Rose has died

At 9:45 pm last night Rose was alive.  I checked again at 1:45 am and she was dead.  It appears she had died a short time before I checked on her.

I miss Rose.  Rose and Mama are my favorite cows.  I raised Rose from a calf.  She was Mama's calf.  She was a lively, intelligent and spunky little calf.  All of Mama's calves have been that way.  Apparently being a lively and spunky little calf annoyed the other cows and they were mean to her.   The other cattle bullied Rose and, while Mama could take care of herself, I tried to help Rose.  When feeding hay at the wooden feeders and the other cattle would push her away from the hay, I would take some hay around south of the barn and Rose would follow.  I would close the gates and let Rose eat there undisturbed.  When I had apples I would often sneak some to Rose when the other cattle weren't looking.  Otherwise they would push Rose away and take the apples.

With Rose I had hopes of keeping Mama's line going at the ranch.  Now I need Mama to outlast Buddy, and to have a heifer calf when I replace Buddy.

The cattle all stood outside the corral yesterday and watched while the vet worked on Rose.  When I let them back into the corral yesterday they spent some time checking out the head gate area where we worked.  Today several times throughout the day I saw small groups of cows studying the head gate and area around it.  Once time, when I heard a mournful moo, I thought another cow was in trouble.  Nope. A few cows were near the head gate and one must have been sad.

I have a hole in my herd and at my ranch.

Rose is ill

For the last two or three days I've seen Rose off by herself in the loafing shed while the other cattle are eating at the hay bales or laying under the trees in the north pasture.  Rose was still chewing her cud and walking out to the bales to eat.  The other cattle pick on Rose so I figured she just wanted to be left alone.

This morning Rose didn't look good.  She was standing in the loafing shed.  She appeared to be favoring her left rear leg and was standing on the point of her hoof.  When I approached she moved and stood on all four hooves.

Still Rose didn't look right.  Her back was arched and her head hung low.  Donna came over and agreed Rose looked ill.  Rose's back hind quarters seemed weak.  I called the vet.  The main cattle vet was off for the day but the backup cattle vet could see her.

I got my stock trailer and using the pickup's four wheel drive blasted through the deep snow.  By now Rose was laying down in the loafing shed. We decided to try to load her from the loafing shed rather than make her walk into the loading corral.

I had a temporary corral panel on one side and the trailer door swung open on the other side.  I stacked two pallets, one smaller than the other, behind the trailer to make it easier for Rose to step into the trailer as the step up into the trailer can be a big one.

It wasn't too hard to get Rose to stand up and move to the back of the trailer. Rose was hesitant to step onto a wooden pallet.  As I was moving around her to grab her leg and lift it onto the pallet Rose bolted and ran around the trailer door into the corral.  She headed towards the loading corral but then slipped and fell on the hard slick snow.

Donna and I tried to get Rose up but we couldn't without her help.  Initially she laid all stretched out on the ground even her neck and head. She was breathing hard. We let her rest a little bit and tried again.  No luck.  More rest and eventually she lifted her head and neck off the ground.

Eventually we gave up and I called the vet and asked her to come over.  Fortunately I do not live too far from her office.

A half hour to hour later the vet and her assistant arrived.  As they approached Rose, Rose got up on her own. She was wobbly but we guided Rose into the loading ramp and then down to the head gate which we closed to hold her in place.

The vet checked Rose.  Her temperature was 102 degrees, a little high.  Her heart was racing.  She was breathing a little hard.  The vet reached her arm way into Rose to check her insides.  Her stool seemed fine.  Rose is pregnant but no sign of a mummied calf corpse.  Her rumen was somewhat hard which was not normal.  This could be due to what she has eaten, if it is too rough or stemy, or perhaps she hasn't drank enough water to aid in her digestion.

Rose could have swallowed a sharp metal object which cut her insides.  The vet didn't find any objects but that doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

So, did Rose:

• swallow a sharp object?
• not get enough water and that threw her digestion off?
• is injured from falling on slippery snow?
• is injured from another cow or cows ramming her?
• and the injury and pain threw her eating and drinking patterns off?

It's unknown.

