"Hamburger" is what I'll call you

"Elvis has left the building."

Well, the cattle anyway. After an eventful and annoying day I let the cattle into the north pasture.

The morning began with the cattle gathered outside the gate to the fruit tree and garden area. They bellowed at me when I came outside. Even after I let them into the yard they complained to me.

We played more "tip over the board" and see if he comes running. I was not amused. Some of the cattle also were determined to eat the small tree growing under the pine tree. I know I should just cut that tree down, but I hate cutting trees down. Maybe I can shape it into a bush. That is if I can keep the cattle from eating it.

It seemed as if every time I turned around one of them had their tongue out to grab a branch else had leaves sticking in their teeth. To make matters worse a half dozen cattle went left when the rest went right, and the "gang of six" ended up in the NE pasture. Then - finally! - they found the pile of trimmed box elder branches and decided to munch on them. The herd - not liking to be apart and missing something the others were doing - gathered along the fence in the yard wanting to be with the "gang of six".

Naturally where they all gathered was by the well shed. And the tree I was trying to protect was nearby. So, not understanding how to get where the "gang of six" were, some of the herd decided to try to reach the tree. I chased them off but they returned. They knocked the fence over; I put it back up. Eventually two heifers got their head through the field fence and then got them stuck. I fastened the fence better since yesterday's episode of "head in the fence". And the two didn't exactly pull in the same direction. The same heifer soon got her head out but heifer #20 (naturally it would be her) has a big head and couldn't get free. I watched as there wasn't much one can do when a heifer is getting wild, is over 600 lbs, and can move about.

Eventually she twisted her head enough and pulled free. I put the fence back up. *sigh*

Eventually the herd came back together. I think I helped facilitate that, but by now I can't remember how I did it. It seems like such a long time ago.

As I was making my late afternoon lunch I looked out the window and saw two cattle in the hayfield. What?!

Heifer #20 (her again!) and another heifer were in the hayfield having broken through the fence I had on my agenda to rebuild this Spring. The rest of the herd was by the house and unaware. I ran out and opened the gate. I quickly chased the other heifer back into the yard and turned my attention to #20. She was of an independent mind and not so easily herded. She ran to where the rest of the herd was located by the house, but on the hayfield side of the fence. That got the herd's attention! And that's not what one wants.

I herded #20 back towards the open gate. By now she was in a tizzy and running very fast. The herd ran to meet her. #20 ran by the open gate and I ran to shut the gate before the herd came through it. I reached the gate just as the herd approached but I was able to close the gate.

#20 ran west and the herd ran into the corral to follow her along the fence. I closed the corral gate locking them inside. Now I could leave the hayfield gate open. After a little and a slower pace #20 ran back into the yard. I closed the gate.

#20 was still in a lather as the corral gate was closed and she couldn't get in. She ran here and there along the fence. I went to open the gate and she ran in the opposite direction and way over to the front yard entrance. She was as far away form as she could get. Even all that distance across the yard I could see her wild eyes and her defensive stance.

Please don't jump a fence and get on the road!

The herd thundered in the corral and I left the corral gate closed so they ran over to the NE pasture so they could get closer to the road and see #20. Funny, when they want to, the herd can figure out right from left and get to where they want in the NE pasture.

I needed to get #20 to the herd before she or they did something crazy in their effort to rejoin one another. I don't need more broken fences.

I left the corral gate open and walked around the house to the front yard. #20 was watching me wide-eyed and decided to cross on the other side of the house and made her to the corral and eventually around to the NE pasture. Lots of bellowing at their reunion and I let them be to settle down.

I then found that to get into the hayfield the cattle had pushed through the fence and a few boards gave way. I got a couple steel posts and pounded them into the ground to prevent that from happening again.

Looking out at them a few minutes later I noticed most of the cattle were in the middle of the pasture watching the neighbor's son by the fence. He was holding a small child in his arms. Both them and the cattle stood and watched one another.

After lunch I opened the corral gate to let the cattle back into the yard. Most of the yard was eaten down but I wanted them to work on a few more areas.

I went back to rotor-tilling my garden (late, I know, but what can I do?).

I wasn't but a few minutes into rotor-tilling when I saw two cattle in the hayfield again.

What?!

My steel post fix had worked but now the cattle pushed on another post breaking it and then the fence by lifting it up.

Guess who was in the hayfield? Yup, #20. Earlier I had toyed with calling her "High maintenance" due to her demeanor, but now I was calling her "Hamburger". She and another heifer were in the hayfield standing in the tall grass munching away. Four other cattle stood in the yard next to the broken fence, but as they were steers and therefore dumb, they hadn't figured out how to push/crawl through the fence.

Same drill. I herded the herd into the corral. Not too hard when #20 moved in the hayfield to be outside of the corral. Open the hayfield gate. When I went to herd the two into the corral they ran to the west end of the hayfield. As I herded them back to the gate #20 turned and ran right through the barb wire fence and into the north pasture. *argh!* I wasn't even that close to them and I knew better than run as that means they run faster.

