Multi-task day

I did a little of everything today.

First I weeded more of my strawberry patch.

In the photo you can see I had weeded earlier this month the rhubarb and a few of the strawberry plants .

More strawberry plants can be found under that tall grass. With so much grass the weeding is slow going.

I actually found and ate one strawberry from a plant that had been weeded around before, and a number of those strawberry plants have blossoms.

While weeding I kept an eye on the cattle. They come into the corral between 9 and 10 am and take their siesta break until noon to 1 pm. I wanted to let them into the hayfield and wanted to time it when their siesta was over. I want them to see me open the gate so they know it is okay to go through it. This is kind of working. When I open the gate, and they are nearby, they come right over without me herding them. Whether they are making the connection of me giving them permission to go into a new field is unknown.

All but one heifer immediately went into the hayfield. One had lagged in the corral and she watched the others go into the hayfield. She stood there and watched them as if she couldn't believe her eyes at what was happening. I called her and she came to and through the gate to join the others.

Then it was here and there to check it all out. Cattle would rush here and there to join other cattle in case those cattle had found some "primo" grass to eat.

With a larger and more open area the herd didn't stick as tight together as they normally do as it was easy to see where the others were.


I let the cattle into the hayfield through the north pasture gate. I then closed it as I want them to access water and the river via the middle pasture. This will give the north pasture a rest. All but four cattle knew the middle pasture gate was open once they wanted something to drink. The other four wanted to drink from the water through and came to the fence along the barn.

Later a number of cattle would come to the corral fence. I think they wanted into the corral to take their siesta. I guess I did a really good job imprinting the barn and corral on them.

Later in the afternoon I noticed the two girls from the house south of the ranch were along the fence with a number of my cattle. They have a fruit tree and I saw they tossed the cattle some fruit.

Each of the past several days I have fed my cattle apples that have fallen from my trees. Here are a couple photos of my apple trees loaded with apples. The photos don't really capture the effect of all the apples on the trees.

I painted a second coat of red on the fascia on the garage and the well pump shed. Tammy has been asking me all the time how much I have painted since she left. "Umm... not much."

So I think I have finished painting the fascia on the house, garage and well pump shed. I still had paint left in the can so I decided to finish the can by painting the barn. I ended up painting two walls of the barn's addition. I had to do a little scraping of old paint off the bottom two boards of each wall.

Tammy picked out a pretty red, don't you think? Even though the white trim has not been repainted the red already makes it stand out.

I have found that I didn't buy enough red paint. I had measured the areas to paint and calculated how many gallons I would need. But I found that I went through over two gallons just on the fascia when I only used a little over a gallon of primer on the fascia. Then this is all I was able to paint on the barn with 2/3 of a gallon. I only have two gallons of paint left for the rest of the barn and that is not enough paint. I don't get the newspaper so you'll have to let me know when Home Depot has a sale on their paint again.

Lastly I sprayed weeds. I sprayed two tanks of herbicide today. Yesterday I sprayed a tank over the yard, fruit tree and garden area and part of the NE pasture. I went over the rest of the NE pasture and the part of the north pasture I had sprayed a week or so ago. In addition to catching the weeds I had missed the first time I found quite a few new weeds had sprouted up. Still, I am making progress as it took me three tanks of herbicide to cover what took me 10 tanks the previous time.

Five minutes after I finished spraying it began to rain. We can always use more moisture so I won't complain about the potential of the rain washing the last tank of herbicide from the plants. It could be worse, I could have hay still in my field.

The two neighbors' hay is still out there. The big field is mostly baled with large rounds and small squares. The other guy is having more baler problems. He told me that a bearing broke on his baler last Sunday and that is why he didn't get the hay baled before that day's rain. He was out baling this afternoon but after getting almost a third of the field baled it appeared as if he had more baler problems. On the plus side for these guys is that tonight's rain appears to be light.

Raspberries

Wednesday I picked two more containers of raspberries from my bushes. I still have more raspberries to pick once they ripen. Lots of raspberries this year!

Hayfield fence

The other day I mentioned my work earlier this Spring to rebuild part (400 feet) of the hayfield fence along the road. Today I got photos of the completed work.

Before and After

The new fence doesn't look as substantial as the old fence with the boards but looks are deceiving. The boards and fence posts were old and weak. My new fence has five strands of barb wire instead of the three strands in the old fence. The new strands are nice and tight. I can step on them to climb over the fence.

Here is a photo of one of the stays I added between the fence posts.

Warm nights

I haven't gotten much done on the ranch lately. Monday I spent all day hiking. Six hours were spent driving to and from the Many Glacier valley and seven hours were spent on the hike. I did see a large grizzly bear but that was when I was back in my car after the hike.

