Starting to lay mainline irrigation pipe

Now that the hay is cut and baled I need to irrigate to get a second crop.  I thought I would be doing that by now.

First I thought I would have the irrigation pipe that crosses the pasture completed as I planned to laying that pipe while the hay dried.  I needed one steel pipe lengthened by 10 1/2 inches as I didn't want to use the prior method of clamping two shorter pipes together.  Wyatt welded the pipe for me and had it done the day after I finished moving the hay bales.

The next delays were avoiding rainy days and other stuff getting in the way.  Today I found out my flat tire was not fixable.   Because my pickup is 4 wheel drive it is more important for the tire tread depth to match.  I had almost 25,000 miles on those tires.  Also the tires were wimpy 4 ply tires.  Not really strong enough for ranch work, and certainly a risk when hauling cattle 100+ miles to the auction in Missoula.  Tires are expensive but I bought a used set of 10 ply tires.

Also some of the cattle have been crossing the river to go between the middle and south pastures every few days.  The smaller calves don't cross the river and then after a while the cows complain when their udders are full and their calves are in the other pasture.  I gave up and now leave the gate between the pastures open.  Of course sometimes the cows and calves get on both sides of the fence and then get upset.   Tonight I had to listen to several cows complain to me and their calves until the herd eventually worked their way to the gate.

I am removing all the old gaskets on the pipes and putting new ones on.

Also slowing me down are tree roots in the path of the pipe and a tree that blew over this Spring across the pipe's path.

While I usually hand saw or chop trees and tree branches, I decided to use my chainsaw to speed things up.  Or that was the plan.  The chainsaw would not start.  It has been getting harder to start these past few years.  Ethanol carburetor problem?  I'm not sure.  First I wanted to replace the spark plug.  The chainsaw is old and the spark plug - CJ8Y - is not common.  Today I went to NAPA and they had one for me.

Wait, there is another problem with the chainsaw.  In my effort to start the chainsaw the other day I broke the rope used to start it.

So I ended up using a saw and axe to remove the tree and chop down tree roots.  What should have taken a half hour took over four hours.

The tree was a pain to remove as the barb wire fence limited movement and the area to chop was under the tree.

Tree across pipe's path

While I was at it I de-limbed the tree too.

Tonight I decided to remove more tree limbs from a large old fallen tree.  This was to make it easier to work on the pipes.   The tree limbs were long and heavy.  I ended up removing most of the tree limbs from this side of the tree.  The limbs in back blocked working on the pipes; the limbs in front blocked removing the back limbs.

The bark was loose so I removed it at the same time.  To cut the higher limbs I had to sit on the tree to saw.

Then I had to chop the tree roots to make the pipe more level.

So this is as far as I got today.  Halfway across the pasture.  Rain is in the forecast for this weekend.