And #20 is one of the larger cattle and she slipped through fences. She is a pain.

I herded the other heifer through the gate and then back into the corral while #20 ran to the west side of the corral, then the west side of the NE pasture. The herd in corral ran to the NE pasture. I locked them in the NE pasture and opened the corral to get #20 back inside.

Did she go nicely? Of course not. Rather than go through the gate she ran through the barb wire fence between the north and NE pastures. Yes, this is another fence on my list of rebuilds.

The whole herd then ran to the east end of the NE pasture. I let them be to settle down.

*sigh*

I fixed the NE pasture fence, then fixed the other barb wire fence. The yard/hayfield fence wasn't worth the effort to fix for a few more hours of having the cattle in the yard.

I had planned on having the cattle in the yard the rest of the day, in the corral overnight, then let them into the north pasture Monday morning. I wanted the cattle to have daylight to get used to the new pasture. The river bounds the pasture and it is still running very high. I've not lost any cattle to a high river but this herd has done stuff the past few weeks no other herd has done.

Also, my north neighbor has two cattle in his pasture. He bought them this Spring from Dan, whose herd is in my pasture. So in addition to cattle naturally wanting to be part of one big herd, these cattle have an extra incentive: they know one another. I wanted a full day to watch and see how they handle being on opposite sides of a fence.

I checked my fences and while I had patched up and fixed them last Fall, Winter caused some posts to pop out a few nails and I had to re-nail barb wire strands to some posts. Also a top strand was broken closer to the river and an apple tree. Darn deer!

Once the fence was fixed I let the cattle into the pasture. Earlier they had bellowed at me but now they were happy. They ran here and there in the tall grass checking out their new 'digs'.


I went back to my rotor-tilling and finally finished my garden. Before coming in for the night I could see some of the herd at the far end. I was too tired to go check on them. Tomorrow I will check up on them and do a headcount. There is shallow access to water so I hope none do anything crazy and try to cross the simple fence along the higher banks. We'll see.

Oh. And to top of my day... when checking the north pasture fences I found the regular gophers are all back. Last year I trapped them all out of the north pasture and sealed their holes. All holes seem to be open, and I found new holes too. In the tall grass I could see trails between holes and heard the warning whistles. I haven't been able to trap the gophers this Spring and they exploded out of the middle pasture where I was still trapping them when they went underground of the year last July. Now they are all over the north pasture.

*sigh*

And I'm tired. Between chasing cattle and rotor-tilling my garden I can feel it. Else I am getting older faster than I think. My garden's size is 32' by 76' (2432 sq ft) so that's a lot of work even with a rotor-tiller. And I made two passes around the garden. Also, I suppose the cattle walking over the garden area early and packing it down didn't make things easier to dig.

I plan to sleep in tomorrow.


Photo 1: fence protecting my tulips
Photo 2: stretched fence (and I didn't do it!)
Photo 3: example of field fence where one of the cattle got their head stuck yesterday. hard to see in the photo but in the middle is a larger opening. (cliclk on the photo to get a larger view)

The tall grass is where my pickup blocked the entrance. That is how much the cattle ate the front yard down in a little over two days.


Photo 1: my tilled garden.
Photo 2: the rhubarb and strawberry area is the green rectangle.

Cattle in my yard

Earlier when I talked about "Heifer #3" I was wrong. I noticed today #3 is a steer. I thought there was at least one female cattle that was nice, but I was wrong.

Yesterday afternoon I let the cattle into the yard. In a day and a half they pretty much ate most of the fruit tree and garden area grass down. There was still some left to eat but I found the-less-easy-it-is-to-eat-grass the more likely the cattle will look for other easier food items and cause trouble. So after their noon siesta, and having completed the 'cattle proofing' preparations, I let the cattle into the yard.

Munch, munch, munch. They went right to work putting their head down immediately to eat as they walked through the corral gate.

Yesterday early evening, as I was pruning in the fruit tree area, I saw a pickup slow to a stop on the road just before it came to my entrance. The cattle were eating down by the road. I had the barb wire simple fence gate closed and my pickup parked in front of it (Other years I have found some cattle will put their head and neck under the gate and lift it up and slip through to the road - the barbs having no affect on the thick cattle skin - so I added the pickup). A vehicle slowing to a stop means... cattle on the road? I was trying to count 21 head as I walked to the road but that is hard to do with different sized animals moving around.

Before I reached the gate the pickup drove off. I counted 21 head. None escaped. I have no idea why the pickup stopped other than disbelief that some idiot would let a herd of cattle into their front yard.

The cattle behaved themselves the rest of the day. After 10 pm I herded them slowly into the corral for the night. I don't trust them to behave themselves overnight. And I don't want to leave my pickup next to the road overnight.

