J finished up the hailed out mustard this afternoon so we are officially done harvesting and the crop year from hell is over. M is so happy to not have to drive by fields of wheat with the heads tipped over. He said he'll sleep better now which is a bit of a joke since he almost NEVER has trouble sleeping. It has been a long, stressful harvest so everyone will feel better now that it's done.
M and I spent the day doing cowboy chores. We moved one bunch of cows this morning into the fields to graze as long as possible this fall. We also had to fix some fence and run around and close gates. We were headed across the hills on the 4-wheelers when I realized the posts that were in the box of my 4-wheeler were no longer there. M was ahead of me and had just looked back so knew I was behind him just before I turned around to backtrack and find the posts. I did find them both and then tried to catch up. I was wondering how long it would be before he noticed I was no longer behind him. He did notice and turn back to find me. He teased me about getting lost. I assured him I wasn't lost but knew he wouldn't be happy if I got to the fence we needed to work on and didn't have the posts.
We got home about 1:00, in time to watch the NASCAR race. After the race was over, we went to move another group of cows. In the interest of time, M had me go round up while he checked and closed more gates. Easier said than done. When I found the heifers, they were in a corner across a boggy coulee that I couldn't get across. I tried with the 4-wheeler and fell in a hole and thought I'd never get it out. I did manage to but didn't want to try again. Then I tried to find a place that I could cross on foot to no avail. I tried to send Pete up to them. He would get almost to them and then come back to me. I guess he wasn't sure which way to herd them without one of us to guide him. I finally called M and he went into the fields on the other side of the coulee and chased them on foot. Of course, they couldn't just cross the coulee, they had to run parallel to it all the way to the fence on the other end. He finally got them to cross. We have had a "pet" cow and her calf in with the heifers to keep them in line, and it seemed to have helped. Today, however, she wasn't herself, and we discovered why. Her face is full of porcupine quills. She's probably in pain and not eating well.
I got them headed in the right general direction toward the gate but they had to run into another coulee that I couldn't cross on the 4-wheeler. I chased them on foot to get them through it and then had to circle around with the 4-wheeler to get back to them. From there on out they followed the trail to the gate and into the fields. I had to find the salt and mineral tubs and load them up and take them to where M was and then head home. It was dark by the time we got home. A quick little job that took a lot longer than planned!
M thinks he needs to make a priority list for the week ahead because they have so much to do. It's nice to have a variety of chores, though, instead of riding that combine for 12 hours a day.
No comments:
Post a Comment