One of my heifers - Emily - also was nearby as my cattle were along the fence to the south of the gate and where they were working. The neighbor's herd and bull were up on the side of the ridge to the SW.
Once the electric fence was hooked up to a battery my neighbor turned his attention to herding my heifer through the gate. His herding didn't go well as Emily ran around my neighbor to return to be near my cattle who had not moved. The neighbor wanted to give up but I told him Emily wanted to be near my cattle and that I would herd them on my side of the fence towards the gate and that Emily would follow.
All my cattle moved to the very SW corner of the peninsula before I could herd four of them towards the gate. I knew the remaining five would follow shortly. Instead of continuing straight along the fence three heifers turned east in the direction of the corner where to cross the river. The previous day they wouldn't turn when I wanted them to; today they turned when I didn't want them to.
I had one heifer still going along the fence when I noticed the neighbor had crawled through the fence and was herding the rest of my cattle towards me. Emily was following my one heifer so the extra five cattle only confused matters more, especially when they turned to join the three that had turned.
Through the muck and mud I herded the single heifer towards the gate and Emily continued to follow. The heifer veered off before the gate and I crawled through the fence and the kid and I herded Emily towards the gate and she went through to join my cattle.
Success!
The neighbor and I quickly closed the gate. I told him of my problem Sunday with herding the cattle across the river and he offered to help me.
As he and the kid crossed the peninsula I told them they should cross my way so as not to walk through the muddy swampy area but they declined. Okay...
We reached my cattle about the same time: I from the NW and they from the west. The cattle were bunched together at the center of the peninsula near the river. As I pushed the cattle to the south and the corner I needed the neighbor and kid to remain where they were. Instead they moved in to help me. All this made the cattle spooked and they tried to get by me. I headed off several escape attempts. I told the other two to back off a little but instead the neighbor broke off a tree branch and, waving it at the cattle, told the kid to drive them to the river.
The cattle freaked and more ran in multiple directions and I couldn't head off them all. Once one escaped the others realized it was possible to get away and the rest bolted past us.
You'd think that since the neighbor has more cattle experience than all of my 50 plus years he would be better at herding cattle. But I often find that the old timers are in a hurry to herd cattle and often do it with too much force.
The dark rain clouds to the south had moved over us by now and it began to rain. The neighbor said it was useless to try any more as the cattle were spooked. He and the kid ran to his pickup and drove off.
It began to rain harder and I crossed the river and headed home. I was soaked by the time I got home and had to wring the water from my clothes. But it was great - I got one more heifer back and it was raining! Raining for real as Kalispell set a record Monday for rainfall. 1.33 inch of rain fell, far exeeding the old record of .69 inch. In the morning it rained hard and water even ran down my driveway. After a break in the afternoon it rained all evening and some through the night.
This rain was great as it had a chance to soak into the ground. Tuesday when I dug new pocket gopher holes I found the soil was wet more than four or five inches down.
Everything is green and fresh and soft and nice and is a far cry from the desert dry conditions I had prior to the rain. I am feeling more confident the cattle will make it on my grass until September. I spoke with Wyatt Tuesday night and he will cut my hay on Thursday as we are suppose to have a multi day stretch of hot (90s!) and dry weather.
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