February 8th, Chili busts through our front fence and gets out into the county road we live on. Our neighbors corral them, patch the front fence and let me know (this is the first time I've really met those neighbors). So, that evening, I shove all the cows and horses into the back pasture, we link together enough hose to get water to the troughs I've moved out back and I assume that's a good patch until we get the front fence fixed.
Literally one week later, February 15th, as I'm out checking on our horses and cattle, I look in to my other neighbor's pasture and to my horror, my neighbor now has 4 cattle. 2 full sized angus, and a striped zebu mix and mini hereford. ARE YOU EFFING KIDDING ME HOW?!!!!
Joe and I think they crossed where a tree came down from the neighbor's side of the fence and fell on the wire, so our cows just stepped over it. So, no riding on Saturday, we had to fix fencing as we promised the neighbor we'd get our cows off his property ("No big deal", he'd told us when we informed him about what happened).
So, Joe and I ran by TSC, got a fence stretcher, a "Fence Fork", some T-post clips and gloves....then hustled home to get to work.
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| Seriously...a "Fence Fork". Once I figured it out (took me sacrificing 1 clip) then it was quite easy to use!! Stock photo found somewhere on the Internet. |
Then proceeded the most annoying livestock work I've done yet in my life (up to that point) for the next few hours. Joe and I chased our 2 and the neighbor's 2 on foot (our neighbor says his cows are scared of ATVs so we didn't take it on to his property to use). Let me tell you, it's incredibly unpleasant to chase cows, on foot, on about 14 acres.
Joe kept trying to get me to use the horses. Which I knew wasn't really a viable option. My horses aren't used to chasing cows. And, trying to chase cows on 14 acres is an exercise in futility. Especially as the ground isn't exactly safe (lots of holes and divots and places for horses to get badly hurt).
Eventually Joe gave up, so I slowly worked them forward, closing gates behind me as I knew all 4 had crossed through until eventually I had them in the front most pasture.
This is after trying to walk through trees, shrubs and brush that ripped and snagged at my hair, clothes and shoes.
As the sun is starting to go down, I get all 4 into the front pasture of our neighbor's property. I call Joe and have him come back to help me out.
Thankfully there's a gate that connects our properties, so I drive the cows towards Joe, and he tries to separate ours from the neighbors as they charge through the gate.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Now all 4 are on OUR property. *sigh*
We're inadvertent cattle rustlers!
Joe and I discuss it and figure that since they're now on our side of the fence, and the cattle are already freaked out, let's get the ATV and see if we can drive them back to the front of the property and somehow separate them.
Goes about as well as you could expect. It doesn't. And we're losing sunlight.
Joe sends a very anxious text to our neighbor (who, we haven't MET at this point...we've only communicated with him via text message) and tells him that while we have our 2, we also accidentally have his 2 as well and we WILL return his 2 on Sunday.
So, instead of our quiet weekend alone (Kaylee went to spend the weekend with her old babysitter), we're both tired, grumpy, irritable and NOW, instead of relaxing and having a "pasture date" (Joe's idea...take the ATV, a blanket and a laptop to watch a movie out back), we know we're getting up early to chase cows alllll over again.
In a desperate Hail Mary, I reach out to the OTHER neighbors we had just met, as they "know" cows, and asked if they had ANY ideas on how to separate them and return the neighbor his cows.
"Do you have a catch pen?"
"No, but we can make one!"
"Okay, we have some guys that can come help tomorrow as well. They'll be over around 1pm."
So, Joe and I get up semi-early on Sunday and dismantle my barn's panels. Which is fine, I was planning on using some of them as the foundation of my round pen. We load them into the back of the truck and drive them into the back pasture then discuss how we want to arrange them for maximum effectiveness.
We now have 2 separate pens built, with one pen being built around the neighbor's gate so all we'd need to do is drive all 4 cows into the first pen, separate out the neighbor's 2 (or our 2) into the 2nd pen, and then either push the neighbor's cows back into his pasture, or push ours back into our pasture and then push his on through.
Great...pen is done by noon.
Joe and I take a few minutes to fix some more fence we think might be sketchy, then we wait.
1pm.
1:30.
No word from anyone, and we realize we can't keep waiting....so get back to work on trying to push them ourselves. Joe takes the ATV and I get on Strider (the more naturally cowy of my 2 horses) and we try. The cows keep ducking into the brush where we can't go. It's an exercise in futility and after 30 minutes, we quit. Strider's upset because Socks and Zurkh are up front, so he's impossible to deal with. Joe can't get to where the cows are, and even when he does, they just dart off into another pile of brush, or they race back to the back of the property.
Have I mentioned yet how much I hate cows?!
My neighbors reach out and ask if we've heard from their boys. I hadn't, so she said they were on their way home and they'd come help us out.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
So, her, her husband and their son came over and we all ended up chasing those stupid cows for about another hour. On foot.
At one point, she and I are near the front and we notice the neighbor's cows are IN the 2nd holding pen of the catch pen...and she and I go sprinting like mad, scrambling to slam the gate shut before they get out.
We watch in horror as they whirl and get into the 1st pen. We're both screaming at this point "NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!" And she's flying through the field...and 100 yards away those two jerks bolt out the gate and back to freedom.
So, the chase is on AGAIN.
Eventually her husband shoos them down a fenceline, hot on their proverbial and literal tails, and then, he can't see them anymore...
We're not COMPLETELY sure how it happened, but at some point, the neighbor's two larger cows stepped over a portion of the fence that was low (a tree had fallen on it and we hadn't seen it as it's hidden by a lot of brush and trees) and our cows couldn't step over it. That's the theory.
THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!
The men then spent another hour or so fixing that portion of fence and removing the tree (our neighbor's wife and I ran and got his chainsaw) to try and prevent it from happening again.
I spent time on the neighbor's property walking to make sure I could VISUALLY confirm I'd seen both a red and black angus on HIS SIDE of the fence (I did).
As the sun set, a very tired and Joe and I went to Whataburger for dinner and a few groceries from HEB....
When Joe got a text from the neighbor..."Have you seen the cows today?"
*facepalm*
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