Fence post fix

Between working on irrigation and the hot temperatures I don't get much else done these days.   I did fix the fence that I damaged when pulling my baler through the gate.   I checked and I didn't break the post.  Why the post wiggled was that the ground was pushed and compacted and in the photo you can see the hole around the post.   I got dirt and filled in the hole around the post and now the post is stable.  And you can see the rod from the gate to the post is mostly straight now.  The black on the gate is from the baler tire as it rubbed and pushed on the gate.

More irrigation stuff

Another day.  More problems.   This morning when I was moving the irrigation lines on the line I just moved and restarted a sprinkler came off and I had a tall geyser.  An internal mechanism in the sprinkler must have worn out. I had it happen once or twice before over the years.  It is very uncommon.  So I had to replace the sprinkler.

This evening when I was moving an irrigation line the water flow out of the other sprinklers went down.  Initially I thought the heat must have stopped the irrigation pump and the sprinkler flow would stop.  But the slow flow didn't stop.  So I looked for a leak.  I found that the last pipe of the mainline came apart from the rest of the other mainline pipes and water was gushing out.   The mishmash of steel and aluminum pipes can make it hard to securely connect the pipes to each other.  So in the past I have pounded two steel posts in the ground at the end of the mainline pipes.  This year I forgot to do that.  My sprinkler lines usually are pretty steady in length.  But today I am going 'around' the house so the line is a little shorter today.  Shorter line, less sprinklers, more pressure in the line.  So I had to fix the problem and pound posts at the end to hold the mainline together.

Today was a couple degrees warmer than yesterday, but the irrigation pump did not shut off due to the heat.  That was good.  The mosquitos are still a big problem.  I don't put insect repellant inside my ear or close to my eyes.  When carrying sprinkler pipes I had mosquitos get inside my ears, or so close to my eyes I could see the mosquitos when they landed right next to my eye.

Irrigation stuff

This morning I noticed less irrigation water pressure.  I checked the gauge, and it was down to 50 lbs.   I went into the river and checked the intake screen.  Some waterweed material covered the screen.  This time I was able to pull and 'scrape' the weed material off the screen and I didn't have to shut down the pump.  My pressure went back to 62 lbs.

Due to our warm temperatures I try not to do stuff outside in the afternoon.   So today instead of going back to sleep in the morning after moving the irrigation pipes, I did stuff outside.  It is getting too late to spray herbicide on the yarrow weeds as they have formed their seed heads, so I am pulling them.  I have more to pull.

In the afternoon I went to sleep.  I slept from 4 pm to 7 pm.  At 4 pm my irrigation was going.  At 7 pm it was not.  Our high temperature today was 93 degrees and most of the afternoon was in the 90s.  My irrigation pump is in a shed.  The shed has some openings in the walls, and I try to keep the door open to help keep the temperature down.  I let the cattle into the south pasture yesterday so I have a few items in the doorway to prevent the cattle from going into the shed.   When it gets too hot the pump will shut down.  That is what it did.

I don't know when this happened.  The grass was dry.  The pump was still very very warm.  I moved the irrigation pipes.  The pump was cooler when I re-started it.   I'll see what the next few days bring as our predicted high each day is 93 or 94 degrees.

The mosquitos are still really bad.  Even though the temperature is in the 80s and 90s I have to wear a flannel shirt when out in the hayfield and pasture to keep my back from being bitten.  I have to put insect repellant on 100% of my body to keep the mosquitos from eating me alive, and I can't spray 100% of my back.

Irrigation and Donna's hay

Because it was a wet Spring there was no rush to start irrigating after the hay was cut.  But time is passing, the ground is getting drier, and the time for the second hay cut is getting closer.  I had been putting out pipes this past week but this weekend I picked it up.  

My earlier efforts were slow as due to our wet Spring the mosquitos are bad.  Really bad.  The worst I ever experienced.   The mosquitos are desperate for blood.  The temperature can be in the mid 80s, sunny, and midafternoon and there are mosquitos attacking me when I am in the hayfield or pasture.  And when it gets close to sundown I have to quit as lots more mosquitos are out.  Mosquito repellant works, but one must cover every spot with repellent as the mosquitos will find the spot with no repellant.  If they can't land they swarm around me.  I had to be careful breathing so as not to suck in a mosquito.  So I quit working outside for the day.

