Snow total

I am not happy with our weather.  I still have a few projects left to do before Winter starts, and it appears Winter has started early this year.  Where is my global warming?

Snow began Friday afternoon and didn’t let up until early Saturday morning. Kalispell saw a daily record of 7.3 inches, which also ranks second highest all-time for October, trailing behind 11 inches set on Oct. 26, 1946, according to the National Weather Service in Missoula.

A push of arctic air was expected to bring record cold to Northwest Montana through the weekend, the National Weather Service reported.

Lows Saturday night in the Flathead Valley are forecast to dip below zero, with wind gusts at 20 mph. Sunday’s high temperature is expected to top out in the 20s before plummeting below zero again. Wind chill values of minus 15 were likely.

The unseasonably cold temperatures should stick around through the week, with a chance of a slight warm up by next weekend.

It looks like we will be setting new record low temperatures today and over the next few days.

I spent part of today shoveling paths through the snow.  Not what I usually do in October.  And with our cold temperatures predicted, who know when - or if - the snow will melt this month?

Daisy usually wants to go outside early in the morning.  At 6 am Daisy put her head out the door after I opened it and looked and sniffed into the wind and cold and came back in the house.  15 minutes later I had to get up again to open the door again for Daisy.  Again the same thing.  Five minutes later, after her third attempt, she gave up and jumped up on the bed to sleep next to me.  Over two hours later I got up and found the wind had blown the door open a bit.  Sometimes the door doesn't catch strong and, even though I also have a screen door, the wind can blow the inside door open.  The temperature in the house was 51 degrees. 

In the morning for the cows I put out a few small alfalfa/grass hay bales into the wooden feeders.  In the afternoon I discovered the floor at one end of the large wooden feeder was down. Apparently a cow, or the bull, stepped into the wooden feeder to eat hay.  So, another work project for me to fix the feeder's floor.  Also in the afternoon I put out another large oat hay bale.   Afterwards, at one point, the cattle thought I may have put out more alfalfa/grass bales and they ran from the oat hay feeder in to the corral and the wooden feeders.  They were not happy to not find alfalfa/grass bales in the corral.

Cold, rainy day

Today it rained most of the day.  Our high temperature was only 47 degrees, well below normal.  It got down to 52 degrees in the house so I had the first woodstove fire of the season to warm the house up.  An earlier fire than normal.  Daisy spent most of the day laying near the woodstove.  I didn't do much else either.

Broken fence and cattle jailbreak

This morning around 6:30 am Daisy and I were woken up from our sleep by a large strange sound.  Once awake no more indications of the sound that woke us up.  Since Daisy was actively listening for more of the sound, I figured I didn't dream the sound.  So I got up to look outside.  I saw Toby had broken through the fence between the NE pasture and the yard.  He and Speckles were eating the lawn grass.  Most of the rest of the cattle were at the fence watching those two in the yard.  I went outside and was able to prop up the fence before the rest of the cattle could figure how to get through the broken fence. I closed the driveway gate by the road.   I then herded the herd into the corral.  That done, I was able to open the nearby gate to the NE pasture and herd Toby and Speckles back into the pasture.

I got an extra old gate and a corral panel and bungee cord attached them to the damaged fence.  Then I let the rest of the herd back into the NE pasture.

I went off to move irrigation pipes.  An hour and 45 minutes later when I returned back to the house I found all but one cow in the yard.  Fortunately I still had the driveway gate closed.  Toby re-broke the fence in the same spot.  The bungee cords were missing one of their hooks and the old gate was laying on the ground.  When I found the hooks in the grass one hook was bent to be straighter.

Most of the calves were in the corral.  I closed the gate between the corral and NE pasture, re-opened the yard / NE pasture gate and herded the cattle out of the front yard.  The trees and bushes hadn't been eaten yet though I did have one calf starting to eat the leaves of one of the bushes.  Instead of going through the NE pasture gate the cattle all went back to the backyard corral gate.  The initial cattle all went to my English walnut trees and started to eat their leaves.  Grass is not good enough for my cattle.

