Discoverer of burned out batteries.
Finder of lame cattle.
Dead bird disposer.
Taker-aparter of pumpjack motor - again.
Parnelli Jones of the dirt and gravel backroads.
Meal in Minutes preparer.
Navigator.
Loading Assistant of lame cow and wild calf.
Puppy protector.
Road Warrior on the Quest for Parts - again.
Trapper.
Mechanical Draftswoman.
There are more - and I have to go do some of them.
Well, we rode yesterday - wasn’t too bad. It was sunny and warm. The cows still have grass and weren’t thrilled about having to move. The horses were relatively well behaved and there wasn’t too much yelling. I broke my walking stick on the butt of a bull that didn’t want to go, so I did yell at him. I liked that stick… I did most of the trailer jockeying and even managed to find time for some rock hunting. The worst things about rock hunting in high altitude desert:
Cactus; ants that crawl all over you if you don’t move often enough; no see-ums; no bathrooms; scorpions under rocks that you’ve just turned over; losing your balance on a rock ledge; black widows; interesting rock shaped critter turds; not enough pockets; bugs that buzz like rattlesnakes; and my all time favorite - rattlesnakes.
Anyhow, we got it done. Got home at a reasonable hour. After supper my husband started working on the bathroom sink. Uh - oh… Plumbing is not his strong suit. We got that done as well as could be expected. In other words, I needed to go to the hardware store this morning. Well, we just finished on it again. I don’t think that it’s leaking (much).
Have a couple of minutes to blog. I should be sleeping, but - oh well…
I did go to Billings & get the pump motor the other day (and a few other parts). I had the misfortune of being behind a row of traffic from Edgar to Laurel. The leaders of this pack were a pickup with travel trailer & a pickup with a Bobcat on a trailer. There were several vehicles between me & them, so I resigned myself to going 45. At least the construction at Rockvale has been completed… By the time I got to the interstate I was maniacal. I was in the left lane heading east at my usual lead footed pace when a car cut me off without signaling. Good enough cutoff to make me hit the brake. I put my lights on. Hmm - maybe she didn’t see me. Then she proceeded to travel at 50 mph. The right lane was as close to bumper to bumper as it gets in Montana, but I really didn’t want to start some of my BQE maneuvers. So I continued behind her. She had several opportunities to get in the right lane, but chose not to. At this point I tooted the horn at her. So she slowed down some more. When she decided to get into the right lane she “threw me the rod”. So I tooted the horn again, smiled & waved at her.
Since I was close to homicidal, I just went to pickup my motor, figure out how to get around the construction and get into Fasteners, stop at Costco and head home.
Yesterday was so busy I can hardly remember what the heck I did. Which is how it goes here more often than not. I did some amateur dog grooming - as long as the dogs could stand it. Got lots of laundry done. I did get lost in the weeds of my garden for a while. The weeds are still winning the war. The sweet corn is late this year, we just started getting some. I knew that as soon as the racoons hit it - it would be ready. The guys finished the grain, Hooray! Just in time too. We don’t raise malt (beer) barley, but feed barley. So instead of loading trucks and sending them on their way - we load the trucks and then unload them into grain bins… Well, the barley looks good - and we have lots of it. Which would be even better if we had someone who wanted to buy some of it! But the reason it was good timing was because it started to rain here as soon as we finished the last load into the last bin. And it rained pretty good for a while.
Today was spent in the hills moving cattle. The morning started out cool, then it got hot, then it got cool again, and later it poured. I had packed a lunch. It’s funny how food seems so much better when you’ve worked hard and eat outside. We had ham and tomato sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, chunks of cheddar, and grapes. Simple & good, sitting on the back of the pickup… My father-in-law and I took turns with driving the pickup/trailer and riding my horse. Most of where we go cannot be reached with a vehicle. We three spent some time on foot, too. We spotted some strays on the way back home. So we dropped the trailer near the road, and headed up as far as we could with the pickup. We started walking up to get to the draw that we had seen the cattle in. It started sprinkling. My father-in-law was going to drive back down. He said, “By the time you get to the top it’ll really start raining.” Gee, thanks… that’s exactly what it did. My sea level lungs were straining. My boots had ten pounds of alkali mud on them. My clothes were soaked. My hair was too, and streaming across my face. And I was enjoying every minute of it. After a while we got to the top. Found the girls and their calves and got them started down. Much easier on the lungs, not so good on the knees…
When we did get home, we unloaded the horses. They got a good brushing and a little extra oats. We fed the cattle at home. It was still pouring. It was close to seven by the time I’d put things away. Thank goodness for leftovers, since I was starving. Put on a fresh pot of rigatoni, heated up the sauce and meatballs. Then I get to clean it all up again.
Well, it looks like we’ll be riding again tomorrow - so I probably should say “Goodnight”.
Yesterday, most of the knuckleheads had moved. Back to where I had moved them from. I went all the way up to the high water well, anyhow. As I approached the solar panels, I noticed was that the pump wasn’t pumping. Oh, no… Got out, looked at the pump motor - well done - melted wires and all. Couldn’t have been that way too long though, the water tank was full. I stood there for a moment, listening to the batteries cooking, hissing, spitting, sputtering and splashing acid. Hmmm… Here goes nothing. Touched a wingnut. Well, no shock there, so I disconnected the first battery wire. Then the second. Went to the toolbox. Back to the motor. Disconnected the wires. Back to the tool box. Took the motor off the pump jack. Put it and the belt in the pickup. Looked at the batteries again. Didn’t want to mess with them, but disconnected every wire and box on the thing, and brought all of it with me.
The guys weren’t too thrilled about the burnt out motor. But they seemed glad that I had taken it home.
Worked on the books this morning. Had half a dozen things to do before I could run to Billings to have the motor fixed again. This is the same motor that was repaired earlier this summer. I didn’t get “to town” until after noon. When I left, I noticed the baler was stopped in the field. So I drove over to check if it was something major (NO) or if I’d need to stop for parts for it, too (YES). Dropped off a couple of things in Bridger, stopped at the bank and the Post Office - then hit the road. There’s construction at Rockvale, but still made decent time.
The work on the motor won’t be started until tomorrow, so I’ll be back in Billings before the week is out. What I really need to do is get in the garden and try to locate my vegetables. Most of the weeds are taller than me, since I haven’t found five minutes to work in the garden in the past month.
Are all you other Montanans enjoying the smoke and haze?
The other night I went out & moved some cattle. Just me, a pickup & a bit of hay. I got them trailing in the hills up to some high water. Now I’m headed out to see if they kept on moooving…