The vet gave Rose a shot for pain and a shot of antibiotics.  I filled 3/4 of a large pail with warm water and the vet inserted a long hose down Rose's mouth and into her stomach and then pumped the water mixed with some electrolytes down the tube.  Finally the vet inserted a metal tube in Rose's mouth and put a long magnet down the tube.  It took two tries before Rose swallowed the magnet.  The magnet will attract any metal objects and should stop them from causing harm.  The magnet will always stay in Rose.

I let Rose out of the head gate and she walked right over to the covered roof west of the barn.  I had spread out a bunch of fresh straw for her.  Rose checked out the straw, chewed on some straw or grass clump, and stood for a while before laying down.  That is where she is now.

I closed the gates to this part of the corral so she is not bothered by the other cattle.  I put out a fresh bale of hay in a wooden feeder by the barn.  I took some sections of hay and laid them on the straw near Rose.  She took a one bite of the hay and weakly chewed on it.

I checked on Rose several times, the last time a few minutes ago.  Each time she was laying in a different position so she is moving around.

Now to wait and see if she recovers.  The vet bill was $208.

As I found Rose this morning.

Getting ready to pump water into Rose.  The blood is from injecting the antibiotics into a vein in her neck.

Waiting to be let free.

When I pulled the trailer back to the hay shed I went faster than normal through the gate so I wouldn't get stuck in the snow.  Unfortunately I clipped the gate with the back part of the trailer and bent the bottom bolt.

I tried hammering the bolt straight using a sledgehammer but was starting to bent the gate and not the bolt.  So I got my tractor and hooked a chain to the bolt to pull and straighten it.  I couldn't quite see the bolt from the tractor cab and ended up bending the bolt the other way.  I then pushed the bolt and gate with my tractor and straightened the bolt.  I had the bale spear on the tractor and while I could see the main spear and avoid the gate, I couldn't see the two smaller spears and one spear pushed against the gate rail bending it.

   Can anything else go wrong today, or is this the end?

I used the sledgehammer to straighten the gate rail.  Now my nice beautiful gate has an imperfection.

Aliens took my cow

This morning when I went outside I found Beulah standing in the middle pasture by the gate to the north pasture.

What?! 

I let Beulah back into the north pasture where the two large hay bales are located.  Before I could chew Beulah out she gave me this 'what took you so long' attitude.''

She must have broken through the fence for some reason. Why?!  Obviously it is not because the grass is greener on the other side of the fence!

This reminds me of a recent documentary I had watched.  Encounters at the End of the World.  In this documentary they show a penguin who goes 'insane' and instead of following the other penguins to the ocean, turns and walks towards the middle of Antarctic and certain death.  Maybe Beulah temporarily went insane and decided to head into the middle pasture.

I walked along the fence to find where she broke through the fence.  Should be easy to do as the snow had few tracks in it as the cattle spend most of their time around the hay bales or in the corral.

I found only one spot where tracks came to the fence.  It was under a large tree along a part of the fence I had rebuilt taller and into five strands a few years ago.  Nothing was broken.  While there were tracks on the other side of the fence no signs Beulah had somehow jumped over the fence.  It makes no sense to jump a taller fence under tree branches when down the fence line the fence is shorter with only three strands.

I crossed the fence and followed the tracks through the snow.  I followed them where they went along the fence and along the river.  I didn't follow where they went into the middle of the pasture.

The tracks were fresh except for a second set of tracks.  Those tracks were partially filled in by drifting snow.  They were cattle tracks and not deer tracks.  It is hard to tell how old they were.  In the morning the temperature was above freezing and snow no longer drifted. All the cattle were in the corral yesterday until 5 pm when I let them out to feed on the two new bales of hay I had placed in the north pasture.  The drifted tracks could have been a few hours old.

Still no indication of how Beulah crossed the fence.  While the cattle have not used the river to cross between the north and middle pastures, and it would be very difficult to do so based on the terrain and fencing along the river in most of the north pasture, I have found with cattle nothing is impossible.

The river is partially iced over along its sides and where the main flow does not go.  So I would see tracks coming from the river.  Nope.  Didn't see any.

I walked along the fence again.  Nope.  No signs how Beulah crossed.

I gave up.  I spent over an hour looking for how Beulah crossed the fence and I had other things to do.

Apparently aliens came and abducted Beulah for tests and probes.  When they returned Beulah the aliens put her in the wrong pasture.

