Buddy has left the ranch

Today I hauled Buddy to the livestock auction for their sale tomorrow.

Since Buddy's last fence break on Monday I have kept him in the corral.  This morning I, with Donna and Paul's help, loaded Buddy into my stock trailer. 

Buddy is too large to fit through my normal method of loading, that is, through the loading ramp and had gate.  So I used one of the gates between the north and south parts of the corral.   First I put up two temporary corral panels in the south corral to make that area much smaller.  I put a few apples in there and Buddy walked in. 

Then I backed the stock trailer up to the gate.  I used the stock trailer door as a block on the right side.  I used another corral panel as block on the left side.

I placed apples throughout the trailer's floor.  Buddy walked up to the trailer and ate the apples he could reach without stepping up to inside the trailer.  Before Buddy could take time to decide to step up, Paul shouted encouragement for Buddy to get in the trailer and waved his switch.  Buddy then turned around and walked away from the trailer.

The same thing happened a couple more times before I swung the corral gate and held it behind Buddy to block his backing up.  Buddy then put his head on the left side of the trailer against the corral panel.  One side of the panel was not secure and Buddy easily pushed the panel out and walked back into the north pasture.  The corral gate to the yard was not closed after I drove the stock trailer into the corral and I yelled for Donna to run over and close it quickly before Buddy would see the gate was open.

So we started over.

This time I swung the north/side corral gate this way and used it to block the left side, along with the corral panel wedged against the barn for extra support.

Again we went in 'circles'.  I even added a little hay to the apples in the front of the trailer. So I got more corral panels.  Eventually we blocked Buddy in where he could only stand just outside the trailer, or step inside.

He stood there.

Rather than waiting longer Donna asked me to go get my cattle prod.  By the time I returned after a few minutes Buddy was inside the trailer and the door was closed.  While I was gone Buddy decided to step inside.

It would be nice, but not essential, for Buddy to stand in the front half of the trailer with the trailer's divider closed to keep him there.  Less movement by Buddy would make for a more stable ride.  But he was so big and long I was doubtful I could close the divider.  Paul made it his mission to get Buddy in the front part.

I was working on adding a strap against the back of the trailer to better secure the sliding door when Paul thought Buddy was up far enough.  I swung the divider closed.  The bottom of the divider latched but the top part - which latches a little over halfway up the trailer - did not catch as Buddy's weight and pressure caused the trailer's side to bow out slightly.  The latch no longer reached the catch.

I gave up on getting Buddy to the front and went back to the strap.  Paul still thought there was a way to get Buddy up front and he wouldn't give up.  The next I knew Buddy was trying to turn around inside the trailer.

He got stuck.  Fast.  Hard.   His rear end was wedged against the end of the divider and his head and neck was facing back on the other side of the trailer.

This was bad.   Very bad.  The trailer was bowed out.  Either the trailer would break or, more likely, I was afraid Buddy would either break his neck or something else.  Or asphyxiate.

From outside the trailer Paul and I tried to push and help Buddy turn around but we could do nothing.  Paul wanted to keep Buddy's head up.  As I ran to get something to help us do that Buddy collapsed.  He had gotten so tired from trying to turn around he ran out of energy.  When he collapsed Buddy relaxed.  In relaxing he became un-wedged.  Buddy fell to where his body was facing forward again.

He laid there for quite a while. 

But by the time Donna and I left for Missoula and the auction Buddy was once again standing.  He stood for the entire trip.  For the most part he stood still in the front middle of the trailer and looked out either side of the trailer.  A few times he moved around.  Once he stood against one side of the trailer and looked out the other side.  This unbalanced the trailer slightly as I pulled it.  Later he backed up and stood at the back of the trailer which again changed the balance of the trailer with all the weight on back of the trailer pulling up on the hitch.  This movement was why I had wanted to hire Evan with his large trailer to haul Buddy.

But, driving a little slower than usual, I made it to the auction.

Once I opened the trailer door immediately Buddy slowly backed out of the trailer and carefully stepped down to the ground.  He had learned that turning around in the trailer was a bad idea.

