friday we took nimue, our milking cow, over to get bred by one of mikes bulls. sadly we had to take merlin also. he needs to be there to take all of nimues milk since we can't milk her while she is there. nimue is easy to get back on lead she loves grain and can be managed by it very easily. merlin on the other hand is a naughty little boy. he integrates into the juniors of the herd and won't be caught by any reasonable means. i chased him around a bit just after church. yes, we might have found a new church--more on that later. he used the bull as interference and i stay away from him because they are ridiculously unpredictable. i gave up and returned home until late afternoon. when i came back, i came packing--a large bag of grain. i managed to bribe the entire herd in the center paddock, merlin and company loose in the other two. the dividing fence between the two larger paddocks is not calf proof. at first he had a few cohorts to foul up the catching process. i somehow, mostly luck, got them into the center paddock also. then the chase was on. i ran merlin, making him run twice the distance as i, around the peninsula of the southern paddock. he went back and forth finally he shot past me. at this point i was getting mad. he then went straight for the closed gate. i creep-ed past him forcing him back into the peninsula he ran back and forth until he was visibly tired. at this point, i was running on sheer anger. finally he ran into the fence leaning against it breathing very heavily. i shot toward him and grabbed his halter. caught... i was dripping sweat dragging an unwilling calf, the quarter mile home. after i got home and the adrenaline quelled, i realized that i hurt my foot. the pain is deep in my foot near the top above the arch. it hurts to walk on but when i stand on tip-toe it seems better. i am sure that nothing is broken but nothing really stops the dull ache and ibuprofen only keeps the sharp pain at bay while walking. needless to say i'm not working at bobs today. i'll do some computer work instead.
anyway, whats up with all the afflictions? today is comparably cool and i could get lots of necessary farmstead stuff done. instead, i'm laid up and running after the kids--probably on my foot way too much for it to get better.
7 comments:
That stinks! You know, I can only liken the rage with trying to catch a specific chicken, but I'm sure that is even too small to really know how you felt trying to catch that baby bull!
Thanks for the packing tips. I have been labelling boxes on the outside with a sharpie in all the same places. So, how did you get ahold of enough apple boxes to move?
Dude, you know what I'm gonna say about the cow-chasing! Again, one of my simple solutions begins with black gun powder and ends with a sprig of parsley. Mmm, tender!Yeah, what's with all the afflictions lately? You're not getting OLD and FRAGILE are you?
i have always lived in larger cites and shopped at produce markets with fresh, varied selection. that usually means large volume of fruit. then i just kept going back regularly until i had an enough boxes. i imagine if you called the local markets they'd save them for you.
Your having a heck of a time! I also know the anger that can rise up when an unwilling animal is being "bull" headed....Trying you cucumber sandwich tonight-Hope your on the mend!
Go ahead! Tell 'em about the milk crates you got in college!
Requesting more pics of the pup, please!
Back in my childhood, we always used to initiate the city kids by promising them how much fun it was to go "cow tipping." Most times however, they weren't smart enough to realize that the cow was actually a bull and wasn't too fond of being pressed on.
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