The cows have stampeded!

They broke through the gate by the barn and rushed right into our outer yard, mooing and running around.

The cows that were in the hay yard got all excited, then ran around the barn to join the first bunch.

They all went over to the gate to the road, which we thankfully always keep closed now.

Then they just as suddenly turned around and ran the other way.

The first thing I had to do was close up the three gates into the inner yard, and close up the garage door.

Unfortunately, the small gate promptly fell of its top hinge as I closed it.  The posts need to be straightened, so it doesn’t close properly anyhow.  There’s a bungee cord on the fence to hook onto it so it’ll stay closed, and I found some wire to reinforce the top hinge.

I had to do the same at one of the hinges for the larger gate by the garage.

They were quite curious about what I was doing!

Rather amusing that the one gate I didn’t have to reinforce somehow, is the old barbed wire gate by the fire pit, even though it’s half falling apart.

I then phoned up the owner of the cows to let him know.  I found myself having the most adorable conversation with a tiny child who let me know that no, I could not talk to his father.  And no, his mother could not come to the phone.  She’s changing. LOL  There was no way I could leave a message with so young a child, so I told him I’d call back later, but it was less than a minute before our phone was ringing.  It was his mom. Call display is a handy thing.

I explained what happened, and made sure to let her know there was no rush, since they were very enthusiastically eating the grass I couldn’t cut.  The inner yard is closed off, and they can’t get onto the road, so they’re fine.  This worked out, since the guy that would be coming to get the cows was out combining.  She asked if it was okay if he got them in the morning, before he started combining again, which works out just fine.  As we were talking, I mentioned how enthusiastically they were eating the grass.  She said that wasn’t surprising.  It’s been a poor year for them.  No doubt; the lack of rain this year would affect grazing as much as anything.

I assured here there was plenty for them to eat on this side, and they should be just fine.

After the call, I went and dragged out the old bathtub that is on the outside of the fence around the inner yard.  I’d asked my mother why it was there, and she told me that the younger of my brothers had used it for water for when he brought his horses here.  I figured I’d do the same.  There was nothing to block the drain hole, though, but I remembered seeing a roll of plastic in one side of the garage.

So I lined the tub with plastic.

It wasn’t even done filling before one of the cows found it.

Some of the younger ones found something else to catch their attention.

There are two kittens in the flowers.  You can just see the gray tabby, but the teeny orange tabby is in there, too.

As I write this, it’s now completely dark outside, but I can still here the odd rustling of the cows going through the tall grass by the tub of water, or knocking around something by the sheds.

Interestingly, when we came back from the airport this morning, we found a calf on the wrong side of the fence.  As I walked over, it saw me, then ducked under the wire across the gate, back to the other side.  I found another calf by one of the sheds and got it going towards the gate, and it, too, just ducked under the wire.  I had thought the wire was electrified, so I was intending to call the renter about it anyhow.  With getting ready for company tomorrow, I just hadn’t gotten around to it, yet.

So I’m thinking something happened to shut off the electricity to the line.  Perhaps it didn’t turn back on when we had a power failure the day before, and the cows just took advantage of an opportunity!

I don’t mind.  I’m just glad it happened when we were around to see it, so we could close up the gates!

The Re-Farmer