Tree pruning

Now that it is Winter, once again I pruned my two apple trees.

In the next few days I will prune my neighbor's apple tree.

Geese and cattle

This afternoon some geese came and rested in the snow covered hayfield.

Not a bad photo considering my camera's back screen quit suddenly today.  I can't see what I am photographing.   I've had the camera 14 months.  This is why I no longer buy the newest camera spending big bucks.  They always seem to fail after a year.


I put out two more large hay bales for the cattle.   The cow with the bad leg is much better.  She stills has a bit of a limp but nothing like before.   When I let the cattle out of the corral to go to the large hay bales she also wanted to go. I think she would have been fine joining the other cattle but I will wait another day or two.

My septic system is still frozen.   I still have the crawl space opening open.   Daisy is not fond of using her littler box.  Now that the weather is nicer she goes outside several times a day.  So she is using her littler box less.  I thought she was going outside.  Yesterday when she came back inside the house she immediately jumped down into the crawl space. Oh....   that's right.  The crawl space is a large dirt area.  Hope that septic pipe unthaws soon.

Snow on the roof

Another decent day with the temperature a little above freezing.  With all of the snow we have had so far this Winter, this afternoon I spent a little time shoveling snow off some of the house roof.

As you can see in the following photo the snow almost covered the vent for the bathroom's drain.  The slightly darker circle beyond the vent pipe is the location of the bathroom's sun tunnel.

Missing heifer and septic system

I finally found my missing heifer this afternoon.  She had drowned in the river near where I had seen the cattle tracks in the snow.  Yesterday's temperature reached 40 degrees and more ice melted.  She must have been under the ice near the tracks when I looked earlier.

She shouldn't have drowned, but she did. The water level is not high right now and I don't think the area was to deep for her to keep her head above water.  If she walked ten feet towards the other shore she would be walking out of the water.  If she walked twenty or so feet downstream she would have been in knee deep water.

But I believe the heifer tried to get back from where she fell in.  If this was Spring, Summer or Fall she would have been able to.  But she couldn't pull herself back up onto the ice shelf over the water.

I believe the temperature the day the neighbor saw the cattle walk to the river was in the single digits.  That greatly shortened the time the heifer would be able to remain in the water.  If only she would have walked downstream.

I once saw a video and story about how to handle falling through the ice into a lake or river.  The dangerous part was getting out of the water.  The air temperature usually was colder than the water temperature.  If one couldn't quickly get out of the water they could either freeze to the ice or freeze to death from the part of the body out of the water, or both.

Other Winters here have had lots of snow, but no river ice.  Or if there was river ice, then not so much snow.   The combination of snow and ice rose above the barrier and allowed the cattle to go past it.

The ice shelf was flat.  I think another cow pushed the heifer into the river. I knew many of the other cows did not like her.  Kind of like true crime stories where a spouse pushed another off the cliff into the ocean below and then claimed they accidently slipped.    In the past I have called my cows racists; I guess I can add murderers too.  Who knows.. maybe they stood there and blocked her from climbing back onto the ice.

This was a perfect storm for the heifer.  If any one thing had not happened I think she would still be alive.

It is too late for the heifer but after I found her I added three more wires to the top of the metal fence posts to prevent the cattle from getting too far out to the river.  In the photo, from the heifer's location now, you can see how quickly the river gets shallow.

The other challenge I have right now is that one of my septic systems is not draining.   It is the old system that is now only for the kitchen, mud room, and washing machine.  Suddenly neither sink would drain.   I think the frost got down far enough to freeze the drainfield or the pipe from the house to the container, or both.

I opened the 'door' in the floor to the crawl space.  While not below freezing, it was plenty cold down there.  I am leaving the 'door' open in hopes of thawing the pipe out, if that is the problem.

I grew up in North Dakota and lived in Minnesota for many years, both places which have real Winters.  While this has been a colder than usual Winter for out here with plenty of snow, I didn't think this Winter has been all that bad.  Then I read that this has been the second coldest Winter on record for Kalispell.  I am surprised.  This certainly is not the second coldest Winter I ever experienced.  Not even close.  I guess I need to take this Winter more seriously.