There were some other cattle and bulls in the auction's holding pens and this had Buddy's attention and he quickly forgot about me.

The air today was smokier than usual.  And as I drove closer to Missoula the air got much more smoky as they had more fires.  I couldn't even see the Mission Mountains.

The normal view from June 21 when I hauled Dan's cattle to the livestock auction.

On the left edge of the following photo, above the power lines, you can make out in the smoke a helicopter with a water bucket trailing below.  The bucket is the 'dot' just above the top power line.

I started to load Buddy at 8 am.  I started my drive to Missoula a little before 10 am.  I got to Missoula after 12:30 pm and left the auction by 1 pm.  A trip to the Fudrucker's restaurant for a large burger and fries.  I was home after 4 pm.  I put away the corral panels away and 'cleaned up' the morning work mess.  From about 5 pm to 7:30 pm I washed out the trailer and floor mats and washed the pickup.  By 8 pm I fell asleep and slept hard till 11 pm when I struggled to wake up.  I don't know if it was the heat - near 90 degrees, the smoke from the fires, getting up early, or my blood pressure medicine but I slept much more than expected.  I'm wide awake now in the middle of the night.

It appears one of the trailer floor's 2" by 6" boards cracked under Buddy's weight.  I'll have to see about replacing it tomorrow once the trailer is dry.

What a day.

Two Buddy Breakouts in one day

Another day of breakouts.  I woke up at 7 am.  I checked outside and found Buddy standing by the patio.  He was looking for the apples.  Yesterday I had moved the apples to inside the garage.

Buddy had popped off a fence board and came into the yard.  The rest of the cattle were still in the hayfield.  Buddy didn't break through where he broke through on Saturday; he broke through the fence where he learned last year he could push and get through the fence.

Buddy knocked only the top board off.  As big as he is it is surprising he could jump over the other boards.

I nailed the board back on the fence.  I added for now another thicker board on the other side of the fence posts to stop Buddy from pushing through here again.

Beulah was still in the corral nursing her calf who had recovered from having something stuck in his throat.

Here is a 38 second video of the calf drinking: https://youtu.be/EAf0O35SNdI

Once the calf finally finished drinking, since the calf has fully recovered, I let the two out of the corral to rejoin the herd in the hayfield.


Now to encourage Buddy to go into the corral.

Where are the apples?

Buddy ignored me and wouldn't move.  He wanted to stand here.  The way my luck has been lately I wasn't going to push him.

I waited a little bit and Buddy came to the corral. He ate some grass near the corral well, then walked over to my English Walnut (I believe) tree.  He started to rub against the tree.  That I didn't like.  I have spent a lot of time protecting that tree from the cattle and getting it to grow.

I grabbed a corral panel and used it to encourage/push Buddy into the corral.  With the panel at least I had something between us in case Buddy decided to resist or charge me.   He moved into the corral.

Then a hot air balloon floated towards us.  The last thing I wanted right now was for the balloon to land in my pasture.

The balloon turned south.

Is it going to land in my south pasture or my neighbor's field?

But then the pilot turned up the gas and the balloon rose and continued south.  I don't know where it landed.  At least it was out of my hair.

By now it was after 8 am.  Even though I had gone to bed earlier than normal last night I was still tired and went back to bed.   I slept until 11 am.  I almost missed the eclipse.  I got up.  A few minutes later as the eclipse began I noticed the temperature dropped a little bit.  It never got dark.  The light just seemed strange or odd while the eclipse was happening.  In the end it was no big deal.


I had 20 sprinkler pipes to drag from the west side of the ranch to the east side.  I planned on dragging half the pipes, then go do a favor for my neighbor Jan.  Since Buddy's Saturday breakout I had left the driveway's gates closed.  Earlier today I had gotten fallen apples from several neighbors.  Since the cattle were taking their afternoon siesta in the shade of the trees at the far corner of the hayfield I opened the driveway gates and left them open.

