Cattle photos

Here are a few photos I forgot to include with my previous post.

I have them herded into the corner for crossing to the building on the left edge. To cross to the small island they would have to cross to right of center.

Here is near the end when the heifers were doing their mind control on me. Especially #55 who is staring at me. If you remember, #55 is the one who caused all this mess with her lust for the bull. Today I think I detected a spring in her step and slight smile on her face. I think someone is going to be a mama come March.

Eleven minus nine equals two

I got some of my "girls" back... sort of. After noon I decided to cross the river and check to see if my heifers were all right. The other night I had a dream about my cattle crossing the river. Or was that a nightmare? Anyway, I wanted to make sure all eleven made it safely across the river to be with the bull. After all they crossed a deep section of the river.

After I crossed the river I found nine of my heifers away from the neighbor's herd and in a group somewhat close to the gate. The rest of the herd was at the north end of the field. With binoculars I could see two of my heifers with the herd and bull.

I opened the gate and walked out to get my heifers' attention. Still eating they worked their way over to me. I retreated through the gate and they followed me. Once they moved on from the gate I closed it.

Hurray! The cattle were on the "peninsula". Not the right side of the river but on the right side of the fence.

I decided not to herd the heifers but let them eat and explore and find the river crossing. The peninsula is only so big. Besides it is pain to herd cattle through a heavily treed area.

While waiting on my cattle my neighbor drove up on his ATV. He said he came to do a little fishing and to check his cattle. In conversation he said he had checked his cattle after 8 am this morning. He also said he often came to this spot to do fishing. He left after less than ten minutes of fishing. He said he would check his cattle then come back.

My heifers hung around the fence and slowly made their way south. Instead of turning left to where they could go to cross the river they continued south. I went around to head them off but with the trees it was a hassle so I let them pass. Besides I wanted to see if my fence work (from last year after the heifer made her jailbreak) was still good or whether the deer had broken it. The fence was still good.

The cattle made their way to the fence and stopped. After eating and milling around they decided to take a siesta. No....! So I herded them on. They didn't want to go and used every opportunity to stop and stand there. The middle section was still wet and swampy so I herded them to the north side.

When I then herded them to the east they took the hard way through the trees instead of the easy path. When cattle don't want to be herded they do this. The equivalent of kids dragging their feet.

Eventually I got them to the SE corner. In past years cattle have either crossed from here to the small island then to my pasture, else across the river. Usually the 'across the river' route is done when the river is lower and the gravel bar appears in the middle.

I figured the cattle would cross over to the small island as they have already visited it. And the channel crossing to the island only has about six inches of water in this spot. And the river bank is not all that high or steep. Instead the cattle stayed in the corner. Any attempt to pressure them to the river resulted in the right or left side trying to escape. Cattle don't like to be pressured into going into the water.

So I stood there thinking they would eventually get the idea on how to cross. I even told them how to do it. When I pointed where to cross one heifer turned and looked where I was pointing. But they didn't want to cross. Instead they laid down and took their siesta in the hot sun. A couple heifers even curled up and went to sleep. When they sleep they breath harder.

A few times one or two heifers stood up and tried to sneak past but laid back down when they saw I wasn't going to let them pass.

Okay. This will be a waiting game. I can wait too. I stood there. After a while I sat down too. I figured they eventually would want to get a drink of water and go into the river. Especially being in the hot sun. But they never did. Or maybe my neighbor would come back and I could get him to help me. But he never came back.

As I had crossed the river I was wearing shorts. The sunburn on my legs from Saturday's long hike made my legs sensitive to the grass and tree branches. A few mosquitoes braved the hot sun but mainly the pests were flies. At one point the tall grass rustled nearby me and whatever caused the movement was heading towards me. I waited and watched but it turned and went elsewhere. I don't know what it was. The rustling seemed to be too large to be from a mouse.

The grass on the peninsula was lush. The cattle had 'cattle breath' from the green grass.

A lot of time passed. Without a watch don't know how long but I wouldn't be surprised it was several hours.

I think the cattle used some sort of mind control on me when they stared at me as I "blinked" first. I came to the decision that since they didn't know how to cross directly they wouldn't do it. If I got them to the small island I still had to get them to the island's SE corner to cross the river. Besides the fence would keep them safely on my side until they could figure out how to cross. I decided to get up and cross the river to the island. Maybe they would follow me.

Nope. Once I got into the river the cattle immediately got up and headed away from the river and started eating again.

*sigh*

I waited. The cattle made their way back to the fence. I went to check on them and found the neighbor's herd had come back down from the ridge and were in eyesight. A couple of my heifers mooed at them to get their attention but the herd paid no attention. Since I was giving them a disapproving look the cattle moved on away from the fence.

I waited around for some time but the cattle were content to graze on the peninsula. A few times several cattle came to the river bank to look at me standing in the river but wouldn't come in to join me. Eventually I gave up and came home. Walking home I noticed how different my dry pasture was to the lush green grass on the peninsula. I need rain!