Still missing

I counted the cattle again today.  Spice is still missing.

This morning I let the local livestock brand inspector know I am missing a heifer.  I also let the sheriff's department know in case someone sees Spice and calls. After talking with a few more neighbors about my missing heifer, I went to search for her again.

I walked through deep snow on both sides of the river upstream and downstream looking for tracks.  I only found a few deer tracks.  I looked down in the river where Spice may have fallen in.  Again, under cloudy skies, it was hard to see below the water surface unless looking straight down.

The temperature today got a little above freezing and I noticed the ice was less. I used a sledgehammer to break some of the ice where the cattle come to drink as I seen fresh tracks today.  If tapping with a sledgehammer would break the ice then a cow's weight would also. 

The only cattle tracks are located in the north pasture and corral.  None in the neighbor's property or my middle pasture or across the river.

So... still no idea of what happened to Spice and where she is.    Maybe aliens did take her.


Cow number #40 was in the corral drinking from the water trough when I returned from my search.  What excellent timing!  She is still limping badly.  I barely had to herd her to put her into the south part of the corral to be by herself.  I put out a whole bale of hay just for her, and as she ate from it I cleaned the manure from under the lean-to next to the barn and spread out a bale of straw for her to lay on and rest.  Now she doesn't have to walk far to get water to drink.

The spot

Downstream

Upstream

See how quickly the river gets shallow downstream.

Yesterday when walking to the river's edge to look for the missing heifer I saw an animal's head just above water a short distance upstream and along the ice.  Initially I thought it was the heifer's head barely coming out of the water.  Then I realized I was looking at a large beaver.  The beaver was lollygagging in the area as I watched.  As Donna came to the river I spoke to her.  Once I did the beaver quickly dove under the water with a loud noise and disappeared.

Below are a few signs of the beaver.  I noticed quite a number of other branches or trees chewed through as I walked upstream.

Overnight the beaver must have caught something and ate it here near where the cattle come to drink.

Missing heifer

I was feeding small bales of hay in the corral to the cattle this afternoon and I discovered Spice is missing.  I counted and recounted and recounted over and over and I always came up with one short.  I then figured out it was Spice.  

The last time I counted the cattle was six days ago on Thursday when the cattle were last in the corral to eat small hay bales.

I walked around the north pasture looking for her.  It has not snowed since I last saw her.  So I looked for tracks.  The only tracks away from the large hay bales and corral were a few that went down to the watering area at the river.  While the cattle drink from the water trough in the corral, the cattle being cattle, they sometimes want to drink from the river.

With all this cold weather the river is partially frozen.  The middle third of the river is open; each side of the river is iced over.  I found cattle tracks right up to the edge of the ice. I was surprised the ice held the cattle's weight.  I spoke with several neighbors asking if they saw Spice or anything unusual.  John saw three or four cattle walk to the river three days ago.  Other than that, nothing unusual.

No signs the ice broke under the cattle's weight.  But it could be possible, since most of the other cattle don't like Spice, one cow pushed Spice off the ice into the river.  This area is kind of deep but maybe only barely as deep as Spice is tall.  This deep area is not large.  The river quickly turns and as it does it gets shallow.  As shallow as to be only knee deep on me.  If Spice fell in the river she should be able to quickly get to a shallow area and then out of the river.

I walked along the river looking for signs of tracks. Donna came and helped look for tracks.  We walked the north pasture and halfway down the middle pasture.  No tracks on my side, either along the river or up in the pasture.

On the other side of the river there were one set of tracks in the snow.  I got my hip waders and walked across the river.  Those tracks were deer tracks.  I walked around a little more but did not see any more tracks.

By now it was starting to get dark so I quit.  I'll go out again tomorrow.

When we got back to the corral I let the cattle out so they could go to the large hay bales I set out earlier in the afternoon.  As the cattle walked out I noticed that #40 was limping badly.  She was favoring her front leg.  When I last fed them at 1 pm all cattle were fine.  Tomorrow I will have to try to get her back into the corral so as to limit her walking until her leg is better.

