I've had a busy day being the cow person while everyone else is farming. First thing this morning (after my walk) I went to check the cows in the pasture we kicked the bulls out of the other day. We knew there was some fence work to do there. I thought a wire was broken, M thought it was just stretched. Either way, it needed some attention. When I got there two cows in the neighbor's pasture came toward me. That was my first clue that they were ours and not the neighbor's. Sure enough they were ours. I thought they might try to come through the hole in the fence, but they couldn't figure that out. So, I fixed the broken wire and replaced some missing clips. By then, the nosy rest of the herd had to come see what I was doing. I went into the neighbor's pasture to try to push our cows up to the gate. They weren't really wanting to go and leave the herd, but we were slowly making progress. We were almost to the gate when they tried to veer off. I tried to cut them off and then Pete jumped off the 4-wheeler and got in their faces. Not good! Back to the herd they went. I circled around and tried again and one cow went OVER the fence taking a clip or two with her. I made one attempt to get the other cow to the gate and saw that it wasn't going to happen so I gave up, reluctantly. I knew it was getting close to lunchtime and I needed to get lunch to the guys so I went home.
The guys were near Glentana cutting lentils. J had sprayed off a load of desiccant so was just getting ready to get in his combine. As I was on my way there, I saw the calf that I couldn't get in on Monday. It was standing right by the gate with it's mom on the other side. I opened the gate and it ran right in. I half expected it to head in the wrong direction--I don't think it's very smart.
I went home and took salt and mineral up to the pasture where our heifers are along with some cow-calf pairs. M said that some calves have been getting out. He fixed one spot in the fence yesterday but wanted me to check and see where they might be getting out. How about the open gate?!?! Not sure if the cows rubbed the rope off the post or what but the gate was wide open and four calves were up in a corner in the fields. I let the fence down and coaxed the calves through. Took a lot of patience and a tight hold on Pete who, again, was NOT helpful!
The neighbor's fencer called M today to let him know he was just about finished with his latest project. It is a fence between the neighbor and us so we agreed to pay for half. He wants to be paid tomorrow since he's leaving for a few days. Just one problem--he put in a ridiculous six-wire fence without consulting the neighbor (who hired him) or us and a fence like that isn't needed in that area. M told him he'd better refigure his price because he wasn't paying for half of a six-wire fence that no one told him to build. M said he could hear my voice in his head and knew he didn't want to hear me for a month if he paid the full bill. I told him to hold tough. I was a bit afraid that I'd have to handle it myself. I don't think the stubborn old Minnesotan would take to kindly to a woman telling him what he did was stupid. Our neighbor is too nice to let him have it when he does something stupid--everyone knows I'm not!
This afternoon I mowed the yard and now I need to work on the inside of my house and fold laundry. I'd really like to just take a shower and call it a day.
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