I quickly opened the corral gate and got the cattle herded into the corral.  I left them in the corral for a while.  I had to fix the fence.  This area of the fence was on my to-do list to someday fix/improve.   The boards were nailed on the yard side of the posts as that had a better look to "hide" the posts.  Not the best thing as cattle can push against the boards and pop them off the posts.  I put in a new fence post to replace the one Toby broke.  I then nailed the fence boards on the pasture side of the posts. To be on the safe side as Toby was focused on this section of the fence I re-bungee corded the old gate and corral panel back to the fence.  This time I put the gate and panel on the pasture side of the posts.  I let the cattle back into the NE pasture and so far no more fence breaks.  I still left the driveway gate closed.

Yesterday evening I had moved the cattle from the south pasture to the NE pasture.  Once I make my hay bales I doubt all will fit inside the hayshed.  The rest will have to be stored in the NE pasture.  So I want the NE pasture to be eaten down now, before I move the hay bales to the NE pasture. 

Since I wasn't going back to bed after moving my irrigation pipes, Daisy wanted to come outside and keep me company as I fixed the fence.

While this is August and usually little chance of rain, since I have my hay cut, rain came into the weather forecast at the last minute.  Of course when I moved irrigation pipes this morning it rained lightly.  .01 of an inch fell officially.  So, no hay baling today.  Time to go back to sleep.  Once the fence was fixed Daisy and I went back into the house and went back to sleep.

Hot and cloud

I've been trying finish spraying weeds on these hot days.  In the middle pasture, as I pulled most all of the remaining yarrow weeds, I thought I only had some weeds left to spray and that I could do that on one tank of herbicide.  Wrong!  The longest it ever took me to go through a tank of herbicide was 3 hours.  I thought maybe it could take me almost that long to go through the middle pasture.  It took me 4 hours and I only covered a third of the pasture.  I kept finding miscellaneous small weeds.  One here, one there.  I move irrigation pipes at 8 pm.  I didn't finish spraying until a little after 9 pm.  As a result I didn't finish moving irrigation pipes until after dark.

So yesterday I started spraying earlier.  Once again I found a number of small miscellaneous weeds.  It took me 3 1/2 hours this time.  Again I covered only a third of the pasture.  I got the irrigation lines moved on time this time.  Of course, after earlier I had noticed that this year I hadn't any sprinklers go bad, I had a sprinkler go bad.  I got it changed before dark.

Today was warmer than usual.  97 for a high temperature.  Since it was the last day of the month I also had some bicycle miles to ride to make my monthly goal.  By afternoon it was too hot to go and spray weeds.  I decided to delay spraying till tomorrow.

Last night I heard a cat fight.  I couldn't find where it happened.  Today Daisy has a minor limp on her front leg.  Since I didn't spray weeds we spent time together this afternoon.  This evening she is laying nearby instead of going outside for a little while like usual.

This evening I thought we possibly could get a rainstorm.  But no, just a cloud that passed by.

Walnut trees in 2020

Here are a few photos of my English walnut trees.  Looks like I will have walnuts again this year.  After last year's crop I now know I need to harvest the walnuts in September to maybe early October.

The smaller English walnut tree is also doing very well this year.   Daisy was sitting under the tree until I came over to take a photo of her.

Tree damage

Last Sunday morning we had strong winds and heavy rain.  I saw the rain clouds coming from the SW when I was getting up after 8 am to go give hay to the cattle.  I figured I would probably get a little wet by the time I finished feeding the cattle.  The clouds were already here before I could get out the door.  It began to pour and the wind was 55 mph with gusts to 69 mph. I waited until the rain was about over before going outside over an hour later.   Daisy then came into the house.  She was pretty wet and was happy to get inside the house.

Eight or nine years ago a wind storm damaged and broke off the top of an evergreen tree near my well pump house.  Sunday's wind storm broke more off the top of that tree.  Fortunately tree trunk missed my pump house even if a few branches fell on the pump house with no damage.

Using a handsaw I trimmed a number of branches off the broken tree.  I needed to use my chainsaw to trim the rest of the branches and get the trunk over onto its side.  But I discovered my chainsaw needed more than just a new chain (which I already had on hand).  I had last used my chainsaw last Fall when I was recovering from my injury and I may not have used it correctly.  My memory is not completely remembering what happened.  So I have the chainsaw in the shop to be checked over. That will take two and a half weeks as the shop is busy.