Going from unlucky 13 cows to 15 turns out to have been unlucky.  So much for making any money this year.  If Spice ends up dead, since I bought her I can write her on my taxes as a loss.  Since I raised Rose from a calf I could not count her death as a loss.

Cold

It keeps getting colder.  Last night it was minus 11 degrees.  Officially at the airport it was minus 18.

The warmest it got today was around 4 degrees above zero.  But we had sun!  It looked warmer than it was.  Temperatures like this makes me think I am back in North Dakota or Minnesota and not western Montana where it usually doesn't get this cold during Winter, or if it does, for not as long.

Right now - and the night is still young! - it is minus 11 degrees.  I believe the overnight low is predicted to be around minus 20.

I let the fire in the wood stove go out overnight.  This morning it was 48 degrees inside the house.  Tomorrow morning I wonder how cold it will be in the house?

The cattle are doing fine.  They have plenty of hay to eat and water to drink.  Yesterday I added a few more straw bales for the cattle to lay on in the loafing shed, and today I added one more bale.  I think the cattle eat half of the straw.

This afternoon, when not eating, a number of cattle laid in the loafing shed in the sun.  They chewed their cud and looked fine.  A few cattle standing around the hay feeders, relaxing and not eating, had a little bit of white frost in the fur around their mouths and noses from their breath.

Daisy hasn't been outside all day.  This evening when I went outside to check on the cattle's water Daisy was eager to join me.  She got halfway out the door when the cold hit her.  She quickly backed up and stayed in the house.  She appears to be satisfied to sit by the windows to look at the weather.  She often keeps an eye on me when I go outside.  Now if I could only teach her to dial 911 if I have an accident.

I am going through a lot of firewood to stay warm.

Even so cold, the sun shines warm enough mid afternoon to melt the snow crumbs from where I scraped snow off the roof.

A shoveled path to shorten the walk to the large hay bales.

Waiting for Summer

The past few days I have shoveled some snow off the hay bales.  This is what I have left to do tomorrow as my fingers were frozen by the time I reached this point.

Snow between more rows of bales.  The bale on the right is quack grass.  The cattle do eat it.  I put out one bale of regular grass and one bale of quack grass.  Now that the cattle ate the regular hay they are now working on the quack grass.

Turkeys and the New Year

Happy New Year!

Saturday afternoon a flock of turkeys came into the corral and back yard.  They headed back into the corral then the pasture when I came out of the house.

It snowed overnight and the wind blew much of the day.  The wind has died down now.  A cold day with only 15 as a high. It is forecast to get colder this week.  Daisy and I spent most of the day inside my nice and warm house.  I did spend a few hours shoveling some of the snow off the driveway.  I also spread four more bales of straw for the cattle to lay on in the loafing shed.  Otherwise they are doing well.

Rose has died

At 9:45 pm last night Rose was alive.  I checked again at 1:45 am and she was dead.  It appears she had died a short time before I checked on her.

I miss Rose.  Rose and Mama are my favorite cows.  I raised Rose from a calf.  She was Mama's calf.  She was a lively, intelligent and spunky little calf.  All of Mama's calves have been that way.  Apparently being a lively and spunky little calf annoyed the other cows and they were mean to her.   The other cattle bullied Rose and, while Mama could take care of herself, I tried to help Rose.  When feeding hay at the wooden feeders and the other cattle would push her away from the hay, I would take some hay around south of the barn and Rose would follow.  I would close the gates and let Rose eat there undisturbed.  When I had apples I would often sneak some to Rose when the other cattle weren't looking.  Otherwise they would push Rose away and take the apples.

With Rose I had hopes of keeping Mama's line going at the ranch.  Now I need Mama to outlast Buddy, and to have a heifer calf when I replace Buddy.

The cattle all stood outside the corral yesterday and watched while the vet worked on Rose.  When I let them back into the corral yesterday they spent some time checking out the head gate area where we worked.  Today several times throughout the day I saw small groups of cows studying the head gate and area around it.  Once time, when I heard a mournful moo, I thought another cow was in trouble.  Nope. A few cows were near the head gate and one must have been sad.