Yesterday late I finished laying the mainline and two sprinkler lines.    This morning I got up after 7 am (early for me!) and went out to start the irrigation.  First I had to place the input pipe in the river and connect it up.

I had to prime the pump.   This was much harder than normal due to the mosquitos in the irrigation shed.  I hadn't brought any mosquito repellant with me.

The pump started right up.  Adding the new packing material helped.   The pump's pressure only reached 50 lbs.  Usually it is 60 lbs but this was enough to irrigate.   It was time for me to go back to bed.

Hours later when I woke up it was time to set out the third line of sprinklers.  This line is so I always have two sprinkler lines going when I move one line.  That way I don't have to shut off the irrigation pump.  

After I finished the third line I went and checked on the irrigation pump.   It looked like the distance the water came out of the sprinklers was a little less.  I found the pressure was now down to 38 lbs.  Hmmm...   I went into the river to check the intake screen.  The screen was covered with common waterweed that was growing near the intake.

https://extension.psu.edu/elodea-common-waterweed

I had to stop the pump.  Then I was able to grab the waterweed off the intake screen.  Then I used a rake to try to get rid of the waterweed growing nearby.  I had raked and "removed" the waterweed last year.  But it grew back.  Now reading more about them I discovered they remain active over Winter.   When I started the pump in the morning I couldn't see the waterweed in the river.

I restarted my pump.  The pressure now went to 60 lbs. 

My day was getting away from me.  Donna had raked her hay into fewer rows.   I had to get some diesel for the tractor then I went down to bale her hay.   My baler had no problem baling her hay and it went quick.   I made almost two bales.  I left the last bale in the baler and brought it home with me and then unloaded it from the baler.

I used the air compressor to clean the loose hay from baler.  It was getting later and when I pulled the baler back to the NE pasture I rubbed against the gate.  Never did that before.  After parking the baler I had to use the tractor to push one of the bolts holding the gate to the post back straight.  The wooden post moves a bit and tomorrow I'll see if the post is cracked or broken in the ground or is loose because the ground was compressed by the post moving.

I put the bale fork on the tractor.  As I was driving across the field I saw the fork was not mounted correctly on one side.  In the photo you can see how the top "hook" sits on the tractor arm.  Somehow I was able to put the pin in the bottom to hold the fork in place.  I have taken off-and-on the fork for many years and I had never done this before

Fixing this problem turned out to be hard.  I could not take the pin out.   I had to use a hammer and a crowbar to force and knock the pin out.  Then I could reposition the fork correctly.

More time lost.  I had to move the irrigation sprinkler lines and I was losing time.  I drove to Donna's field and picked up the other hay bale.  The drive back was slower because the road had cracks in it, and not completely level, and the tractor would bounce a bit as I drove.    I didn't want the bale fork to break with the hay bale on it.

I made it home and got the two bales stacked.

It was a quarter to 9 pm when I finally could go and move the irrigation lines.  It was 10:10 pm when I got back to the house after moving the lines.   It was getting dark by the time I was about done moving the second line.  I had to look to see where the line was I was moving.  Once I turned the line back on I had to trust the entire line was working and there was no debris in a sprinkler head.

Another day.

Donna's hay - almost done

Donna is almost done with her hay.  It has been a challenging year.  The day after that disastrous day of baling, Donna's daughter and son-in-law came back for more hay even though it was a long day for them.   Four hour drive here, hours baling and loading hay, then a five hour drive back home with the loaded trailer.  And add the time it took to unload the trailer.  They didn't get much sleep.

Donna spent time Thursday Friday baling using Wyatt's baler.  Her baler is not fixed.  Donna baled until it got hot in the afternoon and then her daughter took over the baling and the son-in-law loaded the trailer. After two loads of hay (Wednesday and Thursday) the daughter and son-in-law filled their hay shed.  They didn't need any more hay and went to sleep to catch up on their sleep.  Donna still had a good portion of her field left to do.

Donna spent time Friday baling more of her field using Wyatt's baler.  Wyatt's baler has a problem where every so often the bale will break open when the baler unloads it.  That hay then needs to be re-baled.  Eventually on Friday Donna had enough.  Most, but not all, of her field had been baled.  Donna decided to call it quits and leave the rest un-baled.

