Tuesdays

Today I was on my own.

Started my day with a pit stop at Joe's to get some direction on what to do today. The cows are pretty much taken care of for now, leaving me with a host of small ranch projects to do. I suggested to Joe that I could spend the day cleaning up the roads by cutting down tree limbs that obstruct driving. With a chains saw and long-arm saw I hit the road.

It was cool this morning, but slowly warmed up as the day went on. I took about three hours trimming trees in places where it'd be impossible to get a truck through. When I was done, I headed up to check on the cows. Three cows were left behind in Angel's field, so I moved them in with the bunch. When I got to the trough the cows are using, I noticed the water wasn't keeping up with the cows. They had drunken it down to the bottom!

To fix the problem I opened up the pressure regulator again and cleaned out a screen that was filled with weeds from the pond. The water started flowing and was soon the trough was gaining on the cows.

I also took some time to move cows off the trough and focus on their behavior. I started by isolating a bunch and moving them out onto the road. For the most part they moved easily, but very slowly. I was left wondering what makes them so slow going - could it be the water in their bellies? or maybe they just didn't feel like walking. Either way, I slowly got the cows to stream along the road and back to where they could feed, leaving behind another bunch to follow suite.

I always find it really interesting working with the cows when I'm alone. I get to really pay attention to my own actions and how exactly cows respond to me. With other around, I'm not the only driving force for the cows so it can be hard to evaluate. Still, I enjoyed the afternoon, taking things slow, but trying to focus on how the cows were responding to me.