Ash, gophers, horses

Today I did my annual cleaning of the house's chimney and the pipe that goes from the wood stove to the chimney.  It was almost a half day project and quite a dirty one.  I filled over half of a two gallon bucket with ash.

I am trapping pocket gophers again.  I caught four of them yesterday.  There were a few dirt mounds in the fruit tree and garden area indicating a pocket gopher.  So far no activity at the trap.  Now that I let the horses in this area I wonder if the pocket gopher moved on.  From my experience they avoid areas where horses are.  I think it has something to do with the horse urine and manure.

The couple came and got one of their horses, the black one.  "Bluebell".  Either she is getting fat from all the grass, or more likely she is pregnant.  If a pregnancy, it was an unplanned one as the couple planned on taking a year off from raising babies.

The other morning the one filly was in the north pasture and not the NE pasture where she was placed with the mare with the sore feet. I could not find signs of where she got through or over the fence.  When she came into the corral where the other horses were I was able to get her back into the NE pasture.  It took some effort as the mare wanted into the corral when I opened the gate to herd the filly back.  I would move the mare back away from the gate but whenever I walked back to reopen the gate the mare followed me.

Another complicating factor was the other filly wanted to be with this filly and the partially blind mare wanted this filly gone and would try to chase her away.

A three ring circus.  But after some effort I finally got the filly back into the NE pasture.

That lasted all of a half day as after the couple got the dark horse they decided to let all the horses be together.  They had concerns about how it would go.  The mare with the sore feet is a dominant horse but since she has sore feet she would be unable to assert her dominance.  The couple hoped that the horses had sorted out their personality conflicts over the fence.

They all seemed to get along once we let them all be together.  However today I see they are not all one big happy family.  When the three use the loafing shed they don't let the other two use it also.  This afternoon when the three were eating in the north pasture the other two used the loafing shed.  Later I noticed the partially blind mare threw a whinny fit while running around the corral.  Then the other two horses came out to the north pasture to eat, though not near the three.  It seems like the one mare doesn't like the others to use the loafing shed at all.  Tonight the three were in the loafing shed and the other two horses had to stand just outside of it.

Tree trimming

It didn't look like much work so I decided to trim the branches off the tree that blew over in the wind storm last week.  It took longer than I thought it would.  Then again,  I used an ax and a hand saw.  I didn't have Tammy here to remind me that I have a chainsaw to do the cutting.

I also thought I'd trim the branches now instead of when Tammy is here in August.  Tammy wants me to paint more on my house and gutters but we can do that together when she is here. Also if I trimmed the branches when she is here she would end up stacking the branches as I cut.

To Bozeman and back

Well... I am back from my class. It didn't last 10 days like expected as the census changed their mind about employing me as they went with another person.  The problem is that they didn't tell me prior to my showing up to class.  Oopps.

That was a waste of a five plus hour drive to Bozeman.  Then I had to turn around and drive home that day.  Boy, was I tired when I got home!

On the return drive home I saw the smoke plume from the forest fire burning in the Bob Marshall wilderness.

Economic Stress

The Associated Press has a monthly analysis of  economic conditions around the country.  Their story can be found here.

The AP's Economic Stress Index calculates a score for each county and state from 1 to 100 based on unemployment, foreclosure and bankruptcy rates. A higher score indicates more economic stress. Under a rough rule of thumb, a county is considered stressed when its score exceeds 11.
Economic stress was higher in May than a year ago in 35 states, particularly in the West. Over the past year, stress has grown the most in Idaho, Montana (7.89), Nevada, New Mexico (9.48) and Utah (10.81).
The best-performing states in May were North Dakota (4.03), South Dakota (5.21), Nebraska (5.83), Vermont (6.49) and Iowa (7.5).

The economically healthiest counties were Ward County, N.D. (3.35); Burleigh County, N.D. (3.66); Grand Forks, N.D. (4.02); Ellis County, Kan. (4.13); and Brown County, S.D. (4.25).