It was after 9 pm by the time I got home. I hate to say I wasted my day as I did get nine heifers back. But for the time I spent I could have painted or sprayed weeds or checked gopher traps or fixed fences, etc.

I needed my rancher girl. With a second person I could have gotten the cattle into the river and across.

Lust driven jailbreak

Today eleven of my heifers swam the river and got over to the neighbor's bull. I suspect the heifer that was so in heat the previous night led the other ten heifers.

In the afternoon nine of my heifers came back to the salt blocks and their favorite siesta place. Only nine... hmmmm. I checked the pasture and no other cattle. With my binoculars I spotted two of my heifers with the neighbor's herd and bull on the side of the ridge across the river.

Oh no!

No wonder the bull stopped his calling to my heifers.

I called the neighbor to let him know. He said there is no way to get my cattle back until he runs his cattle from this field back to his corral in a couple weeks. There is no corral or sorting area in this field. And with the trees and ridge line it would make separating and herding the cattle very very difficult. Even if I had three people on horses it would be hard to sort the cattle.

The cattle are on the young side to be bred as most people would wait till next year to breed them. Last year a smaller heifer got to the bull and this Spring produced a beautiful calf. Apparently this Maine Anjou breed of bull throws low birth weight calves.

And the cattle will most likely be bred. I no longer hear the bull calling to the cattle but that doesn't mean the bull is quiet. Far from it. The neighbor said he thought the bull had finished breeding his cattle already. Great. He can turn his attention to taking advantage of my young and naive heifers.

From signs of flattened grass on top of the river bank and disturbed dirt from hooves clawing the river bank side, I think I know where the cattle crossed the river. This area of the river is deep and the bank on the other side is about a yard above the water level and is almost sheer. The neighbor hadn't fenced this section of the river because the river is deep and the bank vertical. I am amazed the cattle made it, especially as the river level is relatively high and there is a still a good current. Other years the cattle would quit half way across when the river got deep as they didn't want to swim.

I plan to go and check that all eleven heifers made it safely across the river. I think they did as the river gets shallower past this bend. If the cattle didn't make it onto the river bank they would float to a shallower section. Or at least I hope so.

Amazing what cattle will do when in heat and a bull is calling them.

Rain and lust

I got rain on Thursday! Not much, but something. .10 inch. I didn't expect it. The clouds were building dark blue to the west for a long time. That doesn't mean much as it usually goes around else goes overhead without dropping rain. It looked like it was going to go overhead again without raining. The wind picked up and the temperature dropped. But, surprise, it began to rain. It was enough that I decided to go inside the house and have lunch as it rained. Still, it is a drop in the bucket for what I need. That evening when I filled in a few holes where tree stumps were the dust flew.

Otherwise I worked in the pasture on small chores. I took to the pasture tree branches I had trimmed from around the house to make painting easier. Once in the pasture I decided to trim the branches from a tree that had fallen this Spring. Not many branches so it shouldn't take long. Once I cleaned up these branches I decided to trim the branches from a tree that had fallen into another tree. My chainsaw bar's end is bent so I couldn't cut the tree to the ground but I worried it could fall when my cattle are nearby. At least I could trim the branches from the trunk so it wouldn't spear anything if the tree fell to the ground.

I then chopped two small tree stumps from the ground in the middle pasture. Okay... I might as well chop the large tree stump from the ground in the north pasture and be done with it. This was one of the first tree stumps I had dug around this Spring but never got around to finish removing. After some chopping and some more digging I was able to pull the stump out of the ground.

I filled the dirt back into this hole then decided to fill in the hole from the other two burnt out stumps in the north pasture. For the small stump I discovered another part of the stump when I dug around the hole's edge for smoothing the edge of the ground. *sigh* Another hidden trunk. It was small enough that I could chop it out of the ground.

For another hole I found a horseshoe when digging the edge of the hole.

By the time I was done it was well after 10 pm and getting dark. Another long day.

Oh yeah... the "lust" part of my post. In the afternoon I moved my cattle from the south to the middle pasture once I finished my fence work. The neighbor's cattle who had earlier been in sight from the middle pasture had moved up on the ridge and to the NW of my property and out of sight by the time my cattle came to the middle pasture. That didn't stop the bull from bellowing every so often.

As I was chopping the large stump the cattle came over to the middle/north pastures fence. One heifer in particular, number 55, was all excited and tried to reply to the bull. Her call was more like a weak squeak. Thank goodness as I don't think the bull could hear her. Whenever the bull would call I tried to talk to her to cover up his sound. The same when she called out.

#55 had the look I saw on the lovesick heifer from last year that eventually made her way to the bull. She stood right at the fence and was wide eyed and trying to see though the trees to the bull. Her nostrils were flaring as she tried to get a scent of him. The rest of the herd paid no attention to the bull's calls and eventually moved on. #55 kept an eye on the herd but still wouldn't leave the fence. Eventually the bull shut up and she rejoined the herd.

