Cattle into the north pasture

This morning I let the cattle into the north pasture.  The NE pasture and the fruit tree area grasses were starting to get eaten down.

The night of the election is when I put this wire fence around this pear tree.  Not ideal as you can see the cattle got around/through the fence somehow and ate most all of the pear tree's leaves.  At least the rhubarb plants were saved from the cattle.

The cattle tried to get this little tree but were unable to completely push the fencing over.

Here is when I let the cattle into the north pasture.  Of course, Panda took off running really fast to the grass when I opened the gate.  She always makes a mad dash to food when I open a gate.

A 12 second video of the cattle walking into the north pasture: https://youtu.be/1pJHLbpUopo

Rest day, and cattle into the fruit tree area

Tuesday was Montana's primary election.  Once again I served as a chief election judge for one of the precincts.  The first time since 2018 as the 2020 election was a mail-in election due to COVID.

A difference this time is that the county consolidated some of the precinct locations. We were one of them. Our precinct was moved from a church where we were the only precinct, to a fire hall miles down the road, where we shared the building with two other precincts that were formerly in the building. How was this going to go as we were moving in?  Thankfully, quite well as the chief judge for the other two precincts was wonderful and accommodating for us to work with.  Which is good as the three precincts barely fit in the room we had to use.

More election judges in the same place so more people to talk to when things got slow. We all got along, which is good as my election judges on my team are funny and outgoing.  More people vote by absentee ballot so less people show up in person at the polls these days.  Still enough people showed up to make it worthwhile to have a physical location to go to. A number of people still like to vote in person and also socialize with their neighbors.

A long day.  We start the set up by 6 am.  The polls open at 7 am and close at 8 pm.  Then we take down and clean up the polling location after the polls close as our location is normally a fire hall. (Fortunately no fire calls at our location on election day.)  Then I and another election judge deliver our ballots and important election material to the election headquarters.  As I said, a long day.

Before 10 pm I got home. I planned to now rest. The cattle in NE pasture had eaten much of the grass there down.  They came to the fence and mooed at me.  They could see the fruit tree area had tall grass and they wanted to eat it.  Monday off-and-on as I dodged the rain events I was fixing and adding cattle protection to the trees and bushes in this area. 

Dandelion seeds from the fruit tree area.

Due to the rain I still had to protect one pear tree and also the rhubarb.  I was tired Tuesday evening, but the cattle insisted.  So I spent an hour and cattle proofed the rest of the fruit tree area and then let the cattle in to eat the grass.  The cattle stopped complaining to me.

Here you can see what the cattle did to this corral panel before I let the cattle into the fruit tree area.

Cow #110 is in heat today.  Most of the day Haynes the bull kept the cow in close company.  But she was not quite yet into standing heat. So when Haynes tried to mount her she walked off.  A frustrating day for Haynes.

In the afternoon I found one calf in my yard.  I got her back into the NE pasture.  I think the calf got out of the fruit tree area at the corner at the road.  That is where I had started the fence rebuilt last year.  I found, then remembered, that when I started the rebuild, I kind of attached the wires from the fence along the road to the rebuilt fence rails.  "Kind of" is not good enough for cattle.  I had to re-attach the wires.  A little stronger attachment this time.  Hopefully strong enough until the cattle are moved out and over to the north pasture tomorrow morning.

Cattle into the NE pasture

Friday night late I moved the cattle from the yard to the NE pasture.  Most of the yard grass had been eaten down by the end of the day. 

Friday morning I had cut wire sections and nailed them to the four fence sections between the yard and fruit tree area I had rebuilt last year before the snow fell. The area between the rails was large enough the cattle could put their head and neck through to eat the grass over there, and I didn't want them breaking a rail.

In the afternoon I used the tractor to tip the extended corral feeder and then the feeder in the south corral on their side and placed them in a different spot.  Then I hooked up my harrow to my tractor and harrowed the extended corral area, especially the area where the feeder had been.   I never had harrowed the south corral as it is a small area, but I thought I could do the area where the feeder had sat for the last few years.  That area really needed smoothing out.  What made it difficult was that when I was harrowing the extended corral, the cattle came from the yard and stood in the corral, then the south corral to watch me.  They were all in the south corral when I finished the extended corral, so I shut the gate to the south corral so I could drag the harrow into the corral.