I used to live in Ward County in North Dakota.

Where I live now, Flathead County, has a stress index of 13.44%.  And where I used to live in Minnesota, that county has a stress index of 5.44%.

A link to an interactive map... click here.

2 more makes a half dozen horses

The people pasturing horses at the ranch brought two more horses over today.  Another mare and filly.

The mare recently had it's hooves trimmed too much and is now walking on eggshells.  The owner's pasture is rocky which didn't help.  My pasture is softer and the owners say she is walking much better here.

Because her feet are tender the owners didn't want these two horses with the other four right now until they get acquainted over the fence.  Especially as this new mare has a dominant personality and this would cause friction with the existing horses' pecking order.

So the new horses will be in the NE pasture and the other four horses get to roam the corral and the north pasture.  I let the four horses out into the north pasture this afternoon.  They all will have plenty of grass and water while I am out of town attending class the next ten days.

Rain

We had a chance of rain today with the passage of a cold front and we got the rain.  It was a good thing as it hadn't really rained for some time now (I'm not counting the quicky shower earlier this week) and things were starting to dry up.

I was out in the pasture near the river.  Initially I thought it would be another brief light shower.  Wrong!  I got soaked to the skin by the time I got home.

Since a cold front came through the temperature dropped from the 70s it had been this afternoon to 54 degrees.  Brrr!!  Even after toweling off and getting into dry clothes I was still cold.  I ended up even putting on my flannel shirt in order to get warm.  Yup.  Mid July and I am wearing a flannel shirt to be warm. Where is Summer?  The forecast does call for 90 degree temperatures this weekend.  That would be a nice change.

With the rain came thunder and lightning.  Hopefully the lightning didn't start any forest fires.

Btw - the horses discovered the gate to the fruit tree area is now open and they have been spending much of their time there today.

Licence Plate and sticker

A few weeks ago I came across this license plate and sticker when I was preparing to hike to Upper Quartz Lake in Glacier Park.

Montana allows organizations to sell their version of a Montana license plate in order to raise money for their cause. The specialty plates cost more than a regular license plate.  The cost varies based on what the organization wants to charge.  I think there are at least forty different Montana specialty license plates.  The organization behind this plate is the National Wildlife Federation.

Horses, berries, concert, haircut, mosquitoes

I decided to let the horses into the fruit tree area to eat the grass down.  I put up a temporary fence around my strawberry & rhubarb patch and also the raspberry patch.  There are some strawberries and some raspberries to munch on.  Not a whole lot as I haven't weeded the patches this year.

All that effort to fence the berry areas and the horses still haven't entered the fruit tree area.  I even stood at the gate and called them.  They ignored me.

I attended the noon time Picnic in the Park concert.  The act was Band O' Steve.  Actually one guy... Steve Jackman.   I arrived late to the concert and didn't arrive until the intermission.  After the intermission Steve played a wandering jazzy number on his electronic keyboard.  It sounded like it belonged as background music in an infomercial.  He then sang several other numbers and I left early as I didn't think it was any good.

I roto-tilled between the rows in Jan's garden to dig up the weeds.  After that Jan gave me a haircut which I needed badly as my hair was growing long. It's summer!  Time to have short hair.

With all this rain this Spring the mosquitoes are bad.  They are even out during the day.  Going near the river is a challenge.

Hay, rain, concert, truck

With my hay in the barn Sunday, Monday I helped Dan's son load the 70 bales Dan bought from me onto Dan's trailer as Dan drove around my hayfield.  With that done I could rest easy about my hay.

None of the weather forecasts had rain predicted but - guess what?! - a system north of the border in Canada slipped south and we had a couple rain showers Monday afternoon.  I was in one of my pastures and got soaked.  Good thing I got my hay baled and stored by then!!!

