportation. For a poor man rancher nothing goes to waste.

Fencing old

Saturday morning I moved the cattle from the south pasture to the middle one. I counted and found all twenty cattle had survived their visit to the island the previous night. I didn't have to worry after all.

I had left the gate open to the middle pasture but only five heifers were in it and at the salt block. The other fifteen were moving in their clockwise routine through the south pasture and were moving away from the gate.

I thought if I went out in the middle pasture and spent time filling in the hole from a burnt out tree trunk the cattle would come over to see what I was doing. The five did; the rest didn't as they must not have seen me.

When I went into the south pasture the fifteen came to me and followed me towards the gate. That is until they noticed the five in the middle pasture who were not near the gate. The fifteen rushed over to the fence to join the five. As the five were eating and working their way towards the river and away from the gate so did the fifteen who were still in the south pasture.

*sigh*

I ended up herding the fifteen towards the gate. The cattle weren't used to me herding them and were confused by my actions but eventually I got them to and through the gate and into the middle pasture. The cattle were sure worked up for a while by my herding them.

I then noticed a few leaning posts in the south/middle pastures' fence. It turned out that one or more of the cattle must have earlier gone through the fence and not the open gate.

Of the three strand barb wire fence the middle strand was off for a section, a metal fence post was bent over and three surrounding old wooden posts were broken. The barb wire never broke - the fence posts did.

*sigh*

Why those cattle didn't use the open gate is a mystery. I spent the rest of the morning fixing the fence. I also used my fence stretcher and stretched the middle barb wire tight - tighter than before as I was able to remove a patched section where the wire had broken in the past. So, for a fifteen plus section of posts I tightened up the fence.

Eventually the cattle settled down and took their siesta spread out around the pasture near where the tree stump hole was that I was filling in. As I finished filling in the hole the cattle chewed their cud and pretended not to be interested but I caught them looking at me.

Jailbreak number 2

Here is a writeup I just finished of a cattle jailbreak back from when I still had the cattle in the corral and was feeding them hay...

A few Saturday mornings ago I got up at 8 am to get a drink of water, and looking out my kitchen window I saw my whole cattle herd in my backyard busy munching on the grass!

(This photo is when I later let them in the yard, but the cattle's location is exactly the same.)

I got some clothes on, raced out the front door and down to the road and closed the gate there so the cattle could not get onto the road.

The cattle had not gotten past the house so I slowly herded them back to behind the blue building. They were very excited to be out of the corral. I let them eat the grass there for a while. "Notch" - who I am thinking of now calling "Boss Lady" - pushed over the stack of straw bales and then began rubbing her face in the bales, breaking some of the bales. It was like catnip to her I guess. I shooed her away.

When the cattle weren't near the line from the straw bales to the corner of the blue building I lined up the straw bales to mark a line past where the cattle wouldn't go. Naturally some of the cattle wanted to go past the bales. Among them Pink and Boss Lady. Emily also was getting in the action.

Even with all the easy grass to eat a few cattle were getting on their knees to get their head on the ground to eat the grass growing under some wood piles. Other cattle would go in the pole shed and along the pickup. No grass in there! They would have to back up as they barely could squeeze in there in the first place.

Then with grass available four or five cattle decided they wanted to eat the hay bales. At least they didn't knock that stack over but they tore up a few bales.

Finally I got them back into the corral. *whew*

How they got out if the corral is that they broke the small walking gate next to the silver water trough. While I had placed wire on the corral fence I hadn't placed any wire on the gate I had built as I thought the openings were too small. I think one of them got her head through one of the gate's openings and when she couldn't easily get her head back out she pulled the gate off its hinges. The metal latch was also bent.

I had boards nailed holding the latch post to the corral fence post and all the boards were split in two.

I put in a new latch post which is more solid than the original post. I redid the latch so it is easy for me to open. I put wire over the opening in the gate. I had thought the opening for me to open the latch was ok to leave open until I saw a heifer try to get her head through it. I partially closed that opening and they now can only get their nose through the opening.

Here is an example of how they get their head through the corral posts.

Rain, cattle, camera

It rained today! Hurray! It took a completely overcast sky for the rain to reach me as thunderstorms don't seem to be able to reach my part of the Valley.