Prior to the hike I only got five and a half hours sleep. The past number of nights have been warmer than usual as the low temperature only gets down to around 60 F. I don't sleep as deep or well when the nights are so warm. As a consequence a number of afternoons I drift off to sleep for a few hours after eating a late lunch.

The daytime temperatures are reasonable as they are around 80 F.

I've been on a number of good hikes the past few weeks but haven't found the time to go through the photos and then write up the hike. It is on my long list of things to do.

Today I went around the hayfield fence to check it out. I plan to let the cattle in there tomorrow. With the recent rain the grass is noticeably taller and greener everywhere, and that is a good thing. I had to replace more nails than expected in the older sections of the hayfield fence.

The neighbors' hay fields are still drying. Their hay looks brown and poor after getting rained on.

Some small apples have fallen from my apple trees when it is windy. And I thinned a few of them. I gave them to my cattle. A few have caught on that apples are delicious and they swing by the corral more often these past few days.

I spoke with Jan today. She gave me an extra pizza from when she had all the company this past weekend. Ah, supper finally for me tonight. I've been so busy and on a crazy eating schedule that more often than not I miss supper else have a bowl of popcorn for supper.

Jan showed me where someone cut a half circle in the bottom of their chain link fence. The cut is several feet tall and wide. It is strange as the cut is 15 to 20 ft from the end of the fence. If the person who made the cut wanted through the fence all they had to do is walk around it.

Sue Ann got eviction papers Monday. Sunday she literally screamed at me over the phone because I and the others were going on a hike Monday when she had other plans. Since Sue Ann couldn't go with us we chose a destination where Sue Ann already hiked in the past, didn't like, didn't want to go to again, and where the rest of us had never been to. Still she flipped out on me for going on a hike without her and one she didn't want us to go on. Others have commented on her behavior recently. I don't know all what's going on with her.

Garden day and rain

Saturday was a garden day. I haven't had time to do anything with my garden in a while and it became overgrown with weeds. My garden is pathetic to begin with and the weeds were not helping.

I spent hours weeding the garden then watered it. That must be why it then rained hard Sunday afternoon.

I found the deer have been in my garden again. They ate two of my three sunflowers leaving the one that was curled and not standing tall. They ate one of my three pea plants and one bean plant and sampled a few other items. Grrrr....!

Well, hopefully my deer problems are over. Friday I found a vehicle had hit and killed a deer on the road across from my fruit tree and garden area. Hopefully that was the deer that was raiding my garden.

The breeze Friday and Saturday was from the east and the smell of the deer got really bad Saturday in this heat (upper 80s). I couldn't exit my driveway without almost getting overcome by the smell of the dead deer. I had enough and Saturday I drug the deer off into the pasture and away from the road. Sunday the wind was from the westerly direction so I don't know if I moved the deer far enough.

I also filled several good sized containers with raspberries from my bushes and then watered them well. Since I was watering I also watered all my berry bushes.

Like I said earlier all this watering must have been why it rained Sunday even though the forecast had a small chance of rain. Friday and Saturday nights had lots of lightning over the mountains but other than a light show it was dry here. If spending a few hours watering my plants makes it rain, then it wasn't a waste of time.

At first hail fell. I would hear a "clunk..." "clunk..." "clunk..." then saw a few good sized bright white hailstones. Fortunately it was few and intermittent so I was able to dash to my clothesline and retrieve the few items I had drying and I didn't get hit by any hailstones.

Then after a little thunder and lightning it began to rain. Then it poured, and poured hard. It rained for a few hours and I believe we got a third to a half inch of rain. This is great for my hayfield to recover from its cutting and also helps my pasture as it had been drying out again.

The rain was bad for the people who cut the two fields across the road from me. One guy made one pass at baling this morning before quitting. I bet he regrets quitting now. The other guy spent three days cutting the other large field and spent this afternoon raking windrows together. All that hay is now soaked.

Hayfield gate

Now that my hay is in the barn, and I am on the count down to letting the cattle into the hayfield, it was time to finally finish my work on the hayfield fence by the road. If you remember back in January a semi truck went off the road and flattened about 100 ft of my hayfield fence.

The photo shows the gap in the fence caused by the semi.

Earlier this Spring I rebuilt the section that was flattened. And more. Since the fence was very old and in bad condition I ended up rebuilding the fence starting from my yard all the way to the gate. 400 ft of fence. I hadn't blogged about it as I hadn't completely finished the fence rebuild. I still had stays to add to the fence and also rebuild the gate.

Thursday and Friday I worked on the fence. Thursday I rebuilt the gate. Friday I fixed the corner where the fence meets the yard fence.

The gate rebuild took longer than expected. I made the mistake of rebuilding the gate before replacing the post on the south side. (I had already replaced the post on the north side when I rebuilt that section of fence).

Initially I thought I could reuse the old railroad tie as it was tall. But then I dug it out from the ground I found that the part of the post that was in the ground had completely rotted. What was left (the above ground part) was too short for a gate post.