20 females and a bull. This is going to be a long time. This morning the cattle are all hanging down by the river instead of their usual siesta in the SE corner of the pasture. I'll have to go down there this afternoon and check it out.

Wednesday this and that

Wednesday I took Tammy to the airport for her return trip home. It had rained there (a few miles away) so that is why the official rain total for the day was .29 inch. It was dry when I got back home. All I got Wednesday was enough rain to wet the pavement briefly. I so need rain as it is dry. The official rain total for the month is .59 inch but it seems as if every part of the Valley is getting rain but my area. All I get is only enough to briefly settle the dust.

Still have not heard back from Wyatt about when he will cut my hay and I had left him another message Wednesday.

My neighbor's burnt building is still standing. But Wednesday he pulled his burned out excavator from the building and hauled it away.

I found five new and reopened gopher holes. So I haven't completely eliminated them yet. The time is running short as they will soon stay underground until next year. The gophers are getting tricky or desperate as I found three of the holes under thick branches of pine trees.

I moved the fence where the eroded bank gave way and the heifer slipped under the fence and into the river. Then I checked the rest of the river fence in that area and found the cattle had completely tore up the section of the fence that goes from the large log that is eroding into the river up to the middle/south pasture fence. *sigh* So I fixed that fence also. I had to wait a while during the rebuild as the cattle had come down to the river and I didn't want them to watch my work and get any ideas when they come back to the middle pasture. I have a little more work to do today on another part of a river fence elsewhere in the middle pasture as with the lower river level the cattle had walked around the end of the fence.

Otherwise the cattle are behaving. *knock on wood* My one neighbor put his cattle across the river this week. Including his bull. This year his bull found his cows before my heifers. He has not seen my heifers yet. But I think he can smell them. Last night as I was working on the fence the bull ranged the property across the pasture where I currently have my cattle. The bull was alone and not with his cows. He can't see my cattle in this pasture due to the trees. But he was bellowing and calling. I hope none of my "girls" succumb to his calling and get in trouble.

I nicked my thumb knuckle when pounding in a fence post and tore the skin. Hard to put a band-aid on it and still bend my knuckle. Also got a few splinters.

The tree stump Tammy and I had a bonfire around for her final night here was still smoldering Wednesday. I picked up a few small wood pieces I had missed cleaning up earlier and placed them on the stump and they caught fire and burned. It looks like this will be the end of this stump.

I used a scraper to remove more paint from the well shed. I am in the process of repainting my house and garage. Tammy helped me get started on this job after all these years of needing to do it. She wasn't kidding when she said she likes to paint. I am almost done with painting the eves on the house and garage. I borrowed a pressure washer from Gary as the job of scraping paint off the eves with scrapers was slow and tedious. I expected the pressure washer to strip all the paint from the surfaces but that didn't happen even though the washer put out a strong stream of water. In some areas the water started to eat the wood away. Yikes!

I was tired last night when I got back in the house. After watching the weather report I fell asleep in the chair and then when to bed after midnight. No supper not even popcorn.

It is a slow morning today and I am feeling a little blue.

I just got back from getting my mail and I picked up some of the trash tossed into my ditch. I found the drivers license, credit card, and more in the ditch. Looks like someone tossed the contents of a guys wallet into the ditch. I'll have to track down this guy's phone number and give him a call.

Fireworks over the lake

For the 4th of July Tammy and I drove down to Bigfork, MT to watch their firework show. We sat on folding chairs on the lake shore at Wayfarers State Park and after a nice sunset we watched the fireworks across part of Flathead Lake. In addition to the city of Bigfork shooting off fireworks other people shot off their fireworks along the lake shore.

The firework show started before 11 pm and ended with large fireworks shot off on the hill behind us around 11:30 pm. We saw those fireworks against the moon. Nice!

Over a hundred

FYI - I have now trapped over 100 pocket gophers this year. And that is with two missing traps. I am now down to five traps. Last week one trap went missing. Then a few days later another trap went missing. Unlike the last time I have not found the traps. This is a mystery as it could be a dog or a coyote or a person taking my traps. I even asked the neighbors if they had seen my traps as the missing traps were just on my side of the fence near their house. Nope, they seen nothing.

If the traps are anywhere near maybe I'll find them once the hayfield is cut, that is if the swather doesn't run them over. It sure would be nice to get my missing traps as dirt mounds are popping up now that the pocket gopher kids are moving away from home and out into the world.

As for regular gophers, I hadn't found any holes until recently when I stumbled upon six holes. I put traps on them Friday and I hope I will finally get the last of them.

And if you are wondering about the cattle... they are behaving nicely - though I hope I am not jinxing anything by praising them.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Persistence

Wednesday I started on my annual war on weeds. I sprayed four tanks of herbicide on the weeds. I covered all my yard, the fruit tree and garden area, the ditch along the road, all around the hayfield on the fence line, and a few areas in the hayfield.

*whew* Carrying 40 lbs of liquid on my back for hours and hours got to be tiring on my shoulders and my legs.