Saturday Donna learned that Wyatt still had a little baling work left to do.  He needed to re-bale some of his broken bales, plus one last row of hay.  So Donna returned Wyatt's baler.   First she came over to bale my straw.  We had planned to re-bale my straw when I did my second hay cutting and Donna would come over to bale some of my hay so I would have some small bales.  Since we aren't sure if her baler will be fixed Donna came to bale my straw.

Wyatt's baler and my straw.

While my pile of loose straw looked big, I ended up with seven and a half straw bales.  I carried them up a ladder to store the straw bales in the barn's attic.

I put the small loose straw (seen in the previous photo) that the baler had as leftover into these former tubs that the cattle had for mineral lick.  No sense in wasting the straw.  I didn't feel like carrying these tubs up to the attic.   The hay in the background was left over from last year.

Since Donna had extra bales, and it was uncertain if her baler would be fixed before my second hay cutting, I got my small bales from Donna's field late Saturday afternoon and evening.  The temperature was in the 80s and the bales weighed 75 lbs each.  Donna's bales had stacked six high in my barn; bales from Wyatt's baler stacked five high in my barn.  I got the 100+ bales on Saturday until I couldn't do anymore that day.   Sunday I came and got - for me - the last 20 bales.   My barn is mostly filled.   I do have a narrow walking part from front to back.   I filled my barn more than usual as most likely Donna and her baler won't be here next year.

I'm tired.

Donna still has lots of bales. Donna plans to sell the rest of her bales.  The other people who earlier said they would be interested, got hay and don't need more.  One other person may be interested.  If that falls through then an ad on Craigslist will be used.

For the rest of the unbaled hay, Donna would like it to be gone.  She plans to rake it on Monday and then have me bale it.  It is the short grass I had trouble cutting with my haybine.  Wyatt said his baler has trouble baling short grass and that was why Donna had trouble baling that grass.   I think my baler will be able to bale that grass.

Stay tuned.

Donna's hay - disasterous day

Another rough day trying to bale Donna's hay.   It started out 'good'.  In the morning Wyatt checked Donna's baler out and everything worked fine.   What?!  Why?

Donna and I went over.  Wyatt thought maybe Donna's ran the tractor's PTO too fast.  Okay...   Wyatt had some hay he hadn't re-baled yet.   Donna ran the baler.  The left knotter re-set perfectly.   Okay, let's go bale Donna's hay.

When we started the baling the left knotter did not reset correctly.   What?!  Why?!!    I cut the twine in the baler and the tied up twine on the left side of the the bale.  Donna re-set / tied the twine on the baler.  We triggered the knotter re-set lever and the left knotter re-set correctly.  We continued on, going slower on the tractor.  Once a bale was made the left knotter re-set correctly.   Then once the next bale was made the left knotter did not re-set correctly.

We tied up the twine on the bale and baler and tried again.  The left knotter re-set.  A bale was made.  Left knotter re-set correctly.  Next bale, the knotter did not re-set.  We continued on.  Donna's daughter and son-in-law were on their way for the four hour journey here with their rented flatbed trailer.  Maybe we can make enough bales by the time they get here.

On and on we slowly went.  As time passed the left knotter would re-set correctly for more bales before failing.  Progress.  Slow progress.   The baler was improving before another disaster hit.   After the left knotter failed I happened to walk around the baler and discovered one baler tire was completely flat.   You've got to be kidding us!

I got a jack and took the baler's tire off and we in to have it repaired.  The tube was shot.  They had a new tube and fixed the tire.  $31.39

By now it was after 1:30 pm.  We were hungry.  I only had a slice of banana bred and a donut for breakfast.  We stopped at a Wendy's restaurant along the way.  The drive through line was long.  We went inside.  The walk-up line was long and service was slow due to a lack of employees.  We left.   We stopped by my house and I picked up a box of my cereal and we went to Donna's house where I ate cereal and Donna's made herself sandwiches.

