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Bringing bales into the hay stackyard. Photo courtesy Jonita Sommers.
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Haying (posted 9/7/10)
Jonita Sommers – Rancher Talk
Roaring of motors in August is a common sound in the hay fields of the Green River Valley. Tractors moving in the hay fields around the hay stack are like ants busy at work around their ant hill. Green grass turning different shades of green as the hay is cut, baled and stacked is a typical site on Green River Valley ranches.
August is haying time in the Green River Valley. Some people start the latter part of July and some end the haying operation in September, but the bulk of the hay is put up in August.
Haying began in the Green River Valley earnestly after the "Equalizer Winter" of 1889-90 when ninety percent of the cattle died because the snow and ice was so deep the cattle could not get to feed and no hay had been put up to supplement them. A few ranchers put up a little hay for the horses and milk cows kept in the corrals, but nothing to save the herds.
Now, every ranch, which winters cattle, puts up hay to feed those cattle in the winter. When the ranchers first started putting up hay it was put up in loose hay stacks like Campbells still do in the Hoback Basin. The early ranchers stacked the hay with nets and dropped the hay on the stack. The overshot stacker soon became the fashion where the hay was more or less thrown onto the stack with a big wooden fork like a catapult. The beaver slide with the plunger to push the hay up the slide to the stack was the third way hay was put in the stack. Balers came into fashion in the 1950s and 1960s in the Green River Valley. They really became part of the haying operation in the United States in the 1940s. However, many people still stacked loose hay. The big square and round balers were developed. The first round baler did not see production until 1947, when Allis-Chalmers introduced the Roto-Baler and it ended in 1960. The next major innovation came in 1972, when the Vermeer Company began selling the first modern round baler. Previously, round hay bales had been little more than lumps of grass tied together, but the Vermeer design used belts to compact hay into a cylindrical shape as is seen today. In 1978, Hesston developed the first 4X4 square baler of its kind. By the 21st Century, only one family in the area still stacked loosed hay. You mostly see big round bales today.
The hay has to be mowed down with a sickle or drum mower or a swather. Once the hay is cut it has to "cure," to reduce the moisture level, so it will not mold or ignite into a fire when it is baled and stacked. "Cured" hay needs to have very little moisture and the stems snap when bent by the hands of a rancher. It usually takes about 1 to 2 days for the hay lying on the ground to be cured enough to be baled in the Green River Valley. The humidity and wind play a large role in how the hay cures.
The ranchers do not want it to rain on the hay because the rain can cause the hay to lose its protein and reduce the feed value. The ranchers want to put the hay up so it will has as much protein value as possible but will not mold because it is too wet.
Once the hay is "cured," it is raked and a baler goes down the windrow of hay. The balers have computers today telling when the bale is the correct size. Balers tie the bales with plastic twine or sisal twine. Sisal is a natural fiber that naturally decays over time.
After the hay is baled, it is stacked in hay corrals or stack yards so the cattle cannot eat it until the rancher is ready to feed them.
Watching for the songbirds and swamp birds so they can be chased out of the way is a fun part of haying. The hawks are awesome. The hawks love haying and it is especially important for the young hawks. The hawks follow along behind and rake or baler and watch for mice.
Once a mouse is spotted the hawk dives for its prey. When haying starts, you know summer is about over and fall is soon to follow. Soon the hay will have to be fed to the cows during the winter months.
Click on this link for more photos of haying in Sublette County: Haying
Dig It! The Reseeded Garden (posted 9/6/10)
Sage and Snow Garden Club
Is it just my Ozark heritage or does everyone like something for nothing? This time of year in the garden is when we can really put that phrase to good use by choosing which plants we want to let reseed themselves. This applies to the flower, herb and vegetable garden. Some mature plants are short lived, such as Penstemon, Aquilegia, and Coreopsis, so letting them reseed is a way to ensure you always have them in your garden. Nurturing self-seeders is also a great way to provide a diversity of flowers that supply pollen and nectar for beneficial insects.
