The Great Escape

Last night we had just finished eating supper...maybe about 4:30 PM, when the phone rang.  It was sister-in-law who was just getting home from work, from Lebanon way.  Here's a brief version of the conversation:

SIL:  "Yeah, I think your cows are out, down at the creek on P Highway."

ME: "What, what?"

SIL:  "They are all Holsteins and it looks like the whole herd, some are in the road."

ME, talking to hubby: "She says there's a herd of Holsteins on P Hwy at the creek."

Hubby: "It has to be them, their the only dairy cows in the area. Get the car, get going!"

ME:  "!"

SIL, half hour later:  "I asked what I could do to help, but I was talking to empty air; you'd hung up on me." 

LOL

Hubby got on the 4-wheeler and Ellen and I jumped in the car really quick and off we went.  It's not too far from us; just a mile around the corner maybe.

When we got there only 2 cows were on the highway, but yeah, aside from 2 sore-footed ones, the WHOLE HERD was down there, all FORTY THREE of them!  Fortunately, they all knew it was time to head to the barn so they didn't give him any trouble....which is why in the pic they are already headed back from the highway.

Anyway; hubby had to abandon the 4-wheeler at the far side of the pasture and walk them ALL THE WAY back.  It must have been a mile or more, I am not sure.  SIL and I had to take the Mule back by the highway to get the 4-wheeler afterward.

The cows seemed to have ambled down the creek bottoms from our place, through our fence and two other neighbors' fences.  We figure all the fences down in the bottoms were destroyed by the flood back in December and, like us, no one has had the chance to go do repairs.

Hubby said in 29 years he's never had them to do that.

And here's the understatement for the day:  Hubby spent the bulk of today fixing fences....

(And he didn't let them go down into the creek bottoms today, either!)

(I keep forgetting to do my thankful list:  This one calls for lots of thanks:  family that will help out, neighbors who will help out..there was one there at the hwy blocking traffic for a few minutes, cows to make me laugh, a husband who can hike a mile herding cows through briar and brush and still laugh afterward, cows that know their way home and are eager for feed at the end of the day, no matter how wayward they may be, a 4-wheeler and a Kawasaki Mule)

Comments

Donna. W said…
There's nothing I hate to hear more than, "Your cows are out!"
April 13, 2016 at 1:44 PM
Crochet work in progress said…
It's always bad when it's night and you can't see what color ear tag they have.
April 13, 2016 at 3:02 PM
Crochet work in progress said…
It's always bad when it's night and you can't see what color ear tag they have.
April 13, 2016 at 3:02 PM
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