Cattle, fruit trees and the river

Have I got my garden planted? Nooooo! *sigh*

It began to rain shortly before I was finally going to go out and plant the seeds. And rain is in the forecast the next several days. I do have the rows dug - all I have to do is drop the seeds in then cover them.

Why don't I have my garden planted? The cattle of course.

I let the cattle into my fruit tree and garden area. Of course I had to "cattle proof" the area and that took me several hours after my hike on Friday. I know, I know... it would have been faster just to start my lawn mover and mow the area. But then the grass would go to waste. And my lawn mower would contribute to global warming. And no, I don't believe that cow's flatulence is a cause of global warming. The EPA is restricting new lawn mower's engines to help global warming, not cattle.

As I prepared the fruit tree and garden area by fencing off my freshly dug garden (cattle like to play in the dirt!) and wrapping my young fruit trees some more with fencing the cattle all lined up outside the fence and gate to watch me and wait.

I had to walk over to the hay shed to get some more fencing and they all accompanied me. On the way back when I was carrying the fence some cattle would run along side me and frolic like a dog trying to get my attention. That was kinda cute, but as they are 600+ lbs I kept an eye out they didn't get crazy - or should I say, 'too crazy'. Being in the middle of a stampede is not a good thing. 30 cattle do make a stampede sound when they all run together.

Before putting on the last minute touches several of them started to moo at me so I relented and let them in. They got down to business... *rip* *munch* *swallow* *rip* *munch* *swallow* Ahhhh... music.

I finished wrapping and protecting and settled down to watch them. They behaved fairly well. They were curious about the fenced trees but went back to eating grass. Later a few of them decided to sample the mature apple trees which were not fenced. They could reach the lowest branches by craning their necks.

Shoo! Shoo! Eat the grass not the trees.

For several hours they roamed in circles eating. After 10 pm over half then returned to the corral to drink water. The rest stayed and continued eating. I had thought of leaving them access overnight but after a few more got interested in the trees I decided the better of it.

Some had started to push against the fencing to reach the grass inside - then the trees. The others started to return so I herded them all out and closed the gate. As I checked the damage they did to one of my simple 'tree branch and baling twine' fences I noticed one of the cattle was trapped inside with me. I re-opened the gate and herded it outside. It ran to join the herd. By now it was fairly dark so the black cattle were harder to see. I made a sweep and found the area was now clear of cattle.

Saturday morning I got up a little early than usual and did a little more cattle proofing. I got a few more fences and wrapped a few more fruit trees some more. I had some fences that partially protected the trees and I found the cattle would slip underneath to reach the grass (which is good ) but then would reach up and push the fence up to taste the tree leaves (which is bad ). I found of my two small caragna bushes the cattle moved the protection sideways enough to vacuum up one caragna.

The cattle were all lined up outside the fence waiting to be let back in when I got out there.

My morning was busy watching them and shooing them away when they moved from grass to trees or shrubs. Some cattle were more insistent on eating tree leaves and branches and I had to do more shooing and readjusting of the barrier.

The raspberry bushes had lots and lots of bees buzzing about and they helped keep the cattle way from those bushes.

As the cattle were generally behaving I had left the fruit tree & garden area for a few minutes and when I returned I found one of my heifers had crawled under a fence that didn't reach all the way to the ground and then stood up inside the fence. She was trying twist her head around the reach the fruit tree in the middle beside herself.

Augh! Out! Out!

Somehow she got out without tearing the whole fence down. But the fence shook as she left.

By late morning they had eaten plenty, and between the bees and after me shouting at a couple cattle insisting on eating tree leaves, the herd thundered off to the corral and water. Then they settled down in the loafing shed and corral to take their siesta. I took this opportunity to clean up and eat breakfast, then had a short nap as I hadn't slept 8 hours overnight.

I was digging my garden rows when the cattle returned. The couple cattle mooed and mooed for the others to join them. Many lined up along the fence around the garden to watch me dig. The grass was much shorter now and others went for the tree leaves. So much for working on my garden!

The next few hours were a cat and mouse game of trying to eat tree leaves, bushes, and one cattle found she could push part of the fence in and liked eating strawberry plants. *argh*

When I told Dan of my plans to let the cattle t let the cattle into my yard and fruit tree area he told me "I don't know. You're a braver guy than I!". That is code words for "more foolish".

Not all the cattle were insistent on eating tree leaves. However steer number 115 (mine) and several of my heifers were troublesome. Dan had several steers (128 and 142 among others) that also favored tree leaves. I didn't mind if they munched on the lower branches of the box elder trees inside the fruit tree area. A few times after shooing the cattle a few would run to the box elder trees outside the fruit tree area and would munch on their lower leaves as if to rub it in my face.

