Saturday, November 5, 2011

Cattle drive! (Well, cattle walk...)

It was long past time to move the livestock from their summer pasture back into the woods. They'd eaten down not only our acreage, but also the adjacent twenty acres we lease from a neighbor during the late summer.

Here's Brit saying "Let's get a move on!"


So we armed the kids with with push poles (10-foot lengths of PVC pipe) and had them guard places we didn't want the beasties to go: namely, down the driveway, or into the new barn (where all the hay is -- yum!).

Here Don is leading Thor, with Nebuchadnezzar close behind.


Smokey and Raven say, "Wait! This thing wasn't here before!" Notice Older Daughter standing at the end of the barn with a push pole, ready to fend off curious (and hungry) critters.


Matilda, Polly, and the two youngest calves Sparky and Shadow are trying to figure out through which gate they should go.


Here, six of our eleven bovines check out the corral.


Altogether the cattle drive... er, walk... lasted a mere ten minutes, truly our most hassle-free move in years. The older animals all knew where to go, and the younger ones followed without issue.

The wooded side of our property doesn't have a lot to eat -- we had no rain all summer -- but at least they can snack on something different for a change.


A hasty and temporary fence repair.


And of course, it's time to feed once again.


The critters thought this was a great idea.


This entire feed box unit and section of falling-down fence won't be here much longer. We plan to build permanent feed boxes on the east side of the barn, along with a bull pen and wide awning to shelter all the beasties through the winter.

In our copious free time, of course.

3 comments:

  1. Copious free time, indeed! :) I love the barn! What a great addition!

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  2. Aha.

    Once again I see the truth.

    You're only in it for the glamor.

    A. McSp

    ps

    Them's some mighty fine looking kine, ma'am.

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  3. your cattle drive makes me think of my brother in law and his neighbor. they both have their own farms, although the neighbor no longer has any livestock at all. but, when the elderly neighbor feels the need for company he calls the brother in law to give notice that he is fixing to borrow the brother in laws cows for awhile...we always know when this is taking place cause we have cows wandering up and down the road, and in the garden, and in the flower beds and yes have even had to chase them off the porch. i just realized that i will miss this when the old gentleman is gone.

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