As I dragged the pipes across the hayfield the cattle started grazing again.  I kept an eye on them.  Buddy went into the south corral to drink from the water trough.  Earlier I had spread a bag of apples along the corral fence for the cattle to find.  Some did.

The cattle drifted over to check out what I was doing with the pipes.  Eventually Buddy came over.  Buddy was with the group and no signs he would go to the fence.  I got two more pipes.  As I drug the pipes Buddy walked over to the fence where he broke through in the morning.  The new board should dissuade him.  He studied the board.  He pushed against it.

Ummm....

The board held.  Then Buddy put his head up higher and pushed against it with his neck and chest.  Then harder.  If the board didn't break Buddy may push the fence over.  I dropped the pipes and walked towards Buddy and yelled for him to stop.

Buddy broke the board.  He had trouble getting through the fence so he put his head down and pushed against the lower boards.  Then he walked through the fence.  By now I was doing the 100 yard dash to the fence.  Buddy was almost through the fence when I jumped the fence and got into the yard by the house.  Other cattle saw what was happening and the two closest cows started to run towards the broken fence.

By the time I reached the front yard Buddy and one cow were through the fence.  I ran to the open driveway gates and unhooked them to close them.  As I moved to the gates Buddy turned and began walking towards the opening.  I swung both gates and after one miss was able to grab both gates.  Then I realized the chain to 'lock' the gates was still on the fence.  I ran to grab the chain and then had to grab both gates again.  I got the chain around the gates just as Buddy reached the gates.

With the gates closed Buddy turned and began to eat grass.

*Whew!!!*

Then I looked over to the broken fence to see that half the herd now had poured through the gates with the remaining cattle standing in the hayfield outside the opening bellowing for the other cattle to move so they could also get through the opening.  I tried to position the broken and fallen boards to somewhat block the opening.  It worked for a few minutes until the cattle pushed the boards aside.  By then I had gone and got a corral panel.  Mama had just come through the opening.  Using the corral panel I pushed Mama back into the hayfield and then put the corral panel outside the opening.  This stopped the rest of the cattle from coming through the opening.

I opened the corral gate and then started to herd the cows and calves in that direction.   I didn't include Buddy.  Usually he will follow the cows.  Lots of yelling and waving my sorting stick and I got everyone but Buddy back into the corral.  Then I got the cattle moved from the north side to the south side and the dividing gate shut.

Now to get Buddy inside the corral.

By now Donna arrived.   She says I am too easy on Buddy.  Buddy was near the corral.  Donna grabbed a broom and waved it and shouted at Buddy and he ran into the corral.  That was quick.

As you can see, Buddy did more damage this afternoon.

(If you look in the background sky in the previous photo you can see yet another hot air balloon.)

I am in the process of cleaning out the hayshed.  I found a couple of boards where I could replace the two worst boards.  I still will leave the corral panel in place for a few days.

So.  I have a  problem.  Buddy will keep breaking the yard fence unless I spent quite a bit of time to reinforce it.  I may have enough temporary corral panels.

I could let the cattle into one of the pastures.  But they still have plenty to eat in the hayfield.  The barley and oats there will not last as long as grass because the barley and oats are going to seed and once they finish the nutrients will be in the seeds and not the plants.  The plants will become like straw. The grass will last past a hard freeze.  So I want the cattle to eat the hayfield down more and want to save the grass for later.  If the cattle eat the grass now I may not have enough grass left to last until snow.

Or Buddy can go to the livestock auction this week.

This week's auction was my earlier plan.   Due to Buddy's large size I had decided to hire Evan to haul Buddy for me.  It would save me time and potential trouble.   That was my plan until Evan told me he had no cattle this week to haul from up my way.  To come up and haul just Buddy down to the auction would not be cost effective for both Evan and I.  So I planned on waiting two more weeks to when Evan could haul Buddy.

My plans have changed.  I am not letting Buddy out of the corral and I am not waiting two more weeks.  I plan on hauling Buddy myself on Wednesday for the auction on Thursday.

So we'll see how this goes.  Wish me good luck.... for once.

