Herding, or not, puppy news

Saturday morning as Nate, Cori and the kids were packing up to leave, Mama got a call from Wayne. He had Daisy and her calf penned up and ready to be loaded. As Nate was pulling out of the drive I headed to the barn to get the tractor. I figured it would be easier and much quicker to use the tractor to hitch up the trailer and drive the short distance to get the rest of our herd. That turned out to be a good decision. I was able to quickly get into position to load Daisy and her calf. Once we were in place at the simple corral Wayne has on the property he leases, we saw that there was an extra calf in the mix. We did not think it would be a problem but boy, did it turn out to be a major issue.

We got all three into the stock trailer but could not get the little steer to separate from our calf and Daisy. I got into the trailer from the front door high on the side of the trailer and tried everything I could think of to get the errant calf out of the trailer. After several near missed getting the calf to offload, we locked our little heifer calf in the front of the trailer and ran Daisy and the steer back into the corral to try again. What Wayne and I did not know was that Mama had left the gate to the corral open and Daisy and the steer calf walked out of the open gate and ran into the pasture without even so much as a backward glance.

Wayne and I groaned, shrugged and decided I would take our calf and get Daisy later. Mama had ideas of her own. She walked Daisy over to our gate and let her into our barn lot. I got on the tractor and started home with our calf; mission accomplished. Wayne stopped me as I turned the trailer to head home because I had forgotten to latch the front gate on the trailer and it was swinging open. About the time we got stopped, both of us rushing to seal the breach, our heifer calf jumped out of the opening and ran as fast as she could to the open pasture. The gate is about four feet above ground level, but the calf made the jump with little effort. We both laughed about the fiasco and Wayne assured me he would try again soon. Meanwhile, Mama had successfully gotten Daisy into our barn lot. She was quite pleased with herself, until I told her that I did not have Daisy’s calf with me.

Later that evening I tried to let Daisy back into Wayne’s pasture, but she was not interested. So, I wired shut the cow panel we have in the opening and she stayed with us for the weekend. If she is willing tonight, Mama and I will let her back onto the lease so she can be with her calf. Just goes to show you we are not very proficient at herding cattle. We both felt badly for Wayne and all the effort he had put into getting Daisy and the calf separated out for us.

On the other hand, Mama and I got up Sunday morning and saw that the dwarf goats were not in their enclosure. We hurried out to see if we could get them back in. I headed out through the back yard as I usually do and by the time I had crossed the yard, all five goats were waiting for me in their little area. Mama and I do not know if one of us left the gate open or if one of the goats managed to raise the latch, but getting them back was much easier than fooling with a 1200# cow and two skittish 400# calves.

On the puppy side, Victoria sold her last pup to someone in Oklahoma. As we were trying to figure out how to get the pup to the person wanting him, it dawned on us that Cori, Nate and the kids were heading to Oklahoma City for a Sunday morning meeting. The buyer was only a short distance outside of Oklahoma City, so they took the pup with them and handled the delivery. We were all thrilled. I do not have pups to deal with. Victoria sold all the pups successfully. Cori, Nate and the kids got to play with the pup all the way to their destination. Mama was just happy for all the rest of us.

That’s how she is.