The rain came at lunch time. I was working on burning tree stumps when it began to rain lightly. I didn't believe the rain would last and I continued with my burning. But the rain kept coming. Then a little harder. I kept on adding wood to the fire. Again the rain increased. By now I was getting soaked so gathered up my tools and wheelbarrow and headed home.

I then rode my bicycle to get my mail and the rain quit. I knew it!!! But after a bit it started up again lightly and continued much of the afternoon. For all that time we only got .15 inch of moisture. But I'll take it as it is better than nothing.

In the evening when I checked my pocket gopher traps I could see dry dirt mounds of new activity. And when I dug a new hole for a trap I found the wet dirt was only "skin deep".

I opened the gate to the middle pasture last night and moved the cattle's salt from the south to middle pasture. In the morning I seen some of the cattle were in middle pasture at the salt but they moved on back to the south pasture by the time I went out to the pasture. They spent all day in the south pasture out of sight. After checking the gopher traps I checked and saw some cattle on the island. With all the trees on the island I could not see them all but I hope they are alright. They should be unless some did something stupid and fell in the river. Two sides of the island have shallow banks and two sides have drop off banks. One of those banks is fenced and the long side with the main current is not.

With all the tall green lush grass in the south pasture the cattle have to go exploring.

The Canon repair center returned my Canon Powershot A1000 IS camera unrepaired. Initially they left me a phone mail message and claimed the camera's failure to open and close the lens was due to liquid damage. What?! I called them back and they changed their claim too much sand damage and they claimed it was not covered by their warranty. Sand damage?! I only had the camera two months and was nowhere near a beach or sand. They said they took photos of the camera and sand and would send them with the camera.

The photos show the camera with the cover off but beyond that showed nothing. I didn't see sand in the photos. It all seems kind of suspicious to me. Liquid, then sand.... anything to get out of their warranty. I only had the camera with me at the ranch and when hiking. While I take lots of photos and turn the camera on and off often their design should hold up to outdoor use. It appears Canon has a poor design for their lens opening and closing and I wouldn't recommend the camera for anyone who wants to take many outdoor photos.

The Fed Ex driver who delivered the camera to me today had pastured his cow/calf cattle with me years ago one time in the Fall. He no longer has cattle as it was too much of a hassle for him to keep them over winter.

New dead gopher

After all this time I finally trapped another regular gopher. Finally! I don't know if he got tired of moving or whether he just slipped up but I got him Wednesday. Thursday I had to move traps out of the middle pasture as I am letting the cattle back into it. When moving traps I noticed two new (reopened) holes near where I had the traps. I am not sure if the holes were created pre or post dead gopher. I guess I'll find out in the next few days. I imagine it would be just too good of luck for this to be the final gopher.

Speaking of luck, I am having no luck with the rain. Wednesday it rained hard all around my place but I barely got any rain. The closest rain I got was a few minutes of sprinkles when I was on the edge of one large storm. Various storms were moving around the Valley all day - north, south, east and west - but they all managed to miss me. It was very frustrating. I need rain so bad I wouldn't have minded a downpour that would have doused my smoldering tree stumps.

Thursday I hiked in Glacier Park and got soaked from the rain water on the bushes that crowded the trail. I even got some light rain drops on me off and on during the hike. Back home it stayed dry as a bone.

Slow start, fiery end

Tuesday morning was slow for me. Not a lot of ambition on my part.

The weather forecast called for warm, clear and dry. It was warm, partly cloudy and then late morning we had a sprinkle of rain. Only enough to put a few raindrops on the window before it ended. Then it was mostly clear. At least in my part of the Valley; I did see clouds and showers elsewhere closer to the mountains.

I moved a bench outside their garage for Bob to sit on when he is outside of the house. Jan gave me a container of potato salad and that was part of my lunch later.

I hadn't seen the cattle all morning and my 'sixth sense" told me they crossed the river to the island. I had the rest of the branch pile to move and decided to kill two birds with one stone.

On the way to the branches and cattle I discovered the gophers moved back into the middle pasture and reopened holes. When I had cattle in the north pasture I removed the traps from that pasture and the gophers moved there. Then when I had cattle in the middle pasture I moved those traps to the north pasture. For my effort in the north pasture all I caught was a mouse.

