July 26 — The past 12 days we’ve had hot weather, up to 35 C. The creek is dropping, and we’ve been short of irrigation water.
We bought some big square bales from Phil Moulton; he hauled and stacked them for us, and Dani helped us put black plastic over the bales. We always buy some hay to augment the little bales we put up on our few acres of hay ground.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Andrea and I were able to ride and make sure there were no range cows in the 320-acre pasture. We also repaired the electric wire over the driveway that our stackwagon tore down when we hauled hay from the field below the lane. Lynn used the tractor and lifted Andrea up on the hay fork (with a wood pallet over the tines to create a safer platform for her to stand on) and got her high enough to reach up the poles to reconnect the wire.
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Wednesday Dani showed us her new puppy — a cute little border collie-Corgi cross — and the beautiful urn she ordered for Ammarie’s ashes.
Our first fire of the season is out of control on Hayden Creek, just over the hills from us. The past few days have been very smoky.
We moved the cows a few times into new segments of pasture, and Andrea finished putting step-in posts and hot wire around the heifer hill hayfield so we can graze the rough feed around it and let the field grow back before we graze it.
While our cattle are fine, some on range pasture are running out of feed.
Aug. 15 — We had more hot weather and were immersed in smoke the past couple of weeks. The Hayden Creek fire is out of control and burned 27,000 acres. We had several lightning storms but hardly any rain. The power went off on two different days, and when it goes off our phones don’t work, sometimes for longer than the power outage. Our phone company doesn’t have battery backups on outlying rural systems.
Nick has a nice spot for his trailer on our hill pasture. He has a generator for electricity, and several 50-gallon plastic barrels he fills with water once a week at our hydrant by Sprout’s pen for his water supply. A couple of weeks ago there was a three-foot-long rattlesnake by his trailer door. He shot it and showed us the rattles. He has now built a porch so he won’t be stepping right out of the trailer and onto another snake!
We took the cows up the horse road to heifer hill to graze the outer edges for a week, then let them down into the next circular pasture (rough edge around the hayfield). Rotating and letting those pieces regrow to graze again increases our pasture production.
Aug. 30 — Jim has been taking his trailer to the woods once or twice a week to get firewood for us and Andrea. We had more hot weather, up to 37 C. The creek is dropping and the watermaster shut off all of Michael and Carolyn’s ditches (fourth right). It’s a good thing Andrea is a good irrigator and can do a lot with a little.
Last week I called my uncle Bob Smith in Tennessee to wish him and his wife a happy anniversary. They’ve been married 71 years. He’s my dad’s youngest brother and is now 92 years old.
We moved the heifers out of the pen next to Shiloh where they’ve been grazing. Lynn put air in a low front tire on the tractor, and it was ready that afternoon when Phil brought two loads second cut-alfalfa round bales to stack there. Rain was predicted and he wanted to get it hauled before it started. Wind was blowing and rain was starting as he brought the second load that evening, but we managed to get it covered with black plastic and tied down before the rain came for real. Nick came that evening to fill his water barrels and stayed for supper.
It rained hard that night, and when Nick started down the hill next morning, the road was slippery and his truck slid sideways and almost into the gully. He had to leave it there (we had 1.5 inches of rain over three days) until the road dried enough to drive it on down. He borrowed one of his folks’ four-wheelers to go up and down the road when it’s muddy, leaving his truck at the bottom of the hill.
Sunday evening we had belated birthday celebration for Charlie (his 22nd birthday was Thursday) and pot-luck dinner at our house. Dani made a birthday cake. Monday we rearranged a few big bales in the stackyard and put deer netting and elk panels around the stacks. Andrea took out more step-in posts and rolled up the electric wires, to get our temporary fences removed before winter.
I took care of Christopher part of the day while everyone was working on these projects. He “helped” me in the house. At one point he somberly told me, “Dani’s baby gone. She’s in the stars.” We are all missing that sweet child — even her four-year-old cousin.
