A successful but stressful weekend

dottile46
dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭

Wow, what a busy weekend. Saturday I got to spend most of the day outside. I harvested the last of the radishes, the spinach seed, and a couple onions from the hoop house. The calendula I had started in one aerogarden went out to the perennial bed on the east side of the house along with the 3 from the hoop house. They were so beautiful and from 3" to 6" tall. Trying to give them every opportunity to grow and flourish, I put the leaves back that I moved to plant them. I weeded the outside onion patch and mulched it with wood chips before going in for lunch. Came out and the 2 adult hens we have left had scratched in the calendula and chomped off the tops of three. We lost the rooster and 4 hens to a coon attack 2 weeks ago.

Hubby got home from the livestock auction about that time. He bought 4 "bulls" although 2 are obviously heifers. He got a good deal on them, all weaned, and ready to eat grass. Wwwweeeelllll, let me tell you, I can tell when a calf is bawling "Mom" and one little man was definitely mad that Mom wasn't answering him. Hubby jumped in to help me and we planted 10 asparagus crowns, 3 zucchini and 2 crooked neck squash before the Cry Baby got out the first time.

Got him back in, started potting up tomato plants from the aerogarden, he got out again, got him back in, finished the tomatoes and turned just in time to see him slip through the barbed wire again. This is a tight fence and he did it with such ease he looked like an escape artist. Off he goes, to the neighbors woods. Where we live there are no fences south of us all the way to the lake which is about 2.5 miles, to the west about 2 miles, and to the east about 1.5 miles. There are acres of forest around us. Took hubby about 15 minutes to get him headed back out of the woods. Only one place for him, the chicken pen. Yep, chicken wire pen 9 foot tall. He bawled all night! I was so hot, tired, flat exhausted I told hubby that we may just have to shoot him and make hamburger tonight if he gets out again.

Sunday morning we got up before the sun was even up only to find the other little bull out grazing in the yard. Hubby called him and opened the gate to the chicken pen. He walked right in and started drinking from the tank. So hubby goes to check on the 2 heifers, but only 1 heifer is there. After searching for an hour we decided she had gotten into the woods and probably eaten by something. No one had seen her, there was no cow patties anywhere, and no tracks. I messaged a girl I work with that has cows about 1.5 miles north of us just in case this heifer had heard cows and went to find them. She works the overnight shift and hadn't gotten off yet but would be there to check her cows in about an hour.

We decided that woven wire was going up that very day as we both had to work the next day. We headed for town and saw my co-worker. She flagged us down and showed hubby the heifer tracks all up and down along her fence. Our little girl had been there and maybe she was in with their cows. Hubby got in her gator and they drove through the herd but our little girl wasn't there. With heavy hearts we checked another pasture further east but there was woven wire there and no little girl.

We turned around and headed back toward town. As we came around the curve on the gravel road what to our eyes should appear but a little black heifer walking towards us. "There's our little girl!" hubby exclaimed. Yep. It was her. I drove past her, stopped and let him out, and went further up and turned around. He followed her back toward home, 1.75 miles, just as my co-worker started around the curve. She backed up and blocked the other road and our little girl turned onto the road toward home as if she knew her way. Hubby and co-worker walked her home, with 2 laps around a neighbor's house, as I followed in the pickup. While they were lapping the house I went on down and blocked another neighbor's private road. She seemed happy enough to be home and the other heifer greeted her at the gate.

Hubby and older daughter's boyfriend worked on fence from about 10am till almost dark Sunday. Hubby back at it Monday and should get it finished tomorrow. He had to take a couple vacation days. Everyone was where they were supposed to be this morning. When I got home this evening he had the 2 little bulls loaded in the trailer. We castrated them both before putting them back in with the 2 heifers. Just before dark all 4 had their heads buried in the grass munching away. He reported he gave both the bulls and the heifers a handful of cracked corn this morning. The heifers ate all theirs but the boys only ate about half of theirs. They clearly do not know a feed bucket yet.

The 4 little ducks are too big for the brooder so hubby put them in with the 2 adult hens. The hens aren't sure what to think. They've never seen ducks but aren't picking on them. The little chicks in the brooder are about half feathered now.

My calendula hasn't died. There's about an inch of green that the chickens didn't get and it looked perky like it was soaking up the morning sun today.

The squash looked better today although it was a bit cool for it this morning at 38F. All the potted tomatoes look good.

The new fence, finished on the driveway side, looks amazing. Just about 50 yards to finish on the back side. The fence is unrolled, standing up against the barbed wire, and hooked over the t-posts. In the morning I'll help him get the stretcher hooked up then take it off the t-post so he can stretch it and help clipping it to the posts.

Supposed to rain tonight and all the way through Friday. It was already sprinkling about 30 minutes ago. Tomorrow is forecasted to be in the low 50's. That's gonna be miserable.

While hubby "paw-paw" was working around older daughter house today her 2 year old kept tapping on the window and hollering, "Paw-paw I hep peas. I hep." Of course, he had to stop and visit with her. Momma and Daddy say she looks out the window at night trying to see the moo-moos and tells them to turn the light on. lol

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Comments

  • EarlKelly
    EarlKelly Posts: 230 ✭✭✭

    @dottile46 loved you rendition of your relaxing day. Brought back a lot of adventures I have had with animals over the years. Should post some pictures of your garden and animals. As a master gardener always looking for ideas and any information that I can pass on. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face this morning in these trying times. Stay safe and thanks.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @dottile46 A very busy weekend, indeed. What a nice representation of the spring aspects of the circle of life. (although I like to view it as the spiral of life because we never end up back where we were a year ago. maybe even the vortex of life???)

  • maimover
    maimover Posts: 359 ✭✭✭

    @dottile46 I thought I got some things done but shew...I’m exhausted thinking about all of your weekend adventures 😊

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,573 admin

    What a weekend!We have had many like that! There is never a dull moment when you have animals!

  • Momma Mo
    Momma Mo Posts: 138 ✭✭✭

    How wonderful to get all that done. It would take me a few days to recover. LOL

  • Homestead Hubby
    Homestead Hubby Posts: 40 ✭✭✭

    nice work.

  • dottile46
    dottile46 Posts: 437 ✭✭✭
    edited May 2020

    @tomandcara it has definitely been a vortex lately!

    I'm happy to announce that the fence is complete and hubby got to go back to work today. Calves like us now and actually are starting to expect a handful of cracked corn each evening. 😊

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    @dottile46 it doesn't take long for love to win over an animal or person, as long as that being has not been damaged by abuse, neglect or other negative things. Glad to hear your vortex is slowing down to a spiral!! Same movement of energy, just at a more comfortable pace!:-)