Storm

Just after we arrived home from Billings on Monday I looked at the sky and thought I should check the weather service website.  When I did, I discovered that there was a tornado warning for our area.  I continued to watch the sky and eventually it looked like the storm was in my back yard.  The wind came up and at one point I swear I felt my house move.  I could see the cloud start to swirl which freaked me out a bit.  It traveled on east pretty quickly, but I knew that M, J and R were all out in the field somewhere north and east of our house so that made me a bit nervous.  R was swathing CRP hay and J was baling.  The swaths of cut hay blew away, but no other harm was done, just a splash of rain and no hail.  Turns out the storm was just getting started when it passed by here.  There were reports of golf ball size hail north of us and baseball size hail as it traveled farther east.  The tornado touched down about 100 miles east of here and two people were killed when the house they were in was demolished.  Again this evening there was a tornado watch south of here.  I was out doing some fence repair and could hear thunder in the distance.  I was hoping that I wouldn't be struck by lightning or carried away by mosquitoes.  The power of nature is awesome and can be awful.

The beginning

The closest thing to a tornado I have ever seen

Fencing the River

I spent most of the day today helping R fence across the river so we can move one bunch of cows.  The west fork of the Poplar River runs through the pasture, and now that the water is down we needed to stretch wire across the river in two spots.  On the north end there is a cement spillway so we could walk across most of that.  The challenge there was to untangle all the wires.  We take them down in the fall since they would get broken in the winter from ice and snow or in the spring when the water is high and flowing.  R had his dog, Trip, along.  He's a golden retriever and loves the water so he swam around and had a great time.  We also had Pete along who spent most of the time deep in the cattails barking at something we couldn't see, maybe a beaver.

We finished up the north end and then started around the fence boundary to check for breaks or trouble spots.  We did find a bad spot where an old wooden post was broken so we put in a steel post and fixed several broken wires.  It was in a coulee where snow probably laid and caused the wires to break.  When we finished that we went for lunch.  Pete doesn't play well with others so he got left at home after lunch.

When we went back we had to get to the south river crossing.  The wires weren't badly tangled so that part was easy.  The hard part was getting them across the river.  Usually our nephew is here and he's the one who gets wet.  Not today.  It was R's turn.  He sent Trip in to determine how deep it was.  Trip could walk across without the water over his back.  Still higher than the rubber boots, though.  R stripped down to his skivvies and put the rubber boots on without his socks and waded across twice to attach the wires to the fence on the other side.  I mentioned that it was too bad that I had left my camera in the pickup.  I got a "ha ha" on that.  Apparently R didn't want his picture taken at that time.  Farther upstream we could drive the 4-wheeler across so I took it back over since the wire stretcher and other tools were in it.  We stretched the wires up and put up a panel.  There is plenty of grass and water in the pasture so the cows shouldn't be looking to get out, but every now and then a calf will get into the water and under the fence.

It was a really nice day to be out, only in the 70s with just a slight breeze.  I was worried about mosquitoes by the river but didn't see any.  I always enjoy spending time with my boys even if we are working.

West Fort of the Poplar River

Trip, the water lover

Haying Time

Haying is in full swing with swathers and balers everywhere.  I think I saw 7 balers on my 47-mile drive to my hair stylist.  M has been busy with that.  R swaths, M bales and J hauls the bales.  We've had a lot of dew in the mornings and even fog a couple of days ago so the hay is not drying out too fast.  R had a day and a half off over the weekend so that he didn't get too far ahead of the baler.  J has been hauling whenever he has time.  It's been a bit more fun to cut hay this year than last.  M is only half done with what he usually cuts and has already made more bales than all of last year

I have just been running the past two days.  Yesterday I went to Wolf Point to pick up pork from the meat processor, picked up produce at the neighbor's, had lunch at my in-laws with M and J and then M and I went back to Scobey since we got a little (emphasis on little) shower.  He needed to sign his certification papers at the FSA office and with his crop insurance agent.  We also needed to pick up our wildlife escape ramp for our water tank at the NRCS.  Photos to come later after it's installed.

Today J, C and I were in Glasgow by 8 am to put the finishing touches on the CSP applications.  Representatives from the five county area are meeting tomorrow to go over the applications and scoring to see who is approved so we should know probably in the next week or two if we were successful.  This afternoon I made the trek to get a much overdo haircut.

The wind has blown like crazy all week.  I have to go to work the next two days so I'm sure the weather will be much nicer.  That's just how it goes.

Country Wedding

The neighbor's daughter was married on Saturday.  She was in J's class in school, and she and R have been really good friends forever since they grew up together.  Her new husband grew up on a ranch a couple of hundred miles west of here and now works as a customs agent at the port north of Opheim.  He fits in well with the neighbor girl's ranching family.

The wedding was held at the ranch so was a big event in the neighborhood, and friends came from all over the state.  The ranch was full of campers and tents plus 16 extra dogs and 2 miniature pigs!!  The wedding arbor was made by the bride's brother out of horseshoes welded together and painted yellow.  There were milk cans painted kind of a mossy green full of yellow and white daisies.  Off to the side were saddles on saddle stands and at the ends of the rows of chairs were old boots filled with daisies.

The bridesmaids wore strapless green dresses and daisies in their hair and were barefoot.  The groomsmen were in yellow western shirts, jeans, and cowboy hats.  The ring bearer isn't walking yet so was pulled along by the best man in a little red wagon and the flower girls threw daisies.

