Why Did The Cow Cross The Road?

To get to the other side, of course!

This time of year, the cows cross the road into a section of land we call Harry's. This is actually a field we crop, and also has some grass rows and tree rows. It provides excellent fall grazing on grasses and crop stubble. The only problem is that this field does not have any running water. So, this means that the cows feed during the day on Harry's, then at night they come back home where they have access to the watering fountains in the corral. In the morning, they are lined up at the gate, ready to go across to Harry's, and in the evening, they're lined up at the gate on Harry's ready to come back across to home. Back and forth, every day, they do this routine. This morning, it fell upon me to go to Tom and Carol's house to let the cows across the road into Harry's.

I got to the house about 8:00 a.m. By this time, a group of cows were already lined up at the gate ready to go feed.

Cows dot the feeding pasture, and some were already lined up at the gate to go to Harry's.

 I had no difficulty opening the gate to let them out. Sometimes the gates are really tight and hard to open, but either the gate wasn't as tough as Jeff told me it could be, or I'm getting stronger.  I'll go with the latter. Thank you, November Plank Challenge!

At first when I opened the gate, the cows just stood there and looked at me for a bit. I'm not the person who normally lets them out-- perhaps they noticed this? Then, they started walking single file across the road.

Sweetgrass Hills in the background. Such a lovely view from this spot.

 The never made a sound, and they knew exactly where they were supposed to go. For the most part, we had no issues getting across.

You lookin' at me?

 After the initial string of single file animals, a few larger groups came all at once. A few of the cows paused to take a glance at me or rip a mouthful of ditch grass along the way, but they all made their way across the road in their own time.

The last stragglers.

 As there were fewer and fewer left in the pasture, I hollered at them to come along. Eventually, they all made their way.

Oops!

Only one cow decided she wanted to be different. Notice, if you can, that she is on the wrong side of the fence! I had Tom's pickup with me, so I drove down the road and got ahead of her, got her turned around, and walked her back down to the gate. No big deal. Thankfully, she had a pretty good idea of where she wanted to be, and didn't make a run for it in any other direction.

 Once she got back down to the gate, she saw the opening, and in she went.

The final step was closing the gate to Harry's. I had never actually closed this gate before, or any gate with a crank closure, in fact. But, with a little over-the-phone help from Tom, I figured out the mechanics of securing the gate. Morning mission accomplished!  The whole event took about 40 minutes.

As I was handling the herd on my own this morning, I couldn't help thinking about my job. Specifically, working with my group of Eighth Graders. These are the kids who continually have behavior issues in school, low grades, oppositional behaviors, etc. It's my job to help them raise their self esteem, teach them social skills, and generally how to be better citizens. We have a weekly group session-- me and five of these kids. I get asked sometimes how I can handle them on my own, how it is that they don't drive me crazy or run all over me. Things like that. "How do you do it?!"

See, working with cows, I have learned that you have to give them some space. You have to be gentle, calm, and above all, respect their movements, preferences, and tendencies. Cows are big, big animals, and they can't be controlled with fear or violence. If you're confident and respectful toward them, they'll likely do as you'd like. The best thing to do is to encourage them on the path they'd like to take anyway, and be positive. If I can handle 100+ large cows, then a group of five Eight Graders should be a breeze. Above all, treat them with respect.

Getting back to why I was doing this all on my own this morning anyway. Jeff and his buddy Jeremy and his wife Jacynta were out hunting for deer this morning, so Jeff asked if I'd be comfortable doing this cow chore. This was totally fine with me, in fact. And where were Tom and Carol? Well, they had a pretty good reason for being gone...

Our nephew, Brandon William, was born in the wee small hours of the morning on Wednesday, November 19. Tom and Carol were down in Bozeman spending quality time with the little Nugget and Katie and Josh. Welcome to the family, Brandon! Can't wait to meet you!

And, just for fun, I present you with these punny images:







Have a great weekend, everybody!