Moving cow manure from the loafing shed

This afternoon I shoveled cow manure from the loafing shed.  Unlike horses who don't go to the bathroom where they rest, cows don't care.  I planned on spreading some straw for them to lay on but first I wanted to get rid of the manure.

Most all of the manure was frozen. For some of the manure I had to use a sledgehammer to break it free from the ground.  Big and small I loaded onto a scoop shovel and tossed over the corral gate into the NE pasture.  There was lots of manure in the four stalls.

While a few cattle came and went to the water trough, the cattle spent the afternoon eating and eating from the two large hay bales I placed in the north pasture yesterday afternoon.  So I was undisturbed for the most part.  Rose came before I was through shoveling manure.  She stood in a stall I already had cleaned.  So I got a bale of straw and spread it out for her.  After I did she laid down on the straw.

Once I cleaned all four stalls I got a wheelbarrow to move the loose straw from when the cattle had broken a number of bales.  The cattle saw me with the wheelbarrow and were interested and a number of them came into the corral to check things out.  I was only able to spread straw in two more stalls before I quit for the day.  I was getting cold and I had to move around the cattle.

Beulah made Rose move as Beulah wanted that stall.  Typical Beulah behavior - she thinks she is the queen.

Today I noticed Buddy shadowing Spice.  The previous owners said she was bred...  I didn't see Buddy mount her but he stayed by her all the times I seen him and would follow her around.  I hope Spice is already bred as I don't really want a Fall calf.


In the stall Rose lays in, I formerly stored in half of the stall some railroad ties, posts, snow fence and a few other items.  A month ago I moved all that stuff.  With more cattle I wanted the extra room for the cattle to lay out of the wind and snow.

Rose

Early hay bale

Today I decided to give the cattle a second hay bale a day early.  They would have eaten all of their hay by Monday morning.  However a Winter storm is predicted for Monday and I didn't want to be out moving a hay bale in the storm, even if I have a tractor with a cab.

Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 8 PM MST Monday... 

* impacts/timing: Arctic air will pour across the Continental Divide late Sunday
  into early Monday. Gusty winds, blowing snow and additional heavy snow will
  lead to dangerous travel conditions, especially during the overnight and
  early morning hours Monday. 

* Snow accumulations: an additional 3 to 7 inches throughout the valleys with up
  to another foot throughout the higher terrain. 

* Winds: north to east winds of 15 to 30 mph winds will be developing and cause
  wind chills of 20 -to 30 -degrees. 

In the afternoon some of the cattle were eating and some were standing around chewing their cud. I shoveled a path through the snow to where I wanted the new feeder, shoveled the area clear of snow, and laid a wooden pallet down for the hay bale.  Buddy just stood there chewing his chew and watching me, even when I shoveled a path through the snow a few feet in front of him.  When I carried the wooden pallet I had to detour around him as he now stood on my shoveled path.

I put some hay out in the corral's wooden feeder and all the cattle came in to check it out.  I closed the gate locking the cattle in the corral so I could bring out the new bale undisturbed.

After I was done with the bale I let the cattle out of the corral.  With two feeders now was the time to let Sugar and Spice join the herd.  Sugar ran out of her part of the corral immediately with Spice right behind.  A quick stand and look around and then these two went for the feeder with the eaten hay.

Big Red was not happy with the newbies.  She pushed the Spice all the way over to the new bale.  Sugar and Spice wanted to eat as all they had today was to finish off yesterday's bale.

Even though the cattle evenly split between the two feeders, and there was plenty of room at each feeder, there was some jostling around their feeder..  Sugar and Spice were excited and they tended to run and not walk when they moved.  A few times they kicked up their rear heels.

Then Spice went by Buddy and he got interested.  Spice wasn't comfortable with Buddy sniffing her and these two walked and ran at times around the pasture. Buddy didn't give up.  Sugar then came over and for a bit was pushing heads against Buddy. "Leave my daughter alone!" Buddy didn't move. After a bit Sugar went over to another tree and rubbed her neck vigorously against it until another cow walked over and introduced herself.

