I really did ask for it. I really did.

I shot my mouth off and am paying for it in more ways than one!! Yesterday I decided to move the bull out of the corral down to the schoolhouse. I was tired of feeding him and I am sure he was tired of being confined. I opened the gate and he proceeded to run toward the upper prime pasture bellowing trying to get through the fence.  I had both dogs and turned them loose but the bull would just run to the end of the fence then turnaround and run to the gate. Zeke and mouse could not get him to go toward the schoolhouse. Mouse took a foot to the jaw, rolled a time or two, jumped up and went back after the bull. I finally called the dogs off, went and got two shaker sticks and proceeded to harass the bull.  Even that was not enough.  He kept coming, I had to smack him twice with the shaker sticks to get him to turn around.  He finally headed over by the cars then down by the alpaca gate, once at the gate he looked up on the hillside and saw the other batch of female cows, he hollered and took off at a dead run!  I had the gate open and he just ran right into the lower field.  The cows then went right into the schoolhouse pasture without any prompting.  I walked down there with both dogs, having taken Mouse off of the lead rope because we were done working animals.  As I am closing the gate into the schoolhouse pasture I notice several sheep outside the fence on the road again!  I had to cross the creek and go out over by the wheat field.  This is when I notice one of the problems, that section of fence I had never repaired is in serious need of repair.  The sheep have figured out that it won't hold them and there is a poop highway along the mowed access road leading out to the pavement.  By the time I got down to four corners I could not find the sheep and Mouse did not want to listen anymore.  The more angry I got the worse Zeke did.  He just wanted to lay down and not move.  Of course I kept screaming that at Mouse who wanted to ignore me, then Zeke not cooperating made it worse.  I needed the 30 foot lead I left over by the house.  We ended up walking the whole length of the farm and pushing a lone ewe into the upper prime pasture with the babies. 
I had to leave the fencing for Sunday as I was picking up Annmarie at the airport. 
 



Old fence redone 2/3 complete

Sarah's new paramour volunteered to come out and fix fence with me yesterday.  I said 0700 on Sunday and they were quite prompt.  I offered breakfast and he refused, we grabbed water and then filled the back of the pickup with tools, 75 T posts and 40 wooden stays, all the T post clips I had on the farm, 10# of fencing staples, a roll of smooth wire, a hammer and two pair of fencing pliers.  We would have had two hammers but I forgot one in the shed.  While loading up the T posts the dogs were running around when suddenly we heard this high pitched screaming.  We looked over in the area over by my gate stash and there was a baby deer that had gotten its foot caught in the fence.  Mouse had found it, we called the dogs away and the deer was so scared it managed to free itself and run off down by Donna's house.  We saw the mother deer run out into the wheat field.  Annmarie and I had just seen this baby the night before when we came home.  It was no worse for its encounter.
 We had to clean up around a rock crib, we tossed all the scrap wire and boards onto the top of the crib then had to rebuild one about 2/3 of the way down the fence line.  Once the rock crib was secure then we removed all the staples for the three strands of barb wire and proceeded to tighten them up. We ended up snapping one of them in half with just the applied pressure and had to add a second patch.  It took 3.5 hours to get all this done.  We did take a break for lunch and some more water.  The last 1/3 needed another rock crib redone and it has a large portion of the woven wire buried in the dirt.  This wire is rusted and fragile.  It all needs to be replaced.  While we were rebuilding another rock crib we noticed a three foot garter snake with a vole in its mouth.  The snake had just come out of the grass with a little vole and the vole was still alive.  The snake held on till the vole quit struggling and died.  About this time, 30 seconds after spotting it, I remembered I had a camera in my pocket.  The snake must be afraid of paparazzi because I no sooner got the camera out then it slithered away. 
A friend from Idaho stopped by and we called it quits at 1500.  Unfortunately, I had on some loose baggy pants and after drinking a gallon of water all day and some Gatorade I ended up with a rash.  A painful, walk funny kind of rash.  If my pants would have fit better this would not have been a problem.  I have been losing a few pounds working on the farm and I am sure it is not worth this pain.  I still have 1/3 of the fence to finish...
 

Bathroom plant attempt.

While Annmarie was gone I picked up two more house plants.  They are in the bathroom and look like alien invaders.  The bathroom is the perfect spot as they just need a high humidity to survive.  The plants are hung from an oval seashell.  They look alien, and I have been told they don't belong in the bathroom.  I am going to have to find them a home on the jungle breeze porch.  I brought a plant pole that will hold five hanging poles with macramé hangers over to our house from Grandma Ruby's house.  I have a plant basket with a bunch of plants in a single basket from my father's wake that I want to break up and give their own space.  It will look good.  I gave away my two huge plants that I had had for over 10 years.  They were taking up too much space. So now I need to fill it in!  I even managed to start two new African violets from leaf cuttings.  Ruby would be proud, it is a first for me.