When the Cat's Away.......

Yesterday was such a lovely day. Doug and Matthew had to work so I was home alone all day long. So I took advantage of the time and spent the day sewing, sewing, and more sewing. i lunched when I was hungry, which was not at all, instead of when matthew is hungry. I played my audio book on the speakers in my work room instead of using headphones. All in all it was a lovely, quiet, productive day.

That is the first thing that should have disturbed me. When all is peaceful and going well around here get suspicious. Around 4:30 when I was getting ready to take myself to church for my holy hour the phone rang. it was our neighbor 1/4 mile up the road saying that Mary-Kate's heifers were in the other neighbor's corn. She and her son were trying to keep them out of the road and would I come quickly. There goes all of th etranquility from my day. My first thought was, I'm home alone and I don't know what to do with those heifers. I don't do bovines I do pigs!!!!!! So I picked up my trusty cell phone and called Ian. He was out in a friends field tedding ou the hay that he cut and I knew that he could handle anything. Then off I went to help with the heifers.

They were indeed in the corn and they were reluctant to cross the paved driveway to head home to their own pasture. Ian arrived and choralled the little steer and haltered him and tied him to a tree. Then he herded the others up and started to drive them home through the fields behind everyones houses. While he was doing that my neighbor and I decided to lead the haltered steer down the road. Now, it is a mistake to think that you can lead a calf. you need to stay behind their head and then they usually will walk along with a little prodding. Mary-Kate is able to lead this animal anywhere. She can also just call all of the heifers and they come to her. This little steer knew right off that I am not Mary-Kate and neither is my neighbor. He would not move!!!!! He literally dug in his hooves and would not go. Ian finally came and tied the harlter rope to his truck and then we towed the steer down the road and home to his own pasture.

There went my holy hour (I called someone else to take it for me) and also my plans fo going to mass afterward.

Yesterday morning I checked when i went to mass and they were all happily in their pasture eating. When I got home they were nowhere to be seen. i wanted to panic. I called Doug and told him that I could not find the heifers. i drove around th eblock and through the fields (thank God for four wheel drive) and they were nowhere that I could see. Doug and Matthew came home and they started to look. Then I got the call. The same neighbor said they wre in another neighbors hay field and heading up the road to town. Doug and Matthew drove them home and checked the fence to see where they got out.

They found a line of fence down from the woods to the roadway that runs through our farm. My wonderful husband and son took two hours off to fix the fence and trim the grass underneath it so that there is now good juice on the line.

The moral of this story is never count on heifers to stay where they should be.