Tractor

I bought a used tractor last week. No more pulling hay bales on pallets!    The tractor is a John Deere 5420.

Early morning this past Saturday I drove it home. The top speed is about 17 to 18 mph.  I've been so busy with the irrigation pipes I haven't had a chance to do anything else with the tractor.

I did check and the tractor will just fit in the pole shed with about a foot to spare.  That's good as the tractor has a block heater and the pole shed has electricity.  I just need to find time to clear out one of the sections of the pole shed to drive the tractor into.

For more info on John Deere 5420 tractors:  http://www.tractordata.com/farm-tractors/001/5/7/1571-john-deere-5420.html


I also bought a new bale spear for the tractor.  I brought the bale spear home using the pickup.  While the salesman and I lifted the bale spear into my pickup, I had to use a couple of boards to slide the spear from the pickup to the ground.  I haven't had a chance to test attaching the spear to the tractor.

Cattle, less cattle and gophers

On Tuesday Dan's cattle left and so did my steer.  There was no extra grass for Dan's cattle so he sent them to the livestock auction.  I sent my steer too, for one less mouth to feed and because he was leaving in the Fall anyway.

The previous weekend Dan brought me a replacement board for the loading corral from back when his cow, "Auntie" broke it.  Monday I nailed the board in the loading corral to finish the repairs from the abuse the cattle made on it this year.

Evan came and got the cattle.  I didn't know when he was going to arrive and had to hang around much of the day as he didn't arrive until 3 pm.

The cattle loading went smooth and Evan was in-and-out in a little over 20 minutes.  I was concerned that "Auntie" would have a fit and not load but, while reluctant to go down the loading corral's runway, she followed the other cattle into the trailer.

Evan's new trailer as the cattle are leaving.

For a few days Buddy would go back and forth between the middle pasture where the cattle were and the south pasture.  Monday morning Buddy and all the cattle were in the middle pasture.  A little over an hour later Buddy and all but five cattle were in the south pasture.   The grass is greener in the south pasture.  I was going to move the cattle in a few days but they took the matter in their own hands.

The other five cattle stood at the fence wondering how the rest of the cattle got into the south pasture.  I went out and opened the gate to let the five cattle join the others.  Some cattle went through the gate right away.  Several didn't.

The red cow was more interested in looking at Daisy than walking through the nearby gate.  Only when Daisy came over to me by the gate did the cow follow, then walk through the gate.

Some pocket gophers have moved onto the ranch.   I trapped all but one in the south pasture.  Once the cattle came into the south pasture that put an end to trapping there.

I have lost two pocket gopher traps.  I suspect coyotes have taken the traps and the caught pocket gophers off to a safe place to sit and work on getting the gopher out of the trap.  That has happened to me in the past.  Often I find the empty traps in trees nearby.  So far I have not found the two missing traps - there are more trees in this area and I haven't had extra time to search for the traps.

I have a number of pocket gophers in the hayfield.  I trapped three so far.  I have four or more left to trap.  It is harder to trap them now.  The ground is hard to dig and the pocket gophers are suspicious of the traps and often fill them with dirt.  That seems to be common this time of year.

I have trapped 23 pocket gophers this year - one more than all of last year.

Reins, not stirrup

The other night when I wrote about the Indian Relay races I mentioned a rider got hung up in his strirrup during a horse exchange.

Umm... he was riding bare-back.

He got hung up in the horse's reins, not stirrup.

More rodeo

Donna's daughter and son-in-law weren't able to come to the rodeo at the NW Montana Fair on Saturday so Donna and I used their tickets instead of letting them go to waste.

Saturday night's rodeo was the finals of three nights of rodeo action.  This rodeo was longer at about an hour.  A few more competitors in each category.  

Bucking bronco rider

 
Mainly the reason the rodeo was longer were the Indian Relay races.  Instead of just one Indian Relay race there were two of them.  There were also two bareback riding races - one for the men and one for the women.

The horses were wild and high spirited in all the Indian races. Because the riders were riding bare-back the riders often were holding on for dear life and some riders fell off.  Those horses kept running the race without them.