I then opened the south corral gate.  I figured the cattle would now want out of the south corral.  No.  Okay... I'll drive the tractor into the south corral dragging the harrow along with me.  Then the cattle will leave the south corral.  Nope.  So I drove around the south corral.  I figured the cattle then would leave the corral, but no. The cattle moved around.  Some in front of the tractor.  Others, and the calves, behind the tractor as they were fascinated by the harrow and wanted to check it out.  I stopped and got out of the tractor and tried to herd cattle out of the south corral.  They didn't want to go through the gate and out of the south corral.  I only got a few to go out.  So I tried dragging the harrow again.  The same thing.  I tried herding them out again.  The same thing.  Over and over.  It shouldn't have taken me long to harrow this same area.  But it did.  As I drove I had to watch and stop so as not to hit a cow with the tractor, or hurt a calf that wanted to walk up to the harrow.  *argh!!*  But I finally got the harrowing done safely.

Then I had to leave as I had chief election judge training and it was getting late.  I was late to the meeting by a few minutes, but wasn't the last person late.

Then in the evening Donna had tickets to go to the PBR bull riding competition and I was a little late meeting Donna as the chief election judge training took longer than I expected.  But we made it to the event on time.

As I was late to leave to the election judge training and the cattle didn't want to leave the corral, I closed the corral gate.  That way I could open the front yard gate and drive out to the meeting.  When Donna picked me up, and we were leaving, I closed the front yard gate and opened the corral gate.  It was dark when we returned from the bull riding event.  The yard grass was mostly eaten by then.  I had a wire fence to protect the caragana bushes in the front yard.  Maria got her head and neck under the wire fence and pushed it up onto her back.  I had the wire fence wired to the steel fence posts but many of the wire attachments were broken or gone due to Maria's action.  I did some yelling at Maria as she was trying to eat the leaves on the caraganas.

So.. the cattle are now in the NE pasture.   Saturday was mostly a rainy day so I didn't remove any of the cattle protections in the yard.  I waited until today.  Again mostly a rainy day.  I didn't want to wait any longer so I worked in the rain.  I got all the protections removed.  When I took the corral panels back into the north pasture, the cattle came into the corral and mooed and mooed at me as I carried each corral panel.  Even though they have plenty of grass in the NE pasture, they wanted to go with me into the north pasture.  That pasture has grass the cattle haven't tasted yet.  My cattle are divas.

I have to put a trap over my well shed roof.  Otherwise the cattle will pull on and tear the roofing shingles.  This year the cattle torn the tarp.  At least they didn't tear the shingles this time.

I put some small fencing to protect the tulips and flowers growing next to the house.  Only one flower at the right end survived.  The cows are obsessed with getting to whatever I try to protect.  At least this time the roll of wire saved this tulip.  The wire section I had at the top of the roll was torn off by the cattle this year, but they cattle couldn't get their head down into the wire roll.  Last year they did.

I was able to save the bushes this year I had protected.   The one bush that got abused was this one.  Usually the cattle don't like eating this bush so I didn't put wire around it to protect it.  This year they had to try eating parts of it before they decided they didn't like the taste.

Cattle in the yard

Yesterday evening I let the cattle out of the corral and into my backyard so they can eat grass.  First I spent hours cattle proofing the entire yard.  Cattle panels and fence/wiring to protect trees and other areas in the yard. I also decided to put corral panels up in part of the hayfield.  A small area where the patio sticks out is an area I can't reach with the swather to cut hay.  To cut the grass I have to use a hand scythe.  There are two areas I can't reach due to the patio sticking out.  I put up corral panels from the gate to one of the areas.  I also split the yard in two.  I wanted the cattle to eat the back half first.

I let the cattle out between 8 and 9 pm. 

Because I don't trust the cattle, after midnight I herded the half who weren't in the corral, into the corral and closed the gate.  This morning after 8 am I let the cattle back into the backyard.