I have a hole in my herd and at my ranch.

Rose is ill

For the last two or three days I've seen Rose off by herself in the loafing shed while the other cattle are eating at the hay bales or laying under the trees in the north pasture.  Rose was still chewing her cud and walking out to the bales to eat.  The other cattle pick on Rose so I figured she just wanted to be left alone.

This morning Rose didn't look good.  She was standing in the loafing shed.  She appeared to be favoring her left rear leg and was standing on the point of her hoof.  When I approached she moved and stood on all four hooves.

Still Rose didn't look right.  Her back was arched and her head hung low.  Donna came over and agreed Rose looked ill.  Rose's back hind quarters seemed weak.  I called the vet.  The main cattle vet was off for the day but the backup cattle vet could see her.

I got my stock trailer and using the pickup's four wheel drive blasted through the deep snow.  By now Rose was laying down in the loafing shed. We decided to try to load her from the loafing shed rather than make her walk into the loading corral.

I had a temporary corral panel on one side and the trailer door swung open on the other side.  I stacked two pallets, one smaller than the other, behind the trailer to make it easier for Rose to step into the trailer as the step up into the trailer can be a big one.

It wasn't too hard to get Rose to stand up and move to the back of the trailer. Rose was hesitant to step onto a wooden pallet.  As I was moving around her to grab her leg and lift it onto the pallet Rose bolted and ran around the trailer door into the corral.  She headed towards the loading corral but then slipped and fell on the hard slick snow.

Donna and I tried to get Rose up but we couldn't without her help.  Initially she laid all stretched out on the ground even her neck and head. She was breathing hard. We let her rest a little bit and tried again.  No luck.  More rest and eventually she lifted her head and neck off the ground.

Eventually we gave up and I called the vet and asked her to come over.  Fortunately I do not live too far from her office.

A half hour to hour later the vet and her assistant arrived.  As they approached Rose, Rose got up on her own. She was wobbly but we guided Rose into the loading ramp and then down to the head gate which we closed to hold her in place.

The vet checked Rose.  Her temperature was 102 degrees, a little high.  Her heart was racing.  She was breathing a little hard.  The vet reached her arm way into Rose to check her insides.  Her stool seemed fine.  Rose is pregnant but no sign of a mummied calf corpse.  Her rumen was somewhat hard which was not normal.  This could be due to what she has eaten, if it is too rough or stemy, or perhaps she hasn't drank enough water to aid in her digestion.

Rose could have swallowed a sharp metal object which cut her insides.  The vet didn't find any objects but that doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

So, did Rose:

• swallow a sharp object?
• not get enough water and that threw her digestion off?
• is injured from falling on slippery snow?
• is injured from another cow or cows ramming her?
• and the injury and pain threw her eating and drinking patterns off?

It's unknown.

The vet gave Rose a shot for pain and a shot of antibiotics.  I filled 3/4 of a large pail with warm water and the vet inserted a long hose down Rose's mouth and into her stomach and then pumped the water mixed with some electrolytes down the tube.  Finally the vet inserted a metal tube in Rose's mouth and put a long magnet down the tube.  It took two tries before Rose swallowed the magnet.  The magnet will attract any metal objects and should stop them from causing harm.  The magnet will always stay in Rose.

I let Rose out of the head gate and she walked right over to the covered roof west of the barn.  I had spread out a bunch of fresh straw for her.  Rose checked out the straw, chewed on some straw or grass clump, and stood for a while before laying down.  That is where she is now.

I closed the gates to this part of the corral so she is not bothered by the other cattle.  I put out a fresh bale of hay in a wooden feeder by the barn.  I took some sections of hay and laid them on the straw near Rose.  She took a one bite of the hay and weakly chewed on it.

I checked on Rose several times, the last time a few minutes ago.  Each time she was laying in a different position so she is moving around.

Now to wait and see if she recovers.  The vet bill was $208.

As I found Rose this morning.