Poor Wyatt.  He hadn't picked up all of his bales and they got rained on.  At least the rain wasn't enough to soak the bales so it could have been worse... the rain could have come when the hay was still laying in the field.

Wyatt got the rest of his bales this afternoon.

Now that my census work is done I am back to physical labor between the hay and other pasture work.  After three days of this I am stiff and sore and today was mainly a rest day.

This evening I attended a Picnic in the Park concert.  This is the first one I have attended this year. The concert was by Andre Floyd and Mood Iguana.  They are good but maybe it was because it was the third year I have seen them in concert; maybe it was because I didn't notice a theme to their concert; maybe it was because they seemed a little too relaxed playing rock music; or maybe it was something else, but I found the concert experience to be just "average".

I saw some of the old regulars in the concert crowd and some new faces.  The crowd was older than average, especially for a rock concert.  Lots and lots of gray hairs and a number of people looked to be near social security age.  Few people looked to be under 30 unless they were kids.

After the concert, while walking to my car, I passed by a monster truck.  Look at how the owner had to drop the back hitch in order to use it to tow stuff.

Hay baled

Wyatt baled my hay today.  Usually he waits another day for the hay to dry but usually that is too long to my liking as the hay often gets drier than I'd like.   This time I convinced him to come today, bale a few bales, then check to see if the hay is dry enough.  As expected by me the hay was dry enough and ready to bale.

I am back to about my normal production after a dry and low production year last year.

Last year my share of the bales was 60 bales and this year I got 152 bales.  I would have gotten more but Wyatt's swather's teeth were getting dull and didn't cut the grass well enough.  Wyatt didn't sharpen the teeth until he was a third to a half done cutting my field.  You can see the uneven cut in the following photo and the grass left uncut.

As Wyatt started to bale I cleared the barn of miscellaneous stuff I was storing there.  Since I didn't get cattle this year, I still have last year's hay in the barn taking up over half the room.  The barn can hold around 250 bales of hay when all the space is used.  I already had 150 bales in the barn.

I stacked 82 bales in the barn this evening.  If I had put another 30 bales in the barn I would have no path through the barn.  Dan said he would buy my remaining 70 bales.  *Whew*  Saved.  Since he will get the bales tomorrow I don't have to do any more with them.

To get the 82 bales in the barn I used my hauler and not my pickup.  It takes longer but does save me from jumping in and out of the pickup.

I finished getting my bales in the barn as it got dark.

As I transported the bales the horses remained in the NE pasture and I was able to leave open the side gate to the hayfield.  After I had finished storing in the bales I went to the house to get a shovel.  While I was there the horses started to gallop east across the NE pasture.  Then they turned and headed west at a thundering gallop.

When they ran into the corral I slipped through the rail fence and ran to the open gate.  Those darn horses ran to the south of the barn but I was able to get to the gate before they did.  The horses normally are very mellow so I don't know what got into them.  But with the state they were in the last thing I needed was for them to escape into the hayfield when the hayfield gate to the road was open to let Wyatt remove his equipment.

Here are the stages of my hayfield this year.

2 more horses

Earlier this week the couple who are pasturing two horses here brought two more horses here.

They brought a mother and her filly. The filly's mother is the white horse and not the spotted horse as seen in the second photo.

The mother horse is blind in one eye and has partial vision in her other eye due to a past eye infection.  Having a long mane doesn't help as she sometimes shakes her head to get the hair out of her eyes so she can see better.

The filly is quite skittish.  She also tends to stay close to her mother. 

The couple call the filly a pinhead due to the shape of her head.  To me, a pinhead indicates a head that is too small for the body.  To me the filly looks to have a large head in relationship to her body.  Apparently 'pinhead' in this case means how the shape narrows in front.

At first the previous two horses wouldn't have anything to do with new horses.  The dark horse would make noise and shake her head whenever one of the two new horses got too close.

Here they are ignoring the filly.

By the next morning they all got along as you can see the dark horse and the partially blind horse grooming each other.