This morning I let the cattle out into the yard again for the day. This day the cattle didn't behave themselves as well. The first day they were a little skittish when I was out and around. I think it was because they were in a new environment and not sure if they were in trouble when they saw me. Saturday they were more relaxed. And curious. That spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e with a capital T.

Around noon I found the cattle unwound the fence protecting my backyard bush and were molesting (as the US government likes to call it) the bush. After chasing the cattle away I had to straighten out the fence and then rewind it around the bush.

As I was waiting for the cattle's water trough to be filled again one heifer somehow got her head through a field fence and got it stuck inside. She pulled away and ended up pulling the whole fence away from protecting the small tree and bush by my well. There she was with the fence around her head and trailing the fence as she moved about. All the rest of the cattle stopped, stood, and stared. It was dicey but I got the fence off her head. She didn't cooperate well.

At first I tried to grab the fence to pull it from her head but when I approached she ran backward pulling the fence along with her. I tried to stand on the fence hoping that would give her something to pull against and allow her to free her head. But she was too strong and pulled the fence along with me on top of it. I had to keep from falling over or my feet slipping into field fence openings and being pulled along. I got off the fence before I lost my balance.

Between me grabbing the fence and the heifer turning her head sideways we got the fence off her head.

*whew*

This evening as I was slowly herding the cattle back into the corral another one got its head stuck in another field fence. Oh, great. I had put up a fence around my patio. While there is nothing to eat there I found other years the cattle would wander around it checking everything out and munching on the trees next to it. This year as I wasn't here this Spring I still have a pile of branches that I use as kindling in my wood stove. This heifer/steer stuck it's head through the fence to reach the pile of branches.

Yes, I know. It doesn't make any sense.

So there it stood with its head struck in the fence. It pulled back and pulled on the fence. The fence was nailed to the patio and I started to fear I may be rebuilding my patio sooner than planned. This time I stood back so as not to freak the animal out and eventually it tilted its head and got it out without pulling everything down.

*sigh* What next?

Covering the trees in the NE pasture I had put some yellow plastic netting over the top. I found many of them had been torn off by the cattle and I found one in a chewed up ball. I had tossed another one of the yellow nets onto my pile of branches and several times a day I have to toss it back onto the pile of branches as some cattle reach over the field fence and get it off the branch pile and leave it on the ground. Again, I have no clue as to why unless they like playing practical jokes on me.

Another problem I have had is the cattle keep tipping over a sheet of wood I leaned against the well shed. I did this to keep the cattle from walking on the - currently empty - flower bed I have along the shed. A small tree is growing in the flower bed and I hadn't a chance to transplant it. I should say "was growing" as the cattle tipped the wood over and ate the tree. Several times during the day I heard the board fall over. Bored cattle get into t-r-o-u-b-l-e.

The cattle should have the yard eaten in another day or two and then they go to the pasture and life will get simpler for me. *crossing my fingers* I even skipped this week's hikes to get the cattle through this procedure.

In the meantime I removed the last of the cattle proofing from the fruit tree and garden area. I pruned the branches the cattle ate the leaves off of, and cut down much of the dead third apple tree. I completely removed one of the fences around a cherry tree and put new steel posts in place of the old branches. I'll build the fence later before the cherries ripen and the birds get them.

I also started my lawn mower and mowed the fruit tree and garden area. I know, I had the cattle in there because I didn't want to mow it. But the cattle didn't eat it down to golf course putting green level. Also I didn't burn the area this Spring so dried manure from last year, pines cones, and small twigs were present and I had the mower 'clean' it up.

I also pruned the dead canes on the raspberry bushes and got tiny stickers in my fingers for my effort. No, I wasn't wearing gloves. Yes, I should have worn them. I dug up all around the live raspberry plants and removed the weeds and grass.

I started on my strawberry and rhubarb area and only got around the rhubarb before it got dark.

Otherwise a perfect day as the temperature was in the 70s, a light breeze and sun all day. The mountains shone in blue and white and were a beautiful sight. All day yesterday and today the music from Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" concert DVD ran through my head. I think I will have to buy myself a copy of the DVD as I really like the music and it is growing on me. I play the DVD each night.

Photo 1 is the cattle in the front yard at the start. The grass looks no where like this today, after a day and a half.

Photo 2 is from earlier this week. It is raining and the cattle - having had enough of rain - are trying to huddle under the protection of a couple box elder trees. Notice how I had to wrap the tree on the left to save it. Previous years the cattle molested the tree terribly. Somehow they pulled tall branches down and go to the top of that tree. The tree used to be much taller.

Stock trailer manure and gophers

A few days ago, so the cattle could eat the grass growing inside the hay shed opening I opened the gate. They ate the grass but left a mess. The stock trailer handle and hitch were covered in manure from one of the cattle. Thanks. I guess the cattle aren't too fond of stock trailers now, are they?