The bride was beautiful in a lace tiered strapless gown with a green belt and she arrived with her father and her son (not quite a year old) in a horse-drawn carriage.  She was barefoot also.  There were too many guests to be seated so a large group stood for the ceremony which was very traditional.  As the couple was lighting the unity candle there was a ripple of laughter from those standing in the back because a dog walked by and peed on the pile of presents before ambling off toward the house.  The team of horses was brought out again to bring the couple to the reception and then give rides to anyone who wanted one.

The Butler steel building was the site of the reception decorated with ranch panels, green tulle and white lights.  On the tables were Ball jars decorated with ribbon and full of wheat topped with battery-operated votive candles.  The guests were fed a supper of BBQ beef and salads.  Then the tables were moved out of the way and a band played old time country music.  I got in on a butterfly dance with the bride's mother and one of the groomsmen.  It had been years since I had danced a butterfly.  We were thinking the young groomsman would have a story to tell about how a couple of old broads taught him something.  I danced with my husband, my brother and my son so I enjoyed the night.  The bride commented on how dirty her dress got from dancing on the shop floor.  Lots of Pendleton was drank as were kegs of beer, and there were fireworks at midnight.  We went home about 1:30 but I heard that the bride's mother chased some of the young people to bed at 4:30 and heard the father of the bride slept (passed out?) on the ground by the shop.  Too much Pendleton would be my guess.

The weather can always make the outdoor wedding stressful, but they couldn't have asked for a nicer day.  It was hot early in the day, then we had a little cloudburst which cooled things off a bit, and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the mosquitoes at bay.  It really was a beautiful wedding in a beautiful setting.  The bride's father says he'll never do it again but her mother says she will but maybe at a different time of year since it's haying time and they should be busy with that.  They have two more daughters, so we'll see.

Happy Birthday, Cruiser

Our dog, Cruiser, turned 15 today--that's 105 in dog years so worth celebrating.  Everyone is too busy for us to have a party, though.  I don't remember how we got talked into getting him, but I do remember that J paid for half and M paid for half.  I also remember the trip to Wolf Point to pick him out.  He was already named by then, and the name fit.  We had only been in our new house a few months and had a new rose bush by the side of the house.  The puppy pulled it out nearly every day.  Needless to say, I still don't have a rose bush.  He's been the best dog, such a sweetheart and very well behaved.  I always say that he's ruined us for all other dogs.  He liked to run the two miles to visit M's parents on occasion, and he would follow any piece of machinery around and around a field for hours.  Occasionally, he would follow a tractor all the way to the neighbor's.  He once made the trip to the neighbor's and impregnated the neighbor's dog.  When the puppies were born, the boys brought one home and Cruiser HATED it!  It was like he realized what he had done and never went to the neighbor's again.

He is bred to be a bird hunter, and we took him out a few times, but not enough for him to be well trained.  He was always way too far ahead so flushed the birds out too soon.  M came home pretty hoarse a few times from yelling at him.  He tried a whistle a few times but that didn't work well either.  Some of our friends have hilarious hunting stories about M and his dog.

For the past few years he's been living with us in the winter and with Marty's parents during the summer.  He gets very spoiled there--and very fat.  We get him slimmed down during the winter and they fatten him back up again.  This summer they didn't want to deal with his health issues so he's still at home with us.  He's deaf, wheezy, has an enlarged prostate, arthritis and anal tumors which cause him to bleed.  But, he's in pretty good shape for the shape he's in.  He still likes to go for walks, usually a couple of miles at a time, although some days he has to lie down and rest in the middle.  He loves to go for rides but can't jump into a vehicle anymore and is a big boy so is hard to lift up.  He doesn't get to go much anymore.

Sadly, this will probably be his last birthday unless someone wants to take him in for the winter.  He causes too much mess to be inside alone all day while we are working but can't take the cold so we can't leave him outside.  There should be a nursing home for aged dogs.  Happy Birthday, Cruiser.  We love you!!

Back to It

We haven't been too busy the past few days.  M is starting to knock some hay down and has been fighting with his baler.  Yesterday morning he was determined to figure out the problem or smash it to pieces.  Luckily, he figured out the problem(s) since I don't want to buy a new baler!!  We did celebrate Independence Day by going to his brother's house for a barbecue and taking in the festivities in Scobey.  We capped off the night by watching the fireworks with J and K.

We had some rain a few days ago and a lot of wind with the storm.  A lot of the grass in the ditches was laid over.  J watched lightning hit a cell tower on his way home and R got caught in some heavy rain on his way home.  We received less than a tenth of rain here, but where M was trying to bale there was quite a bit more judging from the the water holes.  A farm near there recorded over half an inch.  A little rain right now would be good since we had some very hot days last week.

The latest project is spraying on liquid fertilizer as an experiment.  There is such a premium on protein in the wheat (actually, such a discount for protein under 14) and they expect the scales to get worse before they get better with the wet weather all over the country.  They are hoping that the extra fertilizer will boost the protein.  It can damage the plant if sprayed on too heavily or when it's too hot so the guys have been taking advantage of the cool cloudy days we've had to apply some.  They've determined that a 25-bushel crop of 14-protein wheat will bring in more money than a 50-bushel crop of wheat less than 14 protein factoring in the cost of getting that 50-bushel crop to the elevator.  The grain companies dock a lot more for lower protein than they reward for higher protein.  It's really kind of sad that that is the case.