Getting ready to pump water into Rose.  The blood is from injecting the antibiotics into a vein in her neck.

Waiting to be let free.

When I pulled the trailer back to the hay shed I went faster than normal through the gate so I wouldn't get stuck in the snow.  Unfortunately I clipped the gate with the back part of the trailer and bent the bottom bolt.

I tried hammering the bolt straight using a sledgehammer but was starting to bent the gate and not the bolt.  So I got my tractor and hooked a chain to the bolt to pull and straighten it.  I couldn't quite see the bolt from the tractor cab and ended up bending the bolt the other way.  I then pushed the bolt and gate with my tractor and straightened the bolt.  I had the bale spear on the tractor and while I could see the main spear and avoid the gate, I couldn't see the two smaller spears and one spear pushed against the gate rail bending it.

   Can anything else go wrong today, or is this the end?

I used the sledgehammer to straighten the gate rail.  Now my nice beautiful gate has an imperfection.

Aliens took my cow

This morning when I went outside I found Beulah standing in the middle pasture by the gate to the north pasture.

What?! 

I let Beulah back into the north pasture where the two large hay bales are located.  Before I could chew Beulah out she gave me this 'what took you so long' attitude.''

She must have broken through the fence for some reason. Why?!  Obviously it is not because the grass is greener on the other side of the fence!

This reminds me of a recent documentary I had watched.  Encounters at the End of the World.  In this documentary they show a penguin who goes 'insane' and instead of following the other penguins to the ocean, turns and walks towards the middle of Antarctic and certain death.  Maybe Beulah temporarily went insane and decided to head into the middle pasture.

I walked along the fence to find where she broke through the fence.  Should be easy to do as the snow had few tracks in it as the cattle spend most of their time around the hay bales or in the corral.

I found only one spot where tracks came to the fence.  It was under a large tree along a part of the fence I had rebuilt taller and into five strands a few years ago.  Nothing was broken.  While there were tracks on the other side of the fence no signs Beulah had somehow jumped over the fence.  It makes no sense to jump a taller fence under tree branches when down the fence line the fence is shorter with only three strands.

I crossed the fence and followed the tracks through the snow.  I followed them where they went along the fence and along the river.  I didn't follow where they went into the middle of the pasture.

The tracks were fresh except for a second set of tracks.  Those tracks were partially filled in by drifting snow.  They were cattle tracks and not deer tracks.  It is hard to tell how old they were.  In the morning the temperature was above freezing and snow no longer drifted. All the cattle were in the corral yesterday until 5 pm when I let them out to feed on the two new bales of hay I had placed in the north pasture.  The drifted tracks could have been a few hours old.

Still no indication of how Beulah crossed the fence.  While the cattle have not used the river to cross between the north and middle pastures, and it would be very difficult to do so based on the terrain and fencing along the river in most of the north pasture, I have found with cattle nothing is impossible.

The river is partially iced over along its sides and where the main flow does not go.  So I would see tracks coming from the river.  Nope.  Didn't see any.

I walked along the fence again.  Nope.  No signs how Beulah crossed.

I gave up.  I spent over an hour looking for how Beulah crossed the fence and I had other things to do.

Apparently aliens came and abducted Beulah for tests and probes.  When they returned Beulah the aliens put her in the wrong pasture.

Moving cow manure from the loafing shed

This afternoon I shoveled cow manure from the loafing shed.  Unlike horses who don't go to the bathroom where they rest, cows don't care.  I planned on spreading some straw for them to lay on but first I wanted to get rid of the manure.

Most all of the manure was frozen. For some of the manure I had to use a sledgehammer to break it free from the ground.  Big and small I loaded onto a scoop shovel and tossed over the corral gate into the NE pasture.  There was lots of manure in the four stalls.

While a few cattle came and went to the water trough, the cattle spent the afternoon eating and eating from the two large hay bales I placed in the north pasture yesterday afternoon.  So I was undisturbed for the most part.  Rose came before I was through shoveling manure.  She stood in a stall I already had cleaned.  So I got a bale of straw and spread it out for her.  After I did she laid down on the straw.

