R headed out on a guy adventure with his friend the day before Thanksgiving. At that time, we still had our heifers out in the fields. In the days before he left he mentioned that he had seen a couple of our neighbor's cows in with our heifers. No big deal since half of the heifers belonged to the neighbor, and he was going to take some of them home to Harlem so we had to sort anyway. After he left and M was checking on things he realized that there were more than a couple of cows in with the heifers. There was supposed to be a drastic change in the weather with subzero temps so we were going to have to bring them home. So, the day after Thanksgiving we embarked on that chore. M told C that he and I would go round up and he could come later and help us sort. As we were rounding up it was obvious that there were quite a few cows in with the heifers so we were worried that they'd try to head to their home instead of to our place, but they went along pretty well. We were just getting them to where they had to go through a gate into a lane down to the corral when I thought I saw a flash of orange at the bottom of the lane. Sure enough, a pickup with hunters was heading up the lane toward the cows. Thank goodness they weren't five minutes later or they'd have had a herd coming at them. I am so glad that hunting season is over as the place has been crawling with hunters, thanks in part to all the state land in this part of the world. We're pretty sure that's how the cows got mixed up, too, with a gate being left open.
We had to move our calves into another corral to get them out of the way and then get all the cows in. We thought C would have been there by then, but he wasn't so we started sorting. We had to sort our heifers from the neighbor's heifers and decide which ones of the neighbor's heifers we were going to keep to calve out and which ones we were going to send home and sort out the neighbor's cows. I had to keep track of numbers and count and run the gate. It actually went pretty well, but I was getting tired and crabby. We were close to done by the time C called to see if we were ready yet so we told him not to bother coming. We were down to the last 25 head or so when I noticed that they were heading out the back gate into the bull pasture. They managed to push a post out of the ground so the gate came open. We caught them before they got too far and got them back in.
Turns out there were 40 of the neighbor's cows in with the heifers. M turned them out along with the 30 heifers we were sending home and trailed them back where they came from. When he left he told me he would close the gate behind him so I could open the corral gates and let the rest of the heifers out which I did. It was getting close to dark and I was just puttering around when I noticed the heifers were disappearing up the lane. M didn't close the gate behind him so they were headed up the lane and could have turned and been in the yard. I ran and managed to stop half of them and get them turned around. The rest were following M back up the lane. Thankfully, he had gotten the other group through the upper gate and had it closed and was coming back. In the meantime I was trying to drag another gate across the lane so that they couldn't get into the yard, but it is a long, tight gate and I couldn't get it tied up so just held it as tight as I could hoping they wouldn't run through it or over me. You might imagine I said some not nice words when M got back. Still, he had the nerve to ask what was for supper when we were in the pickup and on the way home. I didn't cook.
As R was on his way home from his trip we were heading to Vegas for NASCAR championship week and the NFR. We missed the bitterly cold weather but had crappy roads to and from Billings. R had some water problems but managed to get it fixed by himself.
This week our friend wanted to pick up the cows that we've been taking care of for him so M and R had to get all the cows in and sort his out. There should have been 15, but they could only find 11. The next morning they looked again and still couldn't find the rest so then they went hunting. M finally found them and another five of ours back in the pasture they had come out of huddled in some trees. Again, a gate was left open or not closed properly and they got through it. Have I mentioned I dislike having hunters around?!? They had good shelter but didn't get fed during the cold snap like the others did. It's a good thing our friend came to get his or we might not have noticed them missing, although, our only white cow was in that group. M and R were feeling pretty stupid that they didn't notice she wasn't in the herd at home. They were pretty happy to be home with the rest of the herd when they finally made it there.
Junior was able to do some work so he was a happy dog, too!
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