Neighbor's baby cattle

Here are a few photos of the neighbor's baby cattle.  I believe the calves were born last October/November.  As they appear to be Corriente cattle they don't get big.  So it looks like the calves stay smaller long.

Not even 6 months old and their horns are coming out.

Here is an adult cow.

Fixing a broken gate

Today I finished fixing the broken gate I had replaced in the corral last month.

Earlier I had to bolt the right vertical piece back on to the five horizontal pieces.

Then I got a metal plate and bolted it to the top bar that was broken in two.

Whenever I get around to replacing the gates in the 'back 40' pasture this gate will be ready to use.

CJ storage auction

Last Friday Tammy and I attended a storage unit auction.   They had four storage units up for auction.  The other four units advertised had been paid up and taken out of the auction.

5:30 pm on a Friday brought out lots of people.

The storage units sold for lots more money than I expected.  The same person bought the first three units and another person got the last one.   The bidders were three or four of men.  As people filed past the unit for a 'look-see' prior to the auction of the unit, one or more of the group, would tell the auctioneer their starting bid.  It worked as this eliminated the average person from bidding as we all were taken aback at a high starting bid.

The first unit - packed with household stuff - had a starting bid of $500 and the unit ended up selling for $900. Whoa.


The following two photos is of the second unit.   One could easily see all what was in this unit. This unit had a large cabinet and a bow-flex machine.  It sold for $300 or so.

The following unit was actually a double sized unit.  It sold for $1850.  This unit had it all: household stuff, tools and bongo drums.

Here is a six second video of the 'double sized unit' auction:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuvItgBcTUs



The guy in brown was the winning bidder of the last unit which was mainly tools.  I think it sold for around $700.

Weekend snow

We got a little snow Saturday night / Sunday morning.  It was gone by mid afternoon.

Daisy wasn't so sure about the snow.

The tulips are coming up.  Daisy is munching on grass and not the tulip leaves.

Daisy shook her paws as she walked through the wet snow.

Grilled cheese

Tammy loves grilled cheese sandwiches.  And as you can see... the bigger the better.

Red feeder

Last Friday when I got the corral panels from Dan he also gave me an old broken down feeder.  I figured I would give the feeder a try to replace the bathtub for feeding Baby and the heifer.

The feeder needed some work.  The hard black plastic was no longer fastened to the frame.  Knowing the cattle they would get the plastic out of the frame.  So I got some bolts, screws and a drill, and after some hard work wrestling the plastic I got it attached back to the frame.

Before (left) and after (right) photos...

I put the feeder out for the cattle to use.

I'd like to say this solved the problem of the cattle pushing the hay out and onto the ground.  But they still do it.  Maybe not as much as when I used the bathtub, but still more hay than I care to be pushed out onto the ground and wasted.  I do notice the cattle don't step into the feeder now.

Eating out of a bathtub

I put hay for Baby and the heifer into an old bathtub as I don't have a feeder on their side of the barn.

The problem with the bathtub is much of the hay ends up outside the bathtub and on the ground.  Baby and - especially - the heifer like to eat from the bottom of the bathtub and as a result end up pushing lots of the hay out of the tub as they move their head around.  Then they step or go to the bathroom on it ruining the hay.  If I planned to keep the cattle separated for a long time I would build them their own feeder.


Here are Momma and the two steers on the other side of the corral.

After had I re-separated the cattle the other day the steers were even more skittish than usual.   One steer has a habit of standing at the feeder along its side.  Once this steer gets a mouth of hay it turns its head so it is not over the feeder.  When it gets a large clump of hay invariably the extra hay falls to the ground and mud and is wasted.  One day I walked around and over to see how much hay was falling and one steer got freaked out that I was doing something different and so close to him that he about ran over the other cattle to get away from me. It took 24 hours for the two steers to be comfortable enough to approach the feeder when I was filing it. 

Nervous Nellies

Here is the size of Momma's udder before the cattle opened the gate and Baby had access to Momma's milk.  I've noticed April 4 that after almost a month away from Baby Momma's udder still looks to have milk.

More corral panels

Dan bought a friend's collection of corral panels as the friend was moving.   Dan offered to sell the four damaged panels to me.  When I went out to get them last Friday Dan also offered four of the undamaged panels to me for what he paid for them.

As I found out with the four panels I already own, the panels come in handy when I need a temporary fence in a short time, or when the ground is frozen.

The damaged panels weren't in too bad of condition.  I was able to bend them to be mostly straight.  One panel did look like the previous owner had driven over it.  How this could happen is a mystery to me but this isn't the first panel or gate I have seen that had been run over.

First Treasure Market

Tammy renamed her antique and flea market to "The Ultimate Treasure Market" to give her event a catchy name.  This past weekend was her first event under the new name.

She had some banners made with the new name and I put them on our A-frame signs.

This past weekend was also the weekend for the Creston Auction so Tammy had some serious competition.  Add in a cool wet weekend for making it more challenging to hold a successful event.   But Tammy did better than expected, and better than her previous events, with over 500 people attending on Saturday and over 150 people on Sunday.

