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Will Wonders Never Cease?

On a drizzly midnight, the house was all quiet, not even a mouse was stirring. Joelle and I were winding down from the day’s onslaught of activity or maybe it was ramping up for the next day’s adventures. Okay, we were cleaning up from dishes and laundry, so we wouldn’t have to do it in the morning. Anyway, as we were playing some Chris Tomlin in the background we went about our chores. Our home is a constant buzz of activity, like many of yours, but on this night we were treated to a special announcement.

Many months ago, we got two new farm kittens—a male and female, of course. And the children all clamored for future kittens. Outwardly, I was reluctant to concede to those dear faces. I think they had been taking lessons from our labs, with those pleading eyes. But inwardly, I was on their side. So I let nature take its course and our dear sweet Bessie, who has the markings of a Holstein cow, was soon an expectant mother. The children were so excited.

Then one day she had the kittens, but could we find them? No. We told the children that sometimes first time momma cats don’t know how to take care of their litters, but we did hunt around like private detectives trying to find those kittens, but, alas, it was not to be. Yet for some reason, she was still overly protective and had the signs of a nursing momma. She had to be hiding them, but where?
 
So as Joelle and I were finishing up and getting ready to retire, with the June rains gently dancing upon our roof top, the clock struck midnight, and to my astonishment what did I see? My-liss and Bessie curled up on front porch chair with not one, not two, not three, but four little kittens fast asleep. A pleasant little surprise indeed for us all. Now the children want to keep all of them, of course.
 

Other Farm News

What is growing on the farm is really doing well and what isn’t growing is not so happy. It all depends upon when they were planted and whether it rained or got hot or cold. Which is why we just keep planting. Some plantings are better than others and some make it and others don’t.
 
We will have peas soon and lettuce and spinach. The potatoes are making me nervous because the plants are already huge. But the onions, cilantro, carrots and dill are in desperate need of some heat units, like every other living organism in Western Washington.
 
Here’s to local food! 
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Good Gates

What an evening! Last week, Joelle and I were heading a thousand different directions between soccer and ballet when, but for a rare moment, our schedules crossed paths. It was 6:30 p.m. and Joelle and I arrived home earlier than expected, so I said, “Let’s go for our walk.” We are able to make a walk a reality a few times a week. As the day was fleeting, we got going and Stephen, our newly accomplished bike rider, accompanied us. About a quarter of the way down the road, towards where we keep the cows, Stephen crashed, “Ouch!” We got him back up, dusted him off, and were off again winding our way towards the cow pasture. Just as we made our way around a turn we noticed that something was amiss.  

 
Initially, I thought out loud, “Hmmm…the neighbors have cows now?” As I gazed towards my side of the road, I realized that the neighbors had my cows now! I took a deep breath. We haven’t had to chase cows since 2005 and it is my least favorite sport. I got on the phone, called a few neighbors, and tried to get another neighbor to stop playing cowboy on his quad! 
 
The cows had lifted a gate off its hinges. The gate was still padlocked to the post, much to the relief of my third son who was the last to use that gate. When we built that fence over a year ago we didn’t turn the hinge posts opposite directions. So, when one of the cows was using the gate as a scratching post it lifted it up and off they went—not a single cow stayed home, imagine that.
 
We got the cows moving forward again, strung a hot wire across the road, barricaded the road with a tractor and truck, and began moving the cows towards the gate. Ahhh, easy as pie. But then they up and bolted through the vestiges of our neighbor’s fence and were gone again. But they were also getting tired. While the teenagers chased cows, I had Nathan, one of my farm hands, reposition the tractor and truck since the cows were now going to be coming down a different direction. When they got to the end of our neighbor’s field and were resting, we repositioned our non-hot hotwire and started moving the cows towards the road. Thankfully, my neighbor had left all of his fence posts in the ground even though there isn’t a single wire attached to them—all that mattered was that the cows thought a fence was there.  
 
Joelle parked her car at the other end of our road and we started moving the cows slowly towards the “hole” in the fence. They didn’t want to go, but one reluctantly stepped through and began to turn the wrong way. “If that cow bolts, we are done! They will be heading to Warm Beach!” I started praying, “NO LORD!” And then, all of a sudden, my petite wife began jumping up and down and waving her turquoise blue coat like she was a matador. Then that cow, not even thinking twice, headed the right direction. I started thanking the Lord because I am sure that cow saw the hosts of Heaven hanging like a halo above her head!
 
A few minutes later, the cows were back at home, the gate was fixed properly, and a good night’s sleep was had by all. 
 
 
 
PS. Meet these adventurous cows in the video below. 

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Good Fences are a Must

The first year I ran cows, I spent a lot of time researching which grazing system I wanted to use. There was barb wire, New Zealand, or just one hot wire. The choices were straightforward. Every dairy cow in our valley is controlled by one hot wire right next to the road. Being overly cautious, I settled on two hot wires. 

Well, those first cows arrived, wandered out of the trailer, impolitely walked through the hot wire, and left. OH NO! Thankfully it was Sunday and all of our neighbors were home. It took all day long to round them up. Fortunately, one our dairy farm neighbors corralled them for us. Our family went to work building a 4-strand barb wire fence with one hot wire in the middle. That was an education. Now when our cows break a hot wire fence, it is an interior fence and they are still contained by the perimeter barb wire fence. We even have combination locks on our exterior gates so that they can’t be accidently opened. Nothing like chasing cows, and cows by nature are pretty docile, but when they know you are trying to catch them or move them all bets are off. 
 
The other challenge with having fences is controlling the grass on the fence line. It takes us 40 man-hours to trim the grass in order to make sure that the blackberries don’t grow and the grass won’t short out the electric fence.
 
Last week, when we were trimming the grass, a hot wire at a post was cut and no one noticed for a day or two. Eventually the cows let us know, at least the few that are always testing the fence and our patience☺. (Hmmm, sounds like a good segue into parenting, but we will save that for another week.)
 
We are now on the hunt to find the short in the fence that the cows have discovered. I am not concerned, however, because now the cows can only wander around inside the perimeter fence and not the neighbor’s yard. But we still need to find it. We start turning off sections of fence to locate the short. Sometimes the short is a wire that is touching another wire or overgrown grass touching the wire or, in this case, a cut wire.  
 
We finally ended up finding the break. It was on a buried section of wire where it came out of the ground. I grabbed the end of the wire to fix it, but I grabbed the hot one that wasn’t shorted out. Man that wire was hot—sent a jolt right up my arm. Yep, the electric fence charger still works.
 
Moral of the story: good fences make good neighbors and let your kids fix the fence when it is shorted out!
 
 
 
 
PS.Take a look at our video below to meet the cows! 

(vw75)