The Indian relay team is four people:

1. The rider
2. the person who grabs the incoming horse as the rider gets off,
3. the person who holds the second horse and positions it for the rider to jump on it, then catches the horse when the rider comes in again after circling the track,
4. the person who holds the third horse and positions it for the rider to jump on it.

Even after the horse has been ridden it remains in the team's 'staging' area while the race is going on.   As all the teams' staging areas are near each other along the fence the transfers can be tricky as horses are milling around.  The rider has to find his team and next horse while avoiding the other teams and horses.  He has to jump off his horse and both feet must touch the ground before he jumps onto the next horse.


The first Indian relay race must have been the "B" team as the riders often had trouble making a smooth transfer between the horses.  One guy was drug around by his horse as his foot was caught in the stirrup.   Other riders hopped and hopped and hopped before mounting their horses who were taking off to join the other horses racing.

The "A" team of riders were better in the transfers.  Only one rider's horse got away from him.  The winning rider jumped off his horse on the second transfer, made one or two hops across the ground and jumped high on a rearing horse and held on the horse's neck as it came down on all four feet and took off at breakneck speed.  With such a smooth and quick transfer, and a fast horse, no one could catch him.

I think the Indian riders were the best part of the rodeo.


The starts are chaotic.   The horses mill around as they won't keep still.  The starter (holding the orange flag in the photo) tries to start the race when the horses are close to one another.  That doesn't mean the horses are all facing the right direction.

And they're off!

One of the transfers for the "pink" team coming in.

The "pink" team rider leaving after he made the transfer to a new horse.

The winner of the "A" team race.

Here is a 29 second video during one of the Indian relay races: https://youtu.be/PytDdtL_mUc

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Cattle, dog and rodeo

Yesterday I wrote about the irrigation pump.  Also on the same morning (Thursday) Dan brought over a large square bale of hay for his cattle.  With the drought and lack of grass it was past time for his cattle to leave.  He hasn't a place for his cattle currently so he will ship them Tuesday to the auction held on Thursday.  To tide his cattle over until Tuesday he brought over a bale of hay for them to eat.

I helped him unload the bale from his trailer.  We wrapped a chain around the bale and hooked it to one of my railroad tie posts and drove off pulling the bale off the trailer.

Then we needed to separate his cattle from mine.  Dan had to go, so a little later when the cattle came to drink and check out what Donna and I were doing to set up the irrigation pipes, I let the cattle into the part of the corral without the hay.  Then Donna helped me sort the cattle out.  Sometimes we got one of Dan's cattle through a gate into the part of the corral with the hay; other times we herded some of my cattle back out into the hayfield.  Whatever was easier at the time.  A number of cattle didn't want to cooperate.

I also left my one steer in the corral with Dan's five cattle as I plan to sell the steer.  The sooner the better as it will be one less mouth to feed and because cattle prices are dropping weekly.

My steer

Dan's cattle

One of Dan's cows is a black cow with a white face.  She is 8 years old, so an older cow than the other cows. The only cow without a calf.  I call her "Auntie".  She also reminds me of a Japanese kabuki player.

"Auntie" likes being near Buddy the bull so she often paced the corral Thursday afternoon looking for a way out so she could join the herd, who I now let into the middle pasture where there was more grass to eat.  Thursday evening for over an hour "Auntie" bellowed and bellowed calling to the herd.  Thankfully she got over that and has stopped bellowing.


Adding to the busy Thursday... while we sorting the cattle Donna's dog decided to wander off.  After the cattle were sorted I ended up searching for the dog.  The dog is deaf so I couldn't call for it.  I checked three neighbors' properties and no dog.  Some time later when working on the irrigation pipe I saw one neighbor return home.  Once I got over there I found the dog outside his building/house.  The dog had gotten inside the neighbor's living quarters, ate a lot of his dog's food, jumped up on a bed, threw up, then went to sleep.  My neighbor was remarkably okay about it.  He is a good neighbor.