I put the baler's tire back on and we continued baling.  The instances of the left knotter not re-setting were getting fewer and fewer.  Eventually we were able to go around and around several rows with no problems and made a number of bales.  We had finished the former horse pasture section of hay and moved on to the next field section.   By now Donna's daughter and son-in-law arrived.  We stopped and talked.  Then they went to loading bales onto the flatbed trailer.  By now it was mid-afternoon and Donna's was getting woozy from feeling hot.  So we stopped  and went into Donna's house so she could rest and cool off.

After around an hour we went back out to make more bales.   After making three bales the left knotter failures started up again.  Again every other bale, then every bale.  What?!  Why?!   Donna was getting overheated again and woozy so she went back inside the house.  I fixed the twine on the bale and baler.  The daughter and son-in-law were getting close to picking up all the bales.  Much of the trailer was full of bales, but they could still put more bales on the trailer.

They were disappointed in the baler's failing again.  They were thinking of accepting the amount of bales they had and calling it quits.  I had to convince them of giving the baler a go.  No one knew why the baler's left knotter would not work, then would work, then would not work again.   I thought another set of eyes would see why there was a problem.  Or at least maybe the baler's knotter would start working again after a few more tries.

After seeing the first failure the son-in-law saw difference between the left and right knotter and maybe that was the problem.  So we got some tools and started taking some of the left knotter apart.   While we were doing so Wyatt called Donna to see how things were going.  He had finally got his baler to work consistently and finished making all his bales.  He didn't think what we were doing would fix the left knotter.  He had other ideas.   He said that when he could take a break he would come over to witness the failure.

We put the left knotter back together and made the adjustment Wyatt recommended on the phone.   Now when we tried to re-set the left knotter before making a bale, it would not re-set.  So we backed off on Wyatt's recommended adjustment.  Now we could re-set the knotter.  Then we went on to making a bale.  After the bale was made the left knotter would not re-set automatically.  We were back to re-set, make a bale, then re-set.  Then the knotter re-set correctly after a bale was made.  We are going in the right direction.

Then I noticed the right side of the bale's twine was not tied.  Huh?   We made another bale, left knotter failure and right twine not tied.  As I was tieing both twines to save the bale Wyatt arrived.  I reset the left knotter and we made a bale.  I don't remember if the left knotter worked once the bale was made as I noticed the right twine was not tied.  Wyatt looked and noticed the bil hook on the right side was broken.  How did that happen?  Who knows.   We couldn't make any more bales until the bil hook was replaced.

Wyatt was done baling his hay.  He was busy picking up and stacking his hay but he said we could use his baler to make more bales.   While he drove home to get his baler we parked Donna's baler and started to try to take the broken bil hook out.  Should be easy, right?  No. 

We were still trying to figure out how to get the bil hook out of the bil hook pinion when Wyatt arrived with his baler.  We hooked the baler up to Donna's tractor and went out to making bales.   Wyatt's baler worked.  The daughter drove the tractor and made bales.  The son-in-law went to work finishing loading the trailer.  They planned on driving the four hours home tonight.  They would unload the bales tomorrow morning and would come back to get another load tomorrow.

It was after 8 pm and I had been helping Donna since 9:30 am.  Donna was resting and recuperating.  The son-in-law said he had it under control and said I should go and take care of my things at home.  Rascal had wanted to be outside when I left in the morning, and had been outside all day with no food or water.  I went home and let Rascal into the house to eat and drink.  He was happy I was back home.

I'll see tomorrow how things went after I left.  Hopefully better after a disastrous day.  Maybe they got closer to getting half the field baled.  And maybe we can get the bil hook out and Donna can buy a new one.  Tomorrow's got to be a better day than today.

Donna's hay

It has not been going well for Donna's hay.  It took me three days to cut it.  An extra day because it rained one day when over half the field was cut.   Then yesterday it rained again.  Donna hadn't planned on raking her hay before baling it, but today she spent five hours raking the rows over to make sure they were dry.

Donna has an old baler that makes small square bales.  She doesn't trust her baler.  Last year when she made a few small bales for me from my second cutting, one of the knotters initially wasn't working.  After a few resets and attempts it started working.  When Donna started baling at 5 pm I walked behind her baler to watch the knotters when they tied the twine on a bale and then reset the twine on the knotter.  The first five bales were knotted correctly.  After the fifth bale the left knotter didn't reset properly.  So we had to reset the knotter mechanism.  Then set in motion the knotting sequence.  But the left knotter wouldn't reset.