I did have a bit of good news today.  I finally trapped the pocket gopher living near my rhubarb plants.  This has been one of the harder gophers to trap.  For weeks now the gopher has been filling the traps with dirt, burying the traps, and/or plugging the tunnels.  I ran out of tunnels just below the ground surface and had follow the second level tunnels a foot deep.  And still the gopher would plug the tunnels or bury the trap in dirt until I finally caught it in a trap tonight. Now to finish off the last few pocket gophers in the pastures.

(Btw - it was dark by the time I drug the last of the sprinkler pipes over to the east side of the ranch.)

Major cattle jailbreak

Saturday night Donna and I went to the rodeo at the NW Montana Fair.  I was gone from 6 pm till after 10 pm.  It was dark when I got home.  When I got home I noticed something was wrong.   My bicycle was leaning like a strong wind tipped it.  The broom was laying down.  I checked the patio.  The extra bags of apples were torn and strewn around with many missing.  It appeared as if one or more cattle had gotten out of the hayfield and into the yard.

The headlights from Donna's car showed where the cattle broke through the fence in the front yard.

Now, where are the cattle?!!

They were at my northern neighbor's house.  In their backyard.   Around 8:30 pm the cattle showed up south of their house at their apple tree.  They were eating many apples that had fallen on the ground and the lower apples still in the tree.  The neighbor's back yard is fenced with a chain-link fence so they can let their dogs run free.  The neighbors opened the gate and the cattle went inside, where they remained until I got home.

It was dark with no moon.  One option was to herd the cattle back out to the road then down to either my NE pasture gate or my driveway.  Not an appealing idea, especially in the dark.

I chose the other option.  I cut my fence just outside the neighbor's fence.  I used three temporary corral panels to create a route from the chain-link gate to my fence opening.

I closed all my gates except the one to the corral.   I had my pickup stationed outside the cut fence both for light and for herding.  The major problem with the cattle in the NE pasture is all my hay bales are there.

Buddy ambled out first checking the grass and gate opening.  He turned left and walked to the pickup into the blinding lights.  The other cattle followed.  Donna was driving and I was walking and using my sorting stick to try to get the cattle to turn right.  They walked south past the pickup and then I realized I forgot to close the gate to the fruit tree & garden area.  Keeping an eye on where Buddy was standing I ran over and closed the gate.

Between me and the pickup we turned the cattle towards the corral.  Then they saw the hay bales and ran over there.  We were on it honking and yelling and got the cattle to move on.  A few had 20 seconds to tear into a couple hay bales.

We got the cattle into the corral and I closed the gate.   The barn has a yard light which I had turned on.  Now walk among them to count and recount to make sure all were there.  They were.

The next problem was Beulah's calf.  He appeared to have something stuck in his throat.  He could breathe but was foaming at his mouth and was stretching his neck and trying to cough.  After some debate on what could be done I called the cattle vet.  It was now 11:45 pm.

He said to look for sign of bloating.  This would mean the calf could not belch out gas created by the digestive process.  If no bloating it was up to me whether I wanted to wait and see if the object would work its way down its throat.

Back out to look at the calf.  No signs of bloating.  I had put out some hay south of the barn for the cattle to eat but they decided to lay down and chew their cud.  Beulah's calf walked south of the barn and Beulah followed.  I closed the gate and they were the only cattle south of the barn.

The calf was uncomfortable but did not appear to be in immanent danger. I decided to wait till morning to see if how the calf was doing.  I checked at 6 am.  The calf was the same.  I waited.

At 9 am I fixed the fence.  I replaced the old thin short fence posts with a medium sized taller fence post and re-nailed the fence boards.  I added a temporary wire across the top of a half dozen fence posts.

I got two of my corral panels and blocked Beulah and her calf in the east side of the south corral.  The calf had put his mouth into the water trough but was unable to drink.  By now Beulah's udder was full and she bellowed and bellowed and wanted her calf to drink and drain it.

Then I moved the rest of the cattle from the north corral through the south corral and out to the hayfield.  In the meantime Donna noticed one calf had a very watery eye as if something had poked it.  I'll need to watch that the calf doesn't get an infection and pinkeye and go blind.  Mama's calf has a bad limp with her back right leg.  The hit's keep on coming.

