Roundup

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  The heifers come in first, and get lost at the last second and “escape” to a box-end bog at the springbox to the house.

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  They nearly tear out the Z corner fence I fixed after the bulls tore it out awhile back, but heifers are a friendly sort and let us help them.

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  They had turned right instead of left, a simple mistake we’ve all made. Now they are all set and we can get on to the rest of the herd.

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  Cows come from all directions, as cowboys bring them down the mountain. I open an extra gate and help them find it.

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  Other cattle see the gate and begin pouring across the hillside to pass through.

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  I keep them from bottlenecking at the bottom of the z, they head over and down and out the gate.

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  Elizabeth is in the blue hat at L, keeping cattle headed into the corral.

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  And scooting to keep them from taking the route up the waterline the heifers carved out earlier.

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  Then strolling back to position at the unassuming pace that lets her walk ahead of the cows, then turn them through the gate.

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  The bellowing of cattle resounds through the valley.

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  A sizeable group still needs to come out of the valley to the L of the road, around the back of the forest. This group is being moved over the hill to join the larger group.

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  Riders converge on the hilltop, the cattle are down below driven by another pair of horsemen and a 4wheeler.

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  They head back to meet the oncoming herd.

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  They pace themselves to the sound of the herd on the road below.

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  They’ll hit just the right pace to be invisible to the cattle, and converge on them in time to block an open gate- then bring them in.

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  Here come the stragglers. The horsemen are up on the near hillside with cattle split above the fenceline. Down on the road the group is moved with a 4wheeler.

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  The gate is at the right, the other riders are out of frame- all the cattle should join up on the road.

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  The plan comes together.

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  The entire herd is corralled!

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  The game-plan is sketched out.

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  Time to move the herd from inside the corral.

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  It looks like it will only take one cowpoke for this part.

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  Cleared from one corral to the next with a few graceful sweeps.

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  Joining the traffic to find a gate out.

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  The rider heads out of the corral, and all the horses are done for the day.

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  It is a steep series of corrals to get up to the main flat at the barn.

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  Found this Alpine Meadows girl of my father’s in the herd.

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  Calm yard and milling corral.

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  Now weighing and vaccinating the calves will go on for the rest of the day.

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  Dusk, and the gate is open for the cows to reunite with their calves. The bellowing calms as everyone finds each other and night falls.

“Fresh Up”

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  The horses unearthed this out in the pasture and brought it near the gate for me to find.

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  “You like it, it likes you” was original to the brand from 1934. “Fresh Up” refers to curative properties for a hangover.

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  The bottle date is 1960.

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  The big storm window in the bee bedroom went back up today, waiting since last summer.

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  This section of the front of the house is as finished up as it gets.

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  We’ve had more than 3 inches of rain in the past week, and she is holding up nicely.

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  To the far L are the kitchen windows. I removed the summer screens and hung the storm windows again.

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  The storm windows are heading into their second winter since refurbishing.

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  Big afternoon thunderstorms brought pea hail.

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  With nighttime lows dipping into the 30’s, a reminder that the first snows of fall are just weeks away.

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  Evening view out the kitchen window.

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  E and I went on an early evening tour around the W side of the land on the 4Wheeler. Lots of antelope and deer. On the E side last night we were joined by a flock of at least 30 Bluebirds.

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  Tomorrow is a big roundup, so get ready for noisy cows!

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  Peaceful twilight.

Quiddler Poem: This Toy Guy

IF a GUN is a LIE / then a PITHY CLIP is ME. / and if a hermit crab is a DREDGY CLAW HUT, / is HE able TO be RUDE about those BODY JAGS / and offer IT a TANNIN RARER even than LIFES CODE / GROVE within his triggered SON / THIS TOY GUY / so WHEATY he must be TRUE.

Building Better for Bunnies.

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  This gizmo has been on my radar for awhile. They were unavailable for most of the summer, but finally I could order one from the Big-Box store while in SLC. I had it sent to the Great Falls Big-Box a week before we headed back up, and it picked it up after a week here.

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  It is a SunJoe scarifier and dethatcher. I’m using the scarifier blades, which cuts through the thick layer of thatch/moss/detritus all the way to soil. This spring I dethatched with the mower springbar (going through 5 springs), pulling vast amounts of old lawn/leaves- that was good prep for this next step of penetrating the surface.

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  Setup is idiot proof. Lucky me.

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  The essential factor is the extension cord. For 100 feet of cord, it must be a 12 gauge cord as it runs at 1500 watts. 100 feet the maximum range, but the yard is bigger than that. Legging another cord drops the amperage by 50% and fries the motor/overheats the cord/ruins the plug/throws the breaker. 150 feet of 10 gauge cord might work, but costs nearly double the unit itself.