You'd think the cattle wouldn't go for the trees leaves as much as they did as they had to stand tall and crane and twist their necks to reach the branches. They looked like coyotes that have their neck up and howling.

The cattle got the idea I didn't like them eating the leaves as they would stop when I stepped towards them. They would wait then try again watching me. Another step they would stop. Over and over again testing me. They were thinking, "Was I more persistent than they were?" Yes.

A few now decided to get their heads under the fences that stood on the ground and tried to lift the fence up. I had wrapped the trees but did not fasten the fences to the ground as this is temporary until I can later come up with a permanent and better way to fence and protect the trees while allowing me access to their fruit. I noticed that two of my apricot trees has small apricots (my Aunt Cathy was right!). If these grow and ripe they will be my first apricots! The cherry trees also had fruit growing.

Several heifers would get down on their front knees and would put their heads under the barb wire fence then move along eating the grass they could reach in the ditch along road.

Eventually I found the grass was eaten down pretty good and the grass inside the barriers were far more tempting than the short grass outside the barrier.

I herded the cattle out.

As the NE pasture was eaten down, it was time to let the cattle into the north pasture. They read my mind and lined up by the gate as I pushed my wheelbarrow of fencing tools to the gate. I opened the gate and it was like the Oklahoma land rush as they streamed out into the tall grass.

I had the wheelbarrow and fencing material as the fence I had placed along the high river bank two or three years ago needed to be moved. The river had eroded in a few spots and some fence posts were close to falling into the river. Also a large bush-like tree was starting to fall into the river as the river bank was eroding. The barb wire from the fence ran between the branches and tree trunks and this was also sucking my fence along with it.

Now with almost 10 acres of tall grass where did the cattle want to be? With me. Along the river bank. *sigh*

Go away!

Eventually they got the message.

I took down most of the prior fence and reset the posts a few more yards away from the river. Removing the barb wire from the tree branches was harder. The barb wire was threaded among branches and trunks and also among other wire I attached to the tree from posts to help hold the tree upright. I am trying to save or keep the tree as long as I can.

It was an effort to remove the barb wire fence wire. As the ground the tree is on is "iffy' I took care when getting next to the tree. I had visions of the tree falling into the river taking the wires with it and the wires somehow wrapping around my feet taking me along. I think I have watched too many cartoons and movies. None of that happened as the tree stayed where it was and I watched where the wire coiled and where my feet were.

As I was putting up the new fence it began to rain. *sigh* I can't catch a break can I? At least it was warm enough that the rain felt fine. And I had been working up a sweat. It rained off and on several times before I finished the fence.

The cattle were back to inspect my work. The fence was two strands of barb wire as I found in the past that was enough to keep the cattle away from the few yards towards the river. A few spots are now more than a couple of yards and I found one of my steers trying to step through the fence to get at the grass on the other side. Acres and acres of easily accessible tall grass and he has to have the grass on the other side of the fence along the river.

I had extra barb wire and I made the fence three strands for 3/4 of the fence. I tied some extra baling twine on much of the rest and where I didn't, the distance to the river bank is shorter with little to no room and no incentive to step through the fence. (Famous last words when talking about cattle!)

On the northern end of the fence, where it is lower and the grass on the other side harder to reach, I had one of my steers work hard to eat the grass on the other side of the fence. What is with you cattle?! The grass tastes sweeter the harder it is to get?!

I also watched the cattle's first sight of the river. They would stop moving and get a "What is that?" look on their faces. Some walked down the sloping river bank that is access to the river and walked into the river a short distance. But not far as further out it got deeper and the current was there.

I held my breath at times hoping they wouldn't do anything stupid and get caught up in the current. The river is running at about 620 CFS right now and is moving along at a good clip. If one gets caught up in the current they would be in serious trouble unless they were lucky and washed up on an occasional shallow gravel bed.

Watching the cattle in the river was like watch one's kid go and do something that could go wrong if not done right. It is hard to watch but you got to hold your breath and let them do it and trust that they have common sense.

The cattle passed the test. Though I would have preferred that two of Dan's steers not get in a fight while standing on the river bank. Drink, then leave. Don't fool around.

I checked my gopher traps and moved the ones in the north pasture to the middle pasture. Cattle being curious will trigger them and knock their marking posts over. The one set trap I had by the wheelbarrow had been triggered by the time I had finished my fence work. I caught 4 more gophers including two who had popped up to see where I was after I had moved to another part of the pasture.

Back home I ate my lunch at 6:30 pm. No wonder my supper time is 11 pm. Then I fell asleep again. I should go to bed before 2 am and not get up at 8 am.

Shortly after I woke up it began to rain hard. *sigh* So much for planting my garden tonight.