Sugar then ran around the east half of the pasture with her head held high and looking around.  She can run fast!  The snow flew as she ran. And her big udder with the white streak flopped from side to side.  Some of the other cattle initially followed her then just stood and watched her. "She's crazy."  After a short time Sugar ran back to the herd and the hay.

It was a good idea to keep Sugar and Spice in the corral for a while until they adjusted to their new home.  If I had let them out when they first got here they may have headed for the high hills in order to get back where they had come from.

Eventually Buddy finished his sniff test of Spice and quit following her.

Judging from how Sugar acts and watches she is an intelligent cow. Time will tell how she fits in the pecking order with my other two intelligent cows: Mama and Beulah.  From the start Mama stood back from the bales and watched Sugar and Spice and the commotion.  Beulah was distracted by the new bale for a while before she stood and watched the new cattle.

That is how they sort out: Mama is smarter from the get-go but Beulah is much bigger and quickly catches on.

Donna always informs me when she visits about how Mama watches her and gives her the evil eye.  Donna is now trying to get Dan on her side in convincing me to sell Mama.  That ain't gonna happen as Mama is my favorite cow even if sometimes she can be a pain.

New bale

Two bales

Six inch snow

It snowed very early this morning.  Six inches.

The sun came out for a while as I was taking photos.

The ski resort is in clouds.

Female box elder tree seeds stay on the tree until Spring.

Most of the cattle were snow covered.  Here is Big Red.

Tractor four wheel drive

My tractor has four wheel drive.  That's what I thought until I got confused.

Today I went to haul another large hay bale for the cattle.  It has snowed a little since I last hauled a bale.  I drove into the hay bale and pushed against it to make sure it was tight on the bale spear.  My back tires spun a little.

When I went to back up my rear tractor tires spun and I couldn't move but an inch or so.  Really?  I had no trouble last year to haul large bales through the snow.

The ground is frozen hard.  The ground was saturated with moisture before the freeze so it can be a little slick.  Maybe that's my problem.

I lowered the bale and tried to back up and away from it.  I still spun.  What in the world?!

I tried cat litter under the tires.  I had some loose hay and put that under the tires.  No go.

Earlier I had read in the tractor's manual about taking it out of four wheel drive, especially when driving on hard (paved) surfaces.   I never put that into action.  I checked the tractor manual again.

The section about Mechanical Front Wheel Drive (MFWD):
http://manuals.deere.com/omview/OMRE199128_19/OUO1043_0000270_19_15JAN01_1.htm

The photo didn't look like my tractor's cab and levers.  Maybe my tractor doesn't have four wheel drive?    I noticed the manual said: "If equipped".

Here is my tractor's cab. It doesn't quite match the manual's photo.
The yellow lever in front runs the tractor's Power Take Off (PTO).  The orange lever in back...

Here is the photo of the orange lever.  I focused more on the 540 and 540E than the little picture of the tractor.   540 is the PTO speed.  With this lever by the PTO lever I guessed the orange lever had something to do with the PTO's speed.

I looked all over the tractor and could not find a four wheel driver lever.  Maybe my tractor doesn't have four wheel drive?


Donna came over shortly with some baklava she had made and so I had her drive my four wheel drive pickup to pull my tractor.  I thought if I could just get the tractor tires off of the icy ground and into the snow I would have traction.

Donna pulled my tractor into the snow.

However when I tried to drive the tractor again the rear tires just spun and the tractor wouldn't move but an inch or so.  Donna was certain my tractor was a four wheel drive and the four wheel drive wasn't engaged.

We looked all over the tractor's cab.  Donna finally asked what the orange lever did.  I thought something with the PTO.  She had me try the lever.  Now my tractor could drive carrying the large hay bale.  It was the four wheel drive lever.

In hindsight it seems obvious when looking at the little images of the tractor.  But the one photo is a close up.  Imagine you are sitting in the tractor seat in the larger photo looking down.  Add that with the manual's photo and description and with some sort of tunnel vision I had in the cold weather and it may explain why I was so dumb to not notice it.

Thinking back I think I must had moved the orange lever this past Summer when I was running the yellow PTO lever when I was cutting and baling my hay.

Well... now I know what the orange lever is for.

Ski resort view

The Whitefish Mountain ski resort opened today for the season.  This is the view this morning.  Zooming in from my place makes the mountain look small.