Hmmm... what to do. By coincidence just before I began the gate rebuild I had ridden my bicycle past an area where an old railroad tie was removed from the ground in order to put up a large "Development For Sale" sign. The railroad tie was old and not perfect but would work for my gate post.

And it did work fine for me. The problem was that once I got the new post in the ground I found my gate was two inches wider. I couldn't close my gate. So I had to take my gate apart and lengthen it by those two inches.

I am pleased with my new gate. The old gate had been patched and patched, was hard to open and close, and was ugly. The new gate is simpler and has a cleaner look.

(Note, in the 'before' photo the open area is not the gate. I was in the middle of rebuilding the fence when I took the photo.)

Friday's work was to fix the corner. When I rebuilt the fence I used a wire stretcher to hang the wire. It makes a nice and tight fence. The downside was that I had kept the corner post and did not do any extra bracing of it. Over the past few months the tight fence had pulled the corner post in and away from my yard fence.

I used my wire stretcher to straighten the post and close the gap as much as I could then nailed a few boards to prevent the post from getting pulled away again.

Here is what the wire stretcher looks like. I don't remember where I got this; either I found it among dad's stuff else I got it with a bunch of stuff at an auction. But I do know that having used it I won't go without one ever again when working on my fence. This is tightens up the wire faster and tighter than I could ever do before. And it is great when repairing a broken wire as it can grab both ended and pull them together easily.

Thursday and Friday nights I took a few minutes before it got too dark to see well and added more stays to the fence. Even though my posts are only 8 ft apart I am adding the stays between the posts to further reinforce the fence along the road. When it comes to cattle it doesn't hurt to over build one's fences.

I have twenty stays left to add to the fence.

Hay in

Wednesday evening Wyatt finally baled my hay. The hay was dry - dry enough that he could have baled it Monday or Tuesday. Wyatt likes to make sure the hay is dry but even he admitted he should have baled the hay Tuesday at the latest. I still have some bales from last year and this year's hay is no greener than last year's hay after a year of sitting in the barn.

I knew I would have less hay this year as the grass didn't seem as tall as in most years. I was right. I got only 40% of the amount of hay I had gotten last year. I got 158 bales, down from almost 400 last year. And as I only get 40% of what Wyatt cuts I ended up with only 64 bales, not quite two ton of hay.

I am not alone in getting less hay. The local newspaper had an article Wednesday on how much less hay everyone in the Valley has gotten this year as it had been a cool and dry Spring.

I did notice than in large areas of my field the grass was not short. Wyatt claimed he cut the field short but the grass grew since then seeing as how we had all that rain prior to him cutting my field. I don't know... I think it is a combination of the grass growing and Wyatt not cutting it as short this year. Even Dan commented on how green my field was considering it had been cut. Oh well, more grass for my cattle once I let them into the hayfield.

While Wyatt baled the hay I gathered bales two at a time with my little cart. By the time he finished the baling I had gathered sixty bales of hay and stacked them in my barn.

Dan planned to buy Wyatt's share of the hay. As I thought I'd have a little more hay in my share of it I didn't think of buying Wyatt's share until after Dan got first chance at it. Thursday morning Dan came by to get his hay. He had loaded 30 bales in his pickup by the time I got out to the field.

Even though the bales are only 50 to 60 pounds, Dan's shoulder was hurting him. He was thinking of letting his brother buy the rest of the hay as he didn't want to lift any more bales, but I mentioned that I was interested in the rest. So I ended up buying the rest of the hay.

Since the remaining hay bales were in the south side of my hayfield I hauled them back to the barn with my pickup. It sure would have been nice to have a rancher girl driving my pickup to the hay bales across the field so I wouldn't have had to keep getting in and out of my pickup all the time.

So my hay is in and another annual item is off my list of things to do.

One herd

Eleven heifers went seeking a bull,
Eight heifers stayed where they belonged,
One heifer went on a journey,
In the land of Montana where the Pines are tall.
One Herd The Rancher wants them all, One Herd the Rancher must seek them,
One Herd the Rancher must bring them all, and in the pasture keep them,
In the land of Montana where the Pines are tall.

I have all my cattle back where they belong and all together. Monday morning I was able to easily move the twelve in the south pasture to the middle pasture. Then I went to the eight in Jim's pasture. They were taking a siesta in the NW corner close to the river. I also wanted to figure out which heifer (#649) had made it from Jim's pasture all the way to the peninsula on Saturday.

The eight were a little surprised to see me but eventually they got up and came over to check me out. They washed my arms and a few times they would try to nip on my elbows. My shoes were washed and the shoelaces untied. I had a pair of small binoculars in one of my rear pants pockets. One heifer was determined to get it. She would try to bite it out of my pocket.

