Aloe vera plant flowering

It is that time of year for my aloe vera plant.  It is now flowering.   Donna also has an aloe vera plant. Her plant started flowering weeks ago.

My aloe vera plant.

Cattle

The cows seem to be no longer fighting with Fritz.  But this morning I seen Fritz standing near the feeder but by himself.

Here is a cow next to the feeder.

The heifers are now being weaned.   They are two months older than the other heifers that were weaned this year, and these heifers are not making as much of a fuss.  But they still do cry out for their mothers occasionally as seen below.   The mothers look over at the heifers but they are not crying out like the other mothers did two months ago.  These mothers probably are glad they no longer have to feed their kids. 

Snow curl

This past week we got more snow than the weather forecast predicted.   Yesterday and today we were above freezing and the snow is sliding off the metal roofs.

Fritz now with the cows

Today I let Fritz out of the south corral so he can be with the cows in the north pasture after I put out a large hay bale in the north pasture.  The cows were already eating at the hay bale.  Fritz slowly came out of the corral checking things as he went.   After he joined the cows the action began.  The cows have seen him though the corral fence and know of him.  But some cows didn't want him near them, and certainly not next to them eating from the hay bale.  A lot of head-to-head pushing.   While Fritz is a bull, the cows are bigger.  Therefore they could push him back.   Other cows ignored him and just wanted to eat hay.  It was getting dark at the time.  I'll see tomorrow how they are interacting.  Hopefully the cows will get it out of their system and accept Fritz to their group.

The previous bulls I had were accepted right away.  But then, they were larger than Fritz.  The last time I got a cow, Sugar and her calf, it took a long while for the cows to accept a newcomer.   And tragedy happened when I believe some cows pushed the heifer into the river during a cold snap the frost Winter.   The heifer froze and drowned as it could not get back onto the shore.   That should not happen again as I changed/made improvements to that drinking spot at the river.

Fritz leaving the corral to join the cows at the hay bale.

Fritz is in the middle between two cows.

By now Fritz didn't want to push against another cow and would walk off.

Here is a short 23 second video of Fritz and a cow tussling.  https://youtu.be/-B5LC4bvvdk

With Fritz out of the corral I put the two replacement heifers in the south corral to eat hay from there.  I don't want them to get impregnated until next June. I put the heifers into the loading corral first.  Then let the cows out of the corral.  Then Fritz.  Then I let the heifers out of the loading corral and they went right away to the south corral.  Job done.

I also put out another hay bale in the middle pasture.  That way on Thanksgiving I don't have to spend time to put out a hay bale.  Also, my new tractor now has an issue.  Forward/Neutral/Reverse is due to a lever on the steering wheel.  The stick shifts on the floor are for speed - not for forward or reverse movement.  The lever on the steering wheel apparently is now an electrical thing.  The problem now is that my tractor now will self-shift to neutral after 10 seconds even though the lever has not moved.  Over and over after I re-shift the lever over and over.   After some time the lever will stay "connected" and I can keep going for a while.   The lever has a sensor so if one gets out of the seat the tractor will re-shift itself to neutral.  Ok, but I am sitting in the seat when this current problem happens now.  I talked to the John Deere dealer about this and no solution yet.  So it takes me longer now to put out a hay bale.

My precinct polling place

One of the local papers had a photographer at our polling place on election day.  He was around for a while taking photos.  This is the only photo I have seen from our place.   The photo was in an unrelated article days after the election about the post office across the U.S. delivering a number of mailed in ballots to different counties in a state, or even different states.  I don't trust the post office to delivery my mailed in ballot to the right location.  I dropped my ballot off at the election department.  Here in Flathead county you can check online whether the election department received your absentee ballot and when.

Donna's daughter's barn

I brought my camera along today to get a few pictures of the barn the Amish men made for Donna's daughter.   The Amish did a very nice job making the barn.

One of the horse stalls.   There are three stalls.

The following photos are without-and-with a flash from the camera.

While looking around, next to the house, there was a squirrel in the tree chewing me out.  https://youtu.be/6LVRlmvLEnI

The view to the NE from the property.  My ranch is somewhere out there a little left of center.

More snow

Yesterday and overnight it rained a lot.  Then this morning it turned to snow.  Plenty of it.  This afternoon Donna had to go to her daughter's place to check on her dog as the dog was ill last night.  That place is higher up.  Might be a snow problem on the drive up.  So I went along to help. 

