Cold, rain, stumps, etc.

Yesterday was nice.  For once.  We actually reached our normal high temperature of 67 degrees.  And it was sunny.  One day, and now we are back into the cold.  The temperature was in the middle 40s for most of the day. Send some global warming over to us; we are missing out on it again this year.

It started raining this morning and was non-stop all day.  Which is great as we need the rain as it has been a dry and cold Spring.  And this rain should help the alfalfa and oats I planted for Donna last week grow.  That is, if the geese haven't eaten all the seeds.

I had to put out another large hay bale for the cattle this evening.  Usually I don't put the bale out on wooden pallets to keep the hay off the ground as the cattle eat the bale in less than two days.  But the ground was wet so I got some pallets to put the bale on so the hay wouldn't get wet from the ground.  At least this time I didn't have the calves getting into trouble by this evening, unlike the past few times I put a hay bale out for the cattle.  I think the rain and wetness was a reason for their good behavior.

Last night I had a bonfire to get rid of another tree stump I had dug around.  Since I knew rain was in the forecast for today, I put extra branches on the fire to make there were more hot embers overnight so the stump would burn longer.  Since I was getting wet this evening while putting out the hay bale, I also walked out to the middle pasture to check on the stump.  Surprisingly, even with all our rain today, the stump was still smoking from burning under the ash and embers.  And the previous stump I had burnt earlier this week was also still smoldering and putting out smoke.  So that stump burnt more than I expected.  Maybe I won't have to dig it out next year.  We'll see.

Here is a photo from this evening in the rain of the six recent stumps I removed this Spring.  Four I burnt (three holes, one of which is a double hole of side-by-side stumps), and two I dug and chopped out.  The two stumps I had dug out I already have filled their holes back in with dirt, one of which is hard to see in the background in the middle left of the photo.  This stump removal will make harrowing easier next year.

Since I was up late last night, and I heard the rain this morning, I slept in late.  Then I spent the day inside the house and slept part of the afternoon.  Rascal was happy about this as he had extra time laying next to or on me today.