Once I cleaned all four stalls I got a wheelbarrow to move the loose straw from when the cattle had broken a number of bales.  The cattle saw me with the wheelbarrow and were interested and a number of them came into the corral to check things out.  I was only able to spread straw in two more stalls before I quit for the day.  I was getting cold and I had to move around the cattle.

Beulah made Rose move as Beulah wanted that stall.  Typical Beulah behavior - she thinks she is the queen.

Today I noticed Buddy shadowing Spice.  The previous owners said she was bred...  I didn't see Buddy mount her but he stayed by her all the times I seen him and would follow her around.  I hope Spice is already bred as I don't really want a Fall calf.


In the stall Rose lays in, I formerly stored in half of the stall some railroad ties, posts, snow fence and a few other items.  A month ago I moved all that stuff.  With more cattle I wanted the extra room for the cattle to lay out of the wind and snow.

Rose

Early hay bale

Today I decided to give the cattle a second hay bale a day early.  They would have eaten all of their hay by Monday morning.  However a Winter storm is predicted for Monday and I didn't want to be out moving a hay bale in the storm, even if I have a tractor with a cab.

Winter Storm Warning remains in effect until 8 PM MST Monday... 

* impacts/timing: Arctic air will pour across the Continental Divide late Sunday
  into early Monday. Gusty winds, blowing snow and additional heavy snow will
  lead to dangerous travel conditions, especially during the overnight and
  early morning hours Monday. 

* Snow accumulations: an additional 3 to 7 inches throughout the valleys with up
  to another foot throughout the higher terrain. 

* Winds: north to east winds of 15 to 30 mph winds will be developing and cause
  wind chills of 20 -to 30 -degrees. 

In the afternoon some of the cattle were eating and some were standing around chewing their cud. I shoveled a path through the snow to where I wanted the new feeder, shoveled the area clear of snow, and laid a wooden pallet down for the hay bale.  Buddy just stood there chewing his chew and watching me, even when I shoveled a path through the snow a few feet in front of him.  When I carried the wooden pallet I had to detour around him as he now stood on my shoveled path.

I put some hay out in the corral's wooden feeder and all the cattle came in to check it out.  I closed the gate locking the cattle in the corral so I could bring out the new bale undisturbed.

After I was done with the bale I let the cattle out of the corral.  With two feeders now was the time to let Sugar and Spice join the herd.  Sugar ran out of her part of the corral immediately with Spice right behind.  A quick stand and look around and then these two went for the feeder with the eaten hay.

Big Red was not happy with the newbies.  She pushed the Spice all the way over to the new bale.  Sugar and Spice wanted to eat as all they had today was to finish off yesterday's bale.

Even though the cattle evenly split between the two feeders, and there was plenty of room at each feeder, there was some jostling around their feeder..  Sugar and Spice were excited and they tended to run and not walk when they moved.  A few times they kicked up their rear heels.

Then Spice went by Buddy and he got interested.  Spice wasn't comfortable with Buddy sniffing her and these two walked and ran at times around the pasture. Buddy didn't give up.  Sugar then came over and for a bit was pushing heads against Buddy. "Leave my daughter alone!" Buddy didn't move. After a bit Sugar went over to another tree and rubbed her neck vigorously against it until another cow walked over and introduced herself.

Sugar then ran around the east half of the pasture with her head held high and looking around.  She can run fast!  The snow flew as she ran. And her big udder with the white streak flopped from side to side.  Some of the other cattle initially followed her then just stood and watched her. "She's crazy."  After a short time Sugar ran back to the herd and the hay.

It was a good idea to keep Sugar and Spice in the corral for a while until they adjusted to their new home.  If I had let them out when they first got here they may have headed for the high hills in order to get back where they had come from.

Eventually Buddy finished his sniff test of Spice and quit following her.

Judging from how Sugar acts and watches she is an intelligent cow. Time will tell how she fits in the pecking order with my other two intelligent cows: Mama and Beulah.  From the start Mama stood back from the bales and watched Sugar and Spice and the commotion.  Beulah was distracted by the new bale for a while before she stood and watched the new cattle.