The good news is that I covered all the areas I listed in one day and four tanks of herbicide. In the old days it would have taken me days and many more tanks of herbicide to cover the same area. So... I am making progress in my war on weeds though it often feels like I am not.

I called this blog post "persistence" as I am persistent in my effort to eradicate weeds and gophers. The weeds and gophers are persistent right back at me. Even after all these years of spraying, chopping, and burning I still find a few fresh snowberry plants coming up along the fence along the ditch. You'd think after all these years they give it up and die.

The Western Salsify weed is prevalent in the hayfield. While not a noxious weed I find them annoying nonetheless. You'd think that with all my efforts in past years there would be few of them left. There are less of them but it is hard to tell if that is because of my efforts or because this year is dry. With all my other activities I doubt I will be able to attack the salsify weeds like I'd want to. And that will mean when they go to seed in the next few weeks it will drive me crazy.

And the gophers... I trapped another three pocket gophers today and the same two kept filling the traps with dirt. I found one of my traps missing. I searched but could not find it. The missing trap was nearer the neighbor's house so I asked them if they saw the trap. They have several dogs which they keep fenced in their yard but maybe they got out and got to my trap. No, they hadn't seen my trap. Hopefully I will come across the trap like before.

I need all my traps as when I walked the hayfield I found lots of new dirt mounds in areas I had trapped and cleared of pocket gophers. I've noticed the recent pocket gophers that I have trapped are smaller so this year new crop of babies have moved out into the world.

Little projects add up

Today was a day of small projects. I:

• added more wire to the middle pasture/hayfield gate to strengthen it
• added a twisty stay wire (I don't know the official name for it) to a longer than normal stretch between posts in my north fence. This item is two wires wrapped around one another. You twist it on a strand of barb wire and the barb wire will slip between the two wires. You keep twisting and eventually all the barb wire strands are imbeded in this twisty wire. The barb wire strands are then held in place but more importantly they are all joined as one unit so when the cattle stretch through the barb wire they stretch against four or five strands and not just one strand.
• repaired a broken barb wire strand between the north and NE pastures
• fertilized my yard
• pruned the tree branches they cattle had munched on in the NE pasture, fruit tree and garden area and the yard. The cattle were in the corral so I gave them the pruned tree branches so they could eat the leaves. I swear, some cattle would rather eat leaves than grass.
• replanted cabbage, broccoli, cucumber and zucchini plants as almost all of them that I had planted earlier died. None of my watermelon or cantaloupe plants survived. Half of my sunflower plants died. Only two of ten pepper plants lived- though it looked like something ate the leaves as the stems are left (no deer tracks in the soft dirt). All my tomato plants live, though they are smaller than desired.
  
• found two large parsnips growing among my raspberry plants. I noticed them as they were starting to go to seed. How did they get there?
• checked gopher and pocket gopher traps (only caught two pocket gophers with four other pocket gophers filling the traps with dirt)
• chatted with Jan when I was checking traps in the corner of the hayfield kiddie corner to her yard as she was out doing yard work
• bought groceries
• in the evening I chopped a number of burned tree stumps with an ax. I completely got rid of two stumps and put the dirt back in the holes which was no easy task as the holes were big and deep. I chopped on two other burned stumps and got rid of over half these stumps by the time it got dark. I think I will have to burn the rest of those stumps - I'll get a better look and understanding tomorrow.

Of the tree stumps this year I have:

• burned 14
• chopped out one
• have one more to chop out
• burned three ant piles

Of the 14 tree stumps, I have four left to burn again: two major stumps and the two minor stumps I have left after taking an ax to them. When Tammy gets here this weekend we will have a few bonfires and get rid of at least three of the four stumps. Of the fourth stump I have to dig it out more and I am not sure I will have time to do that.

To give you an idea of the work involved in burning these tree stumps, here are a few photos.

Photo 1: After the first burn.
Photo 2: I dug more around the stump after the first burn. This photo was taken from the opposite side of the first photo.

Photos 3 and 4 are from the second burning of this stump.

Photo 5: near the end of the second burning.
Photo 6: what was left the next day. I took an ax to this stump and removed all of it today.

Now for another stump...

Photo 1: first burn
Photo 2: what was left

Photo 3: second burn
Photo 4: what was left

As you can see with this stump the second burn didn't accomplish much. This is one of the stumps I have left to burn.

After the rain

It rained most of last night. It was still raining when I went to bed at 3 am and was done when I got up at 10 am. We must have had plenty of rain as the ground was wet three or more inches down when I dug pocket gopher holes later that day. Also it was easier to stick stakes into the ground when marking my trap locations.

This was a good rain and one I and the grass really needed. A few tree stumps are still smoldering where the roots underground are burning. Several other smoldering stumps were put out by the rain.

It was time to move the cattle to the north pasture for a few days. I saw them get up from their morning break and as they made their way around the pasture I opened the gate to the north pasture. That the gate was open didn't register to them until the first heifer walked through then the others quickly did. The cattle in the middle of the pasture then came running to join them.

