Calves to the auction

Today I hauled seven calves to the auction in Missoula. It is a good thing I sold two steer calves to a guy yesterday as the seven calves left filled the stock trailer.

Yesterday afternoon I put the calves in the loading corral.  

I also hooked up the trailer and parked it and the pickup at the loading corral runway entrance.  

This morning I woke up before 5:30 am.  In the darkness I got the calves loaded into the trailer before Donna arrived to help me.  That's fine.  She brought me cupcakes to eat on the journey.  She didn't ride with me to the auction as she was still recovering from getting her third shot of the COVID vaccine.

After I loaded the calves into the trailer, it was so dark I had to use a flashlight to see that all seven black calves were actually in the trailer.

I left the ranch at 6:05 am.  Loading the calves was easy and quick.  It was pitch black for the first hour of driving until I reached the south end of Flathead Lake.  Then it was dark though now one could see the clouds up above.

When I was at the top of the Evaro Hill north of Missoula I could see light snow on the hillsides down low.  At the bottom of Evaro Hill the road was wet.  Most likely due to snow that fell overnight and melted.  I got to the auction at 8:30am.  No one was unloading calves when I arrived.  So it was quick for me to unload.  I was on my way back home at 8:50 am and got home at 11 am.  Then I spent some time washing and cleaning the stock trailer.  I was 30 degrees when I left in the morning and was 43 degrees when I cleaned the stock trailer.  We had a light wind when I was cleaning. So it was chilly to do the cleaning.  I left the pickup and trailer be until tomorrow as due to the chilly temperatures it will take a while for the trailer's wood floor to dry.

Even through the loading corral had plenty of green grass for the calves to eat, I put an extra water trough in the loading corral and filled it with hay.  After I got home I seen most of the hay was eaten.  Then I saw a board was off the loading corral fence.  The cows, who were in the corral, pushed the board off and I'm sure they ate the hay.

The water trough with the hay was on the left side.  On the right side is another water trough that I put water into.  Between the water trough with water, and the long big boards outside the loading corral, that stopped the cows from further pushing off boards and getting into the loading corral.  Those cows!

Now to see what I get for the calves.

Photos from my journey.

At the top of the St Ignatius Hill before going down to Arlee.

At the top of Evaro Hill.

Getting close to Missoula.

Looking south from near the livestock auction.

At the livestock auction looking back north.

Leaving Missoula and heading home.  Right of the "V" in the far mountains is the Evaro Hill.

With the clouds covering the mountains one can't see the waterfall in the mountains beyond St Ignatius.