I set five traps in the middle pasture and later that evening I discovered two traps (one leg hold and one conibear) had been triggered and were empty. Argh! So close!!! A couple other traps had signs of activity with the dirt disturbed but the traps not triggered. I wonder if this activity was from gophers or mice.

At the river I found the cattle on the island. A new record. This is the fastest I have had cattle get to the island. This partly because this is the earliest I have had cattle in the south pasture but also previous cattle took a few days to a week before they crossed the river. These cattle only took 24 hours. And another difference is that the river level is higher now than other years when the cattle crossed later in the year. When these cattle cross the river the water is up to their belly. Well, at least they are getting a bath when they cross the river.

It is a bit surprising the cattle went to the island so fast as the grass is high and green in the south pasture. Yesterday when the cattle took their siesta they had to blow the grass away else eat it away as it was so tall it covered their faces when they sat down.

These cattle are cool, calm and collected, but also fearless. When it gets later in the year with the river level lower and the grass drier, how much adventuring will these cattle go on?

Since the cattle were exploring the island I decided to move the rest of the branch pile. It wasn't long before the cattle saw me. First one then the rest of the herd crossed the river to come check me out. They checked out the new branch pile and then came over to check out the old branch pile and me. By this time I quit moving the branches in order to avoid carrying the branches around the herd.

A number of cattle checked me and my rake out. The same two "washers" decided to wash my hands and arms again even though I had just taken a shower a few hours earlier. They also worked on my pants and shoes. Once the shoes were clean they decided to untie my shoelaces. That is when I shooed them away from me.

After the cattle left I finished moving the branch pile. I also trimmed a number of trees growing under the electric line on my property boundary. I had trimmed the trees five or so years ago and while they hadn't reached the wires I decided to trim them again before the trees got too big.

After a late lunch I fell asleep. Then it was off to check my pocket gopher traps. Jan mentioned they had a gopher mound in their yard and I took one of my traps over there. I found the hole didn't go anywhere. A gopher probably made a short tunnel when checking whether to move there or not. Jan gave me soup and other food that Bob had no appetite for. With all his new meds Bob's appetite has changed and a number of foods hold no appeal for him anymore.

In the evening as the afternoon's breeze began to die down I went out and burned more. I dug around a tree stump and naturally it turned out to be more digging than I expected. Since the part of the stump I found at ground level was rotting I expected the stump to be quick and easy to shovel around to prepare for burning. Wrong again!

I then reburned the first ant pile as the ants were rebuilding a ring around the burned pile. And they were starting a new hill a yard from the burnt one. At least this was one way to get rid of some of the old hay the cattle didn't eat.

I checked the two ant hills I burnt Monday. These hills were pretty devastated, and while I did see ants around them, not enough activity or hill remained to warrant a second burning.

I burnt another "new" tree stump in the north pasture. This is the last stump I plan to burn in the north pasture as the other stump I will cut from the ground.

Then it was on to a previously burnt stump in the middle pasture. I decided to dig the ashes and some dirt away from the stump and while there was lots less of the stump than when I first burnt it, I found more stump than I expected.

While digging the stump I heard a heifer call out. I looked up and saw two deer in the middle pasture and the cattle along the middle/south pasture fence. The heifer was calling to the deer but they were ignoring the cattle. I walked towards the deer and they bounded off back to the river with their long whitetails bobbing back and forth as they ran and hopped.

It was starting to get dark when I got the stump burning. It made a nice bonfire. I just needed some marshmallows.

I have a feeling some of the stump will remain tomorrow.

Photo 1 is the stump after I dug around it after the first burn.
Photo 2 is the first burn last week.
Photos 3 and 4 are of this evening's burn.

My busy week

I've been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to write in my blog. Here is a brief overview of my activities the past week.

Last Monday

• cattle continue to eat the grass in the fruit tree and garden area
• added fence and other methods to protect the flowers, trees, and shrubs in the yard
• other stuff I don't remember now
  

Tuesday

• let cattle into yard to eat the grass
• pounded in nine steel fence posts to support loose and wobbly wooden posts in the north pasture fence
• other stuff I don't remember now

Wednesday

• Cattle finished eating the grass in the yard
• went around the north pasture and hammered in loose nails and replaced missing nails
• let the cattle into the north pasture
  
• took down most of the fencing used to protect the yard and the fruit tree and garden area plants and trees

Thursday

• in Glacier Park I hiked over Howe's Ridge to Trout Lake and then to Arrow Lake. 13 miles total. Total elevation gain/loss 4200+ feet. Slept 12 hours that night.