A short time later I saw eight of the calves crowding around where I had fixed the fence.  They had remembered where they had gotten through.  They were checking out my work and the new fence post.

With the cattle out of the corral I moved Beulah and her calf to the loading corral.  I called the vet and made an appointment at the clinic at 11:30 am.

The vet checked out the calf.  He had a fever of 103.9 degrees.  High.  The vet put his arm down the calf's throat as far as he could reach.  Nothing blocking the airway.  He put a metal tube in the calf's throat and threaded a plastic hose. The vet believed the hose came up against a small object at the base of the throat and the entrance to the stomach.  He pushed it into the stomach.  I slowly pumped water down the calf's throat.  No water came back up as if an object were blocking passage.

A shot for pain and an antibiotic shot and we waited.  The calf perked up quickly and soon began to occasionally swallow.  No more foaming at the mouth.

I took the calf home and when he was reunited with his mother he immediately began to drink from her to the relief of everyone.  I am leaving Beulah and her calf in the corral for 24 hours to keep an eye on them.  Also, because a few days ago Beulah developed a limp with her left front leg.  One thing after another.  So far the calf seems to have recovered.   I noticed earlier in the afternoon he was head butting Beulah's udder to get her to lower milk into her udder.  But I think there was no milk at the time as the calf had drained her dry and she had not produced enough milk in the short time since what was drained.

What was blocking the calf's throat?  I am not positive but I am fairly sure it was an apple that was too large for the calf to eat.  This is my smallest calf.  I have a feeling that in the feeding frenzy the calf may have been bumped and was unable to spit the apple out before swallowing.  I had observed the calf a few days ago attempt to eat an apple too big for its mouth.  It spit the apple back out.  At that time only one other calf was next to him and he had time to find an apple the appropriate size for him.

The emergency vet visit cost me $186.


When the cattle were in the neighbor's backyard last night they bent out part of the east side of the fence to the concern of the neighbors.  Once the cattle were taken care of I worked on fixing the fence.  Daisy came and kept me company as I worked.  I was able to bend the fence and poles straight again to the satisfaction of the neighbors.

Then I fixed my cut fence.  With the wires cut I also took the opportunity to move the barb wires for a half dozen fence posts from the outside of the posts to the inside.  This is very old fence made back when the neighboring property was a field and not a house lot.  Having the wires inside will reduce the chance of the cattle pushing out the staples and breaking the wires and getting out of the pasture.

So.  I didn't get any of my planned tasks done today was all day was spent recovering from the cattle's jailbreak.

In the morning, with the light, I checked for the damage in the yard.  It could have been worse.  Other than the apples, bicycle and broom, most stuff was not touched.  My trees and shrubs still had leaves  An exception was my 'bicycle cat' that moves when the wind blows.  The cattle broke it.

It appears that after eating half my bagged apples the cattle had decided to go on a road trip and visit the neighbors even through there were plenty of young tender grass to eat in my lawn.   What a mess.

Cow magnet

If you remember back to last December when my cow, Rose, died, before she died the vet put a magnet down her throat in case the cause of her illness was a sharp piece of metal she may have swallowed.  Rose has decomposed and went back into the ground.  I checked her remains and found the magnet.  No metal was attached to it.  That's not to say metal was not in her as I didn't sift through all of her remains due to the smell.  The magnet may not have had a chance to get close to any metal before Rose died.

Here is what a cow magnet looks like after having gone into a cow.  It is heavy for its size.

Baled the hay

Last Sunday I had cut the neighbor's lower field.  Tuesday there was a 20% chance of rain.  Of course, since I had hay down, it rained.   Fortunately not much.   Wednesday I baled the hay.  It took a little less than two and a half hours.  It went smooth.  The only 'problem' was when I cut the twine, the end of the twine would shrink back into the tube and I would have to use a wire to push it back out.  I was using twine from a new roll and sometimes it acts like this until more twine is used.  Otherwise, no belts twisted, the bales were uniform and the twine wrapped snug around the bales.  The way things should work.