Cold and cattle

This morning the cattle were standing outside the corral.  They didn't eat all of the large hay bale already, did they?

I let the cattle into the corral and fed them several small hay bales.  I went out and checked and there still was a days worth of hay in the metal feeder.  While it was sunny, the temperature was in the teens and the wind was blowing hard.  It was cold. It felt like North Dakota or Minnesota in the Winter.  The cattle wanted into the corral and to the loafing shed.  Even just outside the corral it was more out of the wind than where the metal feeder sits.

The cattle stayed in the corral all day.  When not eating they laid in the loafing shed.  I fed them hay several more times, the last time being a half hour ago.

Before letting the cattle into the corral I spread some straw in the loafing shed for them to lay on.  It would have been easier to move and spread the straw if the cattle hadn't gotten into the straw earlier this Fall and broke a lot of bales apart.

This is Panda.  She was the cow that got out over to the neighbor's place a few weeks ago.

Cylinder fix

Winter is here.  While we didn't get as much snow as the forecasters had predicted, it was enough to blanket everything.  So the projects have come to an end of the year.

I didn't get:

1. the hay field completely disc'd,
2. the logs cleaned up in the pastures,
3. the NE / hayshed fence rebuilt, or
4. the wood stove room redone.

There is always next year.

Part of what slowed me down for discing the hay field (other than searching for days for the missing tractor's 3 point bolt) was that the disc's hydraulic cylinder broke.   I accidentally broke it over a week ago.  I unhooked the tractor from the disc in order to drive to the gas station to fill the tractor with diesel.  In my hurry I forgot to also unhook the two hydraulic hoses from the tractor.   The hoses didn't unhook themselves, or break.  What broke was a pipe fitting from the hose into the cylinder.

I happened to have another fitting to match the odd fitting.  However the one end broke off in the cylinder.  Curtis has a tool to unscrew pieces threaded into another object.   The broken fitting was tight in the cylinder.  Between the two of us - with a cheater bar for leverage - we slowly began to unscrew the fitting.  But when Curtis took over the wrench the cylinder broke.

Seriously?!

The cylinder is American made and I figured I could get a replacement part.  I had to email the company to get a list of local distributors as they didn't have the list on their web site.

A distributor was just down the road a little ways. I took the broken part and the entire cylinder to the store.  While I said I wanted to replace the part he tried to order a whole new cylinder for $170 (I'm sure he initially said $70).  I insisted on just the part.  He wasn't sure the company sold the part.  Really?!

He called the company.  Of course they sold the part.  $45 plus shipping.

Today I finally put the cylinder back together.  Too late to use it this year.  Next year.

Broken part

Cylinder taken apart.

Fixed cylinder

Snow and Excited Cattle

Snowed a little more overnight.  Did not melt today.  Winter may be here to stay.  So much for getting more projects done this year.

The cattle ate the first large hay bale and were standing outside the corral gate this afternoon.  I gave them a couple small hay bales while I hauled out another large hay bale.  This time I used a bale of this year's hay.  I used the bale that I accidentally started to unload before completely wrapping with twine.  The bale held together as I hauled it to the far end of the pasture.

After sundown I let the cattle out of the corral to go to the hay bale.  I didn't plan on leading them and they just milled around outside of the corral.  So I walked partway to the bale and they followed.  Half had passed me on their way to the bale when I began to talk to some of them nearby.  All of them quit walking and turned around to stand and look at me.

They wouldn't go on until I started walking out to lead them.  As I did Buddy got excited/annoyed.  He turned towards me and put his head down and began to jump up and down.

Uh oh.

As Buddy approached I told him to calm down.  He continued.  I was out in the open and immediately began walking quickly to the nearest tree.  Buddy followed.  I got behind the large tree and stood on a small pile of tires at the bottom of the tree.  Buddy pushed a number of the tires around on the other side of the tree for a minute before he settled down.

He moved back into the middle of some cows.  The cows still stood around.  This time I went around the south of the herd to get ahead of them.  They began to follow me again towards the hay bale.  I could see a few cows getting excited and Buddy in the distance again began to get excited.  I ran to the next group of trees in the middle of the pasture and stood behind a large one.  The cows and Buddy ran past.  Now they could see the hay bale at the far end.  They ran over to the bale.