In the end my clothes and I were slobbered on before the eight got tired of me and left.

The eight then somewhat lazily followed me back to the north pasture. Once there a few noticed the twelve gathered around a tree in the middle pasture and quickly came to the gate which I had opened. A couple of the twelve called the eight and the stragglers came running.

Now you'd think they would be all happy to see one another. Think again. Eight quickly squared off head to head in pairs of two and went at it. Three pairs settled their disagreement relatively quickly. It took the fourth pair a few hours before they settled their disagreement.

The middle pasture still has three or four pits where I had burned the tree stumps. The cattle found them and would toss dirt in the air and on them. I noticed one heifer in one pit was writhing around. My first thought was that she fell in the pit and hurt or broke her leg. Nope. She was going for the full effect in getting a dirt bath. I think the dirt helps keeps the many flies off them.

Monday was a warm to hot day and once the disagreements were settled, dirt baths were done, and a quick check of the pasture was done, the cattle settled down for an afternoon siesta under a few of their favorite trees near the hayfield fence. This being a warm day their siesta lasted all afternoon.

This middle pasture is the one the eleven had escaped from last week. I watched for signs if they wanted to swim the river again, but the bull and the other herd must have been moved from that pasture as my herd had no interest in crossing the river.

It is good to have the herd all together again as one.

A few photos of the herd getting to know one another again.

My heifer is a ninja

When we last talked I had gotten eleven heifers over to the small island. Nine heifers were still in my northern neighbor's pasture where they belonged.

Saturday evening when I returned from the auction I found the eleven had finally crossed the river and come over to the south pasture. Hurray! They were near the gate and I went out to open it to the middle pasture and also count that all eleven were there.

They were intent on eating and ignored me and the gate. Fine then. Stay there. I counted and recounted and came up with all eleven heifers. I decided to go to the river and retrieve white plastic bag I had left as a signpost on where to return to the south pasture.

As I walked along the river after retrieving the bag I noticed a black heifer through the trees on the peninsula. What? I had counted correctly I'm sure. I walked around and got a better look. Yup. One of my heifers was over there. Which one and how did she get there? I had to get her back. Cattle do not like being alone and who knows where she will go.

On the way home to get a change of pants and shoes in order to cross the river I stopped to check on the nine. Four were eating in the pasture and... one... two... three... four... four... were in the small shed. Four. Not five. Okay, now I know where the one on the peninsula came from.

How she got over there is a complete mystery and one I still have not solved. And why she went there is a mystery. It had to be because she noticed her sister herd, but how? Cattle in the north pasture can't see cattle on the small island or in the south pasture from the north pasture when near the river.

I often say my cattle are like ninjas. They move quietly and will surprise you at how fast and quiet they move. This particular one, #649, is definitely a ninja.

When I returned to the river I found I had grabbed my slippers and not my water shoes. Back home again to get the right shoes. I also grabbed a banana and a roll to eat as I had not eaten since breakfast.

Once I was on the peninsula I couldn't find the heifer. I searched all corners of it. Nothing. I went to the small island and searched all of it. Nothing. Where is she?! I went to the neighbor's fence and looked over his pasture. Nothing. Not my heifer nor his herd.

Where is she?!!

I looked down river channels. Nothing. I then checked the middle pasture as she had seen me in it when I saw her. Maybe she followed me. Nope.

I went back to the neighbor's pasture with the eight. Still only eight.

I went to the south pasture to check on the eleven. They had been on the east end near the hayfield and away from the river. I found them closer to the river side of the pasture without being at the river. Nine... ten... eleven... twelve. Twelve?! Did I just count twelve? Yes, twelve. My "roaming" heifer found her sisters. All is well, though in the end I didn't need to spend over an hour searching for her.

Next on the list: combine them all into one herd again. That will have to wait until another day as I had to go get the rest of the stuff I had bought at the auction, and meet Brian and Alison at the train station in Whitefish.

Farm auction

Saturday I attended a nearby farm auction. The auction was held at an 80 acre farm where the mother passed away last Fall. The three sons who inherited the farm held the auction.

The auctioneer, Carpenter, also included stuff from another estate so there was lots of stuff. Too much in fact as the auction ran from 10 am until 6 pm. That is two to three hours longer than usual. Add in a clear warm day with a temperature in the upper 80s and only a light occasional breeze and it is no wonder than people were leaving by mid afternoon.

I arrived after 11 am and stayed until the end at 6 pm as naturally stuff I was interested in was auctioned off near the end. I didn't want this auction to be another one of those where I left for a while then came back too late.

I did buy stuff while waiting for what I really wanted. I got a heavy duty sledgehammer and a heavy duty maul for $5 each. I don't think you can buy a new handle for that price.

Later I bought two metal rake heads. The auctioneer planned on tossing them into a scrap metal pile until I said I was interested and bid $2.50 (the minimum bid price at the auction). I usually end up breaking the metal rake heads but not their wooden handles.

