Have been busy since the last blog.  Two days after that story about getting the water line going the water pump to charge that line froze up and quit.  I was discing a field, preparing it to plant to oats and alfalfa and got in late, then got a call from the neighbor that uses water from the line saying there was no water.  This was a Friday night.  So Saturday morning Tammy went to Belle Fouche with the pump where they said it wasn't fixable and they couldn't order one till monday morning.

Saturday morning I was helping Ryan sort his cows from our cows so they could go to their own pasture.  We had to get two different bunches in to sort off his cows.  But first we had to move our heifers from the pasture where the water pump had quit to a pasture with water in it.  They were not happy to go back.  We got a late start sorting Ryan's cows, but got done by dark.

Sunday I helped put CIDRs in Ryan's cows.  CIDRs are inserted in the uterus of the cow to stop her heat cycle.  They are removed a week later and in three days the cow will be ready to breed with artificial insemination.

Then Monday we got a pump ordered.  The pump like what quit would not be available for three to four weeks.  So we ordered a submersible pump that could be here in four days.  A submersible pump is made to hang vertically in a well.  We are laying it in the bottom of a cistern and having the pipe out of the cistern on top of the ground and down into the well pit and hook into the water line.  The water line is 3 inch PVC pipe for 20000 feet or about four miles.  Uphill about 120 feet with six hydrants on the line.  The pump must be capable of pumping 20 gallons a minute with about 100 psi.  The neighbor taps in and goes another four miles with smaller pipe and has five stock tanks hooked on to his line.  He also has four thousand gallons of storage capacity when the flow can't keep up as everything will invariably drink at the same time.  Different neighbors are hooked into our well and have line and tanks for about twelve miles going south.  This is mostly down hill so they don't need much pressure.  Yesterday I looked at the meter and the well had pumped 30,000 gallons in a day. It is critical that everything work as many of these cattle in some pastures have no water but the pipeline.  So after a week of fixing and plumbing we have had water going for two days. KNOCK ON WOOD.

In between all this we finished branding the late calvers and put them out to summer pasture.  We got the sheep in and wormed all the ewes and lambs.  It took several different days to accomplish this task.  I got my oats and alfalfa sowed .  It was a very hot windy day when I did that.  The weather radio said it was 92 degrees in Rapid City with 18% humidity and 50 MPH wind gusts.  Days like that really suck the moisture out of the soil and dry up the grass and crops.