We tried a number of times.  Failure.  Donna had me run the tractor while she watched the knotter.  Then a bolt sheered on the flywheel.  So we had to figure out how to correctly put the bolt in the flywheel, and figure out why the bolt was sheared.  The flywheel brake was on.  Why was the flywheel brake on?  Because the needles were not fully extended.  I extended the needles and then we were back to why the knotter wasn't being set.

Maybe if I rotated the flywheel by hand it would go slower and we could see what the problem was.  I tried rotating the flywheel by hand but when it was time for the needles to go up and through the hay and to the knotter I couldn't turn the flywheel to get the needles through the hay.

Plan A:  I knew a guy, Larry my neighbor, who knew New Holland balers.  We drove down to talk with him.  He didn't know why the knotter wasn't working.

Plan B: Donna's neighbor has a small baler and Donna planned on hiring him to bale her hay so her daughter can come get the initial bales tomorrow.  We found the neighbor was out of town until this weekend and his wife didn't know how to operate their baler.

Plan C: Just before I went down to help Donna I saw my neighbor Wyatt had started to bale his hay next to my pasture.  Wyatt was busy, but Wyatt knows New Holand balers, and we were desperate.  We went over to ask him a question.   He had baler problems and was back to his garage.   He had ideas of things we could try to figure out the problem.   Wyatt knows he knows more about balers than both Donna and I and he decided to take a few moments and drive over to look at Donna's baler.

He had a crowbar that we could use to rotate the flywheel enough to cause the needles to go through the hay to the knotters.  Wyatt watched as I forced the flywheel to turn.  The needles got the twine to the knotter and it was set.  Why did it start working now?  Who knows.

So Donna and I went back to baling hay.  A bale was made.  The left knotter then was not set.  What?  Donna and I cut the twine and then had the baler try to reset the knotter.  This time it did.  We made another bale.  The knotter was not reset.  What?    We then saw on the bale the twine was tied but not knotted correctly.   We couldn't figure out why that was.

Wyatt was busy with his baling.  But he said he could look at Donna's baler in the morning before the dew dries and he gets back to baling.  So Donna and I took her baler down to Wyatt's place to make it easier for him to look at her baler in the morning.

So we'll see what happens tomorrow.

Calf 14 - Speckle's calf's calf

Sunday when I went out to check on the cattle and move the cows and calves from the middle pasture back to the south pasture, I found a calf in the south pasture had no ear tag.   What?!   Another replacement heifer had a calf.  Haynes, the bull is something else.

The mother is Speckle's calf from last year.  I call her S2: S for Speckles and 2 for the second calf born that year.   Again I didn't expect a replacement heifer to already have a calf.   Of the four replacement heifers, two have had calves already.  One, heifer 60, who had what looked to be afterbirth hanging out of her, must have had afterbirth due to having a calf.   I never saw or found a calf so maybe she had a stillborn calf and the scavengers ate the body before I could find it.   The fourth replacement heifer I don't think will have a calf.  I believe I saw the bull try to breed her a month ago.  But... we'll see.

I don't know when this calf was born.  It was after July 12 when I let the cattle into the south pasture.  I'm sure it wasn't on Sunday.  That calf can move around quick.  And looks to be a decent size.  But again, this is Haynes calf.  His previous calf moved quicker than I expected.

Since the calf can move quick I couldn't catch it to check if it is male or female.  I didn't see any testicles, but I couldn't get close enough to make sure.

So I needed to get the calf and his mother into the corral where I would have a chance to catch it.  The cattle wanted to go into the middle pasture as that is something new for them.  I also left open the gates to the north pasture, and to the corral.  Maybe they would go there. 

The cattle walked to the north pasture gate but most decided not to go through the gate but stay in the middle pasture.  S2 and her calf were near the gate and I was able to herd them through to the north pasture.  I shut the gate and then herded her and her calf to the corral.  Sugar also came along and I had to then herd Sugar out of the corral and back to the middle pasture.