Later I reminded the auctioneer he had forgot to auction a half dozen large round rolls of barb wire when auctioning stuff from a building. I got all the barb wire for $2.50.

I had hopes of getting several gates, several corral panels, and a harrow. With people leaving, lots of stuff only sold for the minimum bid price so I imagined I would get the stuff I was waiting for cheaply. Instead two new guys showed up once we got to the stuff out back and they either bid on what I wanted, else the stuff wasn't being auctioned (several gates and the corral panels).

For a 10 ft metal gate the auctioneer screwed up the bid. He thought the one bidder bid $40 and he was asking for $45 for the next bid. In the end the previous bidder got the gate for $35, which probably was the right price even though I was tempted to bid $40 until the auctioneer and I both thought the second bidder bid that price.

For a long homemade wire gate I dropped out of bidding at $12.50, though in hindsight I should have kept going as the gate sold for $10.

The two harrows were very nice and sold for $100 each as I wouldn't go over $100 by bidding $125. The harrows were worth more than $100 but not too me as they were more harrow than I needed to knock for pocket gopher mounds.

There was other old small equipment that sold for little of nothing. It was just that I didn't need them or was leery at having to fix them.

It seemed as if the auctioneer and the owners were disappointed in the prices bid on stuff.

Also sold were a couple small wooden buildings and a couple metal grain bins. They only fetched $50 to several hundred dollars each. The place had a number of buildings. One son told me his parents raised chickens, pigs, had several cattle for meat, and some dairy cattle in the various buildings.

I also learned the auctioneer got a 20% cut of everything sold. In addition he charged $65 an hour to get stuff out and set up for the auction and that took several days.

Brian and Alison on the train

Saturday night around 9 pm I met Brian and Alison at the train station in Whitefish as they passed through on their way from Minnesota to Washington state. They are on their way to help Alison's mom move from Washington state to Minnesota. Why? I don't know! I mean, why is Alison's mom moving from Washington state to Minnesota? I would think it would be the other way around!

The train stops for just 20 minutes so visits are brief. Our time was even a few minutes shorter as I was late as the train had already arrived. I had a good reason to be late: a busy and long day at a farm auction, then chasing/searching for one of my ninja heifers (more on that later).

This is the first time I met Alison in person and she looks as lovely in person as in the photos Brian has sent me. Brian is a long time friend from my days of living in Minnesota so it was nice to finally meet his wife. Yes! His wife! Brian got married earlier this year. Good for him! It looks good on him.

While I did see Brian first as he was looking for me outside the train station I instantly recognized Alison from the photos and greeted her first. She greeted me with a hug which may not have been ideal as I had spent seven hours sitting/standing outside at a farm auction under a clear sky and in near 90 F temperatures. Then I spent over an hour searching for a heifer through the river, peninsula, small island, several pastures, trees, and the muck and mud. I didn't have time to get cleaned up before the train arrived.

We had a lively though brief conversation outside the train and I also got to meet Alison's brother and cousin. Alison seems really nice so Brian has done well.

Don't they look like a great couple?

Sunrise

I woke up briefly at 6 am this morning. Looking outside I saw a buck coming from the road into my driveway. Once in my yard he crossed over to my hayfield where I got a photo of him.


I also took a few photos of the moon and the sunrise.

Hay, weeds, cattle, paint

Wyatt cut my hayfield this afternoon. It took him three and a half hours. I asked him to watch for my missing gopher trap when cutting the hay (I found the other missing trap buried deep in a gopher hole a few days ago). It doesn't appear he saw the missing trap when cutting hay.

Here are a few before and after photos:





Now for a change I need it to NOT rain. A chance of thundershowers is forecast for Sunday.

The cattle are still on the small island. I left a white plastic bag on a log on the river bank where I want the cattle to cross over to. In the past they have been very curious about plastic bags so this may entice them over to check it out. In the evening I checked on them again. All eleven are still on the island. They have seen me and the plastic bag. They just don't want to enter the river at this time. The river level is dropping steadily so maybe it will get to a level the cattle are comfortable with soon. They still have plenty of grass to eat.

Otherwise I spent the day spraying weeds. I sprayed five - or was it six? - tanks of herbicide over the NE pasture. Looking at the pasture from a distance it looked mostly weed free, but it wasn't. Lots of low new weeds. I think it is easier for the weeds to start here as, being dry and somewhat gravelly, it is harder for grass to grow here. The past few years I hit the weeds hard in this pasture and the grass hasn't filled in solid yet.

One pasture down and more to go. Now is a good time to spray weeds as they are active from the recent rain. I noticed the weeds I sprayed the prior day are wilting already.

With the hayfield being cut for hay I moved a couple traps to the corral and NE pasture and caught two pocket gophers.

