Toby is gone

Today I took Toby to the livestock auction.  Tomorrow, Thursday, is their sale.  I had planned on taking Toby to the auction on Thursday.  The auction starts at 10:30 am.  I figured I could get up very early, load Toby starting at 6 am, then get to the auction after 9 am.  But Rascal has gotten me to let him outside at 6:30 am and I found it was still somewhat dark outside. And due to Toby's very large size, I can't use the loading corral as he wouldn't fit through the head gate at the end of the loading corral.  Instead of risking a delay, I decided to take Toby to the auction today.  I would have all day to do it, and I wouldn't have to start early.

It was very good I decided to switch to today.  It was a long day.  And we made it, but - what a day!

I started at 9 am.  Donna and Curtis helped me.  Because the loading run wouldn't work. I put Toby in the south part of the corral on Monday afternoon.  Then Tuesday I backed the stock trailer up to the smaller gate by the water trough, opened the stock trailer door, and secured the area around the gate and stock trailer so Toby could only go into the trailer and not out past the gate.  I put some hay and apples in the front of the trailer to allow Toby get acquainted with the trailer as he would have to step up to get into the trailer. (In the loading corral the cattle have to only walk across and into the trailer as I ramped up the ground to the trailer level height.)

This morning I looked and all the hay and apples were still in the trailer.  Toby hadn't gone in to eat them.  So I would have to encourage him to step into the trailer.  Uhhh... no go.

I got some temporary corral panels to make the area smaller.  Toby didn't want to go in the trailer.  He didn't even want to get close to the trailer.  He knew what was up.  Around and around I herded him.  Then he turned and put his head under a corral panel and lifted it up and tossed it on his back and then ran out and to the west end of the corral.  The corral panel was bent badly, and that is not easy to do, but Toby did it easily.

Herding Toby back to the east gate was not working.  He wanted to be at the west end of the corral and wanted to look at "his girls" out in the pastures.  So I decided to move the stock trailer to the west gate, which was not easy.  This gate so wider so I had to put a two corral panels between the stock trailer ad the west fence.  And tie them down.  Toby looked the corral panels area as an area to go as he didn't want to go in the trailer.  I carried another corral panel in an attempt to herd Toby as he has more room to run and I didn't want to get run over.  But Toby didn't want to go anywhere near the stock trailer.  Around and around and around.

West gate.

Then Toby ran to the east gate.  Should I go back there?  Less room to roam and run.  The first attempt to set corral panels back there to reduce his area to run failed as he ran past.  After a few more attempts to use the west gate failed, Toby ran to the east gate.  This time I got the corral panels in place and he stood there.  This time I got my second pickup and drove it to block the area outside of the panels.   I also put a couple of steel fence posts in the ground and tied them to to corral panels. Then I moved the stock trailer and the rest of the corral panels back to the east gate.

Around and around.  He was starting to want to try to get through the fence.  At one point he broke a fence board and was trying to get through the fence but we all yelled and I hit him with the sorting stick and he backed off.  Man, trying to catch him after he got out of the corral would have been a nightmare!

I got more corral panels to line the fence area.   Around and around and around and around Toby and I went.  Fortunately he never charged at me.  I got tired of going around. I decided to pull in some of the corral panels and make the area smaller.  I moved the pickup against a different corral panel.

Around and around.  I wanted to make the area smaller one again.  I untied the corral panels from the steel fence posts.  Around and around and then quickly Toby went and put head under a corral panel I had just untied and lifted it and tossed it on his back and ran out into the west end of the corral.  Another corral panel bent.

I didn't want to move the stock trailer back to the west gate.  Instead I used the second pickup to herd Toby back to the east gate.  Around and around the corral we went.  Many times.  A few times I almost got him to the east and somewhat in the corral panel area, but before I could position the pickup from fence to barn feeder to block Toby he ran in front or behind the pickup.  Over and over we went.

Finally I blocked Toby in and he couldn't get around the pickup.  Then Curtis and I moved the corral panels to make the area smaller.  A little more around and around and suddenly Toby ran over to the stock trailer and jumped inside it.  What!  Wow!  I quickly ran over and shut the trailer door before he could back out.  I barely got it closed and locked in time.

Toby was so big I could barely close the inside gate to keep him in the front half of the trailer.  When I did so, he freaked out and barely turned around. The trailer bulged, and the gate catch almost came undone.  Half the trailer won't work.  I opened the inside trailer gate and led Toby be in all the trailer.  Before we got going he turned back around so he was facing forward again.

Finally!  What I thought maybe could take an hour to do, took over 2 and 1/2 hours.  It was after 11:30 am.  Man, it was a good thing I did this today and not Thursday.  I would have never got it done in time for the auction.

I left everything as is in the corral.  I put a strap around the bottom of the trailer door.  The slide half of the door only has a latch on the top half, and I don't trust the cattle wouldn't push the bottom out and then the door off somehow.

Donna and I were on our way at 11:45am.

15 or so minutes in, when I was driving 55 mph on the highway the pickup and trailer seemed to start moving side to side a little bit.  Wow.  Watch out  Slow down.   I did.  Back to normal.  So the rest of the way I mainly drove 45 to 50 mph to be on the safe side.   A couple of times a could feel a little trailer sway start to happen so I slowed down.

I got to the auction near 2:30 pm.  A little longer than normal drive.

When I unloaded Toby at the auction place, he backed up to step outside.  A floor board in the back of the trailer cracked.  Toby got out of the trailer fine.  He was okay.  The auction people herded him to his pen.  Toby looked even bigger when walking in the auction corral.

I looked inside the trailer and in the middle of the trailer I saw one floor mat looked odd.  It looked like part of the mat was going through the floor.  I went in, pulled the mat up and saw at least half a board was gone.  The mat had gone way down.  Almost near the road?   Oh, my goodness!  It is a miracle Toby didn't break through the floor and get hurt.  I am sure he weighed over 2000 pounds.  I've carried more weight when hauling calves, but their weight is not on just four legs.  And I seen a metal bar in the very back had broken off at one end and was hanging down.

The trailer swaying back and forth a few times must have happened because Toby broke the floor board and had to quickly move and shift his weight.  Since he never got injured, I guess it was good I didn't see the floor board break before arriving at the auction place.  How could I have fixed the floor board on the road with Toby inside?

After unloading Toby Donna and I drove across Missoula to Red Robins to get something to eat.  I had hardly ate anything that day.  I actually started to feel a little hungry, and after my head injury I rarely feel hungry.

It was almost 7 pm when we got back home.  I got the second pickup out of the corral and parked it.  I put the corral panels away.  I had to use a sledgehammer and also jumping up and down on the two panels to straighten the bent rungs up and down and side to side.

I got the trailer mats out.  I saw the broken floor boards were worse than I earlier had seen.  Five boards need to be replaced.  It was getting close to dark, so I went and got and filled three pails of apples from a neighbor.  By then it was dark.  I'll wash the trailer tomorrow and also see if I have any strong and thick boards I can use to replace the broken boards.

I had already pulled the floor mat up before we drove back home where I took this photo.

The view during the drive.  I was busy talking and forgot to take my usual photo of the Swan Mountains and the waterfall.

Flathead Lake from the south and near Polson, MT.

This Summer there was a large forest fire.  At least eight buildings were burnt.  And forest.  There were better images of the burnt forest but I didn't get photos of them as I was to busy looking.

Flathead Lake.