Big Red was one of the last cows to run by.  After she got by me and the tree she turned around and started to come towards me.  I yelled at her to back off.  She whirled around and ran to the hay bale.

I don't know what put a bee in their bonnet.  Maybe me talking to them as they initially walked to the hay bale confused them, then annoyed them.

Snow dusting

We got a dusting of snow today.  Winter is coming.  In the following photo you can see the darker area where I last drug the disc last week.  I haven't drug the disc since the disc's hydraulic cylinder broke.  The replacement part should arrive next week.  Just in time for the predicted freeze from an arctic air mass.

The new cattle are settling in.  The cow still occasionally moos.  I fed them some of the apples I have left.  They like apples.   Buddy came by this morning and spent time outside the corral where the new cattle stood inside.  Introducing himself. He seemed happy.  I think he smiled at me to thank me for bringing a few new females to add to his harem.

The stock trailer is still drying out from when I washed the manure out yesterday after hauling the cattle.

Two new cattle

Today I bought more cattle.  I bought a bred cow and her last year's bred heifer.  They were bred to a black bull.  The cow is 3 1/2 years old.

In the back of my mind I thought I could support one more cow and was open to getting one.  I should have enough hay for this Winter.   There was a Craiglist ad for these two cattle.  Also included was the cow's heifer from this year.

I don't need or want a heifer calf.  If I got the heifer I would have to keep her separate from Buddy until April or so next year.  Even then the heifer may still be a little too small for Buddy to breed as he has gotten pretty big.  So I interested Dan in the heifer and he bought her to go with the four steers he bought from me.

All the cattle are very nice stock.   If the calf was a steer I would have kept it until Spring.  Since cattle prices are so low right now, now is the time to buy if one follows the "Buy low, sell high" strategy.


Tom and Pat (the owners), their son Chris, Dan, Donna and I loaded the cattle into my stock trailer.  The owners and their son had the cattle use to treats and that helped in loading the cow and bred heifer into the trailer.  I placed them in the front half of the trailer and closed the divider to keep them there.

The son and I had to re-position their temporary corral panels to encourage the calf to also get into the trailer.  When herding the cattle I used Dan's sorting stick as I forgot mine.  The cow and calf each kicked once when being herded and the stick allowed me to keep my distance when sorting.

If I used the trailer's back sliding door it had a lip and I felt that would make the trailer entrance even higher.  So I swung the back door open.  I had backed the trailer up to the loading corral.  To close the door that meant driving forward a little bit.  To prevent the calf from bolting out the back of the trailer and getting away the son and Dan slid one corral panel behind the trailer and moved it forward against the trailer as Donna drove my pickup and trailer forward. Once we had room I swung the back door closed as the corral panel was slid to one side.

Everything went well and everyone agreed the cattle loading went better than expected.

I went to Dan's place first and unloaded the heifer.

The loaded cattle with the calf in the back.

The heifer on the left meeting her new buddies (my four steers I sold Dan earlier and who are getting fat).

The steers were all curious about the new girl.  One steer tried to mount her already.  Boys will be boys.

I am keeping the cow and heifer in my corral for a while.  This will allow them to get used to their new home and new friends.  Also, so the cow and heifer don't go wandering off to look for the cow's calf.

Overall all of the cattle are calm and easy going.  The cow does moo occasionally. Even now as I write this post. Probably calling for her calf.

My cattle coming in to see the new cattle.

Mama, Rose and Big Red.

Beulah and the new cattle.

The cow.  She is named Sugar. Probably because of the little white around her udder.

Greeting one another through the corral fence.

My cattle greeting the new cattle.

Sugar.

The new heifer.  Donna thought of naming her 'Spice'.

The Swan Mountains near where Tom and Pat live.

Since Tom and Pat no longer will have any cattle they sold me their seven corral panels. I got them for a good price so I also bought the bent one and the one missing one 'leg'. Tom and Pat once had a calf get its head stuck in the leg and they had to cut the leg off to free the calf.

Tom and Pat are interesting people and both are talkers like me.  They were selling their cattle as he is 85 and she in her late 70s and they no longer wanted to care for cattle over Winter.