Friday night Donna and I went to the rodeo at the NW Montana Fair in Kalispell.  When we left for the fair a very strong cold front came through.  The winds howled and blew everything not nailed down.  We had to swing back home as it began to rain with no end in sight.  We had to go back my house for me to get a coat. Of course, recently, the few times it was annoying to have it rain, it rains. 

The rain had let up by the time we got to the fair. But when the rodeo started it began to pour.  The cheap seats seen in the following photos emptied of most of the people.

The rodeo is spread over three days so each of the events (bucking horse, team roping, barrel racing, steer wrestling and bull riding) only had a handful of competitors each night.

A highlight was an Indian Relay Race.  Tonight six teams competed.  All were native American teams.   The race is three times around the track.  Each time around the track the rider rides a different horse bareback.  After each lap the rider jumps off the horse and runs over to another horse another team member is holding for him and jumps on that horse to race another time around the track.

It seems like chaos.

Some of the horses were pretty wild. As you can see in the following photo one horse finished the race without its rider.

Water

I have water.

Wednesday  the electrician ran new wire from the barn, hooked up my $198 power switch, and hooked up the pump.  We tried to pump water and then the electrician would do a final check that he set the overload protection correctly.  After numerous tries and failures he left for his next job.

I found a leaky fitting in the intake pipe and thought that was the problem.  I cut off the plastic fitting, got a new one from Lowes and glued it on the PVC pipe.  Wouldn't pump water.   I got a taller section of plastic pipe and placed it on the outlet pipe so I would have a greater amount of water for priming.  The operator's manual had called for a priming pipe one to two feet above the pump.  It was about four feet above the pump.  Still wouldn't pump water.  We called it quits for the night as it was getting dark.

Donna came over in the morning.  She said, "When you give an enema you have to make sure there is no air in the line. We need to make sure there is no air in the feeder line to the pump."   Enema?!!  Donna was a nurse before she retired.

Donna brought a hand pump.  This pump is used to draw the water up the intake line to the pump.  We then started the pump and it began to pump water.   It was a decent amount of water, surprisingly a little rusty and dirty, but then all of sudden the water flow increased a lot and it cleared up.

Not only there was air in the intake line but there seems to have been some sort of blockage or restriction of the flow.

All other times during the day when we stopped and restarted the pump we did not have to re-prime it.

The next challenge was the pipes for irrigating.  I didn't know exactly how many sprinklers this size of pump would operate.  We put eight out there.

We had a challenge in hooking up the pipes to reduce the leakage at the connections.  We ended up with a mixture of Donna's and Dad's pipes.

The eight sprinklers really threw out the water.  I decided to hook up more pipes/sprinklers.  The water coming out of the sprinklers was low. I started taking off pipes one at a time.  A bit of a challenge when the pump is running.  I would kick and remove the end plug.  Then unhook and remove that pipe and the next pipe.  I would lift and drain that next pipe before installing the end pug on it.  Then I would slide it back into the line and hook it place.

I found one sprinkler just shooting water like an open faucet.  That pipe was in the middle and I had to remove and replace it.  Also several other pipes were very leaky at their connection and I replace a couple of those.  Donna replaced an old dried worn rubber ring with a newer one and that greatly reduced the leak.

I ended up with 12 sprinklers operating.  Not as many as I had hoped but certainly better than the one lawn sprinkler I had been slowly moving around the hayfield.  And the 12 sprinklers each have  larger area of coverage than the lawn sprinkler.  If I fix the leaky connections I may be able to run one or two more sprinklers.

Friday I will come up with a new configuration of pipes now that I know the number of sprinklers.  Then every 12 hours move those pipes across the field.

The pump setup with the priming pump attached.  I also had to replace the gate valve as the previous one would not completely close to an internal misalignment.  I had the two valves for sale at a previous yard sale.  i am glad they did not sell as I priced a similar 2 inch valve at Lowes and they cost almost $48.

The green grass in the foreground right is the area where I had run the lawn sprinkler a week or two ago.