Four of the cows are in the back part of the yard and before I let them into the front yard to eat grass I need to get the broken trunk flat onto the ground.

Sunday's storm had lots and lots of damage in the area.  37,000 people lost electric power.  It appears I only had one other tree come down in the storm out in my pasture.  This evergreen tree is held off the ground for now due to an apple tree and another evergreen tree.  On the to-do list to handle another day some day.

More field fence added

Today I finished adding field fence to the fence rebuild I did last year between the hayfield and south pasture.  Even though I had put 11 strands of barb wire on that fence rebuild last Summer I noticed that Mama cow was still able to get her head through the fence.  Last year I had added field fence to two-thirds of that fence rebuild.  I didn't get the entire add of field fence done last year due to my injury last Fall.  So yesterday and today I got more field fence and finished adding it to that fence.  So another of last year's jobs finally done.

I took off the fence that short section of wire fence.  I put that piece of smaller wire section onto the fence next to the hayshed, on the short section that goes from the hayshed to the nearby gate.  This smaller section of fencing is too small for a cat or dog to go through, unlike some traditional field fence that has larger sections since that fence is for cattle. Over time I plan to get more of this smaller section of fencing and put it on the fencing and gate between me and Curtis.  That way it will stop cats and dogs from going through my fence and gate in that area to get to my hayshed.  It will also stop Daisy from going over to Curtis's place to catch the mice there.  But Curtis already got mouse traps and trapped mice this Winter when Daisy was kept inside my house while he was recovering from his eye injury.

Forehead hay

One of the steer calves today walked around with hay stuck to his forehead.

The heifer calf.   Later in the afternoon Daisy was in the corral looking to see if I had opened the barn's small side door.  I hadn't left the door open since the calves are in the corral.  So Daisy sat outside the door and looked around.  The heifer calf came over to see what was going on.   Eventually she got brave enough to come over and sniff and lick my pants leg.  Then she walked over to sniff Daisy.  Daisy didn't want to be sniffed and with a light growl took a swipe at the calf's nose causing the calf to jump back.  Daisy and I then left the corral.

Rain and irrigation

Rain came Sunday evening before my evening irrigation pipe move.  I cold see it coming so I started my move a little after 6 pm instead of the usual 7 pm start.

I was two-thirds the way through the first line of pipes when it began to sprinkle.  Even though I was wet, before turning on water to that line, I put on my raincoat I had brought along.

I was happy Toby decided to go from the middle of the pasture to the west side so I wouldn't have to keep as close of an eye out for him.  The other day when I put out a salt block for him he came over towards me and put his head down and started to jump and buck.  He was not happy I would not open the gate to let him join Diamond and Maria.

I had five pipes left on the second line when it began to rain harder.  The raincoat is water resistant, not waterproof.  I was very wet by the time I turned water to the second line on.  I got back to the house by 7:20 pm.

I dried off and laid down.  Ten minutes later I wondered if the sprinkler water would reach the salt block left out for Toby.  Back on went the wet pants and cap.  I left my shirt off, it was soaked already.  The water didn't quite reach the salt block, but I moved it to the other side of the tree anyway.  Due to the rain I hadn't walked the line to check it after turning the water on.  Now I found the end cap was leaking and a pool of water had formed.  For this particular pipe the end cap leaked.  So I got my tool and, with the water still flowing, popped off the last two pipes and switched them.  The end cap did not leak on the switched pipe.

I for sure was soaked by the time I got back in the house after these 15 minutes.  Daisy had decided to wait the rain out wherever she was at.  She showed up a couple of hours later for supper all wet as it hadn't quit raining.  She is currently sprawled out and sleeping on my lap as I type this post having finally dried off her smelly wet fur.

After Sunday night's irrigation pipe move I have two more (one day) of moves and then I am done irrigating for the year.  For us, this is a very good rain total so far. I'll see in the morning whether I will move the pipes or call it good and turn off the pump.

Bales stacked in hayshed

Today I finally picked up my bales out of the field and stacked them (mostly) in the hayshed.  I planned on doing this at the beginning of the week but everything kept slipping.  Because Diamond has not calved yet and is in the NE pasture I needed to put her and Maria somewhere so I could move about with the gates open.  That meant the fruit tree area.  The trees and bushes a..r..e  protected but the replacement heifers this Spring put pressure on the protection.  They did get past the middle apricot tree's protection and ate 99% of the tree's leaves.  It appears that killed the tree.