They went to the corral and barn right away to check it out. Later when I was walking towards the river they ran over to join me. They were all excited and worked up. A few jumped and twisted as they ran. Whoa! Settle down!

When they got to the river they found the new fence which surprised them. Huh?!

With the cattle out of the middle pasture I moved the half dozen gopher traps from the north pasture to the middle pasture. I ended up setting out all 16 traps as I found 18 holes. The gophers took advantage of the lull to reopen the holes. In the afternoon I rechecked the traps and found one gopher slipped out of a leg hole trap though I found fur on the trap. Darn! So close!

I did find a gopher in another trap. Hurray! Another gopher down. If I only had gotten the first one. I feel I am so close to getting rid of them all.

Beyond that I cleaned up more tree branches. Of the branches I had cut from under the power line I had left them on the ground for the cattle to eat the leaves. The leaves not eaten were black and dead so I tossed the branches in a low area where I don't particularly care for the cattle to tromp around in - though a pile of branches don't seem to stop the cattle.

I also made banana bread and slept for a few hours in the afternoon. Man, I was tired today.

Fencing new

Sunday I built a new section of fence along the river as I now had some posts and wire to extend the fence. I had the old and broken wooden fence posts from where I had rebuilt the fence along the road the semi truck had flattened the fence. The shorter posts work for the two strand fence I build along the river.

I had 14 of these posts. I also cut the ends into points on 20 boards to make it easier to pound them into the ground. These boards go in between the fence posts. I had more boards than fence posts as I was extending the fence and had places for the boards to go in the old section.

Even though this section of river bank isn't as steep or sensitive to cattle moving about on it I decided to fence the cattle out of it to see what happens. I think that without the cattle eating the willow tree branches I place along the river bank they will grown into trees further protecting the river bank.

The downside is that with this section fenced off the cattle have only one area to access the river in this pasture. If this puts too much stress on this area I'll have to reopen the fenced area and find some other way to protect the young willow trees I have planted.

Just as I finished the fence at dusk it began to rain. Yay! I need more moisture. And what great timing!

It was a good and steady rain as I pushed my wheelbarrow of tools home. When I reached the corral it began to rain harder. I was pretty wet by the time I got in the house for the night. At this late hour it is still raining steady and hard. Good! I hope it rains all night even if it means the rain puts out my smoldering tree stumps.

Here are my tools and fencing materials for the new fence and my method of transportation. For a poor man rancher nothing goes to waste.

Fencing old

Saturday morning I moved the cattle from the south pasture to the middle one. I counted and found all twenty cattle had survived their visit to the island the previous night. I didn't have to worry after all.

I had left the gate open to the middle pasture but only five heifers were in it and at the salt block. The other fifteen were moving in their clockwise routine through the south pasture and were moving away from the gate.

I thought if I went out in the middle pasture and spent time filling in the hole from a burnt out tree trunk the cattle would come over to see what I was doing. The five did; the rest didn't as they must not have seen me.

When I went into the south pasture the fifteen came to me and followed me towards the gate. That is until they noticed the five in the middle pasture who were not near the gate. The fifteen rushed over to the fence to join the five. As the five were eating and working their way towards the river and away from the gate so did the fifteen who were still in the south pasture.

*sigh*

I ended up herding the fifteen towards the gate. The cattle weren't used to me herding them and were confused by my actions but eventually I got them to and through the gate and into the middle pasture. The cattle were sure worked up for a while by my herding them.

I then noticed a few leaning posts in the south/middle pastures' fence. It turned out that one or more of the cattle must have earlier gone through the fence and not the open gate.

Of the three strand barb wire fence the middle strand was off for a section, a metal fence post was bent over and three surrounding old wooden posts were broken. The barb wire never broke - the fence posts did.

*sigh*

Why those cattle didn't use the open gate is a mystery. I spent the rest of the morning fixing the fence. I also used my fence stretcher and stretched the middle barb wire tight - tighter than before as I was able to remove a patched section where the wire had broken in the past. So, for a fifteen plus section of posts I tightened up the fence.

Eventually the cattle settled down and took their siesta spread out around the pasture near where the tree stump hole was that I was filling in. As I finished filling in the hole the cattle chewed their cud and pretended not to be interested but I caught them looking at me.

Jailbreak number 2

Here is a writeup I just finished of a cattle jailbreak back from when I still had the cattle in the corral and was feeding them hay...

A few Saturday mornings ago I got up at 8 am to get a drink of water, and looking out my kitchen window I saw my whole cattle herd in my backyard busy munching on the grass!

(This photo is when I later let them in the yard, but the cattle's location is exactly the same.)

I got some clothes on, raced out the front door and down to the road and closed the gate there so the cattle could not get onto the road.

The cattle had not gotten past the house so I slowly herded them back to behind the blue building. They were very excited to be out of the corral. I let them eat the grass there for a while. "Notch" - who I am thinking of now calling "Boss Lady" - pushed over the stack of straw bales and then began rubbing her face in the bales, breaking some of the bales. It was like catnip to her I guess. I shooed her away.

