Rail fence wired

Today I finally finished adding wire to my newly built rail fence.   The rail fence is good, but the cattle could stick their head through the rails to eat the grass on the other side.  If so, the rails won't last.  So I have been cutting sections from my pile of wire mesh sheets (remesh sheets).  

I had made the fence rails 3 feet wide.  The fence sections are 8 feet wide.  The mesh sheets are 8 feet wide and 20 feet long.  I got 6 fence sections from each sheet.    I had 40 sections of rail fence.

Now this took some time.  But not an overlong time.  If this was Summer with many hours of daylight I could have gotten the job done in a day or two.    But since this is the shortest time of daylight, and I had a few other things to do over the days, this job took me almost three weeks.   A little done here, a little done there.

But I am done.  And this should make my fence last against the cattle's behavior.

Now on to other things.

Frost

I woke up to a very frosty and foggy day.  It was like this all day.

One of the cherry trees.

The other cherry tree.   Every year this tree gets smaller.  Next year I will take the time and get rid of the tree.

The apple trees.

This apple tree is also getting smaller each year.

The apricot tree in front.  The buffalo trees in the back.

The pear tree.

The box elder trees I trimmed this Fall.

The lilac bushes.

Female box elder tree.

Female box elder tree by the house.  I would prefer this tree to be somewhere else other than south of the house as the seeds don't drop until Spring.   In the meantime it is very shady.  Not needed in the Winter when sunlight means warmth.

Male box elder tree by the house.  Not as shady.

Don't remember the name of this shrub.

Piece of grass the cattle missed.

Haynes pushing again

Haynes... Haynes... Haynes.   

Once again Haynes tried to get a metal feeder into the river.   Even though I am placing the feeders further from the river when feeding hay, once the hay was all eaten Haynes pushed this feeder a long way.   This pasture is mostly fenced along the river.  Haynes didn't quite get the feeder over to the open area where the cattle walk down to the river.  He pushed the feeder into a fence.  He broke one wooden fence post.  That post will have to replaced next Spring after the ground thaws.  For now the barb wires are holding the post upright.

I spent some time and effort getting the feeder away from the fence as this section of the fence is partway down the bank.   I didn't have the tractor so it was muscle effort to move the feeder.  It is harder for me to move the feeder than it is for Haynes.   After some sweat on a cold day I got the feeder moved; and I moved it over to an area where the feeder had been in the past when the temperature was warmer, the ground not frozen, and the cattle's hooves impacted the ground.  The broken-up ground should make it hard for Haynes to move the feeder until the next time I put a large hay bale into it.

Water witch

Donna is a witch.  

Donna's daughter and her husband are moving back to the Valley and are buying a house.  The house is near the top of a hill/mountain 700 feet higher in elevation than where I live.  A nice house with nice views.  At least what I could see of the views as it was a foggy day with inversions.

The house shares a water well with a neighbor some distance away.  The daughter and her husband are considering drilling their own well.   We'll see as I'm sure the water is some distance way underground.

Donna has the ability to find water underground.   She had located a spot to drill a well on her property, and has found water for other people.  The daughter's husband found a long wire for Donna to use.  I was able to break the wire in half.   With each piece of the wire in each hand Donna started to walk the property to find water.

Since the property is up high, and is not flat, she had to do some walking.  Finally she found where water could be.  The wire in her left hand turned when she got closer to water.   She then walked from multiple directions and each time at that point the wire would turn in her hand.  So I found a large rock to mark the spot.

We don't know how deep the water is.  The daughter's husband said they plan to hire a hydrologist to also search for water.  But they will start at where I placed the rock. 

I wish I had my camera with me as I would have taken photos and a video of Donna doing her magic.

Cactus flowers

It's that time of year again.  Time for my cactus plant to flower.

Haynes pushing things

Haynes... Haynes... Haynes....  stop it!

The ladies don't need Haynes loving right now so he must be frustrated.  This morning, when I let cattle into the corral to eat a small hay bale, I found the salt feeder flipped over and moved.  Haynes is back to flipping the feeder.  I'll have to remember and make it a priority to wire the feeder to the metal posts.

Later when I went out to put a large hay bale in the middle pasture I found the metal feeder was moved quite a distance away.  After Haynes had pushed the metal feeder close to the river the last time, I put the next hay bale further away.  This time Haynes didn't push the feeder to that spot even though it was closer than where he had pushed the feeder to this time.  I guess Haynes figured out that he couldn't make the feeder go into the river at that spot, so he chose another spot.   Haynes got the feeder partially down the riverbank until a tree stopped the feeder.  *sigh*    Haynes... Haynes... Haynes!