I also trapped two more pocket gophers. The young haven't moved out and the couple have not split up for the year as I have trapped two young pocket gophers in each hole so far and there are more as each tunnel had dirt sealing the trap with the dead gopher. This means more gophers are in the tunnel.

Cattle in fruit tree area

Thursday morning I let the cattle into my fruit tree and garden area. I had all the small fruit trees and bushes protected by fences except one apricot tree. While the cattle happily ate the grass I took down the old fence and put up a new and better one.

Here are photos before-and-after of the old fence and new. The round brown object to the left of the fence in the 'before' picture is how I quickly protect my bushes - drop a roll of small fencing over them.

Here are photos before-and-after of another apricot tree. This fence I did not upgrade. I ended up using some of the previous apricot tree's old snow fence to further protect this tree as the cattle did not respect the fence. Even wrapping the tree with the old snow fence barely protected the apricot tree as later I caught heifer #20 inside the outer fence trying to push the snow fence open and off the tree so she could eat it.

While I worked on the apricot tree fence the sun came out and my coat came off. The cattle, curious beasts that they are, had to check out my tools, camera, and especially my coat. In the photo are the two main trouble makers, #20 and #78. #8 behaved but she did want to rub against my coat after she sniffed it. All pictured are heifers. Females!


The cattle started the day off behaving but by evening some were more interested in mischief than eating. The females, as usual, were the ones who were stubborn and causing trouble. The 'boys' either ate or went head-to-head in playful contests to see who was stronger. At one point a half dozen steers were in a circle each waiting their turn to test their strength on one another.

Some of the heifers got tired of eating grass and were determined to eat leaves from several box elder trees in the area. I chased them away and they would return again and again. I know to watch out for #20 and #78.

In this photo the box elder tree on the left had been 'trimmed' up as far as the cattle could reach. The fenced area in the center left is my rhubarb and strawberry patch.

Unlike cattle of other years, these cattle liked to eat rhubarb, and ate what they could snatch through the fence. One heifer somehow slid one of the black 4' by 8' heavy grates apart and was half into the strawberry patch before I saw her. That had never happened before as those grates are heavy. I seen evidence later where the cattle pushed in the area that only had a fence and ate whatever grass and strawberries they could reach. *sigh*

As Dan tells me about my having cattle in my garden area and front yard, "you're a braver guy than I". I think "braver is his nice way of saying "dumber".

The #20 and #78 heifers also went to a lot of effort to reach a few of my fruit trees. #20 somehow got her head under the fence around one of my pear trees and bent it and some wires up and got her head inside and was working to reach the lower leaves on the pear tree and nipped some before I saw her. *argh!!!* I didn't think I need my "four wooden posts" as this fence sat on the ground. I added some.

My "four wooden posts" were boards I pounded into the ground between the metal posts and then nailed the bottom of the fence to. Most fences I leave off the ground a few feet. High enough for me to crawl inside the fence and for the cattle to get their heads in and eat the grass, but low enough the cattle can't get inside or reach up to eat the tree's leaves. You can see several of the posts in my new fence apricot tree photo above.

#78 at times would go from fenced tree or bush to another one ignoring the tall grass on the ground. Why? Why go though the work when it is easy to eat the grass at your feet?

I caught heifer #20 eating my small box elder tree and chased her out of the area. She stood just outside the gate to the fruit tree and garden area and watched me. She was waiting for me to be distracted then she would come in again and head for the tree. That is how she operates. This time I stood by the tree and looked at her. She looked at me, then looked away. Then would look at me. All the while she wouldn't move and come back through the gate even though everyone else was inside. She knew she was in trouble. After about 5 to 10 minutes she came through the gate carefully and headed elsewhere taking care not to come by me or the tree.

Not all the cattle were a pain. Heifer #3 had a thing for me. She would stand and stare at me. When I wasn't looking she would carefully come up and sniff me. I hated to herd her with the rest as she is so nice. I am not sure what is up with steer #204. He would stand for a long time staring at me. He wouldn't approach me, nor do stuff to get into trouble. He would just stand and watch me.

It rained several times during the day. Yes, I got wet.

In the evening I had to herd the cattle out of the fruit tree and garden area as there was no way I was going to let them stay in there overnight. By now it was after 10 pm and all but one were done eating and were milling about looking for trouble. They didn't want to go and would only take a few steps then stop when I moved onto herding the next one.

I started to 'cattle proof' my front yard as the grass in the garden area will only last a little over a day. Here are photos early in the day and in the evening. Notice the grass is less. These cattle are 'mowing machines'!

A few more cattle photos...

Friday the cattle come into the front yard. How is that going to go?

Neil Young movie

Late Wednesday last night I watched a DVD of a concert Neil Young gave in 2005 before he had surgery for a brain aneurysm. The movie is: Neil Young: Heart of Gold.