I got eight full bales of grass hay.  With these eight bales I have a bale or two more than what I used last Winter to feed the cattle.  So I should be good for this Winter.   And I am done making hay for the year!

Apples and pocket gopher

It is that time of year for apples.  For the past week I have been gathering fallen apples from several neighbors' trees.  The grass around my trees was tallish and until I looked closer, I didn't realized how many apples had fallen from my trees.  I thought I would take a few minutes Friday afternoon to pick up the apples that had fallen.  It took much longer than that.  I filled 8 plastic grocery bags full with apples.  After I gathered the apples I decided to mow the grass so I could easily see and pick up apples in the future.  The grass was much taller under the trees than what now remains un-mowed.  I raked up the mowed grass and tossed it over the fence for the cattle to eat along with several bags of apples.

I am still trapping pocket gophers.  With all my attention to the hayfield and south pasture I only just noticed a pocket gopher came in the area near my rhubarb and strawberry plants.  So far this pocket gopher prefers to fill the trap with dirt to going into it.  I've had to clear dirt from the trap several times Friday.

Another bull

Tonight one bull and at least one cow was brought to the field across the road from my hayfield.  As dry as the field grass is, you'd think the cattle owner would take cattle out.  But this is a different guy.  He said his pasture has no grass.

I stopped over to see what was up.  There were two guys, an older guy and a younger 30ish guy.  I thought the older guy was the owner.  The younger guy was the owner.  The older guy was Ernie the brand inspector who had helped the owner.

I am not too happy about this.  When I initially let my cattle into the hayfield my cattle and Buddy were interested in the cattle across the road.  With no bull all Summer those cattle were open, and one cow may have been in heat.

Since then my cattle and Buddy hadn't paid the other cattle too much attention.  With all the activity tonight my cattle were at the fence watching.   Now with the other bull across the road both he and Buddy stand at their respective fences and watch and bellow at each other.  After dark I rode my bicycle by on the road and while my cattle had wandered off to eat, Buddy was standing near my fence and staring across the road.

Both fences are good.  My weak link is my barb wire string gate.  Last weekend I bought four used gates, two of which I plan to use to someday replace my barb wire string gate.   Of course the bulls had to be along the fence where Buddy then stood at my gate.  Buddy easily puts his head over the top of the gate.

I put in two metal t-posts to reinforce the gate.  But I still wasn't comfortable.  So I got two of my corral panels and set them to block the gate.  I feel a little better now.  I don't want to have to separate two bulls mad at each other.

Buddy is huge.  The brand inspector guessed that Buddy could weigh as much as 2500 pounds.  That is over 1 ton.

Buddy is twice the size of that little Corriente bull and could easily handle it.  Except the other bull has horns.

Cattle into the hayfield

Over the past few days I have been wrestling with whether to cut the hayfield a second time or let the cattle in to eat the barley and oats.  The field looks so ready to cut.  I could maybe get 20 bales.  I should cut and bale the field.  But after the trouble I had baling the barley and oats in July, I was not looking forward to baling the barley and oats again.  And I would have to remove the irrigation mainline pipe in the hayfield.  And I believe I have enough hay already baled for the cattle to make it through this Winter.

Since I am irrigating the pastures I have enough grass for the cattle to eat, and they seem satisfied.  Would the grass last all the way to Winter is unknown.

I couldn't put the decision off for long as the barley and oats are heading out again.  The longer I wait the more the nutrition goes into the heads and seeds.  The plant would become like straw and the cattle would only eat the tops and not much else.

Making the decision was like going into water for a swim.  You want to, and know you are going to, do it.  But what if the water is cold?  Delay, delay, delay while you try to decide.

So this evening I opened the gate as the cattle were relatively nearby in the middle pasture.  They are use to the sound of the gate's chain rattling against metal when I open a gate and a number of cows stopped eating and looked up at me.  I called them and the closest came trotting over and the rest came running.

While they had been eating for several hours, once they got into the hayfield they chowed down like they had been starving.

