Fruit tree and garden cattle

This afternoon (Thursday) I let my "girls" into the fruit tree and garden (FT&G) area. Seven of the twelve heifers were still taking their late morning siesta by the barn. Five were in the NE pasture munching the grass lower.

The five heifers didn't realize the open gate meant access to the FT&G area. They were still mad at me about the ear tags and turned as if to prepare to run when they saw me approach the gate. I had a loaf of bread and tossed pieces of it on the ground around the gate. As they approached the gate (and I retreated) they caught on they could enter the FT&G area. Ignoring the bread they quickly came inside.

Over an hour later the remaining seven came out to NE pasture. Seeing their sisters in the FT&G area they all got excited and came running.

For the most part the cattle were well behaved. They did break three tree branches I had placed in the ground several years ago when I had no fence posts to make a fence around some of my fruit trees. *sigh* I planned on replacing the branches/posts but not right now. The reason the cattle broke the branches was that they are the right size for scratching their foreheads.

The other problem I had was that a few heifers had a fascination with the dirt I dug. I had put up a fence to protect my garden, but as I was still digging, fresh dirt was outside the fence. Some heifers just had to walk in it. As they are heavy they quickly sink down. "Huh?!" Then another step and 'sink'. "This is kinda fun." Sink! sink! sink!

"Get out of there!"

One heifer liked to eat dirt. What's up with that?!

One heifer was in tall grass yet she kneeled down and bent under the wagon of irrigation pipes to eat the grass underneath them. Go figure! Seems to be a lot of work when easy-to-reach grass was all around her. I'm not complaining as the grass underneath the pipes needed trimming.

All was forgiven mid evening about the ear tags as three heifers licked my hand, arm and elbow as a way of saying thanks?

The trouble came late evening. I decided to move the fence to enclose the entire garden area, not just the section I had dug. I put in a few new posts and moved the rest. The fence didn't stand up its entire length and I needed to get some wire to attach it to the fence posts.

Before going to get the wire, the cattle were on the north side of the FT&G area so I pounded in a steel post to replace a broken branch. Then I noticed the cattle had untied the twine covering one of my serviceberry bushes. They didn't eat the bush, but had to untie the twine to check the bush out. I was re-stringing the twine when I noticed two heifers in the garden. *argh!*

The heifers had walked over a leaning section of fence and were now checking out my garden plants. I still had shingles and boards leaning over many plants to partially protect them from the sun while they acclimatize. The cattle were checking them out and knocking over a few to see what was underneath.

I ran over and chased them out. The whole herd now got excited and I chased them all out of the FT&G area. Anyway it was late and time for them to leave. No way was I going to let them stay in here overnight!

The cattle did a good job eating the grass down. One more day and it should be enough for now.

Lumberjack

"I'm a lumberjack, and I'm okay.
I sleep all night. I work all day."

Monty Python (click on the Lumberjack Song link to hear the song)

This morning I fired up the chainsaw. Two fallen trees, one in the north pasture and one in the south pasture, needed to be cut down. It has been a year and a half since they were blown over. From past experience they seem to only last a couple of years supported by their branches before they fall to the ground. As the cattle like to scratch against the supporting branches, no sense taking a chance the tree will fall on a heifer.

I cut all but the last fifth of the north pasture tree. The rest of the tree was pretty solid, and I only had one tank of gas, so I moved on to the south pasture tree. I got the smaller one fourth of the tree cut before running out of gas. As I don't have anymore chainsaw/small engine gas mixed, I called it quits for the day. I mainly wanted to cut the north pasture tree down before I let the cattle in the north pasture in a few days.

Milkweed plants

They have started to sprout up this year. My eradication efforts last year didn't get them all. They are popping up all over. Today I even found two of them growing (and already with a flower) in my ditch. That was unusual, but the odd thing is that with all the milkweeds all over (my fields, the neighbor's fields, the neighbor's ditch), I never had any milkweeds in my ditch before.

Pocket Gophers

They, too, are multiplying. I now am finding fresh mounds of dirt in the hayfield where I eradicated them last year. One mound of dirt is relatively close to the house. *sigh*

Bees

After checking the pocket gopher traps for the day I was almost to the house when I noticed Grant's pickup parked at the hayfield gate. Grant was suited up checking his bee hives. I had walked right near him and the hives and never noticed him. I guess I was too absorbed looking at the ground for milkweed plants and fresh pocket gopher mounds,

The bees are doing well; one hive more than the other as that hive didn't winter well and it is taking them longer to get going for the season.