Just chillin’, watching the cows on the other side of the fence…
The Re-Farmer
Critters
Stampede!
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
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See my toe beans?
We have had a house guest for the past week and a half, which made for some creative sleeping arrangements that involved our king size mattress on the dining room floor. We drove her to the airport in the wee hours of the morning, which meant we could clear it out again. We won’t be able to lean the mattress against the dining room wall, as we had before, though, as we will be having guests tomorrow, and need to get it out.
For now, it’s leaning against the wall in the hallway.
The inside cats are loving it there as much as they loved it in the dining room.
Especially our mama cat.
She was rolling around up there in pure ecstasy. It’s better than cat nip! She paused in her rolling just long enough to show off some toe beans. :-D
She’s so funny!
The Re-Farmer
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Kittens everywhere!
Kits and cats all over the place!
We were out for much of the day, from a quick run to pick up prescription refills and tank up, to a trip to the city. When we got back, we found the yard full of furballs, all over the place.
Beep Beep was right over, demanding attention, and Butterscotch came by, too. Then the kittens came out! They were in the flowers by the inner yard fence, climbing trees by the smaller people gate, rolling in the dust, climbing the Chinese elm outside the kitchen window, and just plain running around.
Only one of the calicos showed up, though. I haven’t seen the other one for some time.
Teeny tabby is easily the most rambunctious, bouncy ones of the two litters!
I saw out with some cat treats for a while, and Beep Beep was right in there, crawling around under my legs as I sat on the steps, and diving for my fingers.
For the other cats, I ended up just throwing treats in their general directions.
Cat treats do not throw well.
The kittens had a blast, but the tuxedo was the only one that would come near me. The teeny tabby played with the end of a stick for a bit, but that’s as close as he would get. There rest wouldn’t come closer. Not even for the treats I left on the corner of a step.
Ah, well. Hopefully, they’ll warm up to us, eventually!
An early night tonight, and an early morning. We need to leave by 4:30am to drive our guest to the airport in time.
It might be easier to just stay up all night, to be honest! :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Hiking for snakes
We got to play tourist again, today, this time heading out to visit the snake dens. It turned out to be a fairly cool day, so I wasn’t expecting to see very many. We did see quite a few, though nothing at all like when they first emerge in the spring.
We saw many along the paths, including some we only saw because they moved when we got too close for their comfort. More than a few times, we would look ahead and wonder; were we looking at a bunch of snakes up ahead? Or a bunch of twigs? Sometimes, it would be both. Other times, we would see a big branch on the path ahead, only to have it move and turn out to be a huge female (female garter snakes are MUCH bigger than the males).
The dens were filled with huge burdock and nettles, and one of them had snakes draped all over the place!
A few were climbing trees, too.
I’m glad we were able to make the trip while the weather is still holding. While going in the spring is much more dramatic, I rather like that we had the entire area, all to ourselves! It made the hike much more enjoyable.
Hmm… I think living in the city for so long has really peopled me out. :-D
The Re-Farmer
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Morning kittens
I hung out after putting kibble out for the outside cats, hoping to lure some kittens.
No such luck. Going past where I was sitting to get to the food bowls was the most two of them would allow. Beep Beep came over for pets, as usual, and her tuxedo came with her, though he wouldn’t let me touch him. The little bobble headed orange tabby came close enough to play with the end of a stick. No sight of the calicos at all.
That grey tabby is getting to be a really big tom! He’s definitely heftier than his mother (though that doesn’t take much, really), though still not fully grown.
I can’t get over the size difference between the teeny tabby and all the others. It’s quite noticeable when he’s with his brother. Hard to believe they’re from the same litter! It’s good to see that he’s very active and playful, and has a very hearty appetite. He just looks sickly and half starved. :-(
The Re-Farmer
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The power of cat treats
Beep Beep and her Tuxedo were around the house yesterday evening, so I decided to get a bit more aggressive about this whole luring of kittens thing.
I brought out the cat nip and the cat treats.
They ignored the cat nip.
They went nuts over the cat treats! Beep Beep was after them to the point that she would eat what I gave her, then find the one I gave to her kitten and eat that one, before he even figured out where it was. She’d even push him away!
We have a house guest for the next while, and she and my daughter came out to help, and to play with the cats. By the time they came back in, Rolando Moon, Teeny Tabby, Butterscotch and one of the calicos made a showing, too.
We did actually get to pet the tuxedo. He’d jump a bit and look, but would quickly return to hunting treats. He’d even try and take them out of my hand, sometimes, but he was slower about it and his mother would usually push her way in and take it first, no matter how we tried to distract her with others, so on the ground they went.
While in the area, I paused to take a look at my mother’s white roses. They have the darkest rose hips! So deep a read, they are almost black.
The Re-Farmer
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Let’s face it. Cows are dumb
Today, I give you a story, in pictures and video.
I like cows. Cows are wonderful creatures.
They are also not exactly intelligent creatures, though I know some breeds are smarter than others.
I was sitting in my office when I started to hear the sound of cows, mooing nearby. I realize the renter has cycled his cows back to our quarter section, and they are nearby. Happily, I go outside to see them.
The cows are spread out around the barn, including some in the old hay yard.
The hay yard is now cluttered with a number of abandoned vehicles and equipment. Including several old snowmobiles, I’m told are being kept for their parts.
Hearing an odd sound, I look in between various items.
Can you see the cow’s nose in there?
It took me a few moments to see that the noise I was hearing was of that cow, trying to eat the snowmobile.