It was now noon.  I was able to catch the calf and check its sex.  It's a boy.  Donna took a break from raking her hay and came over at 2:30 pm to help me with the calf.  I got S2 and the calf into the small part of the loading corral.  Around and around the calf and I went.  I thought I would have to get Ty to help me catch the calf but then the calf stopped for a moment and I was able to catch it.  Then the work began as the calf tried to get away from me.  For a bit I was half crawling and half being drug by the calf.  I laid on the calf and it tried to carry me but I was too heavy for it.  I ended up with my chest against the calf's head and holding his front legs.   I needed to be turned around so I could hold the calf's rear legs.  But I couldn't turn around without the calf getting away.   So Donna decided to see if she could somehow put a band on the calf's testicles.    I don't know how she did it, but she got the testicles banded.

Since I was facing the right direction I could then put the ear tag on the calf.

Done.

Another one of Haynes calves.   They have lots of energy from the get-go and are a handle to hold.  After Donna moves away I don't know how I am going to handle and band Hayne's calves next year.

Wait a minute... no ear tag.... is this a new calf?

You'd think when the calf is drinking from its mother I could get close to see its sex or catch it.  But no, not with this calf.

Newly tagged.   What a beauty.

Cattle jailbreak

I was woken up early (for me!) at 8 am by the sound of the cattle mooing out in the south pasture.  I had to get up and look out the window to see why they were mooing.  I had to get binoculars to see a cow and a calf in the middle pasture.   The other cows were standing at the south and middle pasture fence and mooing as they wanted to be where the other cow and calf were.

Ok.  No danger.  I can go back to sleep.  Later I will go out and 'fix' the problem.  That lasted until 9 am when Donna called me to tell me that Walmart has finally gotten the 30 lb. bags of Meow Mix cat food.  Since I was up again I went outside to check on the cattle.   They had stopped mooing and were laying in the shade in the NE corner of the south pasture.

When I walked out there I then noticed some cattle laying in the shade in the SE corner of the middle pasture.  Several cows and three calves.  I opened the gate and herded them back into the south pasture to be with the other cattle.

Then I walked the fence.  The river level is dropping but I still think it is too high for the cattle to walk upstream to get to the middle pasture, especially the calves.  I checked the fence.   Nothing broken, no problems.  So, did the cows and calves walk upstream?  How did the cows and calves get into the middle pasture?  Who knows!

Cows and calves in the middle pasture.

This is the calf 11.  He still insists on rubbing his head against my legs.

Calves in the south pasture.  They are growing big.

Lightning Picasso.

Here is the river the cattle would have had to walk up to cross pastures.  The river is deeper than it looks. The geese are relaxing in the sun on the bank.

Once I was done with the cattle I went to Walmart to get the 30 lb. bag of cat food for Rascal. While there my neighbor Ty saw me. I then asked Ty for help. Earlier I had asked my neighbor Curtis for help.  But he said it was his Sabath and he wanted to practice his religion.  My neighbor Jan had called me late yesterday and told me a dead deer was laying in her yard along the road. Someone must have hit the buck and killed it. It was starting to bloat.  Jan wanted me to do something about the deer.   I decided to haul it out to one of my pastures.  That way the scavengers will eat it up and take care of it.   Along the road they tend to not take care of dead carcasses.  Too much traffic goes by.  I got Ty to help me lift the deer into my pickup so I could haul it away.  After my skull fracture most of my sense of smell is gone.  But not completely.  I could smell the dead deer.  Not as much as Ty did, but I still could smell it somewhat.

And more happened today.  More on that in the next post.

Cutting Donna's hayfield

I have spent the past three days cutting Donna's hayfield.  Usually it should take me only a day to cut her field, but this year she also fertilized the newer sections of her hayfield and the grass grew tall and thick.  Donna is waiting her daughter and son-in-law to help her bale her field so that is why she waited until now for me to cut her field, and not earlier.   So her grass grew taller than my grass.

Since Donna no longer has horses, a few years ago she replanted much of the horses' area.  That was fertilized.  A number of years earlier she replanted an area next to the horses' former area.  That was fertilized.  Then last year she replanted a small section of the rest of her field.  That was fertilized.   The rest of the field is old grass that doesn't grow tall.  That was not fertilized.   Much of this shorter grass is hard for my haybine to cut.  That is because the grass is short enough to just want to lay on my haybine's bed, and not easily reach the back end opening or the roller to be pulled through.  That interferes with the cutting teeth/blades and makes it harder to easily cut the rest of the shorter grass.  I had to stop often to clean the grass off the bed.  Last year I only cut a small section of this area as it got too annoying to cut and would leave uncut grass standing.  So two years of this grass made it a little easier to cut this year, but it still was a pain.

