Rain the day after

I was tired today.  I got up briefly when I awoke with the realization I hadn't latched the side barn door last night when I gave Mama and Diamond some of the loose hay from the baler.  Mama and Diamond didn't realize they could push the door open so all was fine.

I went back to bed and dreamt and dreamt.  I got up after 11 am.  After a bit I sat then laid on the couch.  Daisy was laying/sleeping on the couch's top.  I then had dreams of me dreaming.  Crazy.

Dream A had dream B.  Then in dream A I would realize I had just had dream B.  Before waking up from Dream A I then had dream C and the same thing happened where I realized I was dreaming.  Dream A then had dream D and the same thing happened.  Then I woke up briefly to see it was 12:15 pm.  I quickly fell back to sleep and dreamed until 12:35 pm when Donna arrived to help me move the cattle.

Cattle movement.  Time for the three remaining heifers to go out to join the herd - and the bull.  It went fairly well as the heifers went where they were told.  Except for one black heifer, #90.  She veered away from the open gate and the other two heifers who ran through the gate.  #90 ran along the fence.  By now the whole herd came running from across the middle pasture.  I had to go two-thirds the way down the fence line to herd the heifer back to the open gate.  After another veer away from the gate the heifer circled around and went through the gate just as the herd caught up to us on their side of the fence.  I got the gate shut in time.

Then it was time to move Mama and Diamond from the south corral to the fruit tree area and grass.  They still haven't had their calves otherwise it would be easier to have them be with the herd.  Mama and Diamond had just finished eating their hay bale last night so the timing was excellent. This move also had a hiccup.  I was able to herd Diamond through the small gate in the board fence but Mama didn't want to go through that gate.  Going through meant stepping on a few flat concrete blocks I have in the ground.  They used to be borders to my garden when I had one.

Mama didn't want to step on the concrete.  Herding her was going nowhere.  She knew what I wanted her to do but she refused to go through that gate.  Eventually I had her go through the NE pasture gate and then through the large green gate into the fruit tree area.  It helped that Diamond was already in the fruit tree area otherwise Mama would have preferred to stay in the NE pasture.

Where was Donna when herding Mama?  She was in or by the safety of her car.  Donna is convinced Mama is out to get her.  Donna is not afraid of any other cattle, or either of the bulls I have had, but Donna has seen Mama in action and knows how fast she can be.

Moving the heifers allowed me to see what mischief they had been up to in the fruit tree area.   A few days ago Donna had gotten some of my rhubarb. I have metal panels around the rhubarb and either Donna didn't re-latch the panels securely, or the heifers saw her in the rhubarb area and then thought if Donna could get in then so could they.  I found one panel laying on the ground and all the rhubarb and strawberry plants were eaten.  I hadn't weeded the area this year and the heifers also ate all the weeds and grass growing there.  Nothing was left.

Plants are all gone.

Toxicity:

Rhubarb stalks contain oxalic acid, which is toxic when eaten in large amounts. Most animals avoid rhubarb, but hungry animals will eat almost anything. Use a process of elimination to identify the animal eating your rhubarb and then take action to protect young, tender stalks.

Symptoms of rhubarb poisoning in grazing animals include diarrhea, depression, trembling, and drinking and urinating more frequently. Animals are rarely poisoned by consuming small amounts of leaves, but in large amounts, rhubarb leaves can cause kidney failure and even death.

Hungry animals?  You can see in the photos there is plenty of grass where the heifers were located.  This heifers are greedy and willful and that is why they had to eat everything.  Other years before I had different fencing around the rhubarb the cattle would reach and sample rhubarb leaves but tended to avoid eating them.

So I am going to have to keep an eye on these heifers over the next few days.  Hopefully splitting the leaves among the three animals means the amount was low enough to not cause problems.


That's not all.  I had protected a small black walnut tree growing in the fruit tree area.  The heifers pulled the two metal rods from the ground and moved the roll of fencing protecting the tree.  Then ate the tree.  One of the rods was still through the fence roll.

After I replaced the tree protection

This photo is of my other black walnut tree that is in the front yard.  The heifers weren't able to get to this tree when they were in the front yard eating grass.

