*sigh* A busy day.
In the morning when I decided to go for a bicycle ride it decided to rain again during my ride, and I got wet. It rained off and on during the day, usually when I was outside and didn't want it to at that moment.
After 1 pm when I was sitting on the couch with Rascal I heard the cows mooing. The mooing was out of the ordinary and didn't sound right. I got up and looked outside and saw Mama cow was in the backyard eating grass. What?!
It appears Toby the bull broke a section of the east corral fence for the south part of the corral. This section also had a wire piece on the boards. That didn't stop Toby from breaking a few boards and then pushing the rest of the section down. At least I thought it was Toby as I don't think Mama is strong enough to do that.
Why was only Mama out of the corral and not Toby? I think it was because the electric fence wire was still up and working. Mama was able to go underneath the wire and Toby was not.
All the rest of the cows and calves in the main corral were standing at the gate making a loud fuss as they were unhappy that Mama got out and was eating green grass. I had to get Mama back in the corral. Toby was standing near the broken section of fence so trying to get Mama back there wasn't a good option. So I opened the corral gate and tried to herd Mama into the main corral. This was touch and go as the cows and calves saw the gate was open and tried to run through the gate. So I had to go from herding Mama to stopping the cows and calves. Finally I got Mama to go through the gate and into the main corral.
Then back to the broken section. The electric fence was making popping sounds. Probably due to a piece of the wire section touching the electric wire. So I turned the electric fence off. I propped a board against the wire section to hold it upright and ran back to the house to get boots on as I was only wearing slippers and the grass was tall and wet and my feet got wet.
Minutes later when I returned to the broken section Toby was now outside the corral and eating grass. I should have left the electric wire on. I grabbed a long stick to herd him as Toby is a big bull. It was easier to get him back into the south corral than it was to herd Mama earlier. But then I had to stand there as he wanted to come back out of the corral. I did a lot of stick waving as he approached the broken fence section. It was a stand off. We stood there for a long time in the rain. Finally the rest of the cattle - and Mama - went to the west section of the corral and Toby went to see what they were up to. I was able to then get an extra temporary corral panel and place it across the broken section. I also got my phone.
Toby came back. When I started to go to find new boards Toby would start to push the corral panel away from the opening. So we were in another stand-off. I called Donna for help. I needed someone to stand and wave a stick at Toby while I got new boards. While taking to Donna I touched the electric fence. Earlier I had turned it back on. The wire wasn't making a sound so I didn't know if it was working. It was. Ouch.
After Donna arrived I first went and checked his hay feeder. Before it started to rain on Sunday he had plenty of hay in his feeder. Now there was only a little hay left in the feeder. And that hay was all wet. Probably not appealing. I wanted to get a small bale and put it in the wooden feeder south of the barn. But Toby knew what I planned to do and stood outside the side door. Unfortunately I entered the barn through this side door and not the other side door or the main door. So I couldn't open the other doors as they were locked from the outside. So Toby and I were in a stand off again.
Then I notice the main door seemed to be open a crack. Huh? I went and looked and it wasn't completely closed. The hook on the latch was missing. I'm sure I put the hook on the latch when I last closed the door. Somehow the cattle got the hook off the latch. I couldn't find the hook so who knows what happened to the hook. Did a cow swallow it? The cows still couldn't figure out how to completely slide the large door open, so that is why it was only open a small crack. And who says cows are dumb?
I was able to carry part of the small bale around the barn and put it into the feeder as Toby was still watching the side door for me to come out. Once he saw me put hay into the feeder he came over to eat. And then I could work on fixing the broken fence section. And Donna could stop waving the big stick at Toby.
I guess it was good I hadn't built a new section of fence this year as I had planned on using these boards to get them out of the backyard. These boards were heavy duty and strong. And almost the correct length of 9 feet and 6 inches. I just had to cut off either 6 inches or a couple inches depending on the board.
The boards were dense and it was hard to drive a nail through them. I was able to finally put a nail through them on each side to hold the boards up. Then I got a drill to drill holes for the other nails. One of the former boards was partially broken but I could fix and reuse that board. Another board was still attached to the wire fence section and wasn't broken at all. So I was able to reuse that board. The final small board at the top of the fence was broken but I was able - with some effort - to re-nail that board and reuse it. Finding a 9 foot 6 inch long board is not an easy thing to do.
I then re-nailed the wire fence section to the new and old boards and then turned the electric fence back on.
Mama was still in the main corral. Her calf was in the south corral. Over three weeks have passed since Mama gave birth, so she is not a over-protective of her calf. Mama knows her calf can now run like lightning, and the calf has listened to Mama about staying away from Donna and I. So I herded - around and around - the calf eventually through the open gate to go join Mama. Even though the gate was open the calf had never gone through that gate and would run past and not through it. That is why I had to make a number of herding attempts before the calf ran through the gate area.
I am leaving Toby and Muscles in the south corral. Next week all cattle will be released to go out on grass. So, for the next week I will put out a small bale each day for Toby and Muscles to eat. Toby is so fat not having all-you-can-eat will be good for him.
So that was my afternoon today as I didn't finish until 5 pm. What a day.
The white wire is the electric fence wire. The wire section of fence is now upside down. Toby had broken off / removed the bottom board from the fence and the wire section (seen on the ground on the other side of the wire section); then broke the next board off the posts and the wire section; then the next higher board off the fence and partially off the wire section so he could get through the fence. The top small board was not attached to the wire section but Toby still broke that board because... why not? Toby could.
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| Fixed |
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| The big stick Donna and I waved at Toby. |
Another cold day. Tonight I started the woodstove to warm up my house as the indoor temperature was just above 50 degrees. The last week of May and I'm using a woodstove to heat my house. Who would have thought?
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