Time to call all the cattle home and batten down the buildings...
Fresh straw is piled and loads of hay brought in...
The news mentioned "El Nino" this morning and even they sounded worried...
I've been missing two of my cattle for a couple of weeks. I got lucky last evening and spotted one on a ridge a couple miles away. I hurried down with a bucket of grain and the trusty mule and found her in a neighbors pasture. She saw me...the bucket of grain and was quick to follow me all the way home. As long as I stopped to let her catch her breath and shake a little more grain in the back of the mule. As I was coming in the home gate, she saw her buddies she's been missing for these last weeks and started bawling her greeting. Then she forgot about the grain and ran ahead of me heading down the lane to the gate that leads her to her own back pasture. So I went to bed...worrying about the last lost cow with her calf at her side.
I said a little prayer to my buddy upstairs to please make this last cow easy to find. Went to bed and worried about it most the night.
As I was leaving for work driving out my gate...I see a calf standing on the road west of my place. I could see a number of black cattle in the ditch and some calves crossing on and off the highway. I went to chase them back in.
As I approached, I can see the calf standing in the middle of the road is my lost calf with the yellow tag and looking at me along with several other big cattle was my last lost cow. Hallelujah! I hurried around back to my house and jumped on the mule. Grain in the bucket and out I went. She was only a short distance in a near pasture away and this would be a piece of cake.... if she remembered how nice grain tastes.
While all the other cattle started bolting from the looks and sound of the mule heading toward them..she just stood and blinked. I raised the bucket and shook a little in the back of the mule.
Yup.. She remembered and she was on a dead run...calf in tow. I took it slow into my yard and down the run to the other cattle. She did the same beller at her buddies and forgot the grain, just happy to be home!
Its happening fast and I can feel it in my bones...
These animals can worry a person to death! I am glad you got your cows and calf safely home before the bad weather starts!
ReplyDeleteNice when things go right. I am trying to picture you on the mule. It sounds like all of your animals are pretty well trained. I liked the story.
ReplyDeleteI don't imagine the snow is ready to fly yet in your neck of the woods, but a freak storm could catch your lost (now found) cow...
ReplyDeleteYour photos look a bit overexposed. I used to have this problem with my camera, and I fixed it by turning the flash on. Somewhat counter-intuitive, but I guess if you turn off the flash, somewhere the automatic settings think the shutter needs to let in more light, which results in overexposure. Just thought I'd share, in case you wanted to try it with your camera.
ReplyDeletethanks for that suggestion, but the photo I took above is from my cellphone traveling at 10mph, one handed while shaking grain in the box of the UTV...sometimes its all I got! I was lucky to even catch the image..but thanks for the suggestion.
DeleteHappy ending and an easy find... good job!
ReplyDelete