I've been a fan of Neil Young since his days with the group, Buffalo Springfield. If you are a fan of Neil Young, especially of his acoustic "Harvest Moon" side, then this is a movie you should watch. The movie is Neil and his friends - including the lovely Emmylou Harris, performing at the Ryman Theater in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since the outcome for his brain surgery was uncertain, the concert mood was poignant.

Here is a promo video clip for the movie.

I liked the music so much I played the DVD again tonight to listen to its music in the background.

"Heart Of Gold"

I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.

I've been to Hollywood
I've been to Redwood
I crossed the ocean
for a heart of gold
I've been in my mind,
it's such a fine line
That keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.

Keep me searching
for a heart of gold
You keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm growing old.
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.

Here is a youtube video of Neil performing the song back in the 1970s.

Fencing and wood stove

Another wet day Wednesday, though no snow fell. By the end of the day all the snow - except for the snow that slid off roofs - melted as the temperatures got into the lows 40s F. By evening the clouds lifted so I could see much of the mountains.

I stayed in all day and did stuff inside. I also made a cake and pumpkin bread and muffins. So I will be ready to be outside for work Thursday once the weather improves.

Monday I had been working on protecting my fruit trees and bushes in my garden area as I plan to let the cattle in there to eat the grass down. I am trying to get it so in the future I will only need 15 minutes or so of protection before letting the cattle in as I already have some sort of permanent fencing around the trees and many bushes to protect them from the deer. But while a flimsy fence will stop a deer, the cattle will push and break weak fencing. Time to upgrade.

Years ago when I first built fences around my young fruit trees I didn't have any fence posts so I used pine tree branches for posts. Four or five years later the 'posts' are not so strong anymore. Each year I replace the posts with metal posts when the cattle break the branch posts. This year I decided to replace three fences that are still all branch posts to get ahead of the cattle. And I replaced a few other posts in other fences as I didn't want to get into rebuilding all nine fences at this time. I keep meaning to fix all fruit tree fences for good during the summer when I have more time, but that never happens. I never seem to have time. In my defense, I have only gotten more chicken wire and other small fencing material at auctions this past year.

So I spent most of Monday working on my fruit tree and bush fencing. If it hadn't started to seriously rain Monday evening I would have finished all the protection work.

I have one more fence to completely rebuild. I wanted to complete this fence before letting the cattle in, but this morning I found the cattle have mowed the NE pasture down pretty good once the snow melted, and some of the cattle were working on reaching the small bushes and trees protected by a fence I built last year. I found they pushed on that field fence and worked their tongues through the larger openings and seemed to have eaten my small Caragana trees and were working on reaching the small arborvitae trees. *argh*

The cattle gathered around me and some bellowed at me: "I'm hungry. I want easier to eat food. I'm tired of nipping the grass shorter and I want longer grass." Okay, okay. So I quickly wrapped a last few trees and bushes and then let the cattle in my fruit tree and garden area hoping they will concentrate on the grass and leave the trees alone for now.

After I finish my breakfast I will rebuild the final fence.

I again had my wood stove going the past few days to heat my house. Here a few photos I took a few days ago when I had the stove going. The stove puts out lots of heat. Sometimes when I am tired I act like a cat and curl up in front of the stove to be warm.

Primary election

It's been over a week now, but I thought I'd write about my experience as an election judge before I forget.

In the photo to the right you can see the voting booth. The gray box on the right is the M100 voting machine.

I was asked to be an election judge for the June 3 primary in the same precinct I served in 2006: precinct 20 in Whitefish.

This year the County election officials moved our precinct and one other (47) from the Armory to the Golden Agers senior citizen center west of downtown Whitefish. This made it easier for some of the older people to come to the polls as the armory is a little ways out of town. The senior center part of the building was still open as a few people came in to have a hot meal for lunch.

Karen was the chief election judge this year as Carmen married and moved away. Karen came Monday night and set up the voting booths and checked stuff out. I and the rest of the judges came in at 6 am so we would have an hour to prepare prior to the polls opening at 7 am. For all there is to do an hour is barely enough time.

Man, 7 am is early!

I got up at 4:40 am (a crazy time to get out of a warm bed!) after waking up a few times during the night to check the time. I seldom use an alarm clock and didn't trust it.

It was dark at this time and during my drive to the polling place few cars were on the roads. Fortunately no deer were seen either.

While the forecast was for sun and a decent day it was drizzling lightly during the drive. That's ok, I'll be inside all day. Unfortunately the sky cleared later that morning and I missed out on a decent day by being indoors.

We rushed around and were able to hang the signs up, set up the handicapped voting machine, and prepare the M100 regular voting machine and be open at 7 am to a short line of people waiting to vote before they headed off to work. It would have been nice to have had a couple more minutes. The chief judge for the other precinct was pushing to open the doors to the voters even though we would have liked a few more minutes to double check we had prepared everything. Nope, the doors were opened.