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  The little bag fills up with heavy debris in no time at all, and I dump it into the yard wagon. The wagon fills quickly and E trundles it off for dumping. I scarify the front, back, and can reach half way to the lilacs to the South. Then I overseed with a drought tolerant mix, lay on a fertilizer mix, then head up for a day’s work of improving the springbox up the mountain that feeds the yard water for the waterbirds.

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  Cows on the mooooooove. Dave brings up mash from the local brewery, and the cows know it is beer-thirty.

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last night’s Quiddler Poem: Your Covid Quota

It was as DEATH TO LET HER WED / that USER, that TOE ROT / that GAZE into the LOO and never AIR IT / THINE ACE lost to class FEES for CLAY / as one might sip LAWN DRINK by the PINT / using a HAIRY GRATER to strain out the FLIES / your MOOD-CUBE could not MOP up the RUN / the over-run on your COVID QUOTA.

Yarding, because: Yard.

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  The back yard after no water for a month.

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  This is from May after dethatching; the mowest mow I knowed.

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  Here we are after mowing today. A few days of rain start later today, and I waited til now to mow as it has been hot and dry.

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  May again; right before a late spring snow.

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  Pre-mowing today.

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  After mowing with no water since we were last up in July.

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  The front yard in May after dethatching.

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  Today after zero water for a month.

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  Mowed low.

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  May. The green strip is unthatched, and the rest is thatched.

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  Yard pre-mow.

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  Mowed as short as possible: bcs more yarding to come…after the week of rain we’ll get to know a new sort of mow. Also this shows the house all painted and the green roofing re-greened from overspray. I’ll pull the window masking off after a few more days of curing.

Suit Up For Fellerin’

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  Rain comes in tomorrow, so time to gear up and see if I can find the little leak I “fixed” from the inside in May.

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  A three ladder climb.

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  Hitting all the possible leak spots, with no definitive “ah ha- found it”. I’ll head upstairs when the rain starts and see if I got it.

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  Might as well hand paint a few layers over the sprayed layers…

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  I removed 8′ of corner trim- starting to dry rot, softening up the backing panels as well.

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  All the old nails pulled, sanded out, and treated with a penetrating rot-sealant.

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  I wanted to pick up a PVC board in town, but will have to bring it up from SLC. Meanwhile, the old board will go back up after treatment.

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  Smelly little can of clear mystery fluid, with its own brush that won’t dissolve in the goo.

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  Set back in place.

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  Next time I have the paint out I’ll do some touch-up.

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  The smoke rolled out at day’s end and E and I took Nora over the hill to clean Bluebird houses of the season’s spent nests.

Rickety Ladder

We drove through wildfire smoke for 540 miles (I installed a near-Hepa rated carbon filter for the truck which kept our air in the cab much cleaner), and emerged to clear skies on the north slope of the Little Belts 20 miles from the ranch (we rolled down the windows!). The clear skies lasted a few days, then Canada’s firesmoke blew in. Just one more day of hot smoke, then clear skies and rain are in the forecast with daytime temps in the 40’s and overnight in the 30’s. On our last clear night the annual Nighthawk convergence moved up the valley to fly around the ranch house and surrounding forest from sunset to dusk. They pinwheel in groups of 15 or so, with around 50 birds in the flock, riding the thermals as the sunlight creeps up the east hillside pushing moths into the cooling twilight. The Cedar Waxwings that arrived as we left in July, have hatched chicks in their regular spot in the lilacs. The House Wren is tucked into her birdhouse, working on another brood. Goldfinches and Wilson’s Warblers flit through the hedges. The Snipe drops into the yard to stroll along the creek edge. The creek is still running through the yard with ducks in the little pond; a part of the magic green microclimate at the top of the valley.

In July I covered these windows and scraped the old paint, meaning to get on to painting. The painting didn’t happen so I pulled the covering off to keep the wind from pulling it while were gone. Now it goes back up, as this time I’ll get the painting knocked out first thing.

The border of the window frames are taped off, then the plastic is taped in place.

Upon setting the ladder high up the wall, I got about this far up and came back down in disbelief that in July I had climbed extended even higher and run a paint grinder up there. I made my usual declaration to finally buy a new ladder, stomped around the yard a bit, then got back on the ladder. My new bracing at the top makes working with windows much easier, and makes things 100x more stable, which is the reason this peak can finally get got.

A spray bottle with warm soapy water takes out the wasps.

A pokin-stick takes down the nests.

The bigger nest was tucked under the eve. The aluminum ladder is strapped to the deck posts, and this in turn braces the ladder on the pitch of the roof. I am directly over the friendly in-house beehive, they were active in July, but seem to have moved out (or colony collapse hit them…).

The small nest. Wasps that were out in the field when this calamity occurred buzzed and landed on the remaining tiny paper stalactite that had secured the nest to the house. These nests were just little hamlets of Castle Paper-Wasp that reigns from under the pitched roof centered above the porch.