Tom is a motorcycle aficionado. He had a half dozen old racing motorcycles he restored (and still restores) and rides.  He has a beautiful old Ducati motorcycle and a Norton motorcycle from the 1960s.  For his 85th birthday Tom he said he took his Ducati out for a ride and (briefly as he is now 85) rode the Ducati 85 mph.  Both Tom and Pat look (and act) younger than their ages.

All of his motorcycles have small seats that really only fit one person.  If you are very young and skinny you can maybe squeeze your wife or girlfriend in very close behind you on the small seat.  And she would have to hold on to you very tightly to keep from falling off.

What a life.

First hay bale

Today I put a large hay bale out for the cattle.  The first of the season.  I used a large bale of last year's leftover hay.

I hauled the bale to the western side of the north pasture.  This area needs the ground to be fertilized.  And I've noticed in the past where I had placed large hay bales the next year the grass grew thicker and better.

When I opened the gate to let the cattle out of the corral they expected me to toss another small bale in the wooden feeder.  I had to lead them out and over to the west side of the pasture where the bale sat.  Once they got close they ran the rest of the way to the feeder.

I had to haul the metal feeder from the east to the west side of the pasture.  Here is the feeder before I rolled it the rest of the way over and tipped it over the bale.

Afterwards I checked the neighbor's fence where Panda had gotten through.  She hadn't broken any wires.  On one post the middle two wires were missing their staples.  I think she then was able to slip through the fence.  That may be why she couldn't find her way back through the fence.

Jailbreak in the dark

No snow yet.  The cattle are still grazing in the pasture and in Calvin's field.  Tomorrow I planned to look at Calvin's field to see how much there is left to eat.  Might be time to give them a large hay bale.  As usual the cattle beat my plans by a day or two.  This evening around 7 pm Curtis called as a car drove up my driveway.  The woman in the car said she saw a black white faced cow on the road.  It has gone to Rusty's yard and seemed to want back on the road according to her.  She last seen the cow heading down the driveway to John's place.

I called Donna for help then went out to look.  As it was 7 pm it was pitch black outside with no moon.

Rusty's pickup was in the driveway with its lights shining down the long driveway.  Rusty and Curtis were out.  Armed with a flashlight I ran down the driveway to John's house to let him know why I would be wandering in his field with a flashlight.  No sign of the missing cow.

John's wife said John told her he had seen four of my cattle in his field before he went to bed. She seen only the one cow. She tried to close their gate but couldn't due to the gate leaning into the ground and grass.  Neither called to let me know.

I closed their gate.  Then I went back to Rusty and Curtis to let them know to keep an eye out for up to four cattle.  Donna arrived and we went back to get my pickup to use the pickup's lights to look for my cattle.

I turned the barn light on.  Some cattle mooed outside the corral in the north pasture.  I got a hay bale and put it in the wooden feeder.  More cattle came.  Once all came I counted and recounted and recounted.  No matter how many times I came up with one cattle missing.  At least Buddy the bull (who is white faced) was here. The white faced cow was also here.  Donna thought she saw Panda.  Maybe the missing cow was a broco faced cow.

I drove back to John's place.   Standing at the end of his driveway was Panda.  I went to open John's gate.  Panda was agitated.  She didn't like being blinded by my pickup's lights.  She ran past the pickup and Donna and went down to where Rusty had his pickup in the driveway.

I decided to take chance and try to let her go down to almost the road where there was a opening in the fence over to Curtis's driveway.  From there I could herd her through my gate between me and Curtis.

I let Curtis and Rusty know to let the cow go past them.  I followed Panda.  I tried walk briskly and not run.  When we got nearer the road I trotted to try to get past Panda so I could herd her to the right and through the fence opening.  After I started to trot Panda began to run to keep ahead of me.

Panda turned through the fence opening.  Instead of making a hard right she continued through Jerry's yard and along the road.  I decided to follow along and not make her go to a hard right.  Maybe I could herd her to my driveway.

Past Jerry's yard Panda walked on the road. She paused at the gate to my NE pasture.  She was still ancy.  I moved closer to open the gate.  As I moved closer Panda continued on to my driveway.