So I put the hay bale and feeder further from the river.  But who knows.  Haynes can really push the large and heavy metal feeder a long distance.

Before Haynes had pushed the feeder the second time, a few days ago I discovered he had pushed lots of boards and logs around that I had stacked under a large evergreen tree near the river.  I have boards and logs stacked under this tree for a few years now and they were never pushed about before.  One log was pushed down the old riverbank.  The good news is that this area still has some area before one reaches the river.  So the log didn't make it to the river before Haynes quit pushing it.  I had to restack all the old boards and logs.

The second metal feeder push was over and close to this area.  I guess Haynes figured that since he was able to get the log down the old riverbank, he could get the feeder down there also.   After I pulled out the metal feeder from the one tree I then found two logs from the other tree against the one tree.  Haynes apparently pushed the logs there before he pushed the feeder.

When I let the cattle out of the corral to go to the new hay bale I walked alongside them to make sure they would go to the middle pasture and not the feeder in the north pasture. It is best when Panda leads the cows as she knows where to go as she is somewhat smart.  Panda wasn't leading this time. Haynes and a cow were in the lead.  For a moment it appeared the leaders were going to turn towards the north feeder.  As I walked closer to get the cattle to go to the middle pasture Haynes turned to me.  He then put his head down and up and began 'hopping' towards me.  I moved back and towards the other cows and yelled at Haynes to knock it off.  He did.  He stopped and turned around and rejoined the cows walking to the middle pasture.  Haynes is mostly friendly, but one should never trust a bull.  They can get into a mood.

This evening I talked with a neighbor, Mrs. Foster. Her son has a few cows and a bull.   The bull was nice and gentle over the years.  But this year, after being separated from the cows, the bull started to get annoyed and aggressive.  He sold the bull and is looking for a new bull.

Roadside fence now rebuilt

Yesterday I finished the fence rebuild along the road.   It was a very nice day.  Warm.  Calm wind.  The snow we had earlier this week melted overnight.  I got on a roll and didn't stop.   The forecast is for snow and colder temperatures this weekend and next week.  I wanted to get the fence rebuild finished before something else takes my time and the cold kicks in and the ground refreezes.  It's December after all.

Late afternoon the day before I did preparation.  I found three rails and three fence posts and took them to the area.  With the warmer temperatures the ground is not as frozen.  The top was still hard but I could break through with a post hole digger and not have to use an iron bar to break though.  I got the three posts in place and installing the three rails then went smooth.  Usually on a good day that is all that gets done, but I had plenty of time left.

The three rails were 16 ft long.  I then had to find rails that would cover the 10 ft 4 inch section that was left.   And I did find three in my pile of wood.  I only had to cut a couple of inches off two of the rails.  It was a little surprising to find rails of this length.

I got the last rails installed and still had daylight and time to do something else.  Today I got three of the long strands of barb wire rolled up and put away.  I'll do the fourth strand tomorrow.   What is left for fence work is a little corner work, then to place wire 'fencing' on the fence.  I don't want the cattle to put their heads through the fence.  With their weight and strength (Haynes!) they maybe can break the rails.  I don't want to risk it.   I got two pieces of wire sections/panels from the pasture and drug them to the fruit tree area so I can work on cutting them to fit on the fence.   At least now, if the ground is frozen, I can still work on the fence as I have no more posts to dig.

The entire fence along the road.

Now I can breathe easier when the cattle are in the fruit tree area.

Metal feeder moved

I put out another large hay bale this afternoon into the north pasture.  Looking over at the other feeder in the middle pasture I seen it had been pushed towards the river.  It wasn't all the way to the river thankfully, but I wasn't thrilled at where it was.   Haynes... Haynes... Haynes.  Stop pushing the feeder around when the hay has been eaten.  I had to use a chain and my tractor to pull the feeder back up to a safe area.

The feeder formerly was in the snow-free area close to the trees.  The snow-free circles closer were where I had placed a few handfuls of hay so all the cattle could eat at the same time.   So Haynes pushed the feeder some distance.

More roadside fence rebuild

Yesterday I completed another section of the fence rebuild along the road.   With the recent snow or rain or cold it takes longer than one day to rebuild a section of the fence.  Almost a week this time.

I am done with the rails I got from Curtis.  He hasn't gotten anymore.  I still have a section of the fence to rebuild.  The three rails left from my driveway rebuild is not enough.   Then, when getting some wooden posts, I noticed/remembered I had some long rails.

Years ago when organizing my 'stuff' (crap I should get rid of according to Donna), I had stacked some rails and long boards on my second wooden feeder.  I forgot I had them. The standing boards/poles I had taken off the pile before I remembered to get my camera to take the photos.