That is how they sort out: Mama is smarter from the get-go but Beulah is much bigger and quickly catches on.

Donna always informs me when she visits about how Mama watches her and gives her the evil eye.  Donna is now trying to get Dan on her side in convincing me to sell Mama.  That ain't gonna happen as Mama is my favorite cow even if sometimes she can be a pain.

New bale

Two bales

Six inch snow

It snowed very early this morning.  Six inches.

The sun came out for a while as I was taking photos.

The ski resort is in clouds.

Female box elder tree seeds stay on the tree until Spring.

Most of the cattle were snow covered.  Here is Big Red.

Tractor four wheel drive

My tractor has four wheel drive.  That's what I thought until I got confused.

Today I went to haul another large hay bale for the cattle.  It has snowed a little since I last hauled a bale.  I drove into the hay bale and pushed against it to make sure it was tight on the bale spear.  My back tires spun a little.

When I went to back up my rear tractor tires spun and I couldn't move but an inch or so.  Really?  I had no trouble last year to haul large bales through the snow.

The ground is frozen hard.  The ground was saturated with moisture before the freeze so it can be a little slick.  Maybe that's my problem.

I lowered the bale and tried to back up and away from it.  I still spun.  What in the world?!

I tried cat litter under the tires.  I had some loose hay and put that under the tires.  No go.

Earlier I had read in the tractor's manual about taking it out of four wheel drive, especially when driving on hard (paved) surfaces.   I never put that into action.  I checked the tractor manual again.

The section about Mechanical Front Wheel Drive (MFWD):
http://manuals.deere.com/omview/OMRE199128_19/OUO1043_0000270_19_15JAN01_1.htm

The photo didn't look like my tractor's cab and levers.  Maybe my tractor doesn't have four wheel drive?    I noticed the manual said: "If equipped".

Here is my tractor's cab. It doesn't quite match the manual's photo.
The yellow lever in front runs the tractor's Power Take Off (PTO).  The orange lever in back...

Here is the photo of the orange lever.  I focused more on the 540 and 540E than the little picture of the tractor.   540 is the PTO speed.  With this lever by the PTO lever I guessed the orange lever had something to do with the PTO's speed.

I looked all over the tractor and could not find a four wheel driver lever.  Maybe my tractor doesn't have four wheel drive?


Donna came over shortly with some baklava she had made and so I had her drive my four wheel drive pickup to pull my tractor.  I thought if I could just get the tractor tires off of the icy ground and into the snow I would have traction.

Donna pulled my tractor into the snow.

However when I tried to drive the tractor again the rear tires just spun and the tractor wouldn't move but an inch or so.  Donna was certain my tractor was a four wheel drive and the four wheel drive wasn't engaged.

We looked all over the tractor's cab.  Donna finally asked what the orange lever did.  I thought something with the PTO.  She had me try the lever.  Now my tractor could drive carrying the large hay bale.  It was the four wheel drive lever.

In hindsight it seems obvious when looking at the little images of the tractor.  But the one photo is a close up.  Imagine you are sitting in the tractor seat in the larger photo looking down.  Add that with the manual's photo and description and with some sort of tunnel vision I had in the cold weather and it may explain why I was so dumb to not notice it.

Thinking back I think I must had moved the orange lever this past Summer when I was running the yellow PTO lever when I was cutting and baling my hay.

Well... now I know what the orange lever is for.

Ski resort view

The Whitefish Mountain ski resort opened today for the season.  This is the view this morning.  Zooming in from my place makes the mountain look small.

Cold and cattle

This morning the cattle were standing outside the corral.  They didn't eat all of the large hay bale already, did they?

I let the cattle into the corral and fed them several small hay bales.  I went out and checked and there still was a days worth of hay in the metal feeder.  While it was sunny, the temperature was in the teens and the wind was blowing hard.  It was cold. It felt like North Dakota or Minnesota in the Winter.  The cattle wanted into the corral and to the loafing shed.  Even just outside the corral it was more out of the wind than where the metal feeder sits.