Around noon, since the grass in the hayfield section was mostly eaten, I closed the hayfield gate to keep the cattle from this area.  When the grass is really eaten the cattle will push on the corral panels and I didn't want anything to happen where I would have to herd the cattle out of the entire hayfield.

Before and after.

You can see how the cattle ate the grass.

I let the cattle spend the afternoon eating the grass in the backyard really down.  Around 6 pm I moved some corral panels around to protect the bushes in front of my house and then let the cattle into the entire yard.

Since I rebuilt the yard/hayfield fence last year I feel much more confident the cattle won't break through the fence and get into the hayfield.  So I will let the cattle stay in the yard overnight.

The house to the garage is where I previous had the corral panels to split the yard.  That is why the grass is short then taller.

After checking things out the calves all liked to lay in the tall grass.

Mama.

Curve sign on the road

I see today that the road department finally put up a sign on my road indicating the curve.  My neighbors, who live on the curve, were unhappy at all the people going off the road and wrecking their fence.  Months ago they asked the road department to put up a sign to indicate the curve.  Finally it was done.  A sign was put up on each side of the curve.  It almost looks like the road department had an artist make a symbol that matches the shape of the curve.

And the speed limit on the curve was lowered from 35 mph to 25 mph.  Like that will make any difference.  Most people drive faster, often much faster, than 35 mph.

Getting the cattle ready for going out to grass

In a day or two I will let the cattle out to the grass.  First they have to finish off the bull's large hay bale.

This morning I sprayed on the cow's and bull's backs an ivermectin medicine to help prevent worms, flies and other bugs that can affect cattle.  Donna came over to help me.  I put the cattle into the loading corral, then the loading corral's runway to limit the cattle's movement as they don't like being sprayed and will try to run away from the spray.

I had let the cattle into the loading corral and left the gate open as they made their way over to the loading corral.   While I walked over to open the gate to the bull's hay bale I had Donna go to close the loading corral gate.  Mama saw Donna walk to the gate and knew "trouble" was here.  She ran out of the loading corral and the next I knew she was over by me as I was opening the hay bale gate.  Maria also came out after Mama.  I had to herd both back into the loading corral.  They were really nervous about Donna being here and didn't want to go into the loading corral.  Finally I got them in.

Photos of the cattle before I got these into the runway.

Once they were all sprayed - I skipped the calves - I let them out so they can go over to the bull's hay bale.

Before I sprayed the cattle I noticed the bull had broken one fence rail.  He was reaching outside the corral to eat grass.  So I had to fix and replace the rail before I let the cow's into his part of the corral.  Fortunately the bull didn't decide to squeeze through the opening before I fixed it.

The bull prefers grass over hay.   Here are a few photos of the corral fence where he stuck his head through the fence to eat the grass in the hayfield.  You can see where I had nailed fence wire on the corral fence the bull couldn't eat as much hayfield grass.  I don't mind the bull eating this grass as the area is too close to the fence for me to cut hay.  I just don't want him to break fence boards.

The cows in extended corral also wanted to eat grass in the hayfield and reached through this corral panel.  The photos show the area on each side of the corral panel.  The electric wire was on the other side of this panel until the corner panel when Donna and I ran the wire on the inside of the panels. (I had taken the wire down before I took these photos.)

The corral panels separating the extended corral from the north pasture had electric wire along the panels. I had already taken the wire down where I took the following photo. The electric wire protected the panels from the cows damaging them. Still, the cows and calves learned to lay their heads low and eat grass as far as they could without touching the electric wire.  As you can see they didn't eat the grass as far as they had done on the previous panel photos.

The cows last night tried to open these corral gates. They didn't succeed.

By late afternoon the cattle were fat and happy from the bulls hay.

Well leak fixed

Back in early April my house well pump pipe had a leak. https://tallpinesranch.blogspot.com/2022/04/well-pipe-leak.html

Even though I fixed it back then, the new plastic pipe still had a really small leak at the bottom where the pipe fit onto the fitting in the pipe coming out of the concrete floor.  The past weekend I tried to fix it and stop the leak.  I only had one metal ring/clamp at the bottom connection.  I must need two rings/clamps, one at each end of the pipes to squeeze the pipes tight against the fitting.