Buddy entering the hayfield

Here is a 47 second video of the cattle newly in the hayfield: https://youtu.be/2rc-a_lrJeU

More hay, balloon, car crash

Today I cut my northern neighbor's field.  I hadn't cut it earlier due to my broken haybine, and the grass is in a low area that earlier was wet.  That is why the grass is still green and good at this late date.  The neighbor's upper field has short grass and is mostly dry and brown so I didn't cut that other than a swath or two along my fence to further remove temptation for my cattle to eat through the fence.

The fixed haybine worked perfectly.  For once I had no problems.  The haybine kicked up a large rock but I was able to stop and remove it before it caused any problems.  After cutting his field last year I now know where the partially hidden old stump is located so I avoided that.  The neighbor hadn't moved his rock pile to the side of his field like I had asked earlier this year and he had promised he would do when he refused my offer of moving the rocks for him.  It was annoying to watch for and then mow around the rocks.

It only took me a little over two and a half hours to cut this grass.

The rock pile is the grey circle left of center.

The rock pile is still partially hidden in the remaining tall grass.

Tall grass

This evening when I was finishing up moving the irrigation sprinkler pipes a hot air balloon landed in the neighbor's property across the road.  The balloon operator appears to have avoided the planted field and landed in the little bit of pasture near the house and trees.

Then during my evening bicycle ride, around dusk, an oncoming car didn't make the curve ahead of me and went into the ditch.  The ditch is steep but narrow so the car didn't tip but the car did run into a driveway across the ditch.  The car then went airborne and then landed on the other side of the driveway and continued on in the ditch a short ways before coming to a sudden stop against a power pole.  I was a few power poles away and impact caused the electric lines to vibrate and then also a few poles.  No lines or poles were broken.

The car headlights were on so I could easily see car's route as it drove through the ditch.  Lots of dust was still hanging thick in the air and across the road when I rode up to the car whose headlights were still on, even if the car was not running.  I was expecting the worst.

The driver's door was open and the air bag had deployed.  The male driver was moving and said he was ok when I asked him.  He was trying to restart the car with no success.  He was more annoyed than upset or in shock.  I asked him several times if he was alright and he repeated he was.  So after a little bit or watching him trying to restart his car then getting out of the car to see if there was something else he could do, I left.

He had driven around the corner a little too fast and probably had a few too many drinks.  Another typical Flathead driver.  No wonder our car insurance rates are so high.

Calves playing

This evening after I moved the north irrigation sprinkler line and I was walking back to open the valve to let the water into the line when I suddenly noticed the sprinklers were leaning.  I was in the middle pasture and looked back to the north pasture where the cattle were located.  About four calves had pushed on several risers and tipped the risers over on the connected pipes.

From where I stood I tipped the risers back upright.  The calves jumped back when I did so.  Then as I continued to walk back to the valve the calves tipped the risers again.  I yelled at the calves to 'Knock it off!!!'.  It didn't do any good.  They were having fun playing this game of tipping the risers after I would straighten them.  Eventually I gave up.  I walked to the valve and opened it.  Once the water came out of the sprinklers the calves moved away.  I then had to walk along the entire line dodging the water and tipping each riser back upright.

*sigh*

I trapped five pocket gophers today.  To avoid the sprinklers and the cattle when they were in the south and middle pastures, I had trapped the pocket gophers in the neighbor's small field across the road from me.  After trapping five gophers in that field over the past few days, and perhaps getting rid of all of them in that field for now, today I moved the traps back into my middle and south pastures.  I had to fix one trap.  With all the use I had made of my traps some are getting worn out.

I finished putting small fences around my willow trees down by the river.

Buddy is following Mama around like she is in heat.  She hasn't let him mount her yet but she does like him hanging around her.  Buster decided to ape Buddy as I saw him mounting other calves this evening.  He can hang on pretty good when the other calf starts to move away from him.

I bicycled 29 miles today but now my rear tire leaks air.