The cattle stayed in the corral all day.  When not eating they laid in the loafing shed.  I fed them hay several more times, the last time being a half hour ago.

Before letting the cattle into the corral I spread some straw in the loafing shed for them to lay on.  It would have been easier to move and spread the straw if the cattle hadn't gotten into the straw earlier this Fall and broke a lot of bales apart.

This is Panda.  She was the cow that got out over to the neighbor's place a few weeks ago.

Cylinder fix

Winter is here.  While we didn't get as much snow as the forecasters had predicted, it was enough to blanket everything.  So the projects have come to an end of the year.

I didn't get:

1. the hay field completely disc'd,
2. the logs cleaned up in the pastures,
3. the NE / hayshed fence rebuilt, or
4. the wood stove room redone.

There is always next year.

Part of what slowed me down for discing the hay field (other than searching for days for the missing tractor's 3 point bolt) was that the disc's hydraulic cylinder broke.   I accidentally broke it over a week ago.  I unhooked the tractor from the disc in order to drive to the gas station to fill the tractor with diesel.  In my hurry I forgot to also unhook the two hydraulic hoses from the tractor.   The hoses didn't unhook themselves, or break.  What broke was a pipe fitting from the hose into the cylinder.

I happened to have another fitting to match the odd fitting.  However the one end broke off in the cylinder.  Curtis has a tool to unscrew pieces threaded into another object.   The broken fitting was tight in the cylinder.  Between the two of us - with a cheater bar for leverage - we slowly began to unscrew the fitting.  But when Curtis took over the wrench the cylinder broke.

Seriously?!

The cylinder is American made and I figured I could get a replacement part.  I had to email the company to get a list of local distributors as they didn't have the list on their web site.

A distributor was just down the road a little ways. I took the broken part and the entire cylinder to the store.  While I said I wanted to replace the part he tried to order a whole new cylinder for $170 (I'm sure he initially said $70).  I insisted on just the part.  He wasn't sure the company sold the part.  Really?!

He called the company.  Of course they sold the part.  $45 plus shipping.

Today I finally put the cylinder back together.  Too late to use it this year.  Next year.

Broken part

Cylinder taken apart.

Fixed cylinder

Snow and Excited Cattle

Snowed a little more overnight.  Did not melt today.  Winter may be here to stay.  So much for getting more projects done this year.

The cattle ate the first large hay bale and were standing outside the corral gate this afternoon.  I gave them a couple small hay bales while I hauled out another large hay bale.  This time I used a bale of this year's hay.  I used the bale that I accidentally started to unload before completely wrapping with twine.  The bale held together as I hauled it to the far end of the pasture.

After sundown I let the cattle out of the corral to go to the hay bale.  I didn't plan on leading them and they just milled around outside of the corral.  So I walked partway to the bale and they followed.  Half had passed me on their way to the bale when I began to talk to some of them nearby.  All of them quit walking and turned around to stand and look at me.

They wouldn't go on until I started walking out to lead them.  As I did Buddy got excited/annoyed.  He turned towards me and put his head down and began to jump up and down.

Uh oh.

As Buddy approached I told him to calm down.  He continued.  I was out in the open and immediately began walking quickly to the nearest tree.  Buddy followed.  I got behind the large tree and stood on a small pile of tires at the bottom of the tree.  Buddy pushed a number of the tires around on the other side of the tree for a minute before he settled down.

He moved back into the middle of some cows.  The cows still stood around.  This time I went around the south of the herd to get ahead of them.  They began to follow me again towards the hay bale.  I could see a few cows getting excited and Buddy in the distance again began to get excited.  I ran to the next group of trees in the middle of the pasture and stood behind a large one.  The cows and Buddy ran past.  Now they could see the hay bale at the far end.  They ran over to the bale.

Big Red was one of the last cows to run by.  After she got by me and the tree she turned around and started to come towards me.  I yelled at her to back off.  She whirled around and ran to the hay bale.

I don't know what put a bee in their bonnet.  Maybe me talking to them as they initially walked to the hay bale confused them, then annoyed them.