Creston Auction

I attended the (47th) annual Creston Auction on Saturday.  I actually got to the auction a little before it started.  Because Friday and Friday night were so wet from rain most of the stuff was covered by tarps or plastic.  Much of what wasn't covered was very wet.

As the morning went on auction helpers or the public started to uncover the merchandise.

Some stuff was good...

Some stuff was interesting to the right person...

I didn't take photos of the stuff that "only a mother could love".  I would say the auction was a good place to get rid of your old tube TV instead of paying to have it hauled off to the dump.


The small round feeder sold for $80.  I didn't buy it even though it would be perfect for feeding Baby and the heifer right now.

Tammy said she would stop eating chicken if I started to raise chickens so I didn't get the feeders either.

There were only four auctioneer wagons this year.   The first photo shows Bobby Roshon selling a saddle.  The second photo shows the Amish/Mennonite (?) auctioneer team.  The guy in the middle has been an auctioneer at the Creston auction before but the two auctioneers backups are new.  For some reason there are always a number of Amish/Mennonites in the audience at the Creston Auction each year.

It was a cool cloudy rain-threatening morning, and with a chill in the air and very little that interested me, I left after a few hours.  Tammy was running her Treasure Market Expo so she didn't attend the Creston Auction this year.

Ditch burning

I completed the burning of the ditches today.  The timing was right as the rain came this evening and the grass is starting to grow.

This is the section I had left to burn today as I had to quit burning last night when it got late.

There was not much of a breeze today when I burned.  This was both good and bad.  A light breeze meant little chance of the fire getting out of control.  On the other hand the fire just crept along.

Earlier in the week I had burned along the north hayfield fence and over half the west fence to create a decent boundary for when I planned to burn the hayfield.  But today I decided against burning the hayfield as the grass is growing and the fire would set it back.  I had burned the hayfield last year so it is not like the dead grass is over done.

Ent tree at night

Here are some photos I took one night back on January 25.  My "ent" tree made an impression on me in the darkness.

Here is how the tree looked back in 2009 when I trimmed the dead and dying parts of it: http://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2009/11/owl-ent-tree-part-3-final-photos.html

Here is how the tree looked January 25.

The first photo was when I used a flash to take the photo.  The second photo is without a flash.

The first photo must be how Tammy sees in the dark as she doesn't like the dark.  The second photo is how I see in the dark, which I like.

Working on a jailbreak

I discovered the cattle had been working on getting another gate open.

I slid the bar back into the end and the jailbreak was averted.

Cleaning the stock tank

Saturday afternoon I cleaned the cattle's water tank.  It was starting to get dirty/slimy on the bottom as it hadn't been cleaned since Winter started.

The tank is so old that I don't trust removing the plug on the bottom, so once the water gets low I stand the tank up and tip the water out.  This is a cast iron tank so it is heavy and I get a work out.  I use the water hose and wire brush to clean the tank.

Refilling the tank with water.

Here Baby checked out the clean tank as I refilled it with water.

First pocket gopher

I trapped the first pocket gopher for 2013.  When I burnt the NE pasture on Tuesday I noticed a few fresh dirt mounds.  It has taken me since Tuesday to get this pocket gopher as it kept filling the trap with dirt.   I think the pocket gopher tried to fill the trap with dirt again but got his or her back part trapped in the wire.

One down.... how many more to go this year?

This photo shows that Daisy thinks of pocket gophers the same as I do.  Here she is going to the bathroom in a spot the pocket gopher had dug up.

Jailbreak

Today when Tammy and I came home from running errands uptown I discovered that all the cattle were together in the corral south of the barn.  Momma, a heifer and the two steers made a "jailbreak".

Baby and the rest of the cattle.

How did they get into this part of the corral?   They opened the gate. 

How the cattle opened the gate is they slid the handle back then pushed the gate open.  (Who says cattle are dumb?!)  And the handle is not the easiest to move.

Here is how the gate looks now.  I added the bungee cord.   The chain isn't long enough to wrap around the post and is there for decoration. Wait a minute!  Just now I realized how I can use the chain to secure the gate.   I can wrap the chain around the handle and gate and then 'lock' the chain in the notch - I don't need to wrap the chain around the post.

So Tammy and I had to separate the cattle.  This was easier said than done as Baby was closest to me and therefore the gate.  I wanted her (and one other cattle) to remain here.  I tried to herd Baby back but she would only back up a few steps at a time.   So I decided to herd the others and take a chance of Baby getting to the other side of the corral with the others.

Most of the other cattle would let me get close and not move so I moved to the two steers as they are still excitable and won't let me get close unless I am feeding them hay.  Tammy was standing by the gate ready to close it.  So the cattle would circle back around to the back of the corral.  Around and around we went.

I had Tammy move away from the gate and took my chances of closing the gate myself in time.  And I did it!  Baby and the one heifer lagged and I was able to get the gate closed before they could go through.

So everyone is back where they belong. 

I had been noticing that Momma's udder has been slowly been shrinking.  Now when I checked Momma her udder is small (empty).   Tammy and I were only gone two hours but that was enough for baby to drain the udder.  It has been three weeks since Baby and Momma were separated.  I guess over the next few days I'll see if Momma produces more milk.