Karen had all the keys we needed on a loop around her neck. The loop wasn't long enough so she had to stoop to use the keys on the machines and boxes to open them, and to activate the machines. All the keys looked similar and each time they were needed it seemed as if the last key was the correct one. I am not a fan of stooping to use a key; I would have taken the loop off my neck and used the keys. Stooping seemed to make it take longer to find and use the correct key.

Karen seemed to be the coffee addict of the group as she mentioned several times she was not functioning well because she had not had her coffee yet.

We had 6 election judges until 5 pm when two of the women left due to other commitments. Of course after they left we had our largest group of voters as people came to vote after work. It was pretty crazy there for a while.

One woman was a real estate agent. Another woman has a business taking photos of kids sport teams that play at the local KidSports public complex.

Another woman was a long time Whitefish resident and knew quite a number of the voters. She is a bookkeeper for her husband's business, volunteers at the local spay and neuter clinic, and at the O’Shaughnessy center in Whitefish. One of her voter friends told us she used to be a hippy from San Francisco. We kidded her about that as she shows no signs now she ever was a hippy.

Things were going smoothly for a few hours until the M100 ballot machine had a paper jam. We called one of the 'runners' who travel between the precincts in town to help solve problems, and she ended up calling the main office. We were told we could turn off the machine, remove the counter unit to reach the jammed ballot to remove it, then put everything back together without a loss of counted votes. *whew* It worked. We didn't want our machine to fail as that meant we would have to hand count the ballots at the end of the night.

Before the voter feeds their ballot into the machine we remove the ballot stub so the ballot no longer can be tracked. Apparently when the judge removed the stub she also tore/removed part of the bottom of the ballot. There was of just blank space at the end of the ballot but it confused the machine. Instead of the machine counting or rejecting the ballot, it jammed. Once we freed the ballot we took and sealed it in a 'hand count' envelope to be counted by the election department at the end of the night. After this mishap we all were careful when removing the ballot stub.

After what seemed to be all morning I discovered it was only 9:30 am. Oh boy, this is going to be a long day! Every few hours Karen wanted us to change positions to do another job. That was fine with the greeter and M100 judges as they had to stand to do their jobs. I did all the jobs but the greeter. Once the two women left the greeter job was eliminated and Karen stepped in to do one of the jobs.

As in the 2006 elections I found that the other precinct's women voters looked prettier. Why is that?! The women voters we had seemed to look older than their age. And it wasn't just my imagination. When I took turns handling the registration book, I found the voters birth date was listed with their name and address.

Our oldest voter was a 98 year old woman. Another woman was 88 years old. One 80 year old woman walked over from an assisted living facility a few blocks away using her cane. She forgot her id and said she would walk home to get it. But we found two people in the senior center who knew her and could vouch for her identify. We let her vote instead of making her walk home to get her id.

One of the voters when I was in charge was Tim Torgenson. I remember that name from the music concerts last summer. I asked if he was the musician and he told me he worked with hand puppets and was a magician. Huh?! He then confessed he was pulling my leg and he was indeed a musician. He offered to get my email address to email me a list of his concerts this summer, but in the hubbub I didn't give it to him.

The Democrat running for county commissioner lives in our precinct and he voted. He had to point out he was on the ballot as no one recognized him.

My friend Jackie stopped by. It turns out she votes in the precinct still at the armory. And after giving me something to eat left to go vote.

This being Montana, each election we have citizen initiatives to be on the general election ballot. Two groups were gathering signatures outside the building as precincts are a good place to get signatures from registered voters. One petition was to establish an individual provider program to provide assistance to the elderly and disabled to remain in their own home instead of having to go into a nursing home. I guess this initiative is modeled after a program in Washington state.

Another petition is to amend the Montana constitution to say that life begins at conception, or some such. This is more controversial and I read that Planned Parenthood or other groups planned to also have people at the precincts to try to dissuade people from signing the petitions. No counter groups were at our precinct.

I am proud of Montana's tradition of citizen initiatives unlike Minnesota where it is pretty much impossible for citizens get something on the ballot for a vote by everyone. There the bureaucracy and lobbiests control the legislation. So, while I may not agree with all initiatives, I support their right to be on the ballot for all to vote on and take a dim view of groups that try to prevent the people from getting a chance to vote. I guess I'll never be one of those slimy politicians.

Other judges brought food. Cookies, brownies, bananas, chocolate, peanut candy clusters, turkey roll wraps, tea and coffee. The other precinct also brought sliced melons and pasta salad. I got all the pasta salad at the end of the day as no one ate it and the woman who made it didn't want to take it home. It turns out the lady who made it use to live in my mom's house back in 1972 before mom bought the house. What a coincidence! Unbelievable. She knew some of mom's longtime neighbors.