Beaver and willows

There is a beaver somewhere in my river. Usually there is no sign of it.  But in the Fall the beaver will come and chew down the willow trees along the river bank.  The willows that have survived and grew back the next year are now more like bushes than trees.  Every year I resolve to put a little fencing around the surviving willows to stop the beaver in the future.  Every year something comes up and the fencing doesn't get done.

This year the beaver came early.  Yesterday I seen the beaver's work on several willows.  Before the beaver could get to the rest of the willows this afternoon I put some fencing around the larger willows.  I have a few small single stalk willow trees to fence tomorrow.

A partially chewed willow bush in front of an intact willow bush.

Closer view of the damage.

Another willow chewed up except for a single branch going to the right side.

I also have to protect the willows from the cattle reaching over another fence to eat the willows from the top.

Haybine, golf balls and lawn mower

Yesterday Wyatt fixed my haybine.  He did not have to weld the u-joint onto the haybine's PTO shaft.  The new knuckle on the u-joint was tight on the PTO shaft and all that was needed was some filing on the worn spines on the PTO shaft.

Here you can see the new knuckle against the collar holding the PTO shaft.

Still trapping pocket gophers.  Current area they are located is where I have the irrigation sprinklers now.  So I had to suspend trapping for a little bit.  There are pocket gophers in the south and one in the middle pastures but the curious cattle mess with the traps and the markers so it is hard to trap the gophers when the cattle can get to the traps.

Over the past few weeks I have found three golf balls in the south pasture and hayfield.  The last being found tonight.  A neighbor south of my south neighbor likes to hit golf balls.  Usually in Wyatt's field as Wyatt doesn't mind.  Over the years I would find one golf ball a year in my south pasture.  But I am concerned the cattle may try to eat a golf ball as these cattle try to eat everything.  I talked with the neighbor to my south and he has found quite a number of balls in his pasture and not pleased at this.  So I went and spoke with neighbors.  I spoke with the wife whose husband hits the golf balls and asked them not to hit the balls towards my pasture, or my southern neighbor's pasture.

A dry cold front passed through this evening with strong winds.  On my abbreviated bicycle ride I saw a guy out mowing the tall dry grass in his extended yard.  The grass was so high it killed his lawn mower engine.  Our fire restrictions forbid gas engines from operation in places like this between the hours of 1 pm to 1 am.   If he hit a rock and caused a spark and then a fire, with the strong winds he would not be able to stop it.  As the lawn mower engine was stopped as I rode by I commented that in this wind that if he hit something and caused a spark he wouldn't be able to stop a fire.  He answered back, "I know" as he tried to restart his lawn mower.  He wasn't all that far from Donna's place so a fire would have been at her place in a matter of minutes.

By noon today I finished mowing my yard.  I planned on raking the grass from the taller areas and giving it to the cattle, but by the time I rested the grass had already quickly dried quite a bit and I felt it then wasn't worth the effort to rake it up.  I don't have a bagger for my mower.

Skunk

My daily bicycle ride was a little later than usual.  It was getting dark a little over three miles from home when, after two vehicles had passed me, a skunk decided to make a dash across the road in front of me. I saw the skunk before it saw me. It was in my lane so I veered to the other lane.  When the skunk saw me it whirled around to face me with its claws scratching/skittering on the pavement.  Before it could whirl around again I was gone as I started to pedal harder once I saw the skunk and realized I could get around it.

A close encounter.

By the way, today I have finished mowing the weeds in the middle pasture.  I even mowed half the yard before the lawn mower ran out of gas and it got too hot (mid 90s).  I surprised Daisy, and she surprised me, as when mowing the back yard she came running out from under one of the piles of boards as I mowed near it.

When checking my pocket gopher traps in the hayfield this evening the neighbor's horses came to the corner that meets with the hayfield and south pasture.  The calves all came over crowding into the corner to look at the horses.

I checked on Buster.  The bands are still on his horns.  I doubt the bands will come off, or be rubbed off, as they are now sunk into his horns pretty good.  The bands do not appear to be bothering Buster  as he is acting as normal as before.

Still moving irrigation pipes across the field each day.