When the cattle weren't near the line from the straw bales to the corner of the blue building I lined up the straw bales to mark a line past where the cattle wouldn't go. Naturally some of the cattle wanted to go past the bales. Among them Pink and Boss Lady. Emily also was getting in the action.

Even with all the easy grass to eat a few cattle were getting on their knees to get their head on the ground to eat the grass growing under some wood piles. Other cattle would go in the pole shed and along the pickup. No grass in there! They would have to back up as they barely could squeeze in there in the first place.

Then with grass available four or five cattle decided they wanted to eat the hay bales. At least they didn't knock that stack over but they tore up a few bales.

Finally I got them back into the corral. *whew*

How they got out if the corral is that they broke the small walking gate next to the silver water trough. While I had placed wire on the corral fence I hadn't placed any wire on the gate I had built as I thought the openings were too small. I think one of them got her head through one of the gate's openings and when she couldn't easily get her head back out she pulled the gate off its hinges. The metal latch was also bent.

I had boards nailed holding the latch post to the corral fence post and all the boards were split in two.

I put in a new latch post which is more solid than the original post. I redid the latch so it is easy for me to open. I put wire over the opening in the gate. I had thought the opening for me to open the latch was ok to leave open until I saw a heifer try to get her head through it. I partially closed that opening and they now can only get their nose through the opening.

Here is an example of how they get their head through the corral posts.

Rain, cattle, camera

It rained today! Hurray! It took a completely overcast sky for the rain to reach me as thunderstorms don't seem to be able to reach my part of the Valley.

The rain came at lunch time. I was working on burning tree stumps when it began to rain lightly. I didn't believe the rain would last and I continued with my burning. But the rain kept coming. Then a little harder. I kept on adding wood to the fire. Again the rain increased. By now I was getting soaked so gathered up my tools and wheelbarrow and headed home.

I then rode my bicycle to get my mail and the rain quit. I knew it!!! But after a bit it started up again lightly and continued much of the afternoon. For all that time we only got .15 inch of moisture. But I'll take it as it is better than nothing.

In the evening when I checked my pocket gopher traps I could see dry dirt mounds of new activity. And when I dug a new hole for a trap I found the wet dirt was only "skin deep".

I opened the gate to the middle pasture last night and moved the cattle's salt from the south to middle pasture. In the morning I seen some of the cattle were in middle pasture at the salt but they moved on back to the south pasture by the time I went out to the pasture. They spent all day in the south pasture out of sight. After checking the gopher traps I checked and saw some cattle on the island. With all the trees on the island I could not see them all but I hope they are alright. They should be unless some did something stupid and fell in the river. Two sides of the island have shallow banks and two sides have drop off banks. One of those banks is fenced and the long side with the main current is not.

With all the tall green lush grass in the south pasture the cattle have to go exploring.

The Canon repair center returned my Canon Powershot A1000 IS camera unrepaired. Initially they left me a phone mail message and claimed the camera's failure to open and close the lens was due to liquid damage. What?! I called them back and they changed their claim too much sand damage and they claimed it was not covered by their warranty. Sand damage?! I only had the camera two months and was nowhere near a beach or sand. They said they took photos of the camera and sand and would send them with the camera.

The photos show the camera with the cover off but beyond that showed nothing. I didn't see sand in the photos. It all seems kind of suspicious to me. Liquid, then sand.... anything to get out of their warranty. I only had the camera with me at the ranch and when hiking. While I take lots of photos and turn the camera on and off often their design should hold up to outdoor use. It appears Canon has a poor design for their lens opening and closing and I wouldn't recommend the camera for anyone who wants to take many outdoor photos.

The Fed Ex driver who delivered the camera to me today had pastured his cow/calf cattle with me years ago one time in the Fall. He no longer has cattle as it was too much of a hassle for him to keep them over winter.

New dead gopher

After all this time I finally trapped another regular gopher. Finally! I don't know if he got tired of moving or whether he just slipped up but I got him Wednesday. Thursday I had to move traps out of the middle pasture as I am letting the cattle back into it. When moving traps I noticed two new (reopened) holes near where I had the traps. I am not sure if the holes were created pre or post dead gopher. I guess I'll find out in the next few days. I imagine it would be just too good of luck for this to be the final gopher.

Speaking of luck, I am having no luck with the rain. Wednesday it rained hard all around my place but I barely got any rain. The closest rain I got was a few minutes of sprinkles when I was on the edge of one large storm. Various storms were moving around the Valley all day - north, south, east and west - but they all managed to miss me. It was very frustrating. I need rain so bad I wouldn't have minded a downpour that would have doused my smoldering tree stumps.

Thursday I hiked in Glacier Park and got soaked from the rain water on the bushes that crowded the trail. I even got some light rain drops on me off and on during the hike. Back home it stayed dry as a bone.

