Peninsula to small island

"Boom!"

I half woke up.

"Boom!"

"Huh? Is that an explosion or gunshots?"

Then, "Boom!.... Boom!"

I got out of bed, put some clothes on and went outside to see where the sound was coming from. But no more sounds so I never found out where and what was causing them

Oh well, nine am - time to get up for the day.

A short time later the county came down 'my' road to apply a chip seal to the road they had repaved last year. The truck drivers need to know how to drive backwards. Not only was a truck with the rocks driving backwards when dumping its load into the machine that was spreading the rocks, there were six more trucks in a line driving backwards to take their turn to drop their load of rocks into the machine.

My black road is now almost white as the layer of rocks is thick and dense. Well, it is suppose to help the road last longer. People are driving the road a little slower now. Must be because of the fear of dust and throwing up loose rocks.

Sometimes my jobs happen because I think of them out of the blue. For some reason I remembered I needed to clean my chimney before Fall. I hadn't taken a shower yet and the wind is calm so why not clean it now? It should only take a few hours. Six hours later I was done. Maybe it was because I burned more wood last winter but I seemed to have had more of an ash and creosote buildup than usual.

Late afternoon nine of my heifers (the ones who had behaved) came to the barn to lick the salt blocks. We both went out to the pasture around the same time. My heifers lined up at the gate to the middle pasture. They are so used to rotating pastures every few days they must have thought it was past time to do so again.

I debated letting them into the middle then south pastures. If my rouge eleven heifers saw these nine in the south pasture they may cross the river and come back to my pasture easier. Of course the opposite may happen and my nine may cross to join the eleven. I decided not to tempt fate and left my nine in the north pasture.

While I stood and thought about moving them to the middle pasture the nine circled me and several started licking me. I hadn't taken a shower yet to wash off the shoot from the fireplace cleaning so they didn't get too carried away with their licking. I wasn't wearing a shirt and I found their tongues to be more like sandpaper when they licked my back and not just my forearms.

My eleven were still on the peninsula. The bull was approaching on the neighbor's side of the fence when I came to the river. He turned and went back to his herd when he saw me. Some of my cattle called out to him to return.

Emily was the brave one for the day. She was the first to approach me when along the fence. Later when they were near the place to cross the river she was the first to approach me and follow me to the river's edge.

The herd came and gathered round. I stepped into the middle of the west channel and hoped they would follow me. Emily looked and looked but wouldn't make the step down into the river. Finally when she decided she wouldn't do it they moved on.

A few minutes later down the river channel Emily led four other heifers into the river channel where the bank sloped gradually into the river. Emily went into the river to eat leaves of a large tree leaning out over most of the narrow river channel. Once in the shallow river the cattle eventually crossed over to the small island.

Once the five were on the island and took a few bites, one heifer called to the others still on the peninsula and they quickly came and crossed over the same spot the others had crossed even though the others had moved on from that point. You know, you think cattle aren't looking or paying attention, but they pay attention to others and their surroundings much more than a person thinks they do.

While waiting for the cattle to eat and explore I washed most of the chimney soot off in the river. It was in the low 80s. Initially the river felt cool and good but near sunset the water began to feel colder and I went home without my cattle.

Well, they are on the small island. One step at a time. I didn't try to get them to cross to my pasture as they wanted to explore and eat on the island. And the crossing means stepping down off the river bank. They are very cautious when doing that.