The choice really begins earlier in the year when you decide which plants to not remove flowers from so they can "set" seed. Most plants will usually continue blooming, even while seed pods are forming, but you will need to experiment to see how you like this outcome; that is the number of flowers will be fewer if some seeds are forming because that uses energy that would otherwise go into producing more flowers.
You can either let the seeds drop around the parent plant or after the seed heads have completely dried, you can scatter the seeds where you want them or you can let nature (birds, wind, gophers, rain, insects, etc.) surprise you with where the seeds will come up next year. Be sure to let the seedpods dry on the plant, then cut them off and set them on the ground or shake the seeds out. Plant some seeds in a separate pot so you can recognize the seedlings that come up, be able to identify them in your garden, and not hoe them down.
Encourage seedlings by using mulches or bare ground around the parent plants. Seeds will fall into gravel, making it difficult for birds or other creatures to find them and the gravel creates a moist environment which maintains a constant temperature ideal for propagation. You can top dress the perennial bed with compost or organic mulch, but birds and small animals may find the seeds easier. You can leave the soil bare and simply scratch around the reseeding plants to create a seed bed. Another way to encourage self-seeders is to select vigorous plants from a larger planting, and let these plants grow unharvested until they bloom and produce seeds or set aside a bed for the plants you want to let reseed.
Some plants reseed more readily than others, so you might want to experiment and if you see seedlings around your plants, then you are in business! Here are some plants that usually reseed easily: Foxglove (Digitalis), Purple Coneflower (Echinacea), Beardtongues (Penstemon), Hummingbird Mints (Agastache), Yarrow, Poppies, Tickseed (Coreopsis), Maximilian’s Sunflower (Helianthus), Sage (Salvia), Chocolate Flower (Berlandiera), Delphinium, Blue Flax (Linum), Columbine (Aquilegia), Jupiter’s Beard (Centranthus), Violas, Blanket Flower (Gaillardia), Cosmos, Moss Rose (Portulaca), Alyssum (Lobularia maritima), Arugula, Calendula, Chamomile, Cilantro, Dill, Breadseed poppies, Red Orach (Mountain Spinach), Nasturtiums, Amaranth, New Zealand Spinach, Dill, Radishes, Brocolli Raab, Turnips, and Mustard. Note that Beets, Carrots, Collards, Kale (especially Russian strains), Broccoli, Parsnips and Parsley are biennials that produce seeds in the second year, so you will need to overwinter them in the garden.
Please note the location for the next Sage and Snow Garden Club meeting on Tuesday, September 21: the Sublette County Weed and Pest Office, 12 South Bench Road (307-367-4728), Pinedale. Come at 4:30 pm for social time and 5:00 pm for the business meeting. Contact us at PO Box 2280, Pinedale, WY, 82941, by email at sageandsnow@yahoo.com or call 307-859-8606. To find out more about the Garden Club, go to www.pindealeonline.com and click on the link under "clubs".
Sublette Commissioners Agenda for Sept. 7 (posted 9/4/10)
Mary Lankford, Sublette County Clerk
Sublette County Board Of County Commissioners
Sublette County, Wyoming
Agenda for TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2010
(Tentative Agenda, Subject to Change Up To 9 a.m. the Day of the Meeting)
NOTICE: This meeting will be held in the District Courtroom of the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale. An elevator is available near the County Clerk’s Office.
9:00 a.m. Call to Order
Pledge of Allegiance
Approval of the Minutes
Butch Penton, Road & Bridge
9:30 a.m. Brad Clingman, Waste Management
10:00 a.m. Sue Ziegler, Citizens Concern
10:30 a.m. Lary Lozier, Mosquito District Expansion
11:00 a.m. Sofia Wakefield, DVD Project
1:00 p.m. Planning & Zoning
3:00 p.m. Air Toxics Update, Conference Call
4:00 p.m. Historic Preservation
This meeting will be held in the District Courtroom of the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale. An elevator is available near the County Clerk’s Office.
Bondurant Fall Festival Sept. 18 (posted 9/3/10)
The Bondurant Fall Festival will be held on Saturday, September 18 at St. Hubert’s from 3:00-9:30 p.m. Help make apple butter in a kettle and buy half-pint and pint jars. Kids’ activities, volleyball and bonfire. To reserve jars of apple butter or for more information, contact Cindy Peters at cindympeters@mac.com.