In the evening I painted the north facade of the garage and all the facades on the well shed. The wood is so dry it sucks up the paint and I'll have to put a few more coats of paint on.

Chip seal photo

I forgot to include a photo of the workers doing the chip sealing in the post the other day. Here it is.

Odds and ends day

Wyatt had to replace a belt on his swather so he delayed cutting my hay until Friday. I didn't find out until after I had removed my pocket gopher traps from the hayfield. I put two of the traps on pocket gopher holes in the corral and NE pasture.

I checked on the cattle. They were taking their siesta on the small island. I thought I'd take a break from herding them and let them be on the small island one more day and get bored so herding them later would be easier. Late in the afternoon there were lots of mooing down there. The bull seemed to be calling and they answering.

I sprayed one tank of herbicide on weeds. A few days ago I had sprayed a tank of herbicide over the corral, yard, and half the fruit tree and garden area. I finished spraying the fruit tree and garden area and did a third of the NE pasture. This pasture is not too bad when it comes to weeds as I have sprayed it for several years now. Still, you'd think it would be almost weed free by now, but that is not how it works.

I noticed the deer have been in my garden area again as I found some of my lettuce eaten or uprooted along with a few beet plants. The ground is starting to dry and the weeds are taking off. Weeding is on the to-do list in the next few days. My raspberry plants have lots of berries on them but they are not ripe yet. If I had more time I'd thin the apples on my two large trees. The trees are loaded with apples.

One of my serviceberry bushes is producing some berries. Serviceberries are supposed to be another name for Juneberries but I tell you it must be the climate here, else there are different varieties of this bush as these berries don't taste near as good as the Juneberries I have picked in North Dakota.

I used Gary's pressure washer to strip paint from the garage. I ran out of gas just when I covered all the garage. From everyone telling me to use a pressure washer to remove old cracked paint from buildings, I thought a pressure washer would easily strip all the paint off buildings. It doesn't works that way. While a pressure washer does remove paint, some paint wants to stay and one can cut grooves into soft wood if they insist on getting all the old paint off.

I sanded the patch job on where an electric wire enters the house. The previous owner did a poor job when making the hole and had to plaster the area around the hole. When Tammy pressure washed this area the paint was cracked and she washed off part of that very rough plaster job along with the paint. I re-patched the area a few days ago and now that it has dried I sanded my patch job to make it a little smoother than before.

Talked with Dan for a while. A cow he recently bought stepped on his foot and his foot swelled up pretty bad.

I rode my bicycle thirteen miles to run an errand as I haven't ridden in a long while.

Peninsula to small island

"Boom!"

I half woke up.

"Boom!"

"Huh? Is that an explosion or gunshots?"

Then, "Boom!.... Boom!"

I got out of bed, put some clothes on and went outside to see where the sound was coming from. But no more sounds so I never found out where and what was causing them

Oh well, nine am - time to get up for the day.

A short time later the county came down 'my' road to apply a chip seal to the road they had repaved last year. The truck drivers need to know how to drive backwards. Not only was a truck with the rocks driving backwards when dumping its load into the machine that was spreading the rocks, there were six more trucks in a line driving backwards to take their turn to drop their load of rocks into the machine.

My black road is now almost white as the layer of rocks is thick and dense. Well, it is suppose to help the road last longer. People are driving the road a little slower now. Must be because of the fear of dust and throwing up loose rocks.

Sometimes my jobs happen because I think of them out of the blue. For some reason I remembered I needed to clean my chimney before Fall. I hadn't taken a shower yet and the wind is calm so why not clean it now? It should only take a few hours. Six hours later I was done. Maybe it was because I burned more wood last winter but I seemed to have had more of an ash and creosote buildup than usual.

Late afternoon nine of my heifers (the ones who had behaved) came to the barn to lick the salt blocks. We both went out to the pasture around the same time. My heifers lined up at the gate to the middle pasture. They are so used to rotating pastures every few days they must have thought it was past time to do so again.

I debated letting them into the middle then south pastures. If my rouge eleven heifers saw these nine in the south pasture they may cross the river and come back to my pasture easier. Of course the opposite may happen and my nine may cross to join the eleven. I decided not to tempt fate and left my nine in the north pasture.

While I stood and thought about moving them to the middle pasture the nine circled me and several started licking me. I hadn't taken a shower yet to wash off the shoot from the fireplace cleaning so they didn't get too carried away with their licking. I wasn't wearing a shirt and I found their tongues to be more like sandpaper when they licked my back and not just my forearms.

My eleven were still on the peninsula. The bull was approaching on the neighbor's side of the fence when I came to the river. He turned and went back to his herd when he saw me. Some of my cattle called out to him to return.

Emily was the brave one for the day. She was the first to approach me when along the fence. Later when they were near the place to cross the river she was the first to approach me and follow me to the river's edge.