Friday

• checked pocket gopher and regular gopher traps. Found new holes under pine trees and in a pile of dead branches
• checked middle pasture's fence. Only had to add some nails. All posts okay.
• burnt nine tree stumps and one large ant hill.

Saturday

• moved cattle to middle pasture
• moved gophers traps out of middle pasture; found new gopher holes in north pasture, set five traps there.
  
• Now that I have more posts and wire, I built a new fence in the middle pasture to keep cattle out from a larger area of steep river bank
  
• rebuild an old fence along the river in the middle pasture
• The cattle discovered me before I was through with the fence rebuild and they had to check out what I was doing. As the herd crowded around me a number of the cattle walked right on the river bank's edge which made me nervous. The bank was only a few feet above the water but the river was deep and fast moving in this area. "Emily" had to get up close to the water in an effort to see what was in the water. The river bank gave way and she was able to jerk back before her front feet went completely in the river. *whew* Hence the reason for the fence in this area. Not learning her lesson, "Emily" continued to walk right next to the river and two times tried to look in the water. These two times the river bank held.
• while I was waiting for the herd to move on so I could get back to my fence rebuild, two of them decided to wash me and each took one arm and licked it from my hands to above my elbows. They must have wanted the salt from my sweat. Else the really, really liked me.
  

Sunday

• finished the rebuilt of the fence along the river in the middle pasture
• checked gopher traps
• checked south pasture fence: added four steel posts, hammered loose nails on fence posts and replaced missing nails and also wire holders for steel posts
• burnt one tree stump
  

Monday

• added the fifth and final steel post to south pasture fence
• picked up and placed in a pile a number of tree branches I had trimmed around south pasture from trees this past Spring. Forgot about them until I moved the cattle's salt blocks from middle to south pasture
  
• moved the cattle to the south pasture
• fixed the south pasture fence where the deer had bent it. A few years ago in the low area I had added 7+ ft tall wire panels to the fence to reinforce the fence and stop the deer from jumping over it. One tried. I am not sure if it was successful as the fence in one area was half bent over. I straightened the wire panel, added a new tall (well over 7 ft tall) post to the fence in this spot, and did a few other maintenance things to the fence
• moved over half of a large pile of old dead branches in this low area that had been sitting there for a number of years. I only moved half the pile as the cattle discovered me before I was done and had to come watch me. I stopped working until they lost interest. When I started up with raking a number would come over to check me out. I stopped, they wandered off. I started they came back. Eventually a number of them thought they would be sneaky and would stand behind some of the small trees and would peek out at me not realizing they small trees didn't hide their fat bellies.
• hauled and dumped Bob and Jan's small trailer of grass, lawn, weed, and tree trimmings
• got another pickup load of scrap wood to use in burning the tree stumps that remain and I placed the wood near the five stumps that did not completely burn and near the two stumps I had not burnt yet. Sunday's tree stump was still smoldering so I left it alone. The larch stump I had burnt last Friday is still burning and following the stump's roots to their very ends.
  
• burnt two large ant piles
• checked pocket gopher traps, caught another two
  
• started to water my very dry garden until it got too dark to see. My poor garden... between the two nights of light frost and the transition from indoors to transplanted outdoors, a number of plants did not survive.
  

And as it is that I am falling asleep at the computer as I type this, it is time to post and then go to bed.

Cattle playing tricks on me

Here are a few stories from when the cattle were in the corral. In between feedings the cattle would play tricks on me.

The first was opening the loading corral gate I had made last year. I was so proud of the latch I designed. Boy, did I pat myself on my back too soon!

Here is what I found several times last week. The gate was open. One of the heifers figured out how to work the latch and would open the gate. So much for my grand design! I have the old snow fence blocking the gate until my loading corral rebuild is done so the cattle couldn't get through the gate. Yet several days in a row I found the gate open.

I never did figure who was doing this. I image she was standing around snickering each time I found the opened gate. Well, I finally put a stop to this as I got a wire and added it as an extra latch. The cattle didn't figure out how to unhook this new addition.

The other game the cattle played on me was to remove the stack of wood I put under the cattle feeder by the barn to support the broken board. The cattle would spread the boards all around the corral. Once the cattle learned how to remove the boards they would do this at least once a day.

