Dear Elk,
We need to chat. I love that you are enjoying the grass in my pastures, but could you eat a little less at a time so that you can clear the fences when you jump. tangling the wires and popping the staples out of the posts creates a fence that does not always hold my cows.
I was thinking this when I went for a walk the other morning. little did I know what would happen later, or did I?
I received a call from the school bus, Brody was calling to tell me they had to slow down because there was a cow herd on the road enjoying ditch grass and fertilizing. Our Cows.
I was pretty sure that Annabelle the diva longhorn was one of the escapees, she more than likely started it all. Acres and acres of grass that the Elk and Deer jump into the pasture to enjoy and the cows have to jump the tangled lower than usual wires to get out of. things that make you go hmmm……..
So, I waited for the bus to drop of the munchkins and we headed out in Bessie the best bale truck ever. as we bounced across the pasture I wondered what kind of a mess I would find the fence in and how would I get the, not a Shannon gate at all, gate open. I did have my wire stretchers, so I was positive about the situation.
As we came upon the scene I saw that sure enough Annabelle and the new bull JR were two of the brats out, along with a few of their friends. I was very happy no calves were out. meant that the fence was not completely broken.
Now, how to get them in without letting the rest of their pals out, that was the tricky part. I am a very creative cowgirl and called Mommy neighbor pals to the rescue. I had one neighbor drive up her road and park. The plan being that her and her munchkins would make as much noise as possible to prevent a stampede that direction. Called the other mommy neighbor, unfortunately she was busy, and did not answer. I was a little panicked. my plan was that she would drive up from the other way and the cows would be trapped between the two fantastic neighbors and have no choice but to come in the gate. Mommy network at its finest!
I cannot drive the bale truck around the cows since that may create them taking off in the in the wrong direction and give the rest of the herd an opportunity to escape. I had an idea. I was really hoping the escapees was thirsty and missing their babies. I parked the bale truck in the gateway area and had my munchkins on the back making noise to prevent the rest of the herd from making a break for it. in this process I did have to scramble up a fence once when one of the mama cows who really does not like Rango the dog took a run at him while he was beside me. yikes.
Bale truck is in position, neighbor is in position, I went to work on opening the very tight wire gate. I heard a noise behind me and there is the new bull JR and a couple of cows staring at me, waiting impatiently to get in. ummm…yay, means that they will come in easy. ummm…not yay, please do not come any closer until I get this gate open and get out of the way. I was a little nervous.
Clicking the wire stretcher handle to tighten the fence to get the wire off the gate post while nervous and making my bubble big enough to keep a bull and cows out of it is a lot going on all at once.
Finally, the wire is off the gate and it is open, now to get out of the way and go around the cows to chase them in. meanwhile I was on the phone with my neighbor and saying some pasture words. Ooops!! Sorry!!
I gracefully ( haha~not) scrambled over the fence and came up behind the cows to chase them in. Meanwhile I am keeping an eye on munchkins to make sure they are staying safe, yelling at Rango to make sure he is chasing the cows the right way, and chasing the cows. Multi tasking for sure.
All the cows went in the gate. Except one at the last second she turned and ran into the field across the road. more pasture words. Rango and I raced through a very convenient trail in the bushes to get the cow. She had not gone far, I sent Rango to do his job, ran after them and SUCCESS! I did leap out of the bushes in that field waving my pink stock stick in victory! I heard laughter.
All the cows were in. Wahoo!! Drove the truck through the gate and got it closed with my trusty, never go in the pasture without them, wire stretchers and breathed a sigh of success.
Time to go inspect the damage. One tipped over realty sign, with a lot of fertilizer around it. sorry other neighbors. A few wires tangled and low, not so bad. With a couple of 8 year old helpers we fixed fence for a while. There was some hammering in of staples by my helpers and a lot of investigating ant hills, and various bugs in the grass.
A big thank you to my neighbor for coming to help. thank you to my cows for not being too difficult. thank you to all the other “helpers” that I had, since it was very amazing that the cow herd came in the gate so quickly and easily, except for the one cow, but that part made it more of an adventure. Thank you to my munchkins for being great helpers and the neighbor munchkins for being great helpers. I owe them all ice cream.
Also, a big thank you to the bus driver for having pizza on the bus for all the kids to enjoy, since our cow adventure took quite a while, and it was great that no one was hungry.
Life is an adventure. Enjoy it!
hugs
Shannon