Karen was more than ready to quit at 8 pm. 10 minutes prior she was starting to take down extra voting booths. When John mentioned we needed one more voter to make 33% voted, and I asked what time it was and he said 8 pm, Karen rushed over to open the door and announce it was 8 pm and the polls were closed, and then she locked the doors.

A voter came a minute later and I prevailed on Karen to let him in to vote. It turns out he was a voter for the other precinct. Darn. But a couple came a few minutes later from the other precinct and they were registered to vote in our precinct. Karen was not pleased but we let them vote. By now we only had one voting booth set up so the guy had to use a table where the senior citizens had their lunch.

Our precinct had 1240 register voters vs. less than 1,000 for other precinct. Yet they had more people who voted. Figure that.

We had 409 voters for almost a 33% turnout. It turns out math is not John's strong suit when he thought the couple would make it over 33% for our precinct. The 409 does not include absentee ballots. County wide the turnout was 41% as it is easy to vote via absentee ballot.

Our precinct is a Democratic precinct as 274 voters were Democrats and 135 were Republicans.

It was a rush to get everything taken down and put away. We had to put stuff to be taken to the election headquarters in the right envelopes. Other stuff put away in a locked closet. And a number of items had to be sealed and all our signatures on the seal.

We didn't get out of there until 9:30 pm. That explains why it takes a while for votes to be tabulated after the precincts close.

This was a good group of judges and I would be fine with working with them in the general election in November.

Cattle and snow

The cattle weren't too thrilled by the snow Tuesday as it made eating harder. When not eating they would stand or lay in the large pine trees' rain shadows where it was dry. I didn't have to fill their water trough today. Wonder why?

My neighbor's son took down their pop-up camper late in the afternoon. Half the herd of cattle all gathered round by the fence and watched. Nothing else to do I guess.

So far the trees have handled the snow. But as you can see the branches are weighted down.

The pop-up camper is in the background before it was taken down.

And yes, to those of you living in North Dakota and Minnesota, snow can fall straight down.

Snow in June

The weather forecaster got it wrong again!

The forecast was for rain in the Valley and snow in the mountains. I woke up this morning to snow blanketing everything. And it snowed all day.

It is suppose to snow tomorrow also. This is suppose to end by Thursday afternoon. I'll believe it when I see it!

I don't know how many inches fell as the temperature hovered above freezing all day and the snow somewhat melted during the day.

Snow on June 10!!! Well... this is Montana.

Photo 1 is my front yard when I got up for the day.
Photo 2 is my front yard in the afternoon. Big, fluffy, wet snowflakes.
Photo 3: behind the pine trees is the Swan Mountain Range. Can't see it? Neither could I all day.

My back yard. Photo 1 was taken yesterday when it wasn't raining. Photo 2 was taken this morning.

Yeh, I know. I need to cut my lawn. I will... sort of... once I get things in order. Then I'll let the cattle in to eat the grass down. The grass is too tall to mow.

The back 40 yesterday... (the two white objects are milk jugs on poles to mark my pocket gopher traps)


The back 40 today...


What a difference a day makes!

Back online

I am finally back online at home. For my internet access one of the support centers in Mumbai, India was flooded. It took several days before I could get through to a real live person to have my internet reactivated.

*whew*

It has been wet and busy here. And cold. I used my wood stove over the weekend to heat my house as the temperature outside was in the lower 40s F. Today was suppose to be dry with some sun - it wasn't. I guess a 20% chance of rain means it is going to rain at least 20% of the time. During light rainy periods I kept working outside. It was sunny and dry briefly this morning - until I stepped outside. It began to rain 10 minutes later.

*augh!* I have stuff to do!

I have cattle as I am renting pasture to Dan. And I have had 3 and 1/2 jailbreaks already!!! Three jailbreaks in 48 hours - a new record. And out of the corral of all places! Last year I only had two jailbreaks and one jailbreak was through a neighbor's fence when the cattle were invited to eat his pasture down.

I have already trapped five pocket gophers without really trying. I've been busy doing other stuff and only put out a few traps when I stumbled across gopher mounds.

The forecast is for rain over the next few days. If it rains at 20% chance I am certain it will be another all day rain with a 90% chance. The mountains have a Winter storm watch out over the next several days as they are predicted to get one to two feet of snow. When I get time I will upload some photos of the mountain view from my front yard. Lots of snow on them. I'll have to fire up my wood stove again as the predicted high the next few days is in the low 40s F. Where's global warming when you need it?

Primary election job forms

I was an election judge Tuesday. I was happy to do it. The election department called me early Monday afternoon to ask to me to help them Tuesday.

The difference this time is that Flathead County outsourced the hiring to Express Personnel Services, a private employment company. I got paid the same as when the County handled the employment in 2006; I guess now it costs the County more as they pay me and also pay the employment company a fee to administer the program. I'm sure they need to be reimbursed for having to handle all the forms we had to fill out for being employed.