And some areas of Donna's two newer replanted area had some "angel hair' like grass.  It is not really 'angel hair' grass as it is not featherily, but it is the best I can describe the grass as it is very thin.  Very thin grass, but dense.   The haybine would cut it, but it was hard to move it across and off my haybine's bed by the haybine's flywheel.  Often I would have to manually remove this 'angel hair' grass when it built up too much on the haybine's bed.

Also causing problems were the many pocket gopher mounds in Donna's field.  The dirt would end up on the haybine's bed, and after a while would make it harder for the cutting teeth/blades to cut the grass, and the dirt would have to be cleaned off the bed.

So it should have been a two day job this year.  Oh.. but wait.  On the second day, after Donna and I replaced a broken haybine tooth and before I could start cutting that day, it began to rain.   Rain was not in the forecast at all.   But it rained.  So instead of starting to cut at 1 pm, I didn't start cutting until 6 pm, after the grass had dried.  And I could only cut until a little after 9 pm when the dew began to form on the grass.

This afternoon I finished the cutting.   Afterwards I used Donna's pressure washer to clean off the haybine and tractor.

So I am done with Donna's field.  Donna's daughter and son-in-law are planning to come and help Donna bale the hay this week.  They want small hay bales and Donna has an old-fashioned baler that makes small bales. They will also collect the bales and haul them back to their place to feed their horses.  We'll see how this goes as now there is rain in the forecast on Monday.  Ugh.

To the right is the horses' former pasture.  To the left is the replanted area next to the horses' pasture.

Donna has different grass than I have.  Her grass seeded out but was not full of pollen like my grass was.  So I didn't have any pollen allergies or attacks from her grass.

Still cutting the area next to the horses' former pasture.  The grass was very tall.

Here is a photo of the shorter grass section of Donna's hayfield.

Here are two photos of Donna's neighbor's field.  I think he planted canola.

Irrigation pump packing

Now that I have my hayfield cut it is time to irrigate for a second cutting.   I haven't started yet.  The ground still has moisture from all that rain we had in June.  So the hayfield is growing.  Therefore I can take my time setting out all the pipes.

Now I have been planning the past few years of getting aluminum pipes to replace the mainline steel pipes I set out in the hayfield.  I'm getting older and the 61 pound steel pipes are getting heavier.   This and that has got me off track of getting the replacing done.  My four inch steel pipes have three inch valves.  So my valve opener is a 3 by 3 opener.  Guess what.  Not common.  Four inch pipes usually have four inch valves.  The openers then are a 4 by 3 opener.  My irrigation guy hasn't found three inch valves on a four inch pipe.   This Spring I spoke with him again.  Still didn't find any.  But he had some used four inch aluminum pipes with four inch valves, and a 4 by 3 valve opener.   He figured it would be cheaper than trying to buy valves to attach to my aluminum pipe.

So I decided to go that route.  When I had talked with the irrigation guy it was at his day job.  Later when I showed up at his house I found he didn't have enough used aluminum pipes with valves.  I needed ten pipes.

So I went searching at the company I had bought replacement gaskets for my steel pipe.  I think I found three inch valves on a four inch pipe listed in their catalog.  But the price is $160 for each valve.   Ten valves is $1600.   Hmmm... let me think about it.   This year I am back to using my steel pipes.

In the meantime Donna suggested I should check on my irrigation pump to see if I need to replace or add packing around the pump's shaft.  It has been 6 years since I had the packing replaced in the pump.   I checked.  It was hard to check as I needed to use a mirror and flashlight to look at where the packing goes.   It appeared I needed packing.  I don't want to ruin the shaft due to a lack of packing.   The business I had do my re-packing and pump maintenance in 2016 suggested I bring in my pump.  Umm.... that is a major job for me, and also I plan to start irrigating soon.  So I got one ring of packing from them.

