Broken fence and cattle jailbreak

This morning around 6:30 am Daisy and I were woken up from our sleep by a large strange sound.  Once awake no more indications of the sound that woke us up.  Since Daisy was actively listening for more of the sound, I figured I didn't dream the sound.  So I got up to look outside.  I saw Toby had broken through the fence between the NE pasture and the yard.  He and Speckles were eating the lawn grass.  Most of the rest of the cattle were at the fence watching those two in the yard.  I went outside and was able to prop up the fence before the rest of the cattle could figure how to get through the broken fence. I closed the driveway gate by the road.   I then herded the herd into the corral.  That done, I was able to open the nearby gate to the NE pasture and herd Toby and Speckles back into the pasture.

I got an extra old gate and a corral panel and bungee cord attached them to the damaged fence.  Then I let the rest of the herd back into the NE pasture.

I went off to move irrigation pipes.  An hour and 45 minutes later when I returned back to the house I found all but one cow in the yard.  Fortunately I still had the driveway gate closed.  Toby re-broke the fence in the same spot.  The bungee cords were missing one of their hooks and the old gate was laying on the ground.  When I found the hooks in the grass one hook was bent to be straighter.

Most of the calves were in the corral.  I closed the gate between the corral and NE pasture, re-opened the yard / NE pasture gate and herded the cattle out of the front yard.  The trees and bushes hadn't been eaten yet though I did have one calf starting to eat the leaves of one of the bushes.  Instead of going through the NE pasture gate the cattle all went back to the backyard corral gate.  The initial cattle all went to my English walnut trees and started to eat their leaves.  Grass is not good enough for my cattle.

I quickly opened the corral gate and got the cattle herded into the corral.  I left them in the corral for a while.  I had to fix the fence.  This area of the fence was on my to-do list to someday fix/improve.   The boards were nailed on the yard side of the posts as that had a better look to "hide" the posts.  Not the best thing as cattle can push against the boards and pop them off the posts.  I put in a new fence post to replace the one Toby broke.  I then nailed the fence boards on the pasture side of the posts. To be on the safe side as Toby was focused on this section of the fence I re-bungee corded the old gate and corral panel back to the fence.  This time I put the gate and panel on the pasture side of the posts.  I let the cattle back into the NE pasture and so far no more fence breaks.  I still left the driveway gate closed.

Yesterday evening I had moved the cattle from the south pasture to the NE pasture.  Once I make my hay bales I doubt all will fit inside the hayshed.  The rest will have to be stored in the NE pasture.  So I want the NE pasture to be eaten down now, before I move the hay bales to the NE pasture. 

Since I wasn't going back to bed after moving my irrigation pipes, Daisy wanted to come outside and keep me company as I fixed the fence.

While this is August and usually little chance of rain, since I have my hay cut, rain came into the weather forecast at the last minute.  Of course when I moved irrigation pipes this morning it rained lightly.  .01 of an inch fell officially.  So, no hay baling today.  Time to go back to sleep.  Once the fence was fixed Daisy and I went back into the house and went back to sleep.