Second trip to the livestock auction

 Today I made the second trip to the livestock auction.  Donna and I started loading the calves at 6:30 am. 

It was dark. I turned the barn light on.  I wore the headlamp Donna had given me a few years ago.  Donna brought her headlamp but then found that the battery was dead.  I could find the calves in the loading corral as their eyes shined in the light. 

It was a little slow going as the calves didn't want to go down the runway to the trailer.  Then after the first few got into the trailer they turned around and wanted to come back out.

 At one point the red steer, who was in the narrow part of the runway, tried to turn around.  He was in a U-turn position and got stuck.  To get him out of the position I had to help him turn around.  Then I had to let him and the rest of the calves out to the back of the runway where it was larger so everyone could turn around.  Then we went back again to get into the trailer.

Calves in the trailer were trying to get out.  So in the trailer I got the calves to the front half then closed the gate.  It was an effort to close the gate.  I found out later that 5 of the calves, not 4, were in the front half. So they were packed in tight.  Now, not having to prevent the calves from coming out, we were able to get the last 4 calves into the trailer.  The trailer was full.  I could not fit anymore calves into the trailer.  Fortunately I did not have any more calves.

Donna slid the trailer door shut.  I climbed out of the corral, then drove the pickup and trailer out a bit so I could put a belt/strap across the back of the trailer. 

We left at 7:15 am.  We had a good drive to the auction in Missoula.  We got there by 9:40 am.  When it came time to unload the calves I discovered that the trailer's back sliding door was partly open.  Good thing I had put the belt/strap across the back of the trailer!   The reason the door slid sideways was that neither Donna or I had slid the bolt to hold the door in place.  Yikes!  This could have been bad.

The cow I had brought to the auction yesterday has a brand.   She is one of the few cows left that I had bought.  The rest of the cows I have are/were my replacement heifers.   Cows with brands need paperwork.   I had paperwork when I bought the cow back in 2016.  But they felt the paperwork wasn't enough or correct.  I was told the cow has 2 brands.  Two?  I only saw one; and the paperwork only has one listed.  And one of the brands wasn't in their list of brands.  They wanted more paperwork.  I still have the previous owner's paperwork from when they bought the cow.  I hope that is enough.  What a pain.

When we got back home I looked in the hayfield to see the cattle.  I couldn't see any.  What?  They have been in the hayfield constantly other than going to the river to drink.  I looked and looked.  No cattle.  Did they take off to go find their calves?  Finally one stood up and I could see where they were.  They were in the far corner of the hayfield laying in the shade. It can be hard to see black cattle laying in the shade.

Without the calves the ranch seems different.  Empty and quiet.

Flathead Lake on the drive home.

Here is the bolt that wasn't put in place after the door was slid shut.

This was about how far the door slid sideways.

Once home I used Donna's pressure washer to clean the manure from the trailer.  It seems as if not everyone keeps a clean stock trailer.  I want to buy a larger stock trailer.  Which would be a 5th wheel trailer.  In the auction parking lot trailers of other buyers were sitting there.  Donna and I looked at some of them.  I looked inside the trailers as I wanted to see what their floors looked like.  They were all covered in manure.  One trailer's manure was dried and curled in a few sheets of manure.

After I cleaned the trailer I saw the floor boards had shrunk.  Here is the board I had cut narrower so it could just fit.  Now there is a small gap.

The trailer mats are also cleaned.

Later in the afternoon I went for a bicycle ride.  I hadn't been riding this week, and with the two days of sitting during the drive, my waist and hips tightened up and got sore.  It was hard for me to bend over and pick stuff up off the ground. Getting old sucks.  During my bicycle ride I found an identical (other than the color) belt/strap I had used to fasten the trailer back door.   That's a coincidence.