The herd came and gathered round. I stepped into the middle of the west channel and hoped they would follow me. Emily looked and looked but wouldn't make the step down into the river. Finally when she decided she wouldn't do it they moved on.

A few minutes later down the river channel Emily led four other heifers into the river channel where the bank sloped gradually into the river. Emily went into the river to eat leaves of a large tree leaning out over most of the narrow river channel. Once in the shallow river the cattle eventually crossed over to the small island.

Once the five were on the island and took a few bites, one heifer called to the others still on the peninsula and they quickly came and crossed over the same spot the others had crossed even though the others had moved on from that point. You know, you think cattle aren't looking or paying attention, but they pay attention to others and their surroundings much more than a person thinks they do.

While waiting for the cattle to eat and explore I washed most of the chimney soot off in the river. It was in the low 80s. Initially the river felt cool and good but near sunset the water began to feel colder and I went home without my cattle.

Well, they are on the small island. One step at a time. I didn't try to get them to cross to my pasture as they wanted to explore and eat on the island. And the crossing means stepping down off the river bank. They are very cautious when doing that.

All are on the right side

Tuesday, due to luck and patience, I got my final heifer back on my side of the fence. In the morning the cattle were still across the river on the peninsula. They seemed to have hopes of being reunited with the bull.

Last year I had built a four strand barb wire fence from the river to the neighbor's fence effectively cutting the peninsula in half and stopping the cattle from getting to the parts where they can get into trouble. In checking up on the cattle I noticed a couple spots in my built fence that could be potential weak spots. And knowing cattle they eventually will find the weak spots.

In the afternoon I got a few boards and wire and went to enhance the fence. At first I stood over on the small island hoping my cattle would come over to check me out. Nope. So I went to enhance the fence. The cattle all followed me there. *sigh* I dislike working on fence when cattle are around as they invariably want to check out my handiwork once I am done - and sometimes, as I am doing it.

I waited for them to get bored. One heifer went into the river and walked halfway across the narrow channel to the small island before stopping to take a drink of water. While the river channel here was deeper and muddier it appeared she could cross it. A number of the other cattle watched her. I thought, "Go. Go. Go across to the island." She came back to the peninsula. *argh!*

After a while most of my cattle went over to the neighbor's fence a short distance away as the neighbor's herd was now in sight. I worked on my fence. I noticed that several of my cattle more watched me than the neighbor's herd.

After I was almost done I noticed the neighbor's bull had come and was next to the fence with several of my cattle just on the other side and wanting to touch noses - and probably do more than that.

I went over and the bull could now see me. He quickly backed away from the fence. I walked up to the fence and he retreated and trotted back to his herd on the side of the ridge to the SW. Several of my cattle mooed at him to come back.

After I finished up my fence work I noticed the bull had come back to the fence and my cattle. This time he brought my heifer with him. Once he saw me he retreated again this time leaving my heifer. It was almost like he brought her back to my cattle and me.

Wow! I have a chance to get her back.

I went over and opened the gate and then came back to herd my cattle towards the gate. Again, like yesterday, when they could turn away from the fence and go towards the river crossing area most of them did.

"Why? Why? Why do you make it so hard for me?"

A short time later the cattle filtered back closer to the fence. I crawled through the fence and tried to herd #431 to the gate. She was nervous. She looked at my cattle. She looked at the herd and bull on the ridge. She ate some grass. She looked around again, then ate more grass like she was starving.

I tried to herd her, but as my cattle wouldn't follow along the fence. Instead they preferred to stay and look towards the neighbor's herd and bull on the ridge side. I could only herd #431 so far before she turned and tried to run past me. Several times she almost got past me but I could cut her off. Eventually we came to a draw and I let her stay near my herd and eat grass and I did not try to actively herd her.

I would slowly take a few steps every now and then to pressure here towards the gate. I was so close to the gate earlier but too much pressure too fast and she would get spooked.

One of my heifers came to the fence and began eating. The rest of my heifers stood and watched #431 and me. The heifer that ate was pointed in the wrong direction and moving away from the gate. As #431 was now calm again I crawled through the fence and encouraged my heifer to turn around and walk towards the gate while eating.

I then again crawled through the fence and slowly walked and pressured #431 towards the gate. But ever so slowly as she would look up and around when I moved too fast.

The fence heifer turned around again - *argh* - and I had to turn her around again. Later she stopped and I had to prod her to continue.

Ever so often the herd would moo for my heifer to come back and I would have to tell her to ignore them. Then one of the cows came down off the ridge to the low land. "Ignore her." Then the bull came down off the ridge and joined the cow.

The bull then began calling my heifer. Her head came up and she listened and replied a few times. She made a move to rejoin the bull and I headed her off. She went back to eating grass. I tried to stand between her and the bull so she couldn't see him. He was ancy over there but didn't dare come over closer - thank goodness! I guess earlier he hadn't intended to deliver my heifer back to my herd and me.