After I put the second ring/clamp on the pipes, the leak was slightly faster.  Huh?

I asked my neighbor Curtis for advice.  He said heat the pipes slightly and that way I can tightened the rings/clamps more.   I did.  And the leak was just as much, or a touch more.

Curtis said maybe the ring/clamp on the lower pipe needed to be lower on that pipe and not at the very end.  Like the concrete is not holding the pipe tight against the fitting?  

So I had to chip away at the concrete around the lower pipe.  And do it carefully so as not to damage the plastic pipe.    This was a project.  The concrete was hard of course.  But also in the concrete were small rocks.  Try breaking rocks into smaller pieces, much less out of the concrete, when they are completely in concrete.   Also the shed is not super large.  I had to kneel outside the shed and try to chip.  And the pipe is at an angle which made chipping on the left side harder to do.

Because I would get tired kneeling and bending, and I didn't want to get too frustrated and then accidentally damage a plastic pipe, I would only chip away for a short amount of time until I got tired.  Also, after I had removed the two rings/clamps so I can chip close to the pipe, the leak slowed way down.  Way down.   Huh?

After much of the week chipping the area larger and slightly deeper, I decided to try putting the rings/clamps back on the pipes.   To my surprise the leak stopped.  Hurray!   I've checked and looked the past few days and no leak.  The concrete dried out.   So finally!

Before (back in April), and after.  I took the after photo a couple days ago.  The concrete is now white (completely dry).

Beaver, turtle, and birds

Yesterday when I was looking at how high the river was at due to the Spring runoff, I saw an animal swimming slowly upstream along the river's bank on the other side of the river.  I mainly saw the head barely above water.  I wasn't sure if it was a beaver or a muskrat.  Before it could swim around the corner the animal climbed up onto the river's bank.  Still I wasn't exactly sure what kind of animal it was as I didn't see a tail.  The size could be what I consider a normal beaver size - half the size I saw when the beaver walked by my house that night weeks ago.  Or could it be a large muskrat?

I watched and didn't make a move or sound.  The animal groomed itself.  It rubbed its nose and face and head with its paws.  Then it rubbed its belly as it was sitting upright.  Then the side of its body.  Then it seemed to rub its butt.

After a little more body grooming the animal went down onto all of its legs and moved off the river's bank and into the river.  Just before it was completely in the water I saw its tail.  Yes, it was a beaver.   Then it slowly swam upstream and around the corner.

This lasted 10 or more minutes.  It was nice to watch the beaver swim and groom.  I just wish they wouldn't eat my willow trees along the river's bank.

Today I went to the same spot and watched.  At one point I saw dark round object on the river's bank where the beaver was yesterday.  Then the object was gone.  Back into the water.  I do have turtles in the river.  Usually I see them sunning on tree branches in and out of water along the river's banks.  No branches there.  But I think it was a turtle.

Also yesterday I noticed a couple birds on the dead tree trunk in my front yard.  I looked closer and saw two holes in the trunk.   That is where the birds must be living.   I have a large live tree south of my house and birds carved out a hole in which to nest.  One year I nailed a board over the hole to prevent the birds from moving back the next year.  The birds carved out a new hole near the boarded hole.  So I gave up and let them live there.

One hole is where a branch used to be.  The other hole was completely created by the birds.

Torn tarp

The tarp I used to cover the hay bales, then the straw bale, is now useless.  After I moved the straw bale I left the tarp in a pile in the corral.  The cows and calves got obsessed with the tarp and started to spread it out.  Yesterday I put the tarp over the corral fence into the backyard.  This morning I seen some of the calves trying to pull the tarp back though the corral fence.  Really? Why are you doing that?

So I spread the tarp out to see how bad it was.  It was bad.  I cut a few small areas to make smaller tarps.  The rest of the tarp goes in the trash.  I may have "saved" 10 percent of the tarp.

Saved pieces.

Calf drinking from a faucet

One of the calves likes to drink from the faucet when I fill the water tank.  It would be easier to drink from the water trough, but where's the fun in that?