Cattle in the yard

Monday was a warm day. 86 F on my thermometer. Record highs forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday in the upper 80s. Last week we had a record low of 23 F. You know it is warm when one goes from making sure to stand in the sun to keep warm to standing in the shade to keep cool. I had shed my flannel shirt and only wore a tshirt today. Felt strange without my flannel shirt after all these months.

I went into my house's crawl space and opened the two vents to get outside air circulating in the crawl space. I rolled up the plastic I had laid on the crawl space's dirt floor last Fall. I want to make sure no moisture is trapped and mold starts.

I dug more in my garden. 70% dug now.

I am getting near the end of the hay bales. With the warmer weather the grass is growing. I know, what with all the hassles last year of having cattle eat my yard down, I wasn't going to have them in my yard again. Well... I got the idea of using some of the rolls of field fence I bought the past year to protect my tulips north and south of the house, and the shrubs in front of the house.

I also had a roll to protect the well pump house as cattle, for some reason, like to tear the asphalt roofing shingles from its roof. The field fence is easier to install and nicer to view than the assorted pallets, tables, chairs, ladders and what-not I used to protect all this stuff last year.

I added more strands of wire to the two wires that act as a gate across the driveway. The front gate now is good enough that I don't have to park my pickup in front of the gate to ensure it keeps the cattle in the yard.

I finished with the fences and gate by evening and opened the corral gate to let "my girls" into the yard. It didn't take long for the first four heifers to enter the yard and quickly the others followed.

"Munch! Munch! Munch!" they all went on the grass. A very pleasant sound to my ears. I sat and watched the cattle move across the yard. They would look up at me occasionally but mainly concentrated on eating fresh green grass.

I found the smallest heifer is the most leary of me. I guess I had noticed it in the corral; she won't take bread from me and keeps her distance when I fed hay. Tonight after the herd has moved away from her, she suddenly noticed. Keeping an eye on me sitting there she ran to rejoin the herd.

I took a look at the "girls"; my first look in a while. Some still have some of the dried manure on their coats from when they first arrived. Others are cleaner and some heifers are losing their winter coat and getting a sleeker finer coat. Most all have fine sleek hair on their head and necks. The hardest part from which to get rid of the winter hair is their bellies and for some their mid-sides.

After a couple of hours, and since it was starting to get dark, it was time for them to go back into the corral for the night. Umm... no one wanted to go back in the corral. Fancy that! While the herd was back near the corral fence, they hung around the stock trailer. The walk-through gate I made this spring was near and I was able to open it without scaring off the herd. Still they didn't want to enter the corral; most were munching away on the grass.

It was getting dark, and it is hard to see black cattle in the dark. Great. I was able to herd half into the corral in ones and twos. The remaining six hung back behind the stock trailer hoping if they were out of sight they would be out of mind and I would go away. With some work I was finally able to herd them back into the corral. This all took over a half hour. Hopefully with time, and a longer time in the yard, they will be easier to herd back into the corral in the future.

It was so dark now I wasn't sure if all 12 were in the corral. I had to get my flashlight and walking around the corral count them. The cattle were mostly sitting chewing their cud and weren't bothered by me and did not move when I got near and shined the flashlight on them. Good. They were getting agitated earlier when I was herding them back into the corral.

Last night they were in a wild mood. They would run from one end of the corral to the other as fast as they could and then back again. Over and over. Once I realized it wasn't just once or twice I walked over to see what was the matter. Thinking I had bread they ran over to me. They all were breathing hard. I had no bread but my action broke the cycle of their running and they were calm after that.

I opened another bottle of my beet wine to have with my supper tonight. Either the wine's alcohol content has increased with age, else I am more susceptible for some reason to the alcohol tonight. Two small glasses and bam! I felt its affects. Hours later now I still can still feel some of its effects. It still affects my typing, so once I spell check this post, I am off to bed to sleep it off. Unfortunately my spell checker doesn't also correct grammer.