So I had to spend a little time Monday and Tuesday beefing up some of the protection.  Especially around the nice pear tree.  I've been putting that tree's fence rebuild off for quite some time.  Yesterday I finally did it.  It took longer than I expected so I didn't get to moving the bales till today.

Last night Daisy came in the house shortly before I was done watching my recorded TV program.  She settled down on my lap and went to sleep and started snoring. Once the show was over I turned the TV off.  I didn't have the heart to move Daisy so I quickly fell asleep sitting on the couch.  I figured Daisy would wake and move within a couple hours.  I woke up at 5:30 am with Daisy still sleeping on me.  I moved her aside and went to bed as I was tired.  20 minutes later - after I fell asleep again - she wanted outside.  I let her out and went back to bed.

Yesterday Wyatt discovered that Donna's baler problem was a bad bearing.  A new part is over $500.  Donna planned on going to the farm implement 'boneyard' in St. Ignatius, 80 miles away. I said I go with her this morning.  Call me just before you are ready to go.

Donna called at 8:08 am to tell me that she had called them and they were going to look for a baler with her part.  They'd call back in a half hour.  I told I was going back to sleep.  Call me then.

Donna called at 8:52 am to tell me they didn't have the part.  They gave her a name of a place n Oregon that might have the part.  I told her I wasn't going to Oregon.  I went back to bed.

Donna called me at 9:03 am to tell me the Oregon location had the part.  It cost $300 and they would ship it to her.

I went back to bed.

At 9:30 am I heard the phone ring.  I didn't answer it.  Probably a telemarketer.  They left a message, which telemarketers usually don't do.  I got up to listen to the message.  It was a telemarketer saying they could get a lower credit card interest rate for me.

I went back to bed.

I woke up after 10 am.

I woke up at 10:50 am.

I woke up at 11:30 am.

I got out of bed at 11:45 am.

12 hours of sleep.  I was still a little tired.  I had kept waking up from active busy dreams.  So I wasn't getting a full rest even when sleeping.

I didn't have time for my morning "wake up" bicycle ride.  I don't drink coffee and instead as a replacement go for a short 5 to 10 mile bicycle ride to wake up and get going for the day.

I put gas in Jan's riding lawnmower; figured out to open her new vacuum cleaner so one could empty it; and cut a dozen branches from a tree of hers.

I washed two loads of laundry and finally had breakfast a 1 pm.

I gave some apples to Diamond, Maria and her calf and let them into the fruit tree area.  In the afternoon I hauled the hay bales from the hayfield and stacked them in the hayshed.  I had to have Curtis quickly help me two times as I squeezed two bales in a row.  He operated the tractor's loader lever while I pushed on a neighboring bale.

It was 86 degrees and hot.  And guess what?  I was tired when I shouldn't be.  And my hip - which apparently has arthritis - was bugging me.  I should have gone on a bicycle ride as that energizes me and makes my hip feel fine.  Instead I laid down for a minute and woke up 1 hours 15 minutes later.

Really??!  I had to sleep some more???!!

I had a small lunch at 6:30 pm and went out to lay out my mainline irrigation pipes now that the hay bales are out of the hayfield.  Naturally some of the cattle were nearby so I had to shut the gate each time after getting a pipe from the stack in the pasture.  Also slowing me down was something I ate was disagreeing with me which led to multiple bathroom breaks.  I came up with the idea of moving the steel pipes using a wheelbarrow's handles.

Instead of moving the last four pipes (tomorrow!) tonight I decided to finally go on a bicycle ride at sunset.  12 miles of riding energized me but it was getting dark by the time I got home.  So much for my day.


My 'new' bales are more dense than my previous bales.  They are also a little smaller at 5 feet in diameter than my older bales.  The density helps to stack them better as they don't seem to settle much.

Three bales did not fit inside my hayshed.

My supervisor approves.

Maria hiding behind the newly fenced pair tree.

I put corral panels around the two mature apple trees.  I still caught Diamond with her head straight up trying to reach the tree leaves and apples.

Diamond's udder is still not ready.

Pregnant Diamond.