Slow start, fiery end

Tuesday morning was slow for me. Not a lot of ambition on my part.

The weather forecast called for warm, clear and dry. It was warm, partly cloudy and then late morning we had a sprinkle of rain. Only enough to put a few raindrops on the window before it ended. Then it was mostly clear. At least in my part of the Valley; I did see clouds and showers elsewhere closer to the mountains.

I moved a bench outside their garage for Bob to sit on when he is outside of the house. Jan gave me a container of potato salad and that was part of my lunch later.

I hadn't seen the cattle all morning and my 'sixth sense" told me they crossed the river to the island. I had the rest of the branch pile to move and decided to kill two birds with one stone.

On the way to the branches and cattle I discovered the gophers moved back into the middle pasture and reopened holes. When I had cattle in the north pasture I removed the traps from that pasture and the gophers moved there. Then when I had cattle in the middle pasture I moved those traps to the north pasture. For my effort in the north pasture all I caught was a mouse.

I set five traps in the middle pasture and later that evening I discovered two traps (one leg hold and one conibear) had been triggered and were empty. Argh! So close!!! A couple other traps had signs of activity with the dirt disturbed but the traps not triggered. I wonder if this activity was from gophers or mice.

At the river I found the cattle on the island. A new record. This is the fastest I have had cattle get to the island. This partly because this is the earliest I have had cattle in the south pasture but also previous cattle took a few days to a week before they crossed the river. These cattle only took 24 hours. And another difference is that the river level is higher now than other years when the cattle crossed later in the year. When these cattle cross the river the water is up to their belly. Well, at least they are getting a bath when they cross the river.

It is a bit surprising the cattle went to the island so fast as the grass is high and green in the south pasture. Yesterday when the cattle took their siesta they had to blow the grass away else eat it away as it was so tall it covered their faces when they sat down.

These cattle are cool, calm and collected, but also fearless. When it gets later in the year with the river level lower and the grass drier, how much adventuring will these cattle go on?

Since the cattle were exploring the island I decided to move the rest of the branch pile. It wasn't long before the cattle saw me. First one then the rest of the herd crossed the river to come check me out. They checked out the new branch pile and then came over to check out the old branch pile and me. By this time I quit moving the branches in order to avoid carrying the branches around the herd.

A number of cattle checked me and my rake out. The same two "washers" decided to wash my hands and arms again even though I had just taken a shower a few hours earlier. They also worked on my pants and shoes. Once the shoes were clean they decided to untie my shoelaces. That is when I shooed them away from me.

After the cattle left I finished moving the branch pile. I also trimmed a number of trees growing under the electric line on my property boundary. I had trimmed the trees five or so years ago and while they hadn't reached the wires I decided to trim them again before the trees got too big.

After a late lunch I fell asleep. Then it was off to check my pocket gopher traps. Jan mentioned they had a gopher mound in their yard and I took one of my traps over there. I found the hole didn't go anywhere. A gopher probably made a short tunnel when checking whether to move there or not. Jan gave me soup and other food that Bob had no appetite for. With all his new meds Bob's appetite has changed and a number of foods hold no appeal for him anymore.

In the evening as the afternoon's breeze began to die down I went out and burned more. I dug around a tree stump and naturally it turned out to be more digging than I expected. Since the part of the stump I found at ground level was rotting I expected the stump to be quick and easy to shovel around to prepare for burning. Wrong again!

I then reburned the first ant pile as the ants were rebuilding a ring around the burned pile. And they were starting a new hill a yard from the burnt one. At least this was one way to get rid of some of the old hay the cattle didn't eat.

I checked the two ant hills I burnt Monday. These hills were pretty devastated, and while I did see ants around them, not enough activity or hill remained to warrant a second burning.

I burnt another "new" tree stump in the north pasture. This is the last stump I plan to burn in the north pasture as the other stump I will cut from the ground.

Then it was on to a previously burnt stump in the middle pasture. I decided to dig the ashes and some dirt away from the stump and while there was lots less of the stump than when I first burnt it, I found more stump than I expected.

While digging the stump I heard a heifer call out. I looked up and saw two deer in the middle pasture and the cattle along the middle/south pasture fence. The heifer was calling to the deer but they were ignoring the cattle. I walked towards the deer and they bounded off back to the river with their long whitetails bobbing back and forth as they ran and hopped.

It was starting to get dark when I got the stump burning. It made a nice bonfire. I just needed some marshmallows.

I have a feeling some of the stump will remain tomorrow.

Photo 1 is the stump after I dug around it after the first burn.
Photo 2 is the first burn last week.
Photos 3 and 4 are of this evening's burn.

My busy week

I've been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to write in my blog. Here is a brief overview of my activities the past week.