Middle Piney Lake Road Opening Ceremony Sept. 3 (posted 9/2/10)
Bridger-Teton National Forest
BIG PINEY – Big Piney District Ranger, Kurt Davis, announced that the Bridger-Teton National Forest has successfully repaired and stabilized the last one mile of Forest Service Road 10024 (Middle Piney Lake Road). Davis would like to invite the public to join him on Friday, September 3 at noon for a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark the long awaited re-opening of the road. The ceremony will take place on the Middle Piney Lake Road at the gated closure then people will move up to the lake and campground for an afternoon of fishing.
This project restored vehicle access to Middle Piney Lake, and ultimately will have improved water quality in Middle Piney Creek by reducing road related sediment input, and improved fisheries habitat in Middle Piney Creek. Implementation of this project has also restored access to the Middle Piney Lake Campground and has provided the necessary access to do maintenance on the Middle Piney Lake dam.
Participants will get to see the brand new road and are welcome to fish at Middle Piney Lake if they have been properly licensed.
The Middle Piney Road flooded on July 23, 2008 approximately 300-feet below the Middle Piney dam, which has prevented vehicles from accessing the lake area. Resource managers continue to look at a more permanent fix which may include additional fortification of the road bed or relocation of a portion of the road.
For more information please call the Big Piney Ranger District at 307-276-3375.
Your vote can help local historic homestead ranch preservation project get $25,000 (posted 9/1/10)
‘This Place Matters’ campaign by the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The Sublette County Historical Society is participating in a national campaign to raise money for the preservation of the historic Sommers Ranch Homestead project. "This Place Matters" is a photo-sharing campaign that was started by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2008 to help raise awareness for and celebrate many culturally diverse and unique communities across the United States. Votes by the public in local communities can help projects win $25,000 towards their preservation efforts. The Sommers Ranch Homestead project is currently ranked 18th out of more than 70 sites.
Supporters can go to the following website and cast their vote for this project: http://my.preservationnation.org/site/PageNavigator/TPM_CC_Map . Voting ends September 15th.
"Albert and I decided to fix up the old house and give an easement to the museum for a living history museum, when the project is completed. We hope to work with both museums in the county. The first step is to restore the old house," said Jonita Sommers.
The Sublette County Historical Society is helping with the Sommers Ranch Homestead project. Construction crews are currently on the site and in the process of lifting the home off the foundation and moving it a short distance away so the foundation can be repaired and made structurally sound so it can safely support the house. Once the foundation is repaired, the house will be moved back onto the foundation and additional reconstruction work can begin.
Supporters are encouraged to cast their votes for the project and pass the information on to their family and friends to let them know about this project and encourage them to vote for it.
Shell Pinedale Producing Operations Re-Certified for ISO 14001 (posted 9/1/10)
Audit examined environmental management systems
Shell Oil Company media release
PINEDALE – Bureau Veritas Certification (BCV) has renewed the International Standards Organization (ISO) 14001:2004 certification for Shell’s Pinedale natural gas producing operations following an independent audit. The ISO 14001:2004 standard reviews the effectiveness of health, safety and environmental management systems based on specific performance criteria.
Most notably, the inspector reported that Shell has effectively integrated plans and activities related to air emissions, spills, soil remediation, and wildlife into its operations. Activities include a 63 percent reduction in volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions field wide by implementing controls on tanks and heat trace pumps, using infrared cameras every two months to detect potential leaks and installing a liquids gathering system (LGS). The LGS is also minimizing habitat disturbance by eliminating most storage tanks and significantly reducing truck traffic.
"Shell is serious about protecting the abundant natural resources that are so important to citizens in Wyoming," said James Duran, Shell’s Pinedale Operations Manager. "This is a team accomplishment. It reflects our efforts to continually improve and implement real solutions that can reduce the environmental impacts from our activities."