I have a small current berry bush.  The heifers figured a way to bend the wire fencing and got in to eat that bush.

I could see where they had attacked other fencing protection for trees and bushes and those held.  You know, they have lots of grass, but these heifers want what is protected... just because.


These flowers had not flowered when the heifers were in the front yard.  Otherwise I am sure they would have figured out some way to eat them.

I counted the hay bales.  It appears I made 57 of them.

It is fortunate I finished the baling yesterday.  It has rained lightly off-and-on all day today.  It never dries completely between rain showers.  The forecast is for this to continue all the way through Sunday night.  Having wet hay for this long could mean mold.

During a break this evening I went for a bicycle ride.  I needed to ride to charge my energy back up.  Otherwise after moving the cattle and having breakfast I fell back asleep for the rest of the afternoon until almost 7 pm.

During my ride I rode by three fields with hay on the ground.  I am very surprised.  One field by the school was cut a week ago last Tuesday and Wednesday, two to three days before I cut my field.  When I was rushing about trying to fix my baler's belt on Tuesday I drove by this field.  The farmer had only baled a couple of rows and his tractor and baler were in the field.  Today I saw that he had only baled about a dozen rows.  The rest of the hay is wet and brown on the ground and the tractor and baler is sitting in the field.  He has a big new tractor and newer baler.  I saw him cut his field.  He has a newer mower/conditioner (moco) and was zooming along the field to cut it. He looked to be moving more than twice the speed I was able to when cutting my field.  He has the horsepower and baler speed to have finished baling his field by now.  His field is maybe twice the size of my field - at most.

I was surprised the two other fields were cut and the hay down.  They were cut sometimes after I cut my field and I cut my hay at the very last one could cut and still have it to dry and bale.   Didn't this farmer know the weather forecast?  And why both of his fields? They are large fields.  They were nice fields.  They are irrigated, and I had seen this Spring the farmer fertilizing his two fields.  Crazy.  I wonder if he can salvage his hay or if it will get moldy.

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat

I got my haying done.  Amazing.  Especially after the disaster of yesterday.

Yesterday I ended up raking the entire field.  There were clumps of 'not dry' hay here and there, and since the raking was going well I did the entire field.

It did sprinkle briefly while I raked.  Again it was sunny when the rain fell.  Ironically on the radio the song, "Walking on Sunshine" was playing as it rained.

Rain cloud

Then at 2 pm I started to bale the hay.  I got about 10 feet when one belt broke / came undone.  No idea why.  I had earlier run the baler without hay to make sure everything turned and worked.  Why would the belt break at the start of putting hay in it when there was no pressure from a bale of hay?

I rethreaded the belt and discovered it was 10 inches too short.  What?!   I checked and doubled checked I threaded the belt correctly.  Yup, it was.  I remembered one belt had a short piece added and wondered if it was this belt.  I searched the hay over and over for a short piece of belt.  Nothing.

In the past I had a belt get twisted.  I unlaced the belt, untwisted it, and rethreaded the belt and re-laced it.  I didn't have to perform any extra stretching to re-lace the belt.  I tried to come up with some method to stretch the belt together but had nothing.  I asked my neighbor Curtis for ideas.  With a 10 inch gap he thought it couldn't be stretched that much and that a piece of belt was missing.

I looked through the hay again for a missing piece of belt.  Nothing.

By now it was 4 pm.  I called the John Deere dealership to see if they could fix the belt.  They are located south of Kalispell on the other side of town.  Rush hour traffic was bad but I drove there.

My baler is very old.  Apparently balers don't come with 12 inch belts anymore.  They didn't have a wide belt in stock to patch my belt.  They had a 6 inch belt and they could cut 12 inches and turn the belt sideways.  That wouldn't cover the 10 inch gap. They looked up the belt's specifications and found the length is supposed to be 40 ft, 6 1/2 inches.  My belt was 40 ft, 3 inches.  What?   3 inches versus 10 inches?  What gives?

They suggested I remove another belt from the baler and we measure it to get my baler's belt's length.  Back across town and rush hour traffic.  Traffic was so bad I had to wait for a green light in order to turn right.