A box elder has grown around some of dad's pipes.   The one on the left is pinned in place and I will have to cut part of the tree to remove the pipe.

A 33 second video of the pump inaction:  https://youtu.be/wgWwll-JgUk

Smokey red

The smoke from the forest fires got worse all day, especially toward evening.  My camera didn't capture the color but the sun at set was bright blood red. The crescent moon after sunset was also blood red until it got darker and smokier and the moon no longer could be seen.

The electric to the pump was hooked up this afternoon after I bought a $198 switch.  The pump doesn't draw water.  Tried a few things without success.  Will try a few other things on Thursday.

Willow tree fall, part 2

I'm determined to finally post tonight even if it means writing this after I fell asleep earlier tonight.

I've been working on the willow tree on the garage.   First problem: cutting the tree down without causing more damage to the garage.  I stacked the wooden pallets under the tree trunk before cutting the tree from the top.

What held the tree trunk up after I started cutting?  The short boards I leaned against the trunk as an after thought - not the pallets.

I first trimmed the branches from the tree trunk.  Then I broke off the smallest part of the branches with the leaves and fed them to the cattle who loved eating them.  The rest - five buckets worth - I placed in buckets with water.  Some branches will grow roots and I will place them in the ground to start new trees.

Then Wednesday evening I fired up the chainsaw.  Standing on the garage roof I cut the trunk into smaller pieces and then rolled the cut pieces off the roof.  I squatted and balanced on the very edge of the roof to cut the last piece touching the roof.  For the last piece, before I took this photo, I did stand on the ladder.  It was almost dark when I finished to what is seen here.

What was tricky is that much of the tree trunk was wider than my 16 inch chainsaw blade and I had to cut from two sides.

Rain was in the forecast for Friday afternoon so Thursday I worked on fixing the holes in the roof.  The smaller hole was one broken board and I replaced it with part of a board I had removed from my well's pump house when I replaced that roof with a plywood sheet earlier this Summer.

The second hole was larger and also had the problem that the tree also broke one roof stud.  The boards held the stud from falling down.  The nails were almost out of the stud after the impact.  I am amazed my entire roof did not collapse from the falling tree's impact.

How to fix the stud 10 and 1/2 feet above the ground?

While it looks like the cross stud underneath is underneath the broken stud, it is not.  I jacked the stud back up straight using a long board placed on the ground and placed next to the cross stud.  It took two attempts as the first attempt failed.   When the broken stud was almost in place the jack and board above it popped out of place.  Standing on a wobbly step ladder I was able to catch the failing jack and not fall myself.

The second attempt worked.  I nailed two boards from the broken stud over to the cross stud.  Then it started to rain.  After the rain it got dark.  I plan to nail another two by four along the broken stud, but first...

My chainsaw's chain was dull.  I planned on buying a new chain as I thought the chain's life was over as the chain had been sharpened a lot over the years.  I was mistaken as I mixed up my previous chainsaw's chain with the current one.   Wyatt had helped me look at several used tractors on Thursday and afterwards he looked at my chain.  There was lots of life left on the chain. He showed me how to sharpen the chain.

With a sharper chain on Saturday I cut the rest of the tree up.  By the time I was done cutting, the chain needs sharpening again.  I went through almost a gallon of gas cutting the tree.

Each piece is very heavy.  At one point I had a single wooden pallet on the ground to protect the concrete outside the small door. One falling cut piece smashed the pallet.

I left the very bottom of the trunk in one piece as it was too massive to cut.  I'll dry it and use it in a future tree trunk bonfire.

This piece makes me think it could be shaped into a chair.   Probably won't happen.

I had to be careful to cut around the large amount of cement I had placed in the rotting part of the tree trunk back in July 2011.

Pump finally

Six weeks after I ordered it, my pump finally arrived this morning at 11 am.  While I was told it weighed close to 200 pounds the shipping list had the pump at 150 pounds.  I was ready for a heavier pump.

"Cushions" in case I had to push the pump out of the semi's trailer into the pickup

But at 150 pounds the driver and I were able to easily lift the pump from the semi-trailer floor to my pickup's tailgate.

