Cattle got me up early

I don't get up early.  This morning I heard a cow push against a temporary corral panel outside the house.  The sound had woken me up.  I got up.  Maria was on her front knees and placing her head under the corral panels to eat grass on the other side.  I have metal t-posts for each panel and I tie them to the panel with twine.  I've had Maria lift the panels in the past.  The twine and posts were holding, though later I discovered Maria broke the twine for one of the posts.

I also saw Diamond and Beulah in the area.  Last night I saw the grass was getting eaten down, and since there still was grass to eat, I figured I would move the panels today after I went uptown to get groceries.  The cattle changed the plan.

I watched Maria and then I saw Diamond look over the fence into the hayfield.  The grass is tall in the hayfield.  The grass is green on the other side of the fence...

The next I knew Diamond broke the top fence board on one section.  Naturally she had chosen the section with the bad board that was easy to break.  With the top board broken it would be easier to break the other boards.  Especially how big Diamond is.

So I went outside to stop things.   Maria left the area.  Diamond tried to hide behind a tree.  Good luck with that.  Yes, your head is hidden, but not the rest of your body.  I looked around the tree at Diamond's face and she then would move to the other side to hide.  Nope, that doesn't work either to hide you.  She then tried to "wait me out" and hope I would leave and then she could go back to the broken board.  When that didn't work she went to another section of the fence and started to lean over to reach the hayfield grass.  That board was stronger, but Diamond is big, and I didn't trust that the board wouldn't break.  So I herded the cows into the corral and closed the gate.

Then I moved all the corral panels down the yard.  I usually place the panels two times in order to break the yard into three areas.  To better manage the cows in the yard.

I fixed the fence board.

I had to cover the roof of the small well pump house with a tarp.  Otherwise the cows will try to tear the shingles off the roof.

And I had to put more corral panels around the shrubs in front of the house. The cows don't eat the shrubs, but they will go in and check everything out and break stuff.

After getting groceries I let the cows out of the corral.  Then I ate breakfast by 2 pm.  Then I slept the rest of the afternoon as I need more than five hours of sleep.  Rascal was happy I went back to bed to sleep some more.

I already started to repair the fence when I took the photo.

Fence fixed.

The moved panels.  Plus the hazelnut bushes I have to protect from the cows.

When the cows were in the corral Muscles was eating grass in the back of the yard.  So I let him be.

While Beulah's calf went with her into the corral, I had to look for Maria's calf.  He was sleeping in an area at the back of the yard.  I let him be.  Male newborn calves take longer to be active and run around than newborn female calves. They seem to take off soon after birth.  Girls are tougher than boys.

After I let the cows out of the corral to the new grass area.

Diamond.  Of course she preferred to eat near the hayfield fence.

Beulah's calf running around the new grass area.

I had to go look for Maria's calf.  Earlier she and Muscles were laying near each other.  But since Muscles had now gone to the new grass section, Maria's calf went back to his 'hiding' area.  Later when I checked he was still there, but now standing.  So I herded him out to go join the cows and to be with Maria as I didn't think he had drank from Maria in quite some time.

This calf is the one with the odd front legs.  Or they were.  The calf didn't know where the cows were, and only saw me, so he took off running and ran into the corral, and I had to herd him back out and to the new grass area.  The calf can run fine.  And fast.  No leg problems.

Everyone relaxing later.