I removed the belt next to the broken belt.  The left side of the hook pin - which was next to the open space of the missing belt broke off when I tried to pull it out.  I had to remove the hook pin to the right.  Against the other belt, and, oh, I am left handed.  I had 3/4 of the pin removed when the pin broke off.  It was very difficult but I finally got the entire pin removed and the belt off the baler.

I tried a different road around Kalispell.  Traffic was bad that way also.  The dealership closed at 5:30 pm and it was now 5:35 pm.  The repair guy stayed after work to help me.

We measured the second belt.  It was an inch shorter than the broken belt.   What?!

When the broken belt had come off it ruined the lacing.  So that had to be redone. Which meant trimming a few inches on each side of the belt in order to put new laces.   I decided to add the short section.  It wouldn't be the 10 inches but would add three or four inches to the belt's length.  I could always trim the length if too long.

The repair department manger also stayed as the repair guy could not write up the work order when the repair was done.  He helped with the repair to make it go quicker.  The adding of new laces is time consuming and labor intensive.  Especially since the tool they had was for 6 inches.  That meant they had to do it twice, and to count the number of lace pins correctly so they would match the other side's pins.  The pins have a long and short side and they had to be matched.   Here is an example of what they lace pins look like.

One sets the pins in a 'tool'....

and then uses a vice to squeeze the tool and force the lace pins through the belt.

It took the three of us two hours to repair the belt.  The cost of my repair: $418.  About $56 for the lace pins, lace hooks, and belt.  About $361 for labor.  The dealership charges $125 an hour for labor.  My belt is no longer carried or sold by John Deere but one can buy a new aftermarket belt for $471.

Crazy.

Back home I tried to install the belt I had taken off the baler to measure.  That belt was now short by about 3 or 4 inches.  What?!   I had the tension released on the baler.  What happened?  I then remembered that Wyatt helped me untwist a severely twisted belt last year, we used his tractor to pull on my baler's spring tensioner to reduce even more of the tension.  I got a jack and used it to push on the tension roller.  I was getting my missing space back.  One more crank and I can put the lace hook in and secure the belt.  The jack slipped off the roller.  After a few more tries of jacking I got the belt laced and hooked.

Now on to the 'broken' belt.  Well... now with the new piece the belt was a little too long.  The belt I had replaced last year(?) was a touch loose and I could still bale hay.  To cut the 12 inch belt and re-lace it would take too long.  So I went with the belt being loose.  The lace hooks for this belt (I had two as the dealership didn't have 12 inch lace hooks) were difficult to slide in and lace the belt.  Eventually I got the hooks in and the belt laced.

It was after 9 pm now. I had lost 7 hours to the broken belt.  I had to try and test the baler.  It worked.  Before dark I was able to go around 1 1/3 rows and make four bales.  The next morning in better light I could see several bales were not entirely even.  One side was a touch shorter.  I think it is a result of the looser belt.  It affects the other side of the bale.  To compensate I learned to feed the hay in that side more than the other side and I would get a straight bale.  When I have time in the off-season I will shorten those belts.

It was windy this morning and that made for light to no dew.  I was able to start baling the hay at 8:45 am.  I needed an early start as I pretty much had my whole field to bale before night.

As you can see in the following photo, it was windy.  Some times the wind would blow/roll part of the windrows.

The sky was clear when I started.  But as the day went on clouds appeared.  Then early afternoon I saw rain to the north along the mountains.  Just before 4 pm a rain cloud came overhead and it started to rain lightly.  I had two hours of baling left to do but I stopped.  It sprinkled lightly for 10 to 15 minutes.  The sun came back out and I took a short nap in the tractor while I waited for it to dry.

It wasn't completely dry when I saw another rain cloud forming west of me and coming this way.  This was a larger cloud and I wasn't sure if this was the start to solid rain.  So I started baling again.  I made one bale when it was started to sprinkle again.  This time it only last 3 to 5 minutes.  No rain clouds looked to be forming so I waited almost an hour and half for the hay to dry.

At 7 pm I started baling again.  The hay was damp, but not wet.  The temperature had dropped quite a bit by now so not much more drying would be happening.  I finished baling around 9 pm.  Rain clouds were again forming north of me.