*sigh*

That meant I have to go to the Express company office and fill out paperwork. Lots of paperwork. More paperwork than I wanted to fill out. By the time I left them Monday I was in a prickly mood, and I think the little pimply receptionist picked up on my mood.

For a $6.50 an hour one day job I had to fill out

• an application form
• release to search my past employment history
• release for drug testing
• other forms I have forgotten.

I did not have two forms of id as I only had my drivers license. That was not good enough. Therefore I had to come uptown today to finish the paperwork before I would be paid.

Today was more forms:

• the id form
• W4
• benefits form
• form asking if I ever been on food stamps, TANF, or other assistance
• form asking about military service, if I was affected by Hurricane Katrina, and other situations where I may have preference in being hired.

For each form I had to fill out my name, address, age, and social security number as minimum. I should just had a sticker name made to put on the forms. By the end, and with the stupid forms, my handwriting was poor as I didn't care anymore - even I had trouble reading my handwriting.

I was not happy about the forms.

I was not alone. During the election I talked about this to the other election judges. Apparently during the training sessions when all the judges had to fill these forms out, most of the little old retired ladies who have volunteered for years were very offended about the form for drug testing. Apparently to calm them down the company said they were not planning on conducting any drug tests or making the people submit urine. Then why make everyone fill out this form?

At the end of my form filling I mentioned that if the company had any one or two day jobs that were interesting to let me know. The receptionist said they didn't have any short term jobs at this time, but if I was interested in being considered to come in and have a full profile done as the forms I filled out were only a "shell" evaluation.

You got to be kidding me. I ain't interested in filling out more forms.

And I left.

I guess I am still in a prickly mood.

Fruit trees and garden

This weekend I fixed my crooked mailbox. I had to take the mailbox and board it was attached to off the post, re-nail the board to the post, then reattach the mailbox. It is now straight.

I checked my garden and fruit tree area. While my rhubarb is towering over the grass, the grass is so high I couldn't see any of my strawberry plants. I thought they hadn't survived the Winter as I hadn't given them the care they needed last year. But they are there in amongst the grass. I really need to weed my strawberry patch.

My raspberries are growing. After a great year last year I need to prune the dead stems. And of course, weed the patch.

Two of my three grape plants are showing a few buds. For whatever reason the grapes are the last to grow each season. Two of my three blueberry plants show signs of life, albeit weakly. They were struggling last year.

My other plants/bushes are coming along and appear to have made it through the winter. I see the deer bit the top off a couple of my small arborvitae trees. Darn deer!

My nectarine tree is coming up from the roots as the tree appears to be dead. At least something lives on it. My other fruit trees are doing well, though my plum trees are lagging again this year. One of my apple trees is full of blossoms and the other has some blossoms. It appears it will be an off year for that tree. My third apple tree, the smallest of the "big 3" and the one that seldom produced much in the way of apples, appears to have mostly died. A few leaves is all. I think this is the end for this tree.

Surprisingly my carrots are growing and did not rot over winter. I had really covered them well this winter and the Spring moisture did not reach them to rot them. I pulled a couple carrots from the ground and ate one. Edible, but old.

I spent a few hours pulling the big weeds that have sprung up across my garden. My hands were tired by the time I was done. I am still considering what to do with the garden this year as I have no starter plants. I plan to plant the crops that don't need a long growing season: radishes, lettuce, carrots, beets, peas, etc. No pumpkin, muskmelon, watermelon, etc. plants. Oh well, on a good year I seldom get much from them.

The vegetables I had stored in my crawl space over Winter all rotted or molded. It was just too long for them to be down there. I took them out and cleaned up the crawl space. The rest of my apples I had stored in my refrigerator also didn't make it. Again, too long a time.

I stopped and visited with Bob and Jan Saturday afternoon. I moved their concrete bird baths out from the garage back to their lawn. I also mowed around a few trees Bob couldn't reach with his riding lawn mower. I stayed and had supper with them. Yum! Chicken breasts, potato salad, and jello. The spices on the chicken breasts made them spicy hot. Good. Eating chicken breasts reminded me of a former girlfriend who made them often. She didn't spice them up, but they were still very tasty.

Sunday I fenced around three small trees in the NE pasture. This is to protect them from the cattle who will eat almost anything. I didn't quite finish the fence work as it began to rain, and then rained or drizzled the rest of the day. I have all three trees encircled with a fence; I now need to cover them from the top as cattle will work their head down and use their long tongue to munch on the trees.

I got a call earlier this afternoon to be an election judge and I will do that all day tomorrow. The day starts at 6 am as the polls open at 7 am. It will be a long day, but hopefully a fun and rewarding day. I again will be working up in Whitefish, though at a different precinct and location this time.