Trimming Donna's trees

I helped Donna trim some of her trees the past three days.  Some of the trees that have branches over her driveway were getting low enough, as they were starting to grow downwards, that the UPS and FedEx trucks couldn't drive down her driveway.

So I got an extension ladder and climbed up to trim some of the branches.  Sometimes I had to put the extension ladder in the bed of my pickup to reach a branch.  One time as the cut end of the branch fell off the remaining branch rose higher.  Fortunately the ladder was high enough that the branch did not go above the ladder.  But it was closer than what I wanted.

Me and a saw trimming tree branches...  once I get started, I don't want to stop.  I also trimmed some low branches to make her lawn mowing easier. And the tree blocking light from her kitchen window.  I also trimmed a few branches that grew over the top of her arborvitae trees/shrubs.  Those were long and big branches and tonight I spent time trimming those fallen branches in order to get them out of the arborvitae trees/shrubs as last night I couldn't pull the fallen branches out of the arborvitae.

A couple hours on Saturday.  Three hours on Sunday.  A couple hours plus tonight.  Donna has a flatbed trailer she can pull behind her tractor.  Tonight, since I was done trimming branches, I helped load branches on the second load.  And then unload the branches onto her burn pile.  Donna now has a massive burn pile.  It was getting dark so I didn't get a photo of her tall burn pile.

I ended up breaking one of my saws.

Here is one of the branches that grew over and into the arborvitae.  The photo was taken after I trimmed most of the fallen branch in the arborvitae.  The fallen brnch was much longer and had "v"'d out so I couldn't pull it out of the arborvitae until I cut off all of the "v" sections.

Donna's dog, Rusty, 'helped' us.  Whenever I was kneeling on the ground to cut up a fallen branch Rusty would come and try to sit on my lap or legs and get petting from me.  And if I was cutting a branch up in the air I would have to make sure he wasn't standing underneath me and the branch.

Sprinklers put away for the year

Today I got the last of my sprinkler irrigation pipes put away and re-stacked.  I moved a sprinkler line on different days to avoid moving them all at once.

Prior to putting the pipes away, one day when I brought a bag of apples out to the cattle in the south pasture, number 8 got so excited at me coming with a bag of apples that she ran over to me.  Instead of stepping over the pipe like the cattle usually do, in her excitement she stepped on a pipe flattening it slightly.  I can't get the bend out.  Fortunately the pipe still works fine.

When I put the second sprinkler line away I discovered a riser had been broken off the pipe.  Most likely Haynes as he likes to rub his head against things.  Fortunately the end of the pipe and the riser are metal/steel and not aluminum like the rest of the pipe.   Curtis was able to weld the riser back on to the pipe for me.  He does a great job, even when the metal is thin.

The other day I noticed the former part of a tree stump was moved away from where I store it.  The second photo is when I put the tree stump back to where I store it.   Again, I think Haynes was 'playing' with the tree stump.

Grass pods?

When I was working on protecting the willow trees in the middle pasture I came across these.  I don't know what they are, and don't remember ever seeing them before.

This is the grass I found the pods growing on.   I took a photo of them.  I moved on to other things and left / forgot them there.   The next day when I finished protecting the last tree /shrub from the cattle I went back to get the pods.  The cattle had already found them and ate them.   Nothing gets past my cattle.

Willow tree beaver protection

For the past month, now that the river water level is low, I have spent time, a little time here-and-there, working on protecting the willow trees growing next to the river.  I was also moving irrigation pipes, doing the second hay cutting, and avoiding the heat.  An hour here, an hour there, several hours here and there.  I slowly got the work done and today I finished the work.  Now the trees should be protected from the beavers.

Here are the photos.

First three willow trees.  The beaver got to these trees before I started the protection work.

See the dark 'fencing'?  The fencing above that dark section was kind-of open or larger.  The beaver found it, reached through and nipped a few more branches.  I had to add some extra wiring to close the opening.

Here are the next two tree trees I protected.   Before and after.

Three weeks later you can see how the one willow tree is growing again and is filling the new fenced area.

Willow tree 3.  I had protected this tree from the beavers last year after the beavers got to this tree.  So this year I only had to trim some of the lower new branches.

Willow tree 4.   The old fencing wrapped the tree trunk. The beaver had climbed the wire and trunk and chewed off the top of the trunk and a number of the branches.  This new wire fence should prevent the beaver from reaching the trunk.