I cleaned up the corners and elsewhere of slightly missed hay.  I had a small starter core of hay in the baler.  I didn't want to leave it in the baler so I tried to dump it out by the barn. But the hay core sat in the belts and would not come out.  I had to use long pry bars, and after lots of effort I was able to finally pry the bale out of the baler and put that core in the barn.

I will have to count tomorrow in better light, but I think I made 56 bales.  By far a record amount for my field.  I was going to run out of baling twine so I had Donna run to the store for me in the early afternoon to buy more twine.  I used it on the last half dozen bales.

It is raining tonight and the forecast is for rain for the next three or four days.  So I had to finish baling by tonight.  I made it and succeeded but the stress level the past two days has been high.

Heifer problem

At a quarter to three this morning as I was falling asleep I heard a loud bang.  Then nothing.  I decided to get up and look outside.  It was a full moon so I could see somewhat.  I found the fence by the driveway was broken.  The top board on the wooden fence is 16 ft long and it was on but one end was tilted up and the other end tilted down.  Inside the fruit tree area was three heifers,  The fourth heifer, cow #7's last year calf, was in the back yard.  The heifer had knocked the board loose when she jumped the fence.

I ran and closed the gate to the road.  I opened the corral gate and the heifer went inside.  I left her in the corral for the night.  Before going back to bed I nailed the board back on the fence.
 
In the morning I let the heifer out of the corral and herded her back into the fruit tree area to be with the other heifers.  Beulah's heifer mounted #7's heifer and #7's heifer just stood there.  She was in standing heat.

I went about to hand raking the cut hay in the corners by the patio.  A few minutes later I saw #7's heifer walking down the driveway to the back yard.  This time she cleared the fence without knocking a board loose.  I had the corral gate already open but by now I had the corral gate to the north pasture also open as I planned on later driving the tractor and baler out to start baling.  I ran and closed the gate to the north pasture.  I put the heifer into the loading corral as there is grass growing there.  She hadn't had anything to eat in the corral last night, and since she was in the fruit tree area for a short while, I figured she wasn't hungry.  She was mooing for the bull but she also took time to eat grass.

I plan on letting the heifers out to be with the bull on Thursday, the 20th.  But I decided since #7 was being a pain I would let her out to be with the bull now as she was in heat really bad and was obsessed with getting satisfaction from the bull.

The cows, and of course Toby, checked out the new heifer when I let her into the middle pasture with the herd.  Later as I was raking hay I saw the heifer walk to the middle/north pasture gate.  She had her tail sticking out as she walked.   She wasn't going to the bathroom.  She had just been satisfied by the bull.

Bathroom break

Disaster day with the haying.  I only got four bales made.  I'll write more about it tomorrow if I survive.  Things are not going well.

Making rain while the sun shines

The weather forecast had a greater chance of rain this afternoon than on either Saturday or Sunday.  But the opposite happened.  Less rain clouds today than either Saturday or Sunday.  The word is "less" as there were a few rain clouds around, just not over the ranch.

That is not to say the ranch did not get rain.  Mid afternoon the sun was shining and it rained lightly for three to five minutes.  Later in the early evening I had a brief light rain shower that lasted a minute or so.

Raining lightly as the sun shines

So disaster was avoided today.  The forecast is for no rain Tuesday.  Based on the poor performance of the forecasts lately... we'll see.

The hay is pretty much dry and can be baled tomorrow.  I checked a few rows and in thick windrows I found slightly green moist hay underneath.   Not much, not too bad, but not ideal.

Since I had the baler hooked up to the tractor, greased and ready to go for tomorrow, I hooked the hay rake up to the pickup.  Before dark I had raked seven rows.  The rows have plenty of hay in each so I didn't need/want to rake two rows together.  To make room to rake each row over I did have to rake two rows together.  I wasn't keen on raking my windrows as I don't need to rake two rows together to make a decent row to bale, but for peace of mind I may end doing so.

Thundershower

This afternoon I heard a few rumbles of thunder, then it rained for a little bit.  The cloud was right over the ranch.  Fortunately it lasted less than 5 minutes and was not heavy.  So I survived that one.  Then like yesterday a bigger and bluer - much bigger and bluer - cloud was to the SW.  Again, fortunately, the cloud went SE to over Flathead Lake and away from the ranch.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is pretty iffy.  Today no rain was forecast... well, until today.  Tomorrow scattered showers are forecast.  So we'll see if I survive tomorrow.

