Sometimes life throws you a curve ball. Sometimes those curve balls come from the animals that you spend your life with. This past week has been one of those times. With fall in full swing here in Northern Michigan, maybe even winter knocking on the door, it is time to move the cows back over to the main part of the farm.
Back in the summer we moved the whole herd to another part of the farm for grazing and breeding. So they spend the second half of the summer and into the fall just eating and breeding. The grass is thick and plenty on the other piece of the farm, but it is growing less now that the temps are dropping off. It has been getting down in the 30's Fahrenheit here at night, so the grass is shutting down.
To get the farm ready for the cows to come back we had to do a good amount of work. Yesterday we headed out all hands on deck. We had to finish weed eating and removing over grown grass from beneath all of the electric fences. Then we had to walk all of the fences (miles) and fix all of the insulators, or remove debris. Actually, yesterday, Stacie D (
That was a crazy long day for the whole family, and apparently the animals as well. So, we have two barn cats that we have rescued this past spring, and they like to follow us around. One went with Stacie D and I, along with our two dogs, and then one cat went another direction with some of my kids. That was all fine and well, except everyone started getting tired.
Half way through walking and repairing the fences Stacie D bailed on me. She and The Dreamer said they were all done and headed back to the house. One of the cats went with them, and the two dogs just ran where ever they wanted. After another twenty minutes I was catching up to my boys that were clearing fences and I heard some screaming. Maybe not so much screaming, but a real high pitched whining...it was our cat Tiger.
I couldn't see him anywhere, but I could hear him behind me, which means that I had walked right passed him. He finally caught up with me and I had to snatch him up from the tall grass and carry him for a bit. I guess he fell behind and my boys walked off and left him out there. Not that he is not capable of walking back to the barn...but dang it, he was so sweet. So I threw him up on my shoulders and back pack and kept going.
Once the fences were done it was just a matter of waiting to move the cows, which was today. So we got up early and headed out in the 30 degree frosty morning to move the cows. I thought that it would be a pretty smooth day, I mean we talked through everything and had a plan. That is where it all went sideways...we...had...a...plan.
While I was getting the trailer all ready Stacie D was wrangling cows! I had no idea that she was getting started without me, and she had them all ready. As I was pulling across the field I could see her letting Olie the bull back out of the corral. This was a pro move! Olie is over 2300 lbs and the little corral can't hold him if he doesn't want to stay in it. So if we can get him out then we are in a good position to keep going.
I had a genius idea of trying to load Olie up into the trailer without even using the corral. There was a little bit of a circus and some juggling when it came to baiting him in. We were using sweet mix and he would just follow us where ever we would lead him. Actually, he almost got into the trailer several times before he actually did.
It was so amazing to watch my tiny bride walk right up to him with a handful of feed and just sprinkle it into his mouth a little at a time. The energy was amazing and it went really well. When he finally loaded up it was actually through the small side door! haha. He did not want to load through the large main rear door, but the bait worked!
Before we got him into the trailer though he thought he would walk around our suburban and show some love to our dogs that were inside. It was touch and go for a second because we didn't know if he would accidentally break the windows, but it made for a sweet picture.
Other than that there was only one other issue. There was one lone cow that did not want to go. She was the last one by herself in the field when everyone else was gone. After we walked, ran, chased, yelled, wrangled, and otherwise exhausted all of the efforts to catch her...we took a break.
Stacie D left with the family and went and got everyone some food while I stayed in the field. I took time to make a vlog, and got it all loaded, and took a minute to pray...and that is when it hit me. I could perfectly see what 
I just picked up one end of the feed trough and pulled it all the way to the cow which was about 50 yards away. I walked passed her and then circled back with the feed right in front of her. I didn't say anything. I let her get a sniff and then I took a step. She would sniff or lick and then I would take a step. I did that all the way into the corral!!! I couldn't believe it. After that she loaded right up and we were done.
It has been quite a tiring week, and the animals have kept us on our toes. I hope that you are all loving your time with whatever animals you have, and remembering that they don't speak your language. So sometimes they have no idea what we are saying and they just need us to be patient and kind. That....is....difficult... haha
I hope you are all enjoying our adventure as much as we are.
Be well.
~The Yeti
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