Udder Chaos

Wednesday was the first day that all of us had to be away at work at the same time. Sara was the last to leave at 10:30 and when she went out to her car she discovered that the cows were out of the pasture, exploring the front yard. She didn't know how they'd gotten out or how to round them up and she had to get to work. Fortunately, the perimeter of our yard is fenced, so she quickly barricaded the driveway and left.

When Cadence got home a couple hours later she was baffled to find the cows grazing on the lawn. She figured out that the cows had wandered into barn, found an unlatched gate, and explored their way out to freedom. The Jersey calf followed Cadence back into the stall easily enough, and then she herded the Dexter mom into the pasture. The Dexter calf was trickier - he's pretty wild still, and all the while his mom was bawling crabbily.

Finally, all cows was secure -whew! - and she went to feed and water the chicks. She opened the door of the shop to discover... chicks scurrying everywhere! They had jumped out of their swimming pools and escaped despite her safety net enclosure. It is much trickier to round up 108 loose chicks in a small room than 3 loose cows in a huge yard, we learned. Since the chicks are obviously too big to stay in the swimming pools any longer, Cadence transformed the stall in the barn where we had kept the Jersey calf into a chick pen. Reuben, the Jersey, is big and strong enough to stay outside now.

We've only had cows one week and chicks two weeks, and already everybody has escaped. Some farmers we are!