According to the ISO, a worldwide federation of national standards bodies, the ISO 14001:2004 certification enables an organization to identify and control the environmental impact of its activities, continually improve its environmental performance and implement a systematic approach to setting environmental objectives and targets. The certification is determined based on a standard audit process that included program review, interviews, reviews of documents and records and physical observation. (www.iso.org)
Shell certifies the environmental component of the Shell Upstream Americas (UA) Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) management system to the ISO14001 environmental management system standard for all of its major deepwater and onshore gas installations in the United States.
Shell’s UA Onshore Gas Health, Safety, Security and Environment – Sustainable Development Vice President Dan Mills stated, "Having the ability to demonstrate to our external stakeholders that Shell is serious about doing the right thing for the environment and our neighbors is important. Achieving this certification demonstrates our commitment to continuous improvement by implementing sustainable solutions to reducing our environmental footprint."
Royal Dutch Shell plc is incorporated in England and Wales, has its headquarters in The Hague and is listed on the London, Amsterdam, and New York stock exchanges. Shell companies have operations in more than 100 countries with businesses including oil and gas exploration and production; production and marketing of Liquefied Natural Gas and Gas to Liquids; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects including wind and solar power. For further information, visit www.shell.com.
Clinics will be closed on Labor Day, Sept. 6 (posted 9/1/10)
Sublette County Rural Health Care District
PUBLIC NOTICE: The Pinedale Medical Clinic and the Marbleton-Big Piney Clinic will be closed on Monday, September 6, 2010 to observe Labor Day. Emergency services are available by dialing 911.
Sublette P&Z proposes changes to county sign regulations (posted 8/25/10)
Sublette County Planning & Zoning is proposing changing some of the regulations related to the display of signs in the county.
Some of the revisions are shown below (revised text in bold):
Change for all zoning districts: Prior to the erection of any sign within these zoning districts submittal and approval of a sign permit application is required.
Prohibited: No person shall park any motor vehicle or trailer on public or private property so as to be seen from the public right-of-way which has attached thereto or located thereon any sign for the purpose of advertising a product or directing people to a business activity, except in the course of normal business operations or as permitted as a free standing sign.
Prohibited: No flashing, blinking, rotating or flickering signs shall be permitted in any district.
Prohibited: No person shall park any motor vehicle or trailer on public or private property so as to be seen from the public right-of-way which has attached thereto or located thereon any sign for the purpose of advertising a product or directing people to a business activity, except in the course of normal business operations or as permitted as a free standing sign. This does not include customary and incidental use of signs or logos on commercial vehicles used as such in normal business operations.
Prohibited: Inflatable signs or advertising devices shall not be permitted.
Prohibited: Any device in the form of a sign advertising a product or directing people to a business activity which is temporary in nature, or mobile and not permanently affixed to a building or upright support shall be not allowed, except as permitted in the exception(s) for SPECIAL PURPOSE SIGNS.
Exempted signs: Political signs pertaining to a specific election, prior to an election and which are removed by within fifteen (15) days after the election.
Exempted signs: Signs for operating oil and gas rigs.
Exempted signs: Construction signs announcing the construction of a building or project naming owners, contractors, and architects not to exceed one (1) sign measuring thirty-two (32) square feet in area, with a maximum height of ten (10) feet, for each street frontage of the building or project.
Change: Signs related to home occupations and home businesses in any zoning district shall be limited to one freestanding sign not to exceed six (6) feet in height and six (6) square feet in area or one wall sign not to exceed six (6) square feet in area. No illuminated signs shall be allowed.
No change: No signs shall be permitted in any Sublette County Road right-of-way other than signs maintained pursuant to and in discharge of any governmental functions.
The proposed sign regulation changes was discussed at the Thursday, August 19 P&Z meeting. At that time, the board decided to table their vote to give the public more time to be aware of the proposed changes. The P&Z board will vote on these proposed amendments at their next meeting on Thursday, September 16, at 6:30 PM in the Commissioners meeting room of the Sublette County Courthouse in Pinedale. For more information, contact Sublette County Zoning administrator at 307-367-4375, www.sublettewyo.com.
Click on this link for a PDF of all the proposed amendments to the Sublette County sign regulations.
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