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It has been an eventful past few weeks.
The east part of the property borders a pasture that goes right up to the back door of the local Baptist Church. This church loves to gather in all the 'troubled youth' for wed night church services...and then they let them loose and don't really watch them worth a darn. Well for weeks now we have had our fences cut and come thursday morning you can bet that our cows are greeting the pastor at his front door. Or they are in they are butting into the neighboring pasture which is this....nonlocal retired guy who thinks that moving to the deep country means that no animal shall ever bother him as he sips his iced tea on his back porch and gazes at the beauty of our ancient oaks but threatens to call animal control when our cows look at him sideways.
grrrr
So we have repaired fence every week. I finally got enough and called the church, they denied any wrongdoing but I believe I said enough that they are now keeping them kids controlled a little better. We get the fencing fixed when lo and behold one of our best heifers gets stuck in the muck in the old pond. That is a story unto itself:
This pond used to be a swamp and loaded with gators and frogs (many nights my dad went gigging right in that pond and we had some mighty fine eating. i do love frog legs. He would gig frogs so big they would kick off the gig. Frogs so big a man could put his fist in the distance between their eyes. I kid you not.) Well my dad died 12 years ago and the pond dried up bit by bit. In the middle, however, is this tusset that is still muck and mire. This idiot cow got greedy and meandered on out into it and got sunk all the way up to her shoulders. We worked and dragged and fought for hours that first night. I mean hours. It was too late to call anyone with equipment and if you know my backstory you know my grandmother sold all the equipment required to maintain a herd of cows.
grrrr
So when the sun comes up we get her hooked to a 4 wheel drive and drag her out. Get her food and water and start dragging her up by the horns. Nope. Not budging. I cussed this cow in 2 languages. So I call an old school buddy whose family are old friends and they are very successful local cattlemen. He came out as soon as he could and we fought with this cow again-put the hip grabber thingy on her and strapped her shoulder area up, threw the rope over an old oak limb on the other side of the pond and got her on her feet...and the dang pouty cow just hangs there and barely tries to put weight on her feet. We work with her, make sure she isn't broke anywhere, give her peanut hay and feed etc. Still this cow is all 'nahhhh I'm just gonna sit here. So it's dark again and he has to go home...early this morning he heads back with a tractor and we get her all hooked up again and get her on her feet. She scrambles like a puppet and finally after about 2 hours she is trotting around just fine. *whew*. Had a few laughs with my friend and talked old times and he left.
Then the damn cow went and laid down again and there she sits.
All that aside, I am so glad to be home.
This is the a pic of a part of the pond. This in no way does it justice. It is about 3 times as big as the area in this picture and very deep-there is a ridge on the far side where we dig arrowheads. I couldnt get a good angle. Oh! And behold our single beehive.
pond.jpg
The east part of the property borders a pasture that goes right up to the back door of the local Baptist Church. This church loves to gather in all the 'troubled youth' for wed night church services...and then they let them loose and don't really watch them worth a darn. Well for weeks now we have had our fences cut and come thursday morning you can bet that our cows are greeting the pastor at his front door. Or they are in they are butting into the neighboring pasture which is this....nonlocal retired guy who thinks that moving to the deep country means that no animal shall ever bother him as he sips his iced tea on his back porch and gazes at the beauty of our ancient oaks but threatens to call animal control when our cows look at him sideways.
grrrr
So we have repaired fence every week. I finally got enough and called the church, they denied any wrongdoing but I believe I said enough that they are now keeping them kids controlled a little better. We get the fencing fixed when lo and behold one of our best heifers gets stuck in the muck in the old pond. That is a story unto itself:
This pond used to be a swamp and loaded with gators and frogs (many nights my dad went gigging right in that pond and we had some mighty fine eating. i do love frog legs. He would gig frogs so big they would kick off the gig. Frogs so big a man could put his fist in the distance between their eyes. I kid you not.) Well my dad died 12 years ago and the pond dried up bit by bit. In the middle, however, is this tusset that is still muck and mire. This idiot cow got greedy and meandered on out into it and got sunk all the way up to her shoulders. We worked and dragged and fought for hours that first night. I mean hours. It was too late to call anyone with equipment and if you know my backstory you know my grandmother sold all the equipment required to maintain a herd of cows.
grrrr
So when the sun comes up we get her hooked to a 4 wheel drive and drag her out. Get her food and water and start dragging her up by the horns. Nope. Not budging. I cussed this cow in 2 languages. So I call an old school buddy whose family are old friends and they are very successful local cattlemen. He came out as soon as he could and we fought with this cow again-put the hip grabber thingy on her and strapped her shoulder area up, threw the rope over an old oak limb on the other side of the pond and got her on her feet...and the dang pouty cow just hangs there and barely tries to put weight on her feet. We work with her, make sure she isn't broke anywhere, give her peanut hay and feed etc. Still this cow is all 'nahhhh I'm just gonna sit here. So it's dark again and he has to go home...early this morning he heads back with a tractor and we get her all hooked up again and get her on her feet. She scrambles like a puppet and finally after about 2 hours she is trotting around just fine. *whew*. Had a few laughs with my friend and talked old times and he left.
Then the damn cow went and laid down again and there she sits.
All that aside, I am so glad to be home.
This is the a pic of a part of the pond. This in no way does it justice. It is about 3 times as big as the area in this picture and very deep-there is a ridge on the far side where we dig arrowheads. I couldnt get a good angle. Oh! And behold our single beehive.
pond.jpg
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