Ever so slight cooling. Cows move to next split in SG3. Piles of cured clover sweeten the paddock. Cows often break through heated fences to get to it.
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Just hot! Thunderstorms return at night keeping us all up late driving the roads for possible fires. One fire starts on north side of Devil’s Basin-local crews get it surrounded quickly. I moved cows into first split in SG3.
Some early morning very light showers with overcast through out the day. Turning warm again by nightfall. I stretch one more grazing day in SG2. Kestrel family groups seem to be everywhere.
Turning hot again. Cows stay put in SG2, even though cows remain drawn to cured clover in the paddock to the east. May need to move sooner than planned.
Early morning thunder and local lightning strikes accompanied by a very light shower. Cows again break out, and I call ‘uncle’ and opened all of paddock SG2. Ryan talks to Tatman about hauling water to storage pit to get ahead of cow water consumption. A new fire begins in the Bulls. Moria and Pierce arrive from Connecticut.
A little cooler. Cows break out of first split in SG2. Between bull breeding activity, and cows finding any way to seek out cured sweet clover, it has become difficult to continue daily moves. Judy Rungen uses laser technology to help heal lame cow (443) unable to stand on her own.
Hot. Cows successfully moved to west split in SG6. Cow water consumption slowly getting ahead of storage supply-consumption exceeds fill. I will contact Vidic about booster pump idea to help move water from West Lackey well to Pit. In the evening, I moved the cows into first split in SG2. A pair of beautiful long-tailed weasels observed on the west side of the ranch’s guest-house.
A little cooler with NW and NE winds. I moved (herded-grazed) cows to a new transition paddock. Some cows returned to the riparian area. I will finish the move tomorrow. Lodge Pole Complex fire continues, yet slowing-226,000 acres burnt. Prairie Falcon and sage thrasher unexpectedly spend some time today at the headquarters.
Clear and very warm. I catch cows, before breakfast breaking out to the north. Ryan and I turn them back in-I forgot to heat fence. I finished the transition fence thru SG6 to SG2. Hopefully the move can be done on the early morning. Burned acres grow on central MT fires-losses are unbelievable. And, we just learned Brian Wacker, son of a close neighbor, very unexpectedly died of heart attack. So much suffering.
Hot, smoky, and mostly still. I worked on a transition paddock to get south on the ridge. With water now working again, we decide to get back into our planned grazing rotation. Lodgepole Fire Complex grows to over 125,000 acres and 0% containment.
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Bill Milton
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