In the background are my wooden posts.  I have plenty.  Years ago I had taken down barb wire fences from several people who replaced their fences with the white vinyl fencing.  They had horses, not cattle.  Vinyl fences are useless for cattle (and an ugly joke to me) as the cattle can break them easily.  For taking down their barb wire fences they gave their wire and posts to me.   I still have some barb wire wrapped around the wheel rim in the photo.

I have enough rails to finish the fence rebuild by the road.

Here are the three rails I just installed.   Well, two rails and a "rail-y type' of long pole.  The long pole works as the top rail on the fence.

The section I just rebuilt.  Second photo shows what is left to rebuild.  I have 26 feet left to rebuild.

Snow again

This morning I woke up to snow.  Not much.  Maybe an inch.   The snow quit by afternoon.  It returned after dark.  Snow is in the forecast for the next day or two, then it will turn to rain.  Other than sweeping snow off the driveway, nothing got done today.

Yesterday I knew snow was in the forecast so I chopped the top of the frozen ground and then dug two holes for fence posts, which I put into the ground.  The weather forecast predicts above freezing temperatures next week, but this time of the year I don't count on that.  When the snow quits at least I can install a few more fence rails.

Fence rebuild along the road: short rails

No recent posts about my fence rebuild along the road, but I've been working on the rebuild.  I didn't want to make posts about each section rebuilt as that would get old/boring.  But I got the short rails sections done, so time for a post about it.

These short rails I got from my neighbor Curtis.  These rails are made by a local company that has very old - old - equipment.  I often ride my bicycle by the place when I ride to town.  I should take my camera along some time and take a picture of their cutting equipment as it is outside under a roof.  It is different.

Anyway, they have rejects.  Curtis was able to talk them into selling him a couple bundles of the rejects, and Curtis cuts them up to use as firewood in the large wood stove that he uses to heat his building.  Last month while he was cutting up his last bundle I saw some of the rails that looked decent enough to use as fence rails.  The rails are not perfect and some have cracks in them.  I wouldn't buy any of these rails.  But they are good enough to use as rails in some of my fencing.

Initially I just wanted three rails as I thought they would be good to use where my fruit tree area fence meets up to my NE pasture fence.  My other rails are 16 ft long and where the two fences meet needed a rail much less than 16 ft.   Curtis's rails are 8 ft. 9 inches long.  I later learned the last section where the two fences meet was a little under 6 ft.   So both type of rails were too long.  I didn't want to cut any rails so I went with the 16 ft rails as they looked better going past where the two fences meet.   Having a rail go only 3 ft past looked off.  10 ft looks okay.

When going through Curtis's bundle I found 18 rails that seemed decent.  I gave Curis some of my logs in exchange for the rails as Curtis preferred that instead of money. 

18 rails... I had enough rails for 6 fence sections.  Not enough rails for a complete fence section.  Okay, what to do with them?  I decided to put the rails on part of the fence rebuild along the road.  I had already used three 16 ft rails for the fence from the south end.  I will use the 8 ft rails for the fence rebuild from the north.  What the heck.  It may not be perfect but I will have less of the old barb wire fence along the road.

It should be easy and quick to rebuild these fence sections.  But no.  The days are getting shorter and colder.  The inversions - as you can see in the last photo - settled in.  To dig a hole for the last number of posts meant I had to use an iron bar to break the frozen ground initially.   No frost at the start, then an inch of frost, then two inches, then three inches.  Once I got past the frost I could use a post hole digger to dig the rest of the hole.

Here are the Curtis rails sections.   Dang, they only made it about halfway across.  Oh well, better than nothing.

Donna's fence

A few or more years ago Donna's daughter got a place and took possession of her horses. Since she didn't have any more horses, over the years Donna worked on taking down her fence for the horses.  Fortunately Donna kept the posts and the barbless wire.

Donna's daughter and husband are planning to move back to the Kalispell area, and found a place they are interested in buying.  The property is not fenced.  Lots to do when one is moving.  And moving horses is even more work.  I told Donna she should re-fence her property in case the daughter moves before she can fence her new property.  Well... Donna decided that was a good idea.

This afternoon I brought my metal fence post pounder and I pounded back into the ground quite a number of posts.   Flathead Valley has been stuck in a strong inversion for almost a week and the temperatures do not get above freezing.  So the ground is freezing up.  It is frozen two to three inches down.  Better to do the fencing now, and not several months from now, if and when the daughter moves.  The ground will be more frozen then.   A little more effort to pound the posts into the ground today, but I got it done.

We left rolls of the barbless wire along the fence line.  Donna said she will install the barbless wire over the next few days.

Barbless wire