The hay is drying.  But it is not ready to bale.  Probably Tuesday.

Hayfield cut

I finished cutting my hayfield at 6 pm.  Mid afternoon, while cutting, one big raincloud was to the West then came over.  It sprinkled for several minutes.  Just enough that I had to use the tractor's windshield wipers several times.  I kept cutting.  It could have been worse.  Twenty minutes later a larger and bluer raincloud formed to the SW.   That cloud acted normally.  That is, it headed to the SE over Kalispell and to Flathead Lake.

My cutting the grass stirred up the pollen.  It was flying through the air as I cut.  I was glad I had a tractor cab.  Even so I was sneezing a lot.   Even now my eyes are itchy.   The brief rain sprinkles made the pollen stick to the haybine.  I had to use a brush and an air compressor to clean it off the haybine when I was all done cutting.

I didn't start cutting the hayfield until after 1 pm.  This morning I moved the four heifers from the yard over to the fruit tree area.  The yard was mostly eaten down.  Overnight the heifers got half of the tarp off the little shed over the well.  Fortunately they hadn't gotten to tearing off the shed's roof shingles (yet!) when I found the tarp off the shed.

I had planned on moving the heifers from the yard to the NE pasture, then to the fruit tree area later.  But it took longer to eat the yard, and I prefer to have the fruit tree area eaten down before letting the heifers re-join the herd (and bull) on the 20th.  Better the heifers in the fruit tree area than the whole herd.

The problem?  While I had upgraded the tree protection in the NE pasture earlier this week, I had done nothing in the fruit tree area.  I spent the morning patching fixes to the fences around the trees.

After I cleaned the haybine and put it away I saw a large beautiful bald eagle circle nearby low over my cut hayfield.  It seemed like it was going to slowly land but instead it reached down in the field and picked up something then flew away to the trees in my pasture.  I could see it carrying some animal in its talons.  Not a mouse.  Bigger.  No gophers or pockets gophers in my hayfield.  It must have been a smallish bird.

Making hay until the sun sets

I worked all day on cutting my hayfield and I'm not done.  With no real dew this morning I started cutting at 9:40 am and quit at 10 pm.

Even though there was no dew the grass and alfalfa was hard to cut.  I had to cut in my lowest/slowest gear until about noon when a breeze picked and the grass/alfalfa changed.  Then I was able to drive in my second lowest gear.  I don't know... but I suspect the grass/alfalfa contained more moisture in the plants until noon and that is why it was harder to cut.  Before going to my lowest gear I tried the third lowest, then the second lowest.  Each time I would have to stop after a short while and clear grass and alfalfa from the haybine then back up a little and recut a short section where part of the grass wasn't cut due to the clog in the sickle blades.   I also had to recut the last (third) row I had cut the night before as a good portion of the row had grass that wasn't cut due to a clog last night.

So.  This slower than usual cutting meant I didn't finish today.  Thinking back, other times it would take me a day then a few hours the next day to finish.  Tomorrow I have about a third of the field left to cut.  A good part of the day.

Slowing me down was a freak accident.  The hayfield has been a hayfield clear of trees since 1941 - almost 80 years.  I have cut hay.  I plowed the field a few years ago.  I planted the oats/barley/peas crops.  I disked the field and then planted my alfalfa crop.  I have harrowed the field every year.   Then where did a stick that looks to be from a tree stump/root come from?  Apparently squeezed out of the ground just to cause me problems.

I hit this with my haybine mid-afternoon in the hayfield.  The haybine has rock guards to help protect the sickle blades but this fit between the rock guard and bent a sickle blade.  I immediately realized something was wrong when the haybine stopped cutting the grass.   The heavy piece of wood bent and did not break the blade, and this stopped the sickle bar from wobbling as the bent blade would not slide in between the rock guards.

Bent sickle blade

Bending the blade back just broke it off.  I have lots of extra blades and got one to replace this blade.  Another blade was partially broke at the end of the blade elsewhere on the sickle bar, and while the blade still cut fine, I replaced it also.

