Farm Fodder

We brought home a dexter bull calf Sunday night. He is 5 months old, never handled and most likely pulled off his momma when we picked him up.

I had him in his own paddock until this morning at 1:45AM. – Well, maybe he got out  sooner than that,  but that’s when I went out to find him.

We had severe weather most of the night – that means lightning, thunder, lots and lots of rain… hard rain.

Marilyn heard him bawling and the dogs’ barking woke me up. I got dressed, put on my rain coat and grabbed the .22 (we have coyotes and other predators around us).

I went outside with my trusty led head lamp on and started analyzing the situation. I didn’t see Buck (that’s what the boys named him) in his paddock, so I walked the whole lower portion of the property, checking for signs that he had jumped the fence somewhere.

After several scratches from wild roses, blackberries and other brambles, I figured that he wasn’t down by the street or in any of the paddocks down there. So, I headed up to where the barns are, praying he hadn’t gotten over the fence by the street and headed across the road and up into the hills.

Then I spotted him… He was behind the boy goats’ paddock where we had put a huge potato bed this summer. I suppose the thunder and lightning scared him and he ran up the hill and jumped a low area of fence. I’m sure he was lonely, too… I started heading down to get some rubber bungy cords, some rope clips and to get Marilyn. She was standing at the porch door when I got down to the house, and I told her what was up.

She had already awakened Nathan, figuring I would need some help, since I had been out for 30 minutes and hadn’t updated her. I used a 16 ft. cattle panel as a make-shift fence to keep the bull from getting past us on the south sideso we could drive him up to the goat barn. We then opened the gate to the girl goats’ paddock and drove him in there.

After about 10 – 20 minutes, he seemed to calm down and was laying down in the barn with the goats.

I got back to bed around 3:30 and thought about the small pen we used for baby goats when weaning. I got up early and checked on him. He was still laying in the barn with the goats. I then verified that the baby goat pen (made from all cattle panels) would hold him, and then I left for work.

Hopefully, he’ll stay where we want him now…

Well, the CSA is over, the cow calved, the first freeze has hit. Time to shut down the beds!

Marilyn and the boys have shut down the strawberries and other beds out front.

I put up the 2nd greenhouse for winter crops, moved many of the bell and hot peppers to one of them and Sam planted lettuce in that same greenhouse with the peppers.

We srill have lettuce, kale, cauliflower, peas and chard still growing in the garden beds and I’ll have to make hoops for those beds and put agribon over them to prevent freezing this winter.

I need to add couple of “shutters” to the cow’s stall before winter.

The bees have plenty of stores, so I am not too worried about them – I hope that statement doesn’t come back to haunt me in February!

Busy life!!!