Friday With Joe

(Sarah moving cows a few weeks ago.)

Yesterday, Everett took a break from the cows and went to watch some goats for a herder named Jessie, leaving Joe and I to check up on the cows.

SUCCESS!!! The water siphon was working great! The cows were all coming in to water when we arrived in the morning, and things are looking good.

Because of our shortage of water, the cows have to cross two fields to get a drink. For the weekend, Joe and I put the cows in Angel's Field in the South East corner of the ranch. To get to the water, they have to cut through the Roacha Field and water out of a trough in the Little Field. Joe and I spent yesterday put up a poly-wire fence, making a lane for the cows to traverse to the water. It's a long way to go, but by what we saw yesterday, the cows seem to have already figured it out!

Monday, we plan on moving the cows back into the Roacha, where they'll stay for seven day(according to our grazing plan). The pond that feeds the trough has an abundance of water, for now and we should be able to stick to our grazing plan without too many problems.

All In a Day's Work

Got back this week from a taking a week's vacation with Erin, and there was plenty to get done. Beyond the everyday fencing building and maintenance, Ev and I started to explore other possibilities for supplying water to the cows in the future. We checked out a spring high up on a ridge that (might) supply 3 gallons a minute to the cows - which would be great. To get it to them we would have to lay piping for a couple hundred yards, downhill, and through brush (yikes!). But its a possibility.

Yesterday I spent an hour digging a cow out of the most hideous mud I think I've ever encountered. In the morning, Ev and I had put the cows in a closed in pond area so that they could hit it hard for a couple hours. When the day was ending, it was my duty to go move the cows out. What I found was a fat black cow stuck sideways in the mud. Left with the decision to deal with her tomorrow or try and do something to get her out of the mud, I decided to give it a go. With a shovel, I slowly dug her front legs and back legs out. She had somehow twisted her body and was stuck at about a 60 degree angle in the mud. After a few attempts to escape on her part, I used some old boards, and after breaking a few, I managed to get them under the cow to give her a solid footing. Just another day on the ranch.

Today, Joe, Ev, and I saddled up and went to pursue the water problem. We worked for a few hours trying to get a siphon to pump water down hill to the troughs without success. For some reason the water volume was extremely low. Joe and Everett had a meeting and the left me to get things flowing. I had to dig out an old water box, find a pressure regulator, twist it around, and clear out the screen that was inside it. After a bee sting and an hour I managed to get the screen out. The water is flowing well (for now) and the cows should be able to hold up until tomorrow when we can go check on the siphon and make sure its holding up.

This week has been anything but uneventful. I was also able to talk to Joe for a couple hours about the website research I have been doing. We are looking to improve our website and expand it to be me interactive. Phase one is complete, now we need to implement the changes - so look for them in the next month!