This Morning's Adventure

Matt was up early helping spray our soybean fields...I wasn't, though.  I woke up with Clarence.  We came down and made some breakfast. 

Matt came in a while later and asked if we'd (meaning the kids and I) be able to go move cows down at my pasture (the one with the paddocks that I wrote about a while ago).  I said sure. 

No need for him to go down there when I could run with the kids - after all, there was a 4-wheeler for us to drive - and open a few different gates for the cows to run through.

I woke up Sleeping Beauty at 10:30 and gave her some breakfast. Then we were off...for what I thought would be a quick, less than an hour trip, to move cows.

Once we all three crawled under the fence (well, Sleeping Beauty didn't crawl...I had to push her and I made her mad), we went to the wellhouse and opened the door to start the 4-wheeler.

Matt told me it would be easy.

He was wrong.

He said all I had to do was turn the key, turn the choke on, and pull the starter thing...(I forgot what it's called).

I did all three of the above, and almost had my hand ripped off...I wasn't pulling it right and it jerked back...several times!

Since I had driven 16 or so miles to get to this pasture, I thought it was silly to just turn around and go home without accomplishing this easy task...so, I called my dad.  I asked if he could spare a couple minutes, drive over (it's about 4 miles from his house), and start the 4-wheeler for me.

He did...no problem there.  We were off and ready to go open gates...

Gate #1: is where the main connection is for the electric fence.  I had to open that gate first.  I tried with Sleeping Beauty in my arms...I wasn't strong enough.

I brought her to the 4-wheeler so Clarence could hold her, and I went back to try again.  After all, two arms are better than one, aren't they??

I found out they are, and I also found out that my life would've been easier today if I had thought ahead and SHUT THE POWER OFF before I set off from the well-house.  You see, we have electric fences to partition off the paddocks...All the mini-gates I was opening were a part of this electric fence. 

I screamed so loud from the shock, I wonder who heard me? Hopefully nobody.  :)

Lesson learned, shut the power off...

Gate #2: We went through the second paddock (where the cows were presently grazing) to the far end to open the gate so they could move on to the next one.  The cows started running once we were through the gate...they were running behind us...they were so excited...

For Fresh Grass...  They didn't trample me or anything...they stopped at the gate and allowed me to open it for them...then they ran through again.

What well-trained cows we have!

Then I remembered...
Matt had told me to take the sick bull (that I told you about a couple days ago) and let him in with the cows.  I had forgotten to do this before I let the cows into the next paddock.  Therefore, the bull is still where I found him, and he's all by himself.  Hopefully this will work to my advantage and it'll make it easier for Matt to load him - he won't have the cows nearby to tempt him to stay by the fence.

So, we tried to get the bull in. That didn't work.  I'm scared of bulls, and I didn't try too hard (don't tell Matt).

We had to go back to where the cows were, get the mineral tub, and bring it to the pasture they moved to. 

No problem, right?

Wrong...Sleeping Beauty had been sitting on my lap, and now she couldn't...I had to use my free arm to hold the mineral tub in the front.

We had to go down a muddy, wet, sloppy alleyway to get there.  By this time, I was filthy, the kids had mud splatters all over their bodies, and Ruby was a wet, muddy mess.  But, I wanted to finish the job...why make Matt go back just to bring a mineral bucket out there?

Halfway down the alley, I decided I'd had enough of the mess...I pushed down two insulators, drove over the fence, delivered the mineral, and back we went to lift the fence back up and shut the gates. 

My poor kids...they were both so good through all of this. Every time I had to get off and open a gate, Clarence held Sleeping Beauty.  He was so helpful! She would've been way dirtier if he hadn't held her. 

We brought the 4-wheeler back to the wellhouse, turned on the power, and I let the kids take their clothes off and play in some puddles...we were all a mess, what's a little more? They loved it!

On the way, home we ordered lunch from the End of the Line...we all deserved it after spending 2 hours moving cows.