South middle pastures gate fix

Off and on recently I worked on fixing the gate between the south and middle pastures.  If you remember that earlier I had mentioned that Toby broke several posts the gate attaches to.

Installing the railroad ties as new posts took a little longer due to Toby the bull checking out the new post.

Here is a 40 second video of Toby scratching against the railroad tie I am trying to put in the ground: https://youtu.be/Ol-9e_7NGPA

What a nice-looking bull!

In the middle of the hole I was digging for the railroad tie I had to break out parts of an old ancient tree root.

Daisy also came to 'help" me and supervise my work.

Peek-a-boo!

I installed the two railroad ties on the left as posts with my current style of boards linking the two railroad ties.  On the right I added boards between the existing posts to try to balance the look on each side of the gate.

Weather frustration

My hayfield is ready to cut.  It has been ready for a week now.  It is tall and thick.  The problem?  The weather.  Or I should say, the weather forecast.

It rained a lot last Saturday.  So much that I planned on waiting till Monday or Tuesday for it the grass completely dry before cutting it.  But then the forecast had a chance of rain on Thursday.  The hay would take three to five days to dry.  Sunday night the Thursday rain chance went up.  Monday night it went up more.  So I decided to wait.  My haying luck is that it rains on my field even if there is a barely chance of rain in the forecast.  Tuesday night the Thursday rain chance went down.  Wednesday night the chance went down even more.  I still wouldn't take a chance even if a number of other farmers around the area have been cutting their fields this week.  I remember back to last year when most of them got their cut hay rained on.

So here it is Thursday. Maybe still a small chance of rain this evening.  I am waiting.  But now a rain chance went up for next Monday.  Remember I said it takes a number of days for the hay to dry.  Then after Monday next week each day had a chance of rain.  The long term forecast calls for June 20 to June 30 to be colder and wet.  So... if I don't cut Friday I can forget about cutting my hay until sometime in July.

This afternoon I got the haybine out and greased it up.  While greasing the haybine a stray cloud sprinkled a few rain drops for about a minute.  It was God or mother nature reminding me of past rain history.

Still....  I want to cut my hayfield!    By evening the clouds looked like no rain in the Valley tonight.  To the north over the mountains and up into Canada that was another story.  They looked to be getting some rain.

So I went and cut a few rows of hay.  I got almost three rows cut before dark.    If it rains, little of my hay will get wet.  The grass is so tall and thick I had to go slower than normal.  I plan on cutting the rest of the field tomorrow.  It looks like it will take me all day to do that.  Now if I can get the hay dried and baled before it rains.  Wish me dry weather!


Today I patched the boards the heifer broke off the building.  Not pretty, but for now it works.

I got the harrows out and harrowed the extended corral area and broke up the manure now that the cattle are out in the pasture.  Now I can put the harrows away for the year.

Ready and waiting.

And speaking of frustration and stress... a few days ago Daisy started to limp.  Something is wrong with his front left foot.   Then Tuesday night to Wednesday night - 24 hours, 10 pm to 10 pm - no sign of Daisy.  She didn't come for breakfast in the morning even though I got up early several times and called for him.  Then no sign of Daisy throughout the day during the time he usually checks in and gets a bite to eat.  Finally he showed up at 10 pm.  Since then, while he still limps, he is checking in during the morning and afternoon.  I worry about that cat.

Winter storm changes plans

A Winter storm was forecast for today and tomorrow followed by cold weather.  In preparation I put out two large hay bales.  I took the pickup load of leftover hay from the calves' feeder and put it out in the hayfield for the cows and bull.  While they ate that hay I closed the gate to the pasture.  This allowed me to bring out a large hay bale for them without them bothering me.  I placed the bale on the western side of the middle pasture close to the trees.  That way the cattle can rest in the trees somewhat out of the wind.  I then put out a new large bale for the calves in the NE pasture.  Let the storm come, I am ready.

The calves' water trough was partially iced up from the recent cold nights.  Saturday our high temperature was 45 degrees and I was able to break up the ice and remove it from the water trough   This way the entire water trough was water.

The storm arrived overnight.  Daisy woke me up early to go outside.  But after I opened the door to the cold and wind she wrinkled her nose and decided to stay in the house.  I went back to bed and slept late in a warm bed.  Daisy came and snuggled up against me.