Now, this doesn't sound too difficult, right?  The first blade replacement went quick.  The second?  Not so fast.  This blade was partially protected by a rock guard which meant I had to loosen the guard.  The ratchet wrench that should fit - didn't.  I then got socket wrench and loosened the guard.

When it came time to put the new blade on I couldn't find it.  It was just there and now it was gone.  Also missing was the broke first blade I had replaced.  I looked all around the haybine.  Nothing.  Around the tractor.  Nothing.  The shed where I got my tools.  Nothing.  My scrap iron pile where I toss old  blades.  Nothing.  The path between the shed and the haybine.  Nothing.  Over and over I looked.  For a half hour at least.  I was getting really upset and frustrated.  The blades should be there and they are not.  I have a problem where when doing two things at once the secondary item is on autopilot and in my short-term memory forgotten immediately.  I hadn't a clue where those blade where.  I must have put them somewhere but... where?

Before I went completely crazy (as I was getting really upset by now) I asked my neighbor Curtis to look for me.  The blades - which should be obvious to see as they are large and shiny - must be in plain sight and I just can't see them.  Curtis spent 20 minutes looking and he could not find them.

I have extra blades but I was concerned the missing blades could be in the hayfield and I did not want to drive over them with a tractor tire.  The blades are so sharp they would cut my tractor tire. And with my luck....      But I gave up and got another blade.

The new problem... this blade's holes were not aligned correctly.  I have the extra blades on an extra sickle bar.  I had to use a hammer to remove the blade when normally one just lightly lifts the blade off the bar.  So when it came time to put the blade on my haybine it would not fit over the bolts.  REALLY?!!! Can nothing work right?!!    I had to drill one hole larger (oblong) in order to get the blade on the haybine's sickle bar.

As I was tightning the bolts on the blade I found the missing blades.  They were on the ground under the sickle bar where I had to replace the second blade.  Why neither Curtis or I could see them is strange.  The broken blade - not shiny or new - was on top of the shiny good blade.  And maybe a few small pieces of grass was over the blades?   Again... strange.

Missing blades where I found them under the sickle bar.

So.  All this 'fooling' around cost me several hours for a 20 minute job.

I grabbed some food to eat in the tractor and went back to cutting the field.

This grass and alfalfa is so moisture laden it may take longer to dry.

And not finishing cutting until Saturday?  One day less to dry before next week's predicted rain.  If I get into a rainy period where the hay doesn't dry and begins to mold it would be a disaster.  Especially with such a great hay crop.

Stress level.  High.

But my grass and alfalfa is so thick and high I am struggling to even cut it.  Waiting until July would make it even more difficult to impossible to cut with my haybine.  All around the Valley the hay crops look good this year.  And since I accidently double fertilized my field my crop is even more lush.  Too much of a good thing?

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.

Re-doing some tree protection

Before I let the 4 heifers into the NE pasture I needed to re-do some of the tree protection as those trees have outgrown the fencing I put around them, and over Winter the cattle have eaten some of the tree parts that stick out of the protection.  I worked on this on-and-off the past few days stealing time away from my hayfield fence rebuild.  I got the tree re-do done yesterday, for once days before I had to finish a project before letting the heifers into this pasture.

Here are a few before and after photos.  I worked on more trees than shown in the photos.

The heifers found the flaw in my temporary tree protection in the backyard for one tree.  I had two overlapping wire panels.  I neglected to wire the panels completely together.  The heifers figured out they could spread the panels apart and get their head in to eat the leaves off the lowest tree branch.  By pushing the panels apart it allowed another heifer to push down on one panel to also reach the lowest branch.  With the damage done - 90% of the leaves eaten off the branch - I didn't bother to wire the panels after I pushed them back together.  This morning I found Little Red spreading the panels apart in an effort to eat the remaining 10% of the leaves.   They have plenty of grass to eat left in the yard.


Below is an example of the damage they did to my tool shed building.  I put back on the building part of the board they tore off the building before I took this photo.