In the past I also tossed some large rocks under the feeder to get the rocks out of the way. I guess the cattle wanted to play soccer as I kept finding the rocks around the corral even though I kept putting them back under the feeder.

*sigh* Kids!

Yard cattle

I think I read somewhere "You must be a redneck if you have livestock mow your yard". Guilty!

This morning I finished my preparations to protect my flowers and trees in the yard.

And, yes, I have to protect the shingles on my well shed. The first year I had cattle biting and tearing shingles off. I also have to tie the pallets together as the first year I had pallets the cattle tried to pull the pallets off. Good thing I tied the pallets this year as one heifer tried to move the pallets to get to the shingles underneath.


At noon today I let the cattle into my yard to eat the grass down. They've been doing an excellent job. It is kind of cute as some of the cattle have small birds that follow along side the cattle and eating like the cattle are doing.

As I look outside my front window the herd is taking a siesta break.

Let's see... 15... 16... 17... 17.... 17! Where are the other three?

Oh No!! Just a minute! Jailbreak!

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.
.

I'm back.

Three cattle bent the latch on my little walk through gate that is between my back yard and the hayfield and they pushed open the gate. Even though they were just inside the hayfield, judging from the eaten grass they had been there for some minutes. I opened the large gate and quickly herded them back into the yard. This field has alfalfa and without the prep of a bloat block the cattle can bloat from eating lots of alfalfa. I believe I got them out in time.

I bent the latch back into shape and closed the gate. I found a small chain and wrapped it around the latch. That done the cattle came over to check it out. Curses! Foiled again!

I got my camera and came out to discover one of the cattle studying the latch on the large gate. "How did he open it?" *sigh* Some cattle are too smart. The large gate latch can be seen on the second from the ground board in the above photo on the left. Doesn't she have a guilty look below?


Just a minute... I hear a noise outside.

I'm back. One heifer was pushing a large rock around my porch. This is the rock I got when Tammy and I were returning from the nursery near Plains, MT. My "Tammy Rock". The heifer was scratching her forehead on the rock and pushed it here and there until she tipped it over. The rock didn't break but she got a guilty look on her face when the other heifers stopped to look at her and the noise she made when the rock fell.

The "Tammy Rock". Standing... laying.

*sigh* Kids!
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Okay... I am back again. The cattle would prefer to stay in the yard overnight. But while I may be crazy enough to have cattle in my yard, I am not crazy enough to leave them there overnight. I decided to use a carrot instead of a stick and I put a bale of hay in the corral's feeder. I got the attention of a couple nearby cattle; they alerted the others and they all came running. I just had to get out the way. Well... there were a couple cattle that lingered by the gate. They were suspicious it was a trap but eventually they moved inside and I closed the gate.

*whew* Another day at the Tall Pines Ranch.

Moving cattle

It has been a very busy week. I am at the time of year where the cattle go from the corral to the pasture.

These cattle are such voracious eaters they are going through the grass faster than usual. Add in this cold and dry Spring where the grass hasn't grown as much as usual and it is no wonder I have to move the cattle around sooner than usual.

Normally I can get five days use of the NE pasture. This year: three days.

Before the cattle go out in the back pastures I let them in my fruit tree and garden area and also my yard. This year the cattle lasted only a little over a day before the grass in the fruit tree and garden area was eaten down. Less than previous years.

Tomorrow I will let them in my yard. I estimate that grass will last only a day.

Tonight with the NE pasture eaten down the cattle were getting a little restless as they didn't want to put in the work to eat the last of the grass. So I gave them a bale of hay.

I only have a few things left to protect in the yard before I let the cattle in there tomorrow. I had bought some nut trees at the annual Plains nursery Memorial Day sale and I need to protect those trees ands shrubs.

The good news is that it has rained the past few days. We got a quarter of an inch of rain on Saturday and we got a nice soaker rain this morning. We really needed the rain and need more of it. Before the rain the grass felt dry and crunchy like it does in mid July. And the soil was so dry it would float dusty in the air when I dug pocket gopher holes.

Oh yeah... remember my garden I finally planted on Friday? Saturday night the temperature dropped to 31 F. Yup! Below freezing! It looks as if the frost got a few of my plants. Man, you'd think with a late as I planted my garden I wouldn't have to worry about frost! Where is global warming when you need it?