When I did get up the storm was still raging.  The calves were in the loafing shed out of the wind.  The cows and bull were all standing along the hayfield fence under a tree.  There were not out of the wind and back by their hay feeder.  Oh, for heaven's sake!

I decided to put the calves in the corral south of the barn to keep them away from the bull.  I got two straw bales for bedding from the barn's hayloft.  I had to move slow and careful as the ground from Saturday's melting was ice covered and slippery.  I didn't want the ladder to slide out from under me as I carried each straw bale down the ladder.

Once I had the straw laid out, and a small bale in the barn's wooden feeder, I opened the gate to let the calves in.  They preferred to stay in the loafing shed.  Around and around we went.  I tried not to slip and not to have the calves slip on the icy ground.  I also tried - and did avoid - from getting kicked.  The calves wouldn't go to the open gate.  Eventually they ran to the back of the corral.  I then opened that gate and they went through.

Instead of going to the shelter of the barn's overhang the calves stood in the back corner of the corral and in the wind.  This was the closest they could get to the cows in the middle pasture.

I then put several small bales of hay in the wooden feeder in the main corral.  I also closed the gate so the cattle couldn't get to the NE pasture.  The cattle being in the corral is for only a few days until the storm is over.  I don't want the cattle to decide to stay in the NE pasture.

Then I went out and opened the gates to let the cattle in to the corral.  The cattle huddled under the tree and wouldn't come.  I had to walk over and call them and then walk back to the middle/north pasture gate and call them.  Finally Mama came around from the other side of the huddle and looked at me.  She realized what I wanted the cattle to do and she came.  The rest of the cattle followed her.

Once in the corral the cattle went to eating the hay I put out for them.  Speckles was being pushed away and shut out from eating at either feeder. She was going around eating the scraps of hay on the ground that had blown out of the feeder.

I decided to put Speckles in the south corral with the calves.  The calves were at the middle gate west of the barn watching the cows.  I opened the east gate to have Speckles go through.  But she didn't want to go.  She kept circling back.  While she was only getting scraps of hay she was desperate to get them before the big cows ate them too.  Around and around we went.  I was afraid she or I were going to slip on the ice.  I got my sorting stick.  Again I tried to herd Speckles to the open gate.  Finally she noticed it was open and went through it.

Speckles went right to the hay in the barn's feeder and began eating.  The red calf then noticed her and came over and started to fight Speckles.  Even though Speckles is a year older, the red calf is a chucky monkey and sometimes Speckles pushed the red calf backwards, and sometimes the red calf pushed Speckles backwards.  Then the other calves came and the two black calves started fighting Speckles too.

I left them be to sort it out.  Later I seen them eating and not fighting.  I tell ya, females are just mean.

I had spent several hours in the snow and howling wind and was ready to go inside the house, clean the woodstove and start a fire to warm up.  Daisy and I fell asleep on the floor together by the warm fire.

Late afternoon my water quit.  Overnight I had forgotten to turn on the light bulb in the well shed to generate heat.  With the warmer weather I had turned it off.  In the morning when I turned the light on it was below freezing in the shed, but the water still ran.  When the water quit I checked on the well shed.  It was still below freezing in the shed so I got a small electric heater and plugged it in.  I also shoveled snow against the north wall of the shed to help protect it from the wind.  A hour later the water ran again.

I gave the cattle more hay just before dark.  Everyone, when not eating, stood in their loafing sheds out of the howling wind.

I want my global warming back!!!

Straw bedding.

Barn feeder hay bale

Corral feeder and hay scraps

Even when huddling by the tree my racist black cattle are mean to the red cows.  Mama and Red are in the back.  They are smart enough to go on the side of the herd downwind.  Speckles is off to the right as the herd won't let her join them.

Huddling by the tree.

Of course Panda is one of the first to reach the hay.

Fat and pregnant

Speckles finally can eat some hay.

Chunky Monkey red calf wants to fight.

Now the other black calves want to fight Speckles.  Beulah's calf wants no part of the fight.

Here is a 25 second video of Speckles with the calves.  The initial fighting - once I started filming - was over and they are now getting used to one another.

https://youtu.be/xhH8j4zKAUU