My odds and ends scrap/junk pile in the open section in the tool shed provides amusement to the heifers.  Everyone morning I find they have drug some item or two out and onto the lawn.  There is nothing they can eat, it is just wire and scrap metal pieces.  But they amuse themselves each morning to taking something out of there and spreading the items across the lawn in front of the toolshed.

Broken corral board

Today I was cleaning the wooden hay feeders.  Earlier when I had placed the cut grass in them for the cattle there also were small rocks and small pinecones mixed with the grass.  The cattle left the rocks ands pinecones.  As I cleaned the feeders the heifers came and decided to 'help' by sticking their nose everywhere, pushing on boards, and trying to grab my tools.  *sigh*

As I was cleaning I heard a loud crack of a board breaking. I looked up and saw Mama had broken a board in the corral fence.  She was reaching through the fence to reach the green grass in the hayfield and her weight snapped one board in two.

Before she could figure how to wiggle through the fence I had to first push a broken red feeder in front of the fence.  Then I got a galvanized gate and placed against the fence.

I found a board the exact length (9' 6") I needed.  It was in the middle of a wood pile and it took time to get it out of the pile.  I don't think Mama will break this board.

Nightmare

This morning I woke up from a nightmare.  In my dream the ranch was here but the corral area was different.  There were a couple more very old rundown buildings in the corral.  The fences and fence posts were bad between the coral and the hayfield.  There were two gates, one being a metal tube gate and the other a silver galvanized gate.  Between an old building and part of the corral were a couple corral panels against the old fence to help the fence.  In the back yard was a small travel trailer.  In the travel trailer was a woman who had a horse in the corral.  In the trailer with the woman was a man.  My dad and mother were around as my dad let the woman have her horse in the corral.  The woman planned to leave later that afternoon with her horse and trailer.

I was working in the corral when the cattle came into the corral from the north pasture as that gate had been left open.  The metal tube gate in the corner of the corral to the hayfield was partially open and before I knew it the bull and several cows went through the gate into the hayfield.  The grass and alfalfa in the hayfield was tall like it is now.   The rest of the cattle saw the other cattle in the hayfield and got excited and were rushing to get into the hayfield.

I ran and closed the gate the bull and cows had gone through.  The woman and man in the trailer seemed unconcerned even though I asked them for help.  I ran over and saw the corral panel and the fence they leaned against were down flat on the ground as the cattle pushed them over to get into the hayfield.  I then saw the metal galvanized gate was open. I ran over and closed it before any more cattle could go through it but after I closed the gate I found it was destroyed; only a couple pieces of the gate were still in place and useless to stop more cattle from going through that area.  I was trying to find something to fix/block the galvanized gate when I woke up.

*Whew!!*   What a nightmare!

When I got up for the day and went outside, the first thing I did was move two corral panels against the backyard fence.  The heifers can stick their head through the fence to eat on the other side and I didn't want them to somehow break or push the fence over - even though they shouldn't be able to do that.

Then I got a bigger chain and wrapped it around a gate in the middle pasture that goes to the hayfield.  That gate has a dog type of chain and, while the chain has worked fine these past number of years, I'm not sure it would hold if the big cows or bull really pushed on it.  And the hook has an extra clip to better secure the hook and the clip broke earlier this Spring.  The newer chain should be plenty strong and secure.


Later in the afternoon the cattle were in the south pasture so I closed the gate between that pasture and the middle pasture to keep the cattle in the south pasture for a few days and then start the pasture rotation again.  I had to race to the gate as the cattle saw me walking to the gate and came running.  I barely got to the gate in time.  The cattle were not happy.  In the evening when Daisy and I walked out through the middle and south pastures to go work on the south hayfield fence, the cattle came running over both when we walked out to start work and then when we walked back home at sundown.  They still were not happy I was not letting them in the middle pasture.  At one point they got upset I wasn't letting them into the hayfield.   There is lots of tall lush grass in the south pasture so those cattle are just acting like spoiled divas.

Apple tree blossoms and rain

Last month both my apple trees blossomed.  It appears I will have apples this year.

Thursday and today both were all day rainy days.  Good.  We need moisture.

I am still working on my fence rebuild when it is not raining.