West of Kalispell the snow was less.  Then less the further west we went.  By the time we got to the daughter's place there was no snow anywhere.  Huh?   I guess the minor cold front that came this morning is just between my place and the daughter's place, and it stayed rain at her place.   Donna lives some miles down the road from me.  She said she thought her place had an inch or more of snow than mine.  The cold front apparently is moving from the NE to the SW.

My front yard.

Middle pasture.

Willow trees again

More photos of the willow trees from yesterday.  Today it rained and was slightly warmer so most of the snow is gone now.

And here is another willow tree.  This one shows the growth the past two years after the beaver ate the trees down.

This year I trimmed some of the lower branches.  Next year I will have to decide whether to trim more branches and try to slowly turn the trees from looking like a bush into more looking like a tree.

Cows and mats

Tomorrow I will have to put out another large hay bale for the cows.  They love to eat the hay.  And some like to step in the feeder with their front legs.

Here is one of heifer calves I am keeping.

Of course hauling cattle, even for a short distance, means manure gets left on the mats in the stock trailer.  Since I only had Fritz I kept him in the back half of the trailer.  Only two mats got messed up - other than a little touch of manure on the end of the front mats.  I left those in the trailer.  These messier mats I took out and left by the water trough.  Too cold to use my pressure washer to clean them. Yesterday snow and cold.  I didn't do anything with the mats.  Today it was slightly warmer and above freezing.  So I cleaned the mats off with buckets of water and hung them to dry.   It is raining tonight and predicted rain and snow tomorrow.  I'll see if they get somewhat dry so I can place them back in the stock trailer.

Fritz the bull

Yesterday afternoon I got my new bull, Fritz. I named him Fritz after the owner.  Donna went with me.  The owner had two bulls for me to choose from.  Both bulls looked good, but we all agreed on which bull seemed to be the better-looking bull.

Fritz was born early Spring, in February or early March.   He is a big boy already and looks to weigh 800 pounds or more.  He is well built and has good features.  The owner has nice cattle which is why I asked if he would raise a bull for me and not make it a steer. The last bull the owner had bought cost him $7000.  Fritz cost me $2000.  The most I ever paid for a bull.  But that is how it is in the cattle business these days.  This year I got the most I ever for my calves.  So of course this year would be the most I ever paid for a bull.   Especially since his genetics appear to be very good.   In the evening I got the sale report from the livestock where I sold my calves. Young bulls like mine sold for around $2000.

I loaded Fritz up and brought him home.  I placed him in the south corral.  I want him to get adjusted to his new home.  I didn't want him out in the pasture with the other cows in case he decided to immediately try to go back home.  Earlier when I put out a hay bale for the cows I also put out a large hay bale in the south corral for Fritz.  I plan on keeping Fritz in the corral for about a week then let him out to join the cows.

Fritz seems to be doing well.  He does want to go and be with the cows in the north pasture.  At times he moos or calls them.

Fritz seems to have big balls, or testicles as Donna calls them. I wanted to get a photo showing them, but he would always stand with a leg blocking the view of them when I tried to take a photo.

Here are photos from this morning.  Light snow today.  I'm glad I got Fritz yesterday and not today.  The road by my place is slick as ice from the snow.  This evening looking out my front window I saw a vehicle go in and then out of the ditch.  A few minutes later I noticed other cars going slow and some with flashers on as they drove.  I thought it may be because of the vehicle that had gone in and out of the ditch.   I went out to check my mail and saw a pickup had gone in the ditch past where the first went in the ditch.  The other vehicle had used the owner's small approach to get out of the ditch.  So I think this vehicle may be another vehicle.   This vehicle didn't appear to have hit the fence.  Since the fence is solid I slowly and carefully walked over and told the owner about the vehicle in the ditch.  I was right, even though the headlights were on the owner hadn't seen the vehicle in the ditch.  I think it took two tow trucks to get the vehicle out of the steep ditch as I saw two arrive later.   Again, I was glad I didn't have to drive today to get Fritz.

In the afternoon a heifer and a cow took a break from eating hay and came over to meet Fritz.

Isn't Fritz a nice looking bull?

Donna took a photo of the view from my place after we unloaded Fritz.