Now approaching down the road was a vehicle.  Hopefully they could see me and my flashlight. Being black Panda would be hard to see on the road.  Then behind me Rusty came with his pickup.  Once Panda she reached my driveway she turned in.  Once she got in to my yard and back to something she remembered she immediately got calmer.  Donna followed us in my pickup.  I closed my driveway gate.   I walked down to the coral gate.  This time Panda did not freak out when I walked past her.  After I opened the gate Panda walked into the corral.  The rest of the cattle were still eating hay.

I closed all the corral gates and am keeping the cattle in the corral overnight.  I went out to the north pasture and closed the gate to Calvin's field.  Tomorrow I will haul a large hay bale out to the north pasture and let the cattle eat on it.

Curtis and Rusty thought this was fun.  Me, I'm glad it turned out well, though I could have done without the excitement.

Disc problems

I have completed pass number two in the hayfield.  I have a few more passes to complete before the field is ready for planting.  This is taking much longer than I anticipated, both because I can only go so fast and because I don't get a large block to time each day to pull the disc.  I think back to being a software developer when I lamented that I could write so much more code if I didn't have so many meetings and distractions.

Also slowing me down is that I lost a part from my tractor the day I finished the second pass.  One arm of the three point hitch has a threaded rod that is used to adjust that arm's height so both arms match their height.  Sometime when discing the rod unscrewed from both sides and is somewhere in the field.

I think I lost the rod the last day but am not 100% positive.  I can tell from the fresh dirt where I pulled disc the final day.  I searched that area plus some area around it that was from the previous day.

Nothing.

While the rod is long and thick, some of the field has been gone over more than twice and has lots of loose dirt.  Perhaps the rod is completely buried.

Curtis has a metal detector.  Over three days I walked in a tight grid pattern the area of the hayfield in question.  The last afternoon in the cold, damp, and snow flurries.  The metal detector went off frequently.  A second pass of the metal detector: nothing.  If the detector signaled twice I kicked at the loose dirt to reach hard ground.

Nothing.

All that effort and I didn't find the rod.

It was hard to search as it has started raining again recently and the field is muddy.  As I walked my mud boots collected mud making my feet heavy.  I also would gain a few inches on the bottom of the boots until I kicked the mud off, only to attract mud again.

The rod will turn up.  Maybe when I disc again.  Maybe when I harrow.  Maybe it will work its way out of the ground over time.  I prefer to find the rod sooner than later.

Fortunately I don't use the three point hitch very much.  Today I wired the two pieces of the three point arm together.  Then I pulled the disc again.   It rained again last night but I decided to try to pull the disc this afternoon.  The lower areas were wetter and the tractor would bog down until I revved the motor.  A few times I had to raise the disc up until I started going again.  I only disced for an hour until I gave up for the day.


Earlier I had added a few railroad ties to the disc to make it cut into the ground deeper.

The wired three point arm is on the right side.

Woodstove crack

My wood stove developed a crack last week.  I drilled a hole at the end of the crack to stop it from spreading.  Curtis brought his portable welder over and welded the crack together.  I had trouble getting the chimney collar off so he welded the stove up to the collar.

Later when the weld cooled it started to crack from the collar.  So this time I took the collar off and the next day Curtis welded the crack all the way.

When the weld cooled it cracked again.  We could hear, then see, the crack forming as the stove cooled.  So Curtis cut a small piece of scrap metal.  I drilled through the stove and bolted the metal over the crack.  That should fix the problem.

The crack and my drilled hole to stop it.

Crack spreading into the weld.

The second weld before I laid the plate over it.  I smoothed the weld.  The 'wet' part is the liquid woodstove glue used to attach insulation pieces to the woodstove.  I felt it couldn't hurt to try to do extra to seal the crack and not just rely on the metal piece.

The finished result.

Curtis had earlier tossed the metal piece in his woodstove to darken the shiny metal to match my woodstove's color. My camera's flash heightens the difference.  Without the flash the metal piece more closely matches my woodstove.

I have used my woodstove a few times and everything seems to work fine now.

Curtis wouldn't take any money for his help.  So today in gratitude, for this and other favors Curtis has done for me, I spent three hours helping Curtis tear out carpeting in a burnt house Curtis and his business partner bought for investment purposes.  We also removed a few appliances and other items not to be burnt.  They are getting a local fire department later this month to burn down the house to use for their fire training.  Curtis and I hauled to the landfill two full pickup loads of stuff.