I put the ring of packing in the pump and it was the right amount.  Now to see if I did it correctly when I start my pump later.

This is where the packing goes.  I already had taken off the piece that holds the packing in place.  One tightens the piece over time to squeeze the packing in tighter.   Otherwise the pump won't start pumping water.

The piece used to hold and tighten the packing.  And the ring of packing material I got and placed in the pump.

Everything reattached and the pump should be ready to go.

Cattle into the south pasture

I mentioned in the previous post how I finished the tree stump removal in the south pasture.    After I did so, I then opened the gate to let the cattle come into the pasture.

The gate is opened to the south pasture.   You can see the grass is very tall.  The previous day Donna walked through this area and only her head and shoulders were above the grass.  I didn't have my camera with me otherwise I would have taken a photo of her in the grass.

The cattle saw me open the south / middle pasture gate and they came to the north /middle pasture gate and waited for me.

Speckles and Little Red

I opened the north / middle pasture gate and the cattle are coming through it.

Mama

Here are some of the calves.  The smallest calf is calf 13, the last one born.  You can see how the other calves have grown since they were born.

Two of the replacement heifers just wanted to eat in the middle pasture and not follow the other cattle over to the south pasture.  I encouraged them to move along.

Finally into the south pasture.

I had trapped all the pocket gophers in the south pasture before I plan to let the cattle into that pasture. Of course the day I filled the dirt back into the tree stump hole I happened to find two pocket gopher dirt mounds. One in an area of tall grass where I could have missed the mounds earlier. The second dirt mound was in an area where I earlier trapped a pocket gopher. Apparently a pocket gopher realized that area was now free and it could move into it. Since the cattle like to knock over my milk jug and pole markers, and sometimes step on and break the trap, I will wait for a while. I have pocket gophers to trap in the hayfield as some moved in after I trapped the others earlier this Spring. I am up to 25 pocket gophers trapped so far this year.

South pasture stump removed

Today I finally finished the removal of the tree stump in the south pasture.  The removal has been a priority as I want to put the cattle in this pasture.

This is a stump where the cattle broke off the above ground part of the stump last Fall.

I dug around the stump on May 15.

Last week I tried to chainsaw the stump to remove it.  As you can see, not much was removed using a chainsaw.

Time for a bonfire to get rid of the stump.

Here is what remained the next day.  This is one solid stump.  I took an axe to the stump in case the fire weakened the stump and made it brittle.  Nope.  You can see what remained under the charred surface.  The axe would sink into the stump and I would have to pull the axe back out. 

Time for another fire since the stump was still warm.  More axe work.  More to do.  I redid several more fires during the day to get the stump burning.

In the evening, since the stump was still solidly there, I had another larger bonfire.  Maybe this will get rid of the stump.

Well, much of the stump is gone, but more needs to go.  The axe wouldn't chop this remaining section.  You'd think it wouldn't be solid now.  But it was.   Time for another small fire.  The green stuff was weeds I tossed in there.

The next day, the stump is mostly gone.  There is some stump under the ashes, and the ashes were hot as the stump was still smoldering.  I had to wait a few more days for the ashes to start to cool down.

Today the ashes were still a little warm, but no smoldering was going on.  It's been long and hard to get rid of this stump.  It is time to let the cattle into the pasture.  So time to put the dirt back in the hole.   As the cattle hadn't been in this pasture yet, and haven't molested and flattened and hardened the dirt, it was easier to get the dirt back into the hole.    The small pile of wood were the parts of the stump I was able to chainsaw off the stump.  Those pieces are solid so I didn't toss them on the bonfire.

To stop the cattle from rubbing in the loose dirt and creating a 'pothole', I place some boards on that I plan to use in my wood stove this Winter.  I had a pile of branches in this pasture which I used part of to have my bonfire.  The larger pieces I kept, and burnt the small pieces. 

Here is the pile of branches I got stuff from to have the bonfires.

Here is what was left after my bonfires.  I moved the pile of cut branches on the right over to be on top of the loose dirt where the stump formerly was located.   I will use the remaining stuff on a later bonfire to get rid of a few more stumps.  Then this pile of branches will be gone, and this will be one less thing I have to go around when I harrow my pastures in the Spring.

Time to let the cattle into this pasture to eat the grass down.