Willow trees 5 and 6.

Willow tree 7.  Another one I had protected last year.  I trimmed a few lower branches and enhanced the fencing.

Willow tree 8.  Another tree I had protected last year after the beaver got to it.   I trimmed it up removing new lower branches.  I also did a little fence work.  Last year I had added the 'cage' fencing around the wire fencing wrapping the tree.  This year I removed the wire fencing wrapping the tree as it was starting to constrict/cut into the trunk in a few spots.

Here are a few photos of some of the willow trees I had protected in the north pasture.  The cattle would love to eat the willow leaves.  I had previously put-up tall wire fencing to protect the trees from the cattle.  It works.  But the cattle eat the leaves that grow through the wire fence and push on the wire, as you can see some of the metal posts are leaning.

Then I noticed a few willow trees growing in the middle pasture.  They are so short due to the beavers that they were hidden in the tall grass.  Well, until a cow got into this area and ate some of the grass down.  Then I re-noticed the willow trees.  There are 4 willow trees.  Two pairs of them.  That is how they grew.

Before and after.  There is wire fencing in the after photo.  It just doesn't show up well in the photo.

Before and after.

Then I worked on this unknown tree / shrub in the middle pasture.  Many, many years ago I bought this tree / shrub at a tree sale.  Why I planted it here, I don't remember.  But then I learned the cattle would want to eat the leaves.  So I put a fence around it.  As the years went by the tree / shrub grew and filled the fencing.  It was on my to-do list for a few years now to re-fence the tree / shrub.  I finally did it yesterday and today.  Yesterday I got the main fence up.  But the fence was chest height and needed to be taller to protect the tree / shrub from the cattle.  It was getting dark so I put it off until this afternoon.  Yup, the cattle had found I had changed the fencing.  They pushed it down on one side and at some of the leaves.  Well, now the fencing is higher than me.

Haynes' hair

I have noticed lately that Haynes now has a hairdo.  He got a perm?        He never had curly-like hair on his head before.

Hayfield. Weeds.

Here are a few photos taken today of the hayfield.  While it rained almost an inch the past few days, things are still brown in the Valley.  Except where I had irrigated.  It looks much greener than what the photos show.

Also, while I moved irrigation pipes in the pasture I also pulled weeds and removed weed seeds. So those are mostly gone, or at least nowhere near the seed state.  Yesterday I got bull thistle seeds from the field across the road.  Over the Summer I off-and-on spent some time removing bull thistle weeds and seeds from that field.  But the thistle keeps growing and trying to make seeds.

The latest seeds I removed.

Protecting the hay bales

We had breaks from the rain today.  Outside the hay bale stack I saw deer hoof prints in the wet dirt in front of the hay bales.  I do plan on letting the cattle into the NE pasture in a few days.  So I put up some temporary corral panels to block access to the hay bales.

Hay bales stacked

Once again Donna was right.  She said I needed now to get my hay bales into the hayshed as we were going to get a lot of rain today.  This morning I finished moving my irrigation pipes at 8:50 am.  No rain yet.  I immediately started on my hay bales.

First off was to remove last year's bales from the hayshed.  That was done by 9:50 am.  Then I went and got my 30 bales from the hayfield.  I finished that at 12:15 pm.   As I put the last hayfield bale into the hayshed it began to sprinkle.

I got last year's bales back into the hayshed and finished at 1:15 pm.  As I did it began to sprinkle harder.  We got .01 inch of rain by then.  Not much rain considering we got 3/4 of an inch of rain the rest of the day.

I had breakfast and then at 2 pm I went back to bed.  I slept until 7:30 pm.  I got up and went out in the rain to turn off my irrigation pump since we had got enough rain.  I have three valves left before I had planned on stopping irrigation.  With this much rain, I may stop now.  I'll see how things look in a few days.

So happy to be done with hay cutting and baling for the year.  And to possibly be done with irrigation also.  Now on to the other projects I want to get done and had to put off due to the hay work and irrigation work.

Last year's bales.

Here you can see the difference in this year's bales and last year's bales.

Bales all stacked.  About a row and a half outside the hayshed.   If you look above the hay bales ad towards the rafters, you can see a few streaks of rain.

Photo taken in the evening after 3/4 inch of rain.