How the pump was shipped to me - and apparently from the factory to the dealer.

At 150 pounds I was able to lift the pump to the ground.

I unbolted the pump as little so I could lift it up off the pallet to retrieve the instructions underneath the pump.  I then decided to keep the pump bolted to the pallets to provide a platform for the pump and to hold it upright.

Now that I had the pump I was able to determine the intake and outlet hole sizes.  The intake size is one size larger than my other pumps.  I called Kyle to get some plastic pipe but he didn't have this size.  I went to Northwest Piping and they helped me.

I learned the clear-coat pipe I had used for my well pump did not come in this size and I had to get PVC pipe.  I got 20 ft of which I would cut into two pieces to attach to a 90 degree elbow.

Once home I wondered if I had some plastic pipe similar to this in the hayshed.  Under a stack of boards I found more pipe than I remembered having.  I found an 18 ft piece for the well and two other short pieces that would be perfect for the area between the well casing and where I wanted to place the pump.  For the two pieces all I had to do was trim the ends to be straight.  One piece even had a threaded end piece attached.

To attach the adapters and fittings to the pipe I used the PVC cement I bought back when I remodeled the bathroom.  The fittings are all attached now and will be dry and ready in the morning.

I initially thought the larger pipe meant I could not share the well casing with my other pump, especially with a foot valve at the bottom of the pipe.  The pitless adapter for the other pipe took up half the well casing.  But I found my foot valve just barely squeezed past the pitless adapter.  The new pipe's foot valve does not fit past the other pipe's foot valve but that was ok as both pipes are well below the water level.  I then did have to cut the new pipe a foot shorter than planned.  It was fortunate I had an extra threaded adapter as I had already glued one on the pipe to attach the foot valve.  I had to cut that adapter off with the foot of pipe as I had already cemented it on the pipe.  No way was I going to lower a $90 foot valve down the well casing if the adapter wasn't cemented on.

I called the electrician to come complete the wiring now that I have the pump.  I hope he will be able to do it sooner than later.

Willow tree fall

Late Sunday afternoon we had strong winds for a brief time.  I had just finished spraying weeds in the south pasture.  I felt only a few wind driven raindrops.  I saw lots of dirt blown from the ridge and heading east.  Other than that I have seen stronger winds.  The winds were over by the time I got back to the house.

However... when I got back to the house I found the large willow tree had blown over onto the garage.  At least two branches went through the roof.  But the garage appears to have held the tree up.

It is a good thing I had redone the electric lines to run underground as the tree also had held up the electric wire that powered the garage, tool shed and barn.

As you can see the two parts of the "V" also broke apart.

Its a shame as the tree was coming back and providing good shade over the garage.  The tree has been here forever.

Monday, while waiting for my new pump, I will cut up the tree.

Hay and pump

The pasture grass is running short so I asked Dan to take his three cows and two calves.  With nowhere for his cattle to really go right now except the auction ring, he said he had some large 3x4x8 ft square bales and would bring several to supplement the cattle in order to keep them here a little longer.

This morning I helped him load the bales on his trailer. I watched and directed while he used his tractor to lift the bales.  When we arrived in the hayfield some of the cattle - of course -were near the gate we had to drive through.  I shooed all the cattle away except for Buddy who stood and watched.

Once in the pasture we cut the twines and then pulled large 'flakes' of hay away from the bale and tossed them on the ground.  Buddy "helped" by pushing some of the initial flakes off the trailer.  He had tried to push one large bale, but at 1600 pounds it was too big for him to move off the trailer.

We moved the truck and trailer across the field so as to spread the flakes around.  That way no one could dominate all the hay and if they don't eat it all (one bale has some water damage on its bottom), then it will be easier to harrow the left over hay around to spread it out and break it up.

The cattle seem to be happy with the hay.  Other than coming to drink water and lick salt, the cattle spent the day near the hay.  So far the cattle have been laying around the tower and not so much on the hay.