Naturally I could write more. How could I not after having the cattle in the fruit tree and garden area? But it is late and I am tired. It was yet another night where a bowl of popcorn was my supper.

Here are a few photos taken a few hours after I let the cattle into the fruit tree and garden area. Notice in the middle of the second photo one heifer is licking the head of the other heifer. They don't always fight.

Garden

I finally got my garden planted. I got it rototilled a week ago but with all that is going on I didn't get to planting my garden until Friday. I even skipped a day of hiking in order to get my garden planted. I had to else my garden still wouldn't be planted. A cold front came through Friday night and Saturday was cold and wet.

This year was one of the later times I planted my garden. Last year was about as late but I had an excuse as I didn't return home from North Dakota until Memorial Day week. My excuse this year? Umm... a cold and late Spring. I didn't get to borrow the rototiller until late. I wanted a large block of time to work on my garden without interruption. And I had company over Memorial Day weekend.

Other than fixing a flat bicycle tire, the only thing I did Friday was work on my garden. I didn't even check my gopher traps. And my garden work took most of the day as I didn't finish until about 10 pm.

Once I got everything planted I watered what I had planted. I watered slowly so as not to disturb and move the seeds. It took hours to water everything. A strong cold front from Canada arrived in the evening and the winds picked up and blew strong. The temperature dropped and I felt like it was Fall. Bring back global warming!

The metal walls from my neighbor's burnt shop was scraping and screeching in the wind. I was expecting some piece of metal to break free and go flying in the wind.

It was dark when I finished watering. Even though rain was in the forecast I wanted to water what I had planted. The ground is so dry the dirt was blowing around and I wanted to prevent what I had planted from blowing away.

After a quick look Saturday morning the only damage I noticed was one broccoli plant had been torn away. I did get the old tires I use around my tomato plants to retain warmth at night and placed them over the tomato plants. A secondary effect of the tires is to protect the young plants from the wind.

We had a quarter inch of rain overnight which was desperately needed. Prior to the rain the ground and grass felt like it was mid-July. This is not good when it is early June. Still we need much more rain as I hardly got my shoes muddy when walking in the garden dirt to place the tires.

I planted:

• radishes (red and white)
• lettuce
• onions and green onions
• beets
• peas
• string green beans
• carrots
• parsnip
  
• corn
• broccoli
  
• cabbage
• tomatoes
  
• potatoes
• pepper (green bell and jalapeno)
• sunflowers
• watermelon
• muskmelon
• cucumber
• zucchini squash

Good health

Ranch living is good for my health. Thursday I took a cholesterol and HDL/LDL test. My cholesterol is down and now is in the optimal range. My triglycerides are down by a third and well within the optimal range. My LDL (bad cholesterol) is down and now is in the 'near optimal' range. My HDL (good cholesterol) is up. My CHOL/HDL range lower, which I believe is good.

These values all compare to the same test I had done in 2003. So almost six years of ranch living has improved my cholesterol scores. I may be tired, but I am in good health.

Fire, part 2

I spoke with Jim and Debbie the night of the fire. They were still stunned by the fire. Everything in their shop was lost. Jim found out his insurance didn't cover his boat under personal property as the boat had a motor and therefore needed to be covered under a separate policy.

A few neighbors stopped by to check out the damage. Jim wandered around and around his shop pulling stuff from the ashes and remembering what he had.

Jim and Debbie said that when they drove back from Missoula that were afraid the fire would reach my building as they knew I had my horse trailer and motor home inside it. The fire was minutes from starting my building on fire. If the fire had occurred the previous day when a north wind was blowing my place probably would have gone up in flames.

The lead fighter fighter said because the fire burned so hot he had no idea how the fire started. A special fire investigator hired by the insurance companies came by that night to talk with Jim and Debbie and look around and take photos. He was there for quite some time.

They are still waiting for the insurance adjusters. Hopefully they will come soon as the two standing walls may not stand up to strong winds. The weather forecasters are predicting a wind event Friday when a Canadian cold front arrives.

See how the legs of the A frame bent and bowed due to the heat.



My building ... Jim's building. Close.



What was inside where the fire reached my building. I moved the material on the left of the posts so I could search for signs of fire inside my building. None found.