Last Monday

• cattle continue to eat the grass in the fruit tree and garden area
• added fence and other methods to protect the flowers, trees, and shrubs in the yard
• other stuff I don't remember now
  

Tuesday

• let cattle into yard to eat the grass
• pounded in nine steel fence posts to support loose and wobbly wooden posts in the north pasture fence
• other stuff I don't remember now

Wednesday

• Cattle finished eating the grass in the yard
• went around the north pasture and hammered in loose nails and replaced missing nails
• let the cattle into the north pasture
  
• took down most of the fencing used to protect the yard and the fruit tree and garden area plants and trees

Thursday

• in Glacier Park I hiked over Howe's Ridge to Trout Lake and then to Arrow Lake. 13 miles total. Total elevation gain/loss 4200+ feet. Slept 12 hours that night.

Friday

• checked pocket gopher and regular gopher traps. Found new holes under pine trees and in a pile of dead branches
• checked middle pasture's fence. Only had to add some nails. All posts okay.
• burnt nine tree stumps and one large ant hill.

Saturday

• moved cattle to middle pasture
• moved gophers traps out of middle pasture; found new gopher holes in north pasture, set five traps there.
  
• Now that I have more posts and wire, I built a new fence in the middle pasture to keep cattle out from a larger area of steep river bank
  
• rebuild an old fence along the river in the middle pasture
• The cattle discovered me before I was through with the fence rebuild and they had to check out what I was doing. As the herd crowded around me a number of the cattle walked right on the river bank's edge which made me nervous. The bank was only a few feet above the water but the river was deep and fast moving in this area. "Emily" had to get up close to the water in an effort to see what was in the water. The river bank gave way and she was able to jerk back before her front feet went completely in the river. *whew* Hence the reason for the fence in this area. Not learning her lesson, "Emily" continued to walk right next to the river and two times tried to look in the water. These two times the river bank held.
• while I was waiting for the herd to move on so I could get back to my fence rebuild, two of them decided to wash me and each took one arm and licked it from my hands to above my elbows. They must have wanted the salt from my sweat. Else the really, really liked me.
  

Sunday

• finished the rebuilt of the fence along the river in the middle pasture
• checked gopher traps
• checked south pasture fence: added four steel posts, hammered loose nails on fence posts and replaced missing nails and also wire holders for steel posts
• burnt one tree stump
  

Monday

• added the fifth and final steel post to south pasture fence
• picked up and placed in a pile a number of tree branches I had trimmed around south pasture from trees this past Spring. Forgot about them until I moved the cattle's salt blocks from middle to south pasture
  
• moved the cattle to the south pasture
• fixed the south pasture fence where the deer had bent it. A few years ago in the low area I had added 7+ ft tall wire panels to the fence to reinforce the fence and stop the deer from jumping over it. One tried. I am not sure if it was successful as the fence in one area was half bent over. I straightened the wire panel, added a new tall (well over 7 ft tall) post to the fence in this spot, and did a few other maintenance things to the fence
• moved over half of a large pile of old dead branches in this low area that had been sitting there for a number of years. I only moved half the pile as the cattle discovered me before I was done and had to come watch me. I stopped working until they lost interest. When I started up with raking a number would come over to check me out. I stopped, they wandered off. I started they came back. Eventually a number of them thought they would be sneaky and would stand behind some of the small trees and would peek out at me not realizing they small trees didn't hide their fat bellies.
• hauled and dumped Bob and Jan's small trailer of grass, lawn, weed, and tree trimmings
• got another pickup load of scrap wood to use in burning the tree stumps that remain and I placed the wood near the five stumps that did not completely burn and near the two stumps I had not burnt yet. Sunday's tree stump was still smoldering so I left it alone. The larch stump I had burnt last Friday is still burning and following the stump's roots to their very ends.
  
• burnt two large ant piles
• checked pocket gopher traps, caught another two
  
• started to water my very dry garden until it got too dark to see. My poor garden... between the two nights of light frost and the transition from indoors to transplanted outdoors, a number of plants did not survive.
  

And as it is that I am falling asleep at the computer as I type this, it is time to post and then go to bed.

Cattle playing tricks on me

Here are a few stories from when the cattle were in the corral. In between feedings the cattle would play tricks on me.

The first was opening the loading corral gate I had made last year. I was so proud of the latch I designed. Boy, did I pat myself on my back too soon!

Here is what I found several times last week. The gate was open. One of the heifers figured out how to work the latch and would open the gate. So much for my grand design! I have the old snow fence blocking the gate until my loading corral rebuild is done so the cattle couldn't get through the gate. Yet several days in a row I found the gate open.

I never did figure who was doing this. I image she was standing around snickering each time I found the opened gate. Well, I finally put a stop to this as I got a wire and added it as an extra latch. The cattle didn't figure out how to unhook this new addition.

The other game the cattle played on me was to remove the stack of wood I put under the cattle feeder by the barn to support the broken board. The cattle would spread the boards all around the corral. Once the cattle learned how to remove the boards they would do this at least once a day.

In the past I also tossed some large rocks under the feeder to get the rocks out of the way. I guess the cattle wanted to play soccer as I kept finding the rocks around the corral even though I kept putting them back under the feeder.

*sigh* Kids!