Doesn't the white horse's mane remind you of Sam the sheepdog from the Looney Tunes cartoons?

Hay cut, part 2

My cut hay field.

Hay cut

Wyatt cut my hay today.  I hope to have it baled Sunday night, Monday at the latest.

Well fixed

I have my well completely fixed.  Kyle replaced the pump's pressure switch that burned out.  I didn't need to replace my old pump after all.

The reason the switch burned out was the tank was defective.  It seems as if the tank's bladder wasn't filling completely causing the pump to cycle more frequently.

This is the new tank.

I've had the old water tank a week short of four years. The previous tank was a used tank so that may be why it lasted me only four years.  Here is the story of when I last replaced the tank.

Pump quit

It appears my old pump has given up the ghost.   This afternoon as I was filling the horses' water trough the pump quit.

When I opened the pump shed's door to check on the pump I smelled a strong electrical smell.  The water pressure was zero.  I suspect the pump motor burned out.

The pump is very old.  Very old.

I called Lyle, the pump and well person I have used in the past.  He was very busy Monday and didn't call me back until after 8 pm.  By then I had gone over to Bob and Jan's house to fill up several containers of water.  That will last me until morning when Lyle can look my pump over.  I guess I will have to skip having a shower in the morning.

This is what my pump looks like.

I use the brown board in the middle to help support the false ceiling in the pump. With all the insulation I have in that false ceiling I thought a little more help would be wise.

Flathead Valley from space

Here is a photo of the Flathead Valley taken by NASA from the space shuttle. Apparently the photo was taken in 1989.  I wonder what the valley looks like now from space given all the development that has occurred since then?

Starting at the bottom with the largest lake and moving counterclockwise: Flathead Lake, Swan Lake, Hungry Horse Reservoir, Lake McDonald (at the top) , Whitefish Lake, Talley Lake (the deepest natural lake in Montana, with a depth of 492 feet), Ashley Lake, Little Bitterroot Lake, McGregor Lake, and Lake Mary Ronan.

Though it looks flat, those are some serious mountains around the valley.

In 2007 I had a similar blog post on the same subject with lesser photos.   For more quality photos of the Flathead Valley, click on the Flathead From Space web page.

Horse are hard on a pasture

A couple photos where the horses have eaten the grass down in a few spots in the corral.  Unlike cattle who move around horses will stand in one place and eat.  And eat.

Rocks, Flowers, Cat

Photos taken in mid June....my flowers and rocks north of the house. Many tulips have now lost their petals.

Poppy flowers

Now that many of my tulips are shedding their petals my poppies are in bloom.

Taken Saturday June 26.

100

I've been busy this week getting the latest census operation (VDC) up and running for my district.  This is a challenge as this operation's initial roll out seems much more chaotic than the start of the last census operation (NRFU).  This afternoon I finally got my complete list of team members.  Friday afternoon.  Before the July 4th holiday weekend.  Talk about great timing.

This evening I took a break from census work and checked my pocket gopher traps the first time in several days.  I caught two more pocket gophers and now my year's total is 100 dead gophers.

I also checked the river and it is falling at a steady rate.

The grass is growing but so are the weeds.

The horses are behaving.  They are still in the corral.   I've noticed that they favor certain areas as the very tall grass is eaten down to the ground while most of the rest of the corral still has tall grass.

Willow tree trim

Last weekend I trimmed a little off my willow tree.  The branches are so high I had to lean an extension ladder against my garage, stand on the ladder with one foot with the other foot on the steep garage roof, and using a long extension saw, cut the branch.  All the while taking care the cut branch didn't fall on me or my ladder knocking us over.

In the photo the branch I cut is the stubby branch with new greenery growing near the end of the branch.

I wish I could reach the two dead branches near the top.  They hang over the garage door, and due to the way the garage door is (meaning I can't completely close the door), the bird crap falls on the lower part of my nicely painted garage door.