Flowers

The poppy flowers in front of the house have opened their buds these past few days.

Stump 7 removal

Not a typical stump removal.  I didn't dig around the stump before trying to burn it.  The stump was already at ground level as the parts above ground had all broken off.  I thought the stump may be soft, and if I had a fire on top of the stump, the stump may burn enough to be low enough that my harrow wouldn't snag it.

I think the burn worked.  Afterwards I used a shovel to check a few inches deep and only felt dirt and no stump.

Lilac blossoms

Spring time and the lilac tree/shrub/bush in the back yard is blossoming.  It probably smells good too, but with my loss of sense of smell I can't smell the blossoms.

Stump 6 removal

Another night recently.  Another bonfire to eliminate a tree stump. 

I forgot to take a photo before I started the dig.  But if you look at the first photo you can see just a couple of small white pieces of the stump that was above ground.

Some of the stump was very hard.  Some of the stump was softer on top.  That is the part where the grass was growing out of the stump.

Here is a 38 second video of the bonfire: https://youtu.be/qEMTJNkEqNQ

Stump 5 removal

I had a bonfire one evening to remove stump 5.  This stump turned out to be bigger than what appeared above ground.

The stump was a stump that was in the middle of a row of three stumps near to one another. So it was good to get rid of this stump.

31 second video of the bonfire.

Horny fence breaking

Friday morning at 7:15 am I woke up to hearing mooing.  It sounded like it was coming from just outside the house.  I got up and looked.  Speckles was in the driveway just outside the house.  She had jumped over the fruit tree area fence and in doing so broke the top board.  Her calves and Maria were still in the fruit tree area.

I tried to herd Speckles through the walk through gate and back into the fruit tree area.  Speckles was having none of it.   The next I was doing was chasing her around the house.  Once around the house is when I discovered Speckles calves came through the open gate and were now in the the driveway.  So I herded Speckles and her calves into the corral.

Donna came over to help me with gate as I herded Speckles and her calves back into the fruit tree area.  About the time I finished fixing the fence I saw Speckles on the north side of the fruit tree area.  She was trying to push the bottom of the chain link fence out so she could get through the fence.  I went and chased her from the chain link fence.  She then ran back to where she has earlier jumped over the fence.  After I had fixed the fence I had placed an extra corral panel along that fence area. So Speckles tried to get over the fence a short distance away.

Seriously Speckles!  Knock it off.

Donna had thought Speckles may be acting this way because she was in heat.  I thought I seen the bull had earlier shown lots of interest in Speckles when they were in the corral together, and she was bred back then.  Maybe not...

Speckles was acting crazy and agitated so I opened the gate and Speckles ran though and to the yard.  I opened the corral gate and let her in the corral.  This time I decided to let Speckles out to the pasture to be with the bull.  Speckles ran right to the gate to the south pasture. The herd came running when I let Speckles into the south pasture to be with them.  Then about three or four of the younger cows started to fight with Speckles and tried to drive her off and away from the bull.

Eventually Speckles kept a short distance from the herd and the fighting stopped.  Another cow was in heat and the bull stood right by her and kept her company.  When the bull mooed asking if the cow was ready the cow would take a few steps away so the bull wouldn't mount her as she wasn't quite ready.  But she would stay standing right next to the bull.  So Speckles wasn't getting any action until this cow was bred.

Diamond hasn't had a calf yet this year so I decided I would herd her to the fruit tree area to keep Maria company as they ate the grass down.  But Diamond was also interested in the cow in heat.  The bull wasn't happy Diamond expressing interest with the cow in heat and would occasionally push Diamond away.  I wasn't getting involved in their tiff.  So I waited and waited and waited until Diamond eventually moved on and I could entice her through the gate and out of the south pasture.  Once I did that the rest of the herd saw what had just happened and threw a fit they couldn't also go into the middle pasture.

I herded Diamond to the fruit tree area to join Maria.

I then had breakfast as it was now noon.  After breakfast I then herded Speckles' calves from the fruit tree area over to the south pasture to be with Speckles, who was now missing her calves and calling for them.  The two calves would run together as if they were joined at the hip.  That is until they almost reached the south pasture gate.  Speckles was calling at the gate and when the herd saw me and the calves coming they rushed to the gate.  One calf went to the gate and the other calf hung back.  I opened the gate and the one calf ran through and went to Speckles and started drinking.    The other calf then ran back to the gate to the north pasture.

I had to herd that calf back to the south pasture gate.  Speckles was behind the herd and the calf couldn't see her.  The calf turned and looked back to the barn and ran back to the north pasture gate.  Over and over we repeated this.  I got a lot of walking in. This calf didn't seem to want to be around the other cows.  Eventually I was able to get the calf through the gate into the south pasture to join her mother.

Over half my day was wasted herding cattle and other stuff was not done.  I was so over female behavior that day.


Maria on the left, and Diamond on the right.

Two pairs gone

I had planned in August on selling the two cow/calf pairs that were replaced last year by the replacement heifers.  After hearing about how one rancher in the Valley sold his around 100 yearling calves this year by an ad instead of the livestock auction as usual, I thought I would place a craigslist ad and see if anyone wanted cow/calf pairs now.

Yes, people did.

The guy I sold them to came and got them this afternoon.  These two pair had been in the fruit tree area with Speckles and Maria.  Donna came by to help me sort these two pairs from Speckles and Maria and get them into the loading corral before the stock trailer arrived.  This guy's trailer is a little different than mine and a touch lower.  So he couldn't quite get to the loading corral head gate. He was a foot or so short.  He and his son stood on each side of the head gate and trailer so the cows or calves wouldn't think of trying to squeeze through that small opening instead of entering the trailer.  I moved the cows and calves up the loading ramp and to the trailer.  They didn't want to go to the end and to the trailer as they saw these two strangers standing there.  So I had to repeatedly convince the cows to go into the trailer.  After a few go arounds where the cattle would back up or turn around I got one cow to go into the trailer.  Then it was easier to convince the other cattle to go into the trailer also.

So I am back down to the amount of cattle that I think is appropriate for the ranch.  It is nicer to be at this level now than waiting till August.

One of Speckles calves liked the other calves.  She was missing her buddies as they were in the loading corral waiting for the stock trailer to arrive.

"Where are my buddies?"

Speckles, her sister, and Maria were all on the other side of the fruit tree area.

More trimming on broken tree

This afternoon I trimmed the top of the broken tree near my well's pump house.

Original damage

Now after the top was trimmed.

Original damage

Now after the top was trimmed.

A series of photos showing the damaged tree top.

Trimmed off top.

Some of the top branches were mostly - but not always - detached from the tree trunk.  I had to cut them off.

These and other previous broken branches wanted to stay up on the other branches and not drop to the ground.  It was a pain to get them to fall to the ground. Often I would have to carefully walk out on live branches and trim off side branches of the broken branch so it wouldn't catch on other live branches. One branch I had to cut shorter so I could maneuver the branch around and down.

Even so, the trimmed branch in the previous photo still wouldn't fall all the way to the ground.  I had to stand on a step ladder so I could reach the branch and pull it down to the ground.

Some of the trimmed branches from the tree top.