Jail break and gophers

Gonna make this short tonight as Dan is bringing three more head of cattle early this morning. Earlier I had told him to wake me when he comes as I wanted him and I to round up six of his cattle that made a jail break.

His Holstein steer that wanted to be in the south pasture when the herd was in the middle pasture now has decided he wants to be in the middle pasture now that the herd is in the south pasture. "The grass is greener..." fits this steer's way of thinking. Today he broke a middle strand of barb wire and slipped through the fence. He is so tall and gangly I don't know how he can do the limbo through the fence. This time he brought five more of Dan's cattle with him. My "girls" were good girls and stayed in the south pasture.

I decided I didn't want to chase cattle this hot (85 F) day. It didn't hurt that they were in the middle pasture as the grass is recovering nicely from the herd being in there a few weeks ago.

Before it got dark I saw the six near the middle/south pasture gate. The rest of the herd was in the south pasture by the bloat blocker blocks. Oh yeah, Wednesday afternoon I replaced the salt blocks with four blocks of Sweetix bloat blocker. It is recommended the cattle lick the bloat blocker blocks a week prior to them being let into an alfalfa field. And also when they are eating the alfalfa.

Since the six were by the gate I went out and opened the gate. One of the six slowly wandered back into the south pasture. The Holstein and a black body with spotted white face heifer stood and looked at the open gate and chewed their cud. I guess they expected me to leave the gate open. I encouraged them to enter the south pasture.

I had to move from the gate and shoo a few south pasture cattle away from the gate area as I could see a few were getting the idea of crossing into the middle pasture. By doing that, two more cattle from the middle pasture decided to cross over and join the south herd who were no longer near the fence.

The final escapee just stood and chewed its cud. *sigh* I had to encourage it to move and go into the south pasture.

Gophers

No more gophers trapped the past few days. While I hear a few chirping their warnings there doesn't seem to be too many out and about. Must be because of the heat. One gopher is either smart of lucky as I have found the leg hold trap shut twice now, but no gopher.

The garden pocket gopher is still around. He/she abandoned its earlier tunnel in the garden. Today I found fresh mounds of dirt in the middle of the garden. No luck getting this gopher today as I found the trap filled with dirt when I checked. *argh* One smart pocket gopher.

Yesterday I had trouble finding my last pocket gopher trap in the hayfield. Even with a white milk jug on top of a stick next to the trap I couldn't find it. I climbed one of the transmission power line towers to get a bird's eye view of the field in case the wind blew it over in the tall grass. Nope, couldn't see it. Did someone take it? A few years ago I had someone take a trap near the road and toss it far away from the hole I had it in to catch a gopher. I figured this was the case yesterday. But when I walked back to the house I walked in the area I thought I left the trap. Success! I came upon the milk jug and stick laying down in the tall grass. I guess my bird's eye view wasn't high enough.