Eventually the herd on the ridge moved on top of the ridge and out of sight. The cow and then the bull slowly moved up to join them. He would stop every so often to call my heifer. "Ignore him. Ignore him."

Then they were gone. Once the neighbor's herd was gone my cattle decided to leave the fence. "No! Wait! Wait!" Soon all I had left was my fence heifer. I herded a little faster both because my cattle were leaving the fence and because the neighbor's herd was out of sight. I was getting closer to my gate when my fence heifer turned and tried to get past me to join the others. "Noooo! I am so close." Did I say that aloud? Ignore that, #431.

It was now or never and I actively herded #431. She wasn't happy about it but with no herd to run to I was able to get her close enough to the gate where she could see it was open. She went through it to get away from me.

It took a long time, but "Success!"

All my cattle are now on my side of the fence. They are still on the peninsula, but as they have lots of grass and water, crossing the river can wait for tomorrow or another day.

Emily is back and the rain started

Monday morning I heard the cattle bellowing down by the river when I got up out of bed before 9 am. I went down to the river to find my neighbor and a boy in his late teens finishing up their stringing a temporary electric fence across the gap in the neighbor's fence.

One of my heifers - Emily - also was nearby as my cattle were along the fence to the south of the gate and where they were working. The neighbor's herd and bull were up on the side of the ridge to the SW.

Once the electric fence was hooked up to a battery my neighbor turned his attention to herding my heifer through the gate. His herding didn't go well as Emily ran around my neighbor to return to be near my cattle who had not moved. The neighbor wanted to give up but I told him Emily wanted to be near my cattle and that I would herd them on my side of the fence towards the gate and that Emily would follow.

All my cattle moved to the very SW corner of the peninsula before I could herd four of them towards the gate. I knew the remaining five would follow shortly. Instead of continuing straight along the fence three heifers turned east in the direction of the corner where to cross the river. The previous day they wouldn't turn when I wanted them to; today they turned when I didn't want them to.

I had one heifer still going along the fence when I noticed the neighbor had crawled through the fence and was herding the rest of my cattle towards me. Emily was following my one heifer so the extra five cattle only confused matters more, especially when they turned to join the three that had turned.

Through the muck and mud I herded the single heifer towards the gate and Emily continued to follow. The heifer veered off before the gate and I crawled through the fence and the kid and I herded Emily towards the gate and she went through to join my cattle.

Success!

The neighbor and I quickly closed the gate. I told him of my problem Sunday with herding the cattle across the river and he offered to help me.

As he and the kid crossed the peninsula I told them they should cross my way so as not to walk through the muddy swampy area but they declined. Okay...

We reached my cattle about the same time: I from the NW and they from the west. The cattle were bunched together at the center of the peninsula near the river. As I pushed the cattle to the south and the corner I needed the neighbor and kid to remain where they were. Instead they moved in to help me. All this made the cattle spooked and they tried to get by me. I headed off several escape attempts. I told the other two to back off a little but instead the neighbor broke off a tree branch and, waving it at the cattle, told the kid to drive them to the river.

The cattle freaked and more ran in multiple directions and I couldn't head off them all. Once one escaped the others realized it was possible to get away and the rest bolted past us.

You'd think that since the neighbor has more cattle experience than all of my 50 plus years he would be better at herding cattle. But I often find that the old timers are in a hurry to herd cattle and often do it with too much force.

The dark rain clouds to the south had moved over us by now and it began to rain. The neighbor said it was useless to try any more as the cattle were spooked. He and the kid ran to his pickup and drove off.

It began to rain harder and I crossed the river and headed home. I was soaked by the time I got home and had to wring the water from my clothes. But it was great - I got one more heifer back and it was raining! Raining for real as Kalispell set a record Monday for rainfall. 1.33 inch of rain fell, far exeeding the old record of .69 inch. In the morning it rained hard and water even ran down my driveway. After a break in the afternoon it rained all evening and some through the night.

This rain was great as it had a chance to soak into the ground. Tuesday when I dug new pocket gopher holes I found the soil was wet more than four or five inches down.

Everything is green and fresh and soft and nice and is a far cry from the desert dry conditions I had prior to the rain. I am feeling more confident the cattle will make it on my grass until September. I spoke with Wyatt Tuesday night and he will cut my hay on Thursday as we are suppose to have a multi day stretch of hot (90s!) and dry weather.

Neighbor's bonfire

This evening I noticed lots of smoke coming from my neighbor's house across the road. With all the smoke I thought his house was on fire. Instead he had a bonfire going and the smoke curled back and up onto his house's roof before drifting away. It was raining which kept the smoke from rising too high. Why he had a fire going in the rain... who knows!