I'm still waiting on my new pump.  First it was to arrive this past Monday.  Then today (Friday).  Then yesterday it was changed to next Wednesday.  I talked to a person at the freight trucking company and was told they don't deliver to northern states (the shipment came from Florida) and they had to transfer the pump to another freight company.  I expressed how much I am needing this pump and how long it has taken for me to get it.  She said she would try to get it to me Monday or Tuesday.  This morning they called and said it will be here Monday afternoon.  I hope so.

Of course Monday is bad for two reasons: I was going to give Donna a ride to Missoula Monday.  Then today I learned Jim and Dick rescheduled the return attempt to climb Holland Peak for Monday and Tuesday.  I can't go as I have to be here to receive the pump.

Cattle and dogs

Late Monday afternoon I heard a commotion out in the hayfield.  The cattle were running across the hayfield and mooing. The rest of the cattle noticed and went running to join them.  They ran towards the south pasture fence.

Bees?  Wasps?  Hornets?   What got into the cattle?

Then the cattle stood at the south pasture fence.  I got my binoculars and through the milling cattle I could see a dog.  It was on the other side of the fence.  I figured the cattle could handle the dog when all of a sudden they went running away from the fence out into middle of the hayfield.  I grabbed my sorting stick and went out there.

Even with the commotion every so often Buddy was trying to mount the heifer.

With agitated cattle and Buddy excited I slipped across the south pasture fence as soon as I could.

I discovered two dogs.  They were laying just inside the hayfield/south pasture fence at the gate.  They were panting heavily.  As I approached the dogs started to come to me.  They thought I was coming to join them in chasing the cattle.

"Oh Hell No!"

As I approached the dogs the herd also came back.  I yelled at the dogs to leave and they looked confused.  Then one dog and the herd charged each other.  Mama had her head down and was trying to push one of the dogs and several other cows were trying to get into the act.

The cows seemed to be saying, "Chase my calf will you?!  Oh Hell No!" 

The other dog started into the fight.  I stood on the pasture side of the gate and tried to swing my sorting stick to drive the dogs off.  With me in the pasture the dogs couldn't escape the cattle through the fence like they did before when they were harassing the cattle.  Finally they ran down the fence line towards the fence with the neighbor.

The cattle are smart.  They saw where the dogs were heading and instead of chasing them the herd ran to the gate with the neighbor's field.  The dogs stopped at my fence with the neighbor's field.  But as I approached they slipped through the fence and headed south to the next neighbor's field.  The cattle were in hot pursuit and bellowing loudly at the dogs.

The next neighbor had several dogs in their dog pen and those dogs got excited and were running around and barking.  I think the neighbors may have helped/encouraged the two dogs to go through their fence to escape the cattle as the cattle soon settled down.

As I walked back to the house the cattle came back into the hayfield and towards the house.  I made sure to walk fast enough to reach the fence before they did in case they were still worked up.  But with the dogs gone they soon chilled out at the water trough.

Cattle menage a trois

Monday I woke up to the sounds of cattle rubbing on the fence outside my bedroom window.   One of the two black heifers was coming into heat and Buddy was keeping her company.  After I got up, got my camera and went outside to see them, as I approached the fence, Buddy grunted a "back off" warning when I was getting closer than he liked.  So I stayed my distance.  When Buddy is "on the job" he is pretty serious.

I did see it was heifer #110 who was coming into heat.  Either she is not yet into standing heat else Buddy is too big for her as she wouldn't stay still when Buddy tried to mount her.  In between attempts Buddy would lick her, else she would lick Buddy's forehead.

Then I noticed the other black heifer (#120) trying to get into the action.  She comes into heat just after #110 does.  While Buddy doesn't want any other cattle nearby any female he is romancing, and will push others away if they ignore his warning, he didn't do anything when #120 tried to mount #110.  It appears Tall Pines Ranch has a little "menage a trois" action going on right now. 

My herd is something else: racists, lesbians, and now swingers.  

Buddy is as big as both the heifers put together.

While Buddy was occupied and the herd distracted, Oreo took time to eat a few apples.