I spent a couple of hours at Grandma's house planting her garden, and then Mom and I took her out to dinner. I was nearly home, and thinking about getting the sheep and horses in for the night. Then there it was the bull. He was somewhere he was not supposed to be - and he was not alone. The girls were all with him, including the possibly-not-bred heifers. The day before, Steve and I had moved the cows into the bottom with the sheep, partly because they had mostly eaten down the grass out in the front, but also because one of the little girls keeps running out in front of cars and was likely to get herself and someone else hurt. They were no longer in that pasture. They had moved down into the lower bottom with only two rickety fences and one road between them and the Black Angus Bulls that winter on the corner. Those Bulls were uninterested by our bull, but they were showing significant signs in those girls.
The cows needed a new pasture. The best candidate pasture was the upper barn lot pasture. The easiest way to get the cows in there would be to run them across the back hillside and through a gate directly into that pasture. So, I went down and opened that gate, a process which required moving the wooden panel that we put up to supplement that gate last year. It wasn't that big a deal, but was an extra step. The dogs and I got that done and headed down to the to get the cows. On the way, Zeke put the sheep in. He was a happy boy and thought we were done. I told him we still had work to do and off we went. Between us and the cows was a 12' woven gate. You know the kind, just wire and posts. They are easy to build but painful to open and close. This one thankful had a cheater in it so I could get it open fairly easily. We went through and headed downhill so we could circle around the cows and get them going the right direction.
Zeke was a good boy and followed instructions as my mobile pressure point to keep this cows going the right direction. It worked great! Every time the cows tried to go around me, I moved Zeke up closer and they decided to go the direction I wanted. He was such a good boy. Of course, I had to close that gate on my way back. Those are even more painful to close than it had been to open. I made it, but it was not easy. In the meantime, the cows had changed the plan, they had headed for the last gate they had gone through. This, of course, was not the gate I had in mind. Luckily, it was the gate right behind Mom's house, and I had my cell phone. I called Mom to open the gate and let the cows through. This put the cows back in the front. This was not where I wanted them, but I could make it work. But first, I had to close that first gate I opened, open the gate between the barn lot and the upper pasture, and close the gate in the pasture that was currently open onto the hillside. I walked down to do that, and open two other gates that would let the cows into the barn lot proper. Then Zeke and I went back out for the cows. Luckily, they were beginning to get tired of being herded and just walked through the gate.
I still had to get the horses. But, they were easy after all that. Then I went inside and did push-ups and sit-ups with Sarah. Gotta be supportive in her efforts to get fit.
I'm thinking I could call this the farm girl obstacle course. I certainly feel like I worked out.
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