So Partner #1 left again and the whole ranch went to heck! Figures. He was down south again, this time for a gun course and to go chucker hunting.... If you don't know what this is, don't ask me because I don't really know either. I know it involves birds and a lot of hiking.
He laid out hay ahead of time so all of the animals would be content (yeah right) and took a dog so we would have less dogs to take care of, so basically all we had to do was make sure nothing died. And we managed that, nothing died. Although that llama is close.
So problem #1 arises in the form of escaped cows and downed fence at some land we lease up the road. Partner #2 has to head up there by herself to take care of this because baby is sleeping and one of us needs to stay home. The funny thing about livestock is they will cross an electric fence that is laying on the ground to get to the perceived "grass is greener" other side of said fence, but when you try to chase them back over the way they came, it all of a sudden becomes the scariest damn downed fence they ever saw!! So how does 1 person force a 1500 lb stubborn piece of beef over the fence again? Luckily for us, Partner #2 is smart. The remaining cows, who we will refer to as "The Good Ones", figured that Partner #2 was there to give them something awesome, so they followed her around like gigantic puppies. So she led them to the far side of the field, away from the renegade cow, who very quickly got lonely, or thought she was missing out on something great, and led herself back over the scariest damn downed fence it ever saw!. Brilliant.
Fence repaired. Crises averted.
Problem #2. I kind of took over feeding and walking dogs while Partner #1 is gone. Amazingly everything was going great this time. I developed a system that worked well, and no one ran away on me! It was like a Christmas miracle! At one point, I went out to go feed our new sheep dog, the one we picked up on our trip to Edmonton (Read it here The Impromptu Edmonton Trip), and I noticed that his face was a little beat up. Since everything had been going so well with the other dogs, I knew it wasn't one of them who snuck in there to be a jerk. So my only conclusion was the llama. If you saw his face you would understand that this conclusion is sound! At one point while I was crouched down pouring the food, he just waltz up behind me and stuck his face in the dish and started eating it! So I'm pretty sure the poor dog got hurt just trying to defend his food. And in some ways, that's an unfortunate sign of a good sheep dog. You don't want him hurting his flock in any way. The sheep will steal his food too, given the chance! Complete vegetarians, but they will scarf a bowl full of dog food with lamb chunks in it! I guess they are herbivores until they are cannibals.
Side note, did you know chickens will do that? If you throw too many meat-based scraps in to them they will eventually start to kill and eat each other?! Same with egg shells. If you don't crush the shells up to be unrecognizable, they will start to eat their own eggs! It's messed up. I guess that could be expected from dinosaur descendants....
Problem #3 is a fun one! I actually wish I had my camera for it. All the horses got out. Again it was a downed fence scenario. This time at least there was two of us to try to herd them back over the ultra scary fence. It didn't work, however. We managed to get them all in a group and started to push them toward the fence, but they panicked and turned around and ran back. We did this twice and gave up. The second time we even rolled up a section of the fence so they wouldn't even have to step over it, but nope. They were not going back for nothing. In any case, a herd of possibly panicked, galloping horses is really pretty.
Problem #4, the cows got out again. This time 3 cows and a calf and they were out on the road, which in itself isn't such a big deal around here, since people graze their animals on the roadside, but still, it was a problem that needed to be fixed. This time we loaded all the kids up and both of us went to try to get these cows back. Half way there (its at least a 20 minute drive) we get a text saying that the land owners chased 2 back in for us and the other 2 were in a neighbor's field and were welcome to stay there until the next day when Partner #1 would be home and could go get them. Still we had to go check things out, check fences, and make sure everything was kosher. Everything was fine, the good ones seemed happy and content, so we loaded up again and went home.
Partner #1 came home a couple hours after problem #4 was resolved and that was it. His problem now. In some ways it's exciting, having all this new stuff to do. But mostly it's just a pain in the butt.
Sometimes I find it so hard to believe that this is my life now...
More things I have learned since moving to the ranch:
12) A llama will make a hilarious face if you hit him with a pot. Also, they are creepier than heck and the threat of being spit on is terrifying.
13) All your efforts to keep a nice, clean, presentable front yard will be completely undone when you let a couple of cows roam free.
14) Snow in October is apparently perfectly normal, and I should just get used to it.
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