Hay cut and problems

Wednesday at dark I finished cutting most of my hayfield.  Today I cleaned up and cut the corners for each row cut.  Earlier this month my neighbor across the road asked if I would put my cattle in his field to eat the grass down.  Too much of a hassle to move my cattle there.  He then asked if I would cut his field.  I had cleaned and put away my hay equipment and had other problems to attend to, and the field was not worth the effort.  Today I looked his field over again.  Twice.  I decided not to cut his field.  The grass is dry and most likely has little nutritional value.  And his field is filled with many, many... many pocket gopher mounds. His field is the source of the pocket gophers I get each year in the east side of my hayfield.  While the grass could be cut and baled to be used as bedding for the cattle, it is not worth the hassle.

This evening, as I was about to leave for my evening bicycle ride, I noticed the cattle bunched along the south pasture / hayfield fence.  No... wait... make that in the hayfield.  The cattle had just entered the hayfield and still were near the hayfield fence.  To get in the hayfield they lifted one of the two gates up off the hinges.  The gate was still chained to the other gate but that didn't matter.  I guess I should be glad the cow - probably Maria - didn't break her neck sticking it in the gate to lift the gate off its hinges.

I got my neighbors, Rusty, and Calvin and his wife and we herded the cattle.  Newly in a forbidden field the cattle were all excited.  Instead of running back through the open gate they ran to the corral.  From there we herded them through the gate into the north pasture.  All this excitement got the bull excited and he ran around and jumped inside his part of the corral.  Once the cattle were in the north pasture everyone calmed down.  Thankfully I discovered the cattle's jailbreak almost as it happened.  Until it dries, second cutting alfalfa is too rich for the cattle to eat.  They could bloat and die.

Then when I planned again to leave on my evening bicycle ride I discovered my mailbox had been knocked over this afternoon/evening.

Seriously??!!

I'm not supposed to go on an evening bicycle ride?   The mailbox is set a short distance off the road where one has to drive one tire off the road to reach the mailbox.   But you know how bad Flathead drivers are.  They can't seem to stay on the road.

The post is a cast iron pipe.  It doesn't seem to be damaged, just knocked over and out of the ground.  It took quite some hit to do that.  Wonder what damage there was to their vehicle.  Tomorrow's projects are to put the post back into the ground, and work on the hayfield gate.  Just what I need... more projects.