Friday I moved the corral panels in my yard to allow the 4 heifers to have access to more of the yard.  They quickly went around to areas I protected to see if they could try to get what was blocked, then they went to eat the tall grass.   Today when I returned from town I found they figured out the ropes tying a tarp over the roof of the well pump shed and had over half the tarp off.  I found this and re-tied the tarp to the roof before they had a chance to rip any asphalt shingles off the roof.

The cattle in the south pasture decided after a few days they wanted to go into the middle pasture and broke the small chain on the gate, a chain that locked the gate for years now.  There is lots of good grass in the south pasture but these cattle want what they want, and they want it now.  I put a bigger chain on the gate.

Sprayer rental

Donna wanted to spray herbicide on part of her field to kill the grass so she can till the soil and replant with new grass and alfalfa.  I still have a bad area of yarrow in my middle pasture.  So Tuesday we rented a herbicide sprayer from the county's weed department.

We got to the county's weed department shortly after it opened at 8 am.  We were third in line to get one of the four 100 gallon sprayers.   We wanted to spray as soon as we could in the morning after the dew lifted as the past few afternoon have been fairly windy and wind was forecast again Tuesday afternoon.

First I sprayed my pasture section with Milestone herbicide.  The sprayer was calibrated to spray at a rate of 20 gallons per acre.  Yarrow needs 7 fluid ounces of Milestone herbicide.  A quart of Milestone is 32 ounces.  20 gallons into 100 gallons is 5.  7 times 5 is 35.  32 is about 35. [Lots of math.]  So a quart of Milestone was poured into about 99 gallons.  (I had sprayed out 1 gallon of water to test the sprayer before adding the herbicide.)

It doesn't take long to spray 5 acres as one is supposed to drive from 5 to 6 mph when spraying.

Donna had about 5 acres she wanted sprayed as she wasn't planning on re-doing all of her pasture at this time.  She used a different herbicide.  A 2.5 gallon container was used for 100 gallons of water.

After spraying the herbicide we rinsed the tank three times to get rid of the residue before returning the sprayer to the County.   The wind started blowing strong while I was rinsing the tank so we finished spraying just in time.

Out to pasture

Blogger finally fixed their "Add Images" feature and I can now finally add photos to my posts again.  Problem after problem.. Blogger is going downhill.


The cow and heifer still have not had their calves.  I am convinced they ate too much pennycress weed last year and aborted their calves and had to get pregnant again.   They are still in part of the corral with a hay bale as we wait for their calves.

Sunday I let the rest of the cattle out to grass as they finished up their hay.  Sounds easy but was a lot of work.  I had to take down the electric fence and temporary corral panels that made up the extended corral.  Since I have 4 replacement heifers I had to separate them from the cows.  This will be for three weeks, until after the cows are bred.  I also let the bull out to be with the cows as he has been separate from the cows this Spring as I do not want Winter calves next Winter.  While the cows and bull went out to pasture, the replacement heifers now have access to grass in my backyard, which meant cattle-proofing the yard with a few fences around trees, a bush and flowers and some temporary corral panels to divide the yard and protect the patio area.  I had to take a sledgehammer to straighten most of the temporary corral panels I used in my yard as last year the cattle bent them in their attempt to get to the pennycress weed hay.

The bull was happy to be out with the cows and green grass.  He was jumping and dancing around when he first got out there.   Cow 40's calf - the last one born - must have had a few interactions with the electric fence.  Even though the fence was gone and corral panels taken down, he didn't want to walk to the grass.  He stood and looked at the other cattle eating in the grass and wondered how they got there.  Donna tried to herd him 'over the line' to the grass but he turned around and ran back to the metal feeder.  A few calves came back to him to encourage him to come.  Eventually he inched his way across and after being in the grass a little bit relaxed and walked on.

So I was tired at the end of the day when I let the cows out and had everyone where they should be.  At least all but the two still in the coral are happy and have stopped their mooing and complaining to me that they want green grass now.  I was ready to turn half of my complaining herd into hamburger.

Monday morning I was woken up early by the heifers.  Several were scratching their heads and necks and backs on low branches on the tree/shrub south of the house just outside my window.  It was warm overnight so I had my window open.

The white faced calf on the left was the one who didn't want to 'cross the line'.