All stripped down and ready for paint.

Painted with a new air-gun brought up from the SLC big-box store (my bday present from the Idiocracy); a great improvement to the old unit (deceased with honors) that had painted the barn, the garage, the grain bin, and the house.

Part of the fun of the AL ladder is the failing latches. I have to climb the yellow ladder and manually shift the latches to let the ladder telescope, then push them securely into place. Just another little facet to the endless fiddling. Oh, and the board crammed between the ladder feet keeps the somewhat crumpled L foot from collapsing inward. The bracing system anchored into the yard was invented when I used this ladder to paint the barn, it keeps the ladder from sliding down the building, and has additions to match a severe slope.

This silly angle was necessary, as there is a height gap between the Al ladder and the Yellow ladder. Tall ladder work takes a lot of time, as the ladder takes constant moving; and safety with this ladder makes every move a fussy endeavor. The wall is finally fully painted, and now will take a few days of drying for the linseed-based oil paint.

This is low-average for our smoke here. You can smell it, and sometimes taste it- 2.5ppm @ 160 to 200-ish. Morning and evening sunlight is pink and the moon is an orange wedge and Venus is Mars.

This is my $100 electrostatic air purification unit for the ranch house. 4 high-end air filters, a fan on top blowing upward, the fan’s box as a base, and our old friend duct tape (white). It works wonders.

Guess The Widget! a feller production

Clue #1: It will be installed 530 hwy miles due north, then a short steep hike, then placed underground, and attached to a pipe. Clue #2: it is made mostly of salvaged pond pump shell.

Clue #3: It will be placed like this, in a pile of rocks, underwater.

Pond pump footing and cap joined with three screws. 2″ internal thread coupler and reducer to 1.5″, seated to 1.5″ steel reinforced clear tube with stainless steel clamp. Stainless clamp for opposite end of tubing. Curved clear plastic from peanut butter jar attached with 3 screws. Bicycle tube section as gasket to pvc tube with zip-tie (this bit sticks out the bottom- could be replaced with more peanut butter jar, but I overthought it and there it is.

Duodecad Anniversary for the Duo

Twelve years on and still holding hands. (“Dogs and cats living together: mass hysteria!” – Bill Murray, Ghostbusters)

We usually don’t go in for photo shoots to make ourselves feel “cute-coupley”, but after ongoing Coviding at home it just made sense as an anniversary present to ourselves.

Utah Desert Xeriscape Garden

Water Hyacinths have filled in the upper pond nicely, better than ever- I think it is because of water-blueing. This year I started using a water-bluing agent to cut sunlight penetration, and the water has stayed cooler and the fish are happier, and algae has cleared out.

In past years I have used a pricey UV light in the pond filtration unit, and this year (our hottest / driest year ever) has been fine without it.

The hyacinths are a living whole pond filter; I haven’t had to clear the pump or the filter in weeks!

A spot for morning coffee. From here we watched a male Broadtail hummingbird court a female; lots of ringing and diving as they both flew, then she settled into the big flowering Trumpet Vine and he began a series of side-to-side waggles / perch-breathers / waggles. She was impressed and they flew off together.

Sultry and hot, shaded in the ever-embiggening Purple Sage. She did some math in her head re: Delta transmission at R9, vs the original at R2 (R9-R2)/R2 x %100 = 350) The Delta variant is 350 times more transmissible than the original variant. (now a week later, updated to the same transmission rate as Chickenpox= R12. So 500% more transmissible than the original variant) It also has a replication factor of 1000 over the original, hitting full speed 3 days after infection while still fully asymptomatic (now, showing the same factor whether vaccinated or not). This is the kind of thing she ponders, because she’s aluminum and doesn’t have to worry.

A hummingbird favorite.

Drip irrigation keeps the landscape from powdering out.

The goldfish all rush to make the shot; Influencers, each and every one. Even Koi follow their feed.

WeeOne has left the Ms.Kims unmolested since the fixes, and it looks like they will survive.

I cut all the roses back before our last trip out to MT, and this one has come back nicely.

Out front this summer bloomer fills with bees every day. It dies back to the ground each winter, and this summer has seen its rowdiest growth and blooming. All the plants to the L of it were nuked last summer, even the ground cover reduced to powder this summer.

The little patch of front lawn is heat-stressed and yellowing out- it has been more than a month since it needed mowing and will likely stay dormant till late fall.

Quiddlering away the smokey-heat.

alotalotalot: aloft

A Lot, A Lot, A Lot, Aloft, / A Hex Storm of Piney firebrands, / Hiked over ridgelines branding into Quit Fur, / The river Bank, like a Queen In promotion, / A move from Pawn Jail to Nova, a trail of Dither-Goo transformed / to Boxing Day. / Sending the dry West Ute King into a Pouter, / his Twatty Lather the route to a Rebel Axis: burning.