To be more specific, the remains of the seat on the snowmobile.
I ended up going through the barn to the hay yard, to get them away from the snowmobiles. Which turned out to be a good thing, since I found the door to the lean to was open. There is a tree growing near it that blocks us from seeing it from the house, so who knows how long it was open!
This is what the cow was chewing on and licking. In the second video, you could see the cow going for something on the far side of the seat, too. That would likely be the foam from the seat that it was trying to get at.
Afterwards, I went out the back door of the barn. Some cows were around where an old shed had collapsed, and I could hear them getting into the metal roofing material that’s in there, so I wanted to check on things.
This is what greeted me out the back door.
Most of the cows and their calves avoided me, but these two were curious enough to stick around.
I then made my way over to the junk pile, starting to pick up and move over sheets of metal that had been blown over by the winds we’ve been having in the last while. As I get around the back side of the collapsed shed, I see…
Yeah. That black cow with its butt facing me is right on the junk. There is no grass or weeds there, so I have no idea what she’s after.
I really look forward to when we can get rid of this pile of junk!!
I continue around, which convinces the one cow to get off the junk. Some move away from me, while others come closer to check me out. I pick up and re-stack some of the sheets of metal siding, finding things to put on top of the pile to hopefully keep it from blowing over again, and make my way around between the pile and the shed.
One of the cows is braver than the others, and starts coming closer to me, watching what I’m doing.
I quickly realized that she was not chewing on grass, nor her cud.
She was chewing on a foreign object.
You might need to turn your volume up to hear this…
Now, this is concerning, because as far as I can tell, based on what’s lying around, she might be chewing on either wood or metal.
I tried to come closer to her, little by little, hoping to be able to see what she’s chewing on.
That’s one heck of a side-eye she’s giving me!
I kept trying to move around and get closer, without chasing her away, still trying to look into her mouth and see what she’s chewing on.
After a while, I start getting really concerned, because she’s got foam around her mouth from the chewing, and every now and then looked to be in some discomfort.
Then the object fell out of her mouth.
That, my dear friends, is a bone.
A beef bone.
I can’t say I was all that surprised. This is not the first time I’ve seen a cow chewing on a beef bone. When I was a kid, I remember walking past one of our cows and seeing her chewing with her head extended weirdly. She was familiar enough with me that I could walk up to her and reach into her mouth, where I pulled out one of the dogs’ beef bones. It was not as thoroughly chewed up as this one, though!
I have no idea where she found it, but I wouldn’t let her pick it up again.
She was displeased with that.
Ooh, this girl had attitude!
I proceed to kick the piece of bone away until I got it to the junk pile.
Once I was away, she started looking for it.
She wanted that bone back! She just kept snuffling and snuffling the area.
At this point, I decided it was time to head out and went back around the junk pile to go to the barn. Where I found…
This was not here, the last time I tried to clean up around the pile. In fact, I don’t remember seeing it just a few minutes before, when I went past here to go around the pile and found the cow standing right on the junk.
It is, I believe, from one of the snowmobiles.
I took it into the barn when I went in and closed up the doors again.
As I come out the front doors of the barn, I look back and see…
Can you believe it? That cow, with company, actually found where I’d kicked the piece of bone!
I’m hoping she wasn’t able to get it out, but she seems quite determined!
I know it’s a running joke that goats will eat anything.
So will cows.
Including the remains of other cows.
Herbivore fail!
The Re-Farmer
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Cats in things
While walking past the garbage can in front of the sun room, I was startled to find it looking back at me!
Beep Beep decided the empty cat food bag made a good bed!
Her tuxedo takes after his mom.
The Re-Farmer
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Cats, kits and the things we find
It was a hot one today, so no progress on pruning and clearing the spruce grove today. My daughter was able to get some of what I cut away yesterday, hauled out, before it got too hot. It’s 7:30pm as I write this, and we’re still at 30C, and we’re supposed to hit the 30s again, tomorrow. So it was a good day to be inside!
It’s probably for the best. After driving my younger daughter to work, I was thinking of getting more work done on the grove while it was still cooler. In the end, I found I had to painkiller up and lie down for a while. My body was reminding me not to overdo things again.
Getting old sucks, sometimes! :-D
This evening, Beep Beep and her kittens were out while I did a walk around the yard. I did a bit of watering, including the grape vine, though I harvested most of the grapes, yesterday evening. Some bunches weren’t ripe yet, but I could also see that something – likely a bird – has been eating them, so I want to leave some behind. I don’t want to take away some creature’s food source.
The kittens wouldn’t let me come near them, even when the tuxedo deigned to play with the end of a stick I was wiggling for him. When I headed towards the storage house, they ran ahead of me and hid in the lilacs. When I got near the stairs, I could see a sparkly cat toy I’d brought out for them some time ago, and went to get it.
Which is when I noticed something in the dead leaves and grass.
I wonder how many years it had been there? :-D
I sat on the stairs for a while, eating some of the grapes that had ripened since yesterday. The tuxedo was watching me from the lilacs, so I tossed over the cat toy, which he immediately pounced on.
He’s pretty much right on top of where I found the shot glass.
Then there was Beep Beep.
No birds use this bird bath. I wonder why?
If you look under the grape leaves, you can see the black fur of the tuxedo kitten, sitting on the tire planter.
You know, growing up here, I never imagined I would ever someday be sitting on the steps, eating fresh grapes off the vine. I never imagined there would ever be grapes that could grow here!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 