Fence, beavers, cows in the back yard

This morning I went and looked for how Haynes the bull got into the neighbor's field last evening.  Maybe I seen where he could have crawled through the fence.  Maybe.  Anyway... I added more wire to the fence wires making it hard/impossible to move the fence wires apart to squeeze through.  I added wire here and there.  Why not? It may be overkill but it doesn't hurt that I did this.

I also went to the "thumb".  The "thumb" is a small bit of property disconnected from the rest.  The river flows off the property, then back on the property before finally leaving the property.  I have a fence across the "thumb" even though the cattle don't go over / can't get over there.  I haven't been to the "thumb" for a few years.  I found part of the fence was down.  So I spent time re-attaching and re-positioning the strands of barb wire to make a working fence again.  You never know, someday the cattle may find a way over to the "thumb".  Fortunately none of the bears were there when I worked on the fences.

On the way home I walked along a river channel next to my island.  Because it is an island I seldom go over there, though the cattle can when the river is low.  To my surprise I saw what looks to be a small beaver dam.  The river channel splits briefly due to a gravel bar when the water is lower.  On one side, the narrow split channel, part of a tree on the river bank leans/grows down and a few branches go into the river.  That beaver is smart.  It used the branches as a method in which it could build a small dam.  It is a dam and not merely some river branch debris temporarily caught by the branches.  Why?  Because the water level below the dam is much less.  River debris doesn't cause a large water drop.

I let it be.  It is in an area out of the way and not causing problems. I'm sure next Spring when the water is high it will wash the dam away. I don't mind beavers; I just don't like them eating my willow trees.   The beaver is gnawing on some trees near here.  But they are hawthorn trees.  I don't like those trees as they have hard and sharp thorns on their branches. So the beavers can have them.

Once I got back home I decided to put up a few corral panels in the back yard.  I don't feel like mowing the tall grass back there and decided to let the cows eat the grass down. And since the walnut trees dropped their leaves, I don't have to put up wire fencing to protect the leaves from the cows. I let Diamond, Maria and Muscles into the yard.  I also let the four cows in the north pasture into the yard to as I want this eaten down fast.  For a bit two cows fought each other as that is what female cattle do.  Eventually they got over it and went back to eating.

A cold and windy day.  I worked on another section of my yard/hayfield rail fence.  I almost got another section done today.  I have one rail left to attach tomorrow as it got dark and I couldn't see to work on the last rail today.