by Jan Fielden
Sometimes when things don’t go right you just have to laugh. Maybe laughing is not what you want to do at the moment but sooner or later the laughter will come. My day was Friday, the deal was feeding the cows and the outcome was a disaster! But then, after thinking about it, I realized it wasn’t really a disaster it was a comedy of errors. Errors on my part and errors on just the way things go sometimes.
The cows were on their best behavior around all of the gates…I had Divine help because I prayed God would hold the cows back from the gates.
I fed the Middle Herd first. Everything was fine with the first bale, I lost the second bale on an incline and it went rolling with all the hay coming loose. I had wanted to put that bale under a tree…not to be.
OK, next comes the Back Herd and likewise, they stayed back from the gate. On the second bale I pulled in, lowered the bale, ran to close the gate, got back on the tractor and then it happened!! I don’t know if I had lowered the bale too hard to begin with and it came off the fork or if I rolled forward with the bale down.
Regardless, I pulled the fork lever up and turned to look at the bale being turned over right in front of the gate.
Now, my way was blocked, the bale had sloughed off a lot of hay, and the cows were all around it eating. I decided to go up to the high gate in the High Hay Pen to get their other bale but when I pulled up at that gate I couldn’t get it opened because the chain was too tight.
So, I went down to a lower gate, opened and closed it, went up to the hay pen, got a bale and brought it back close to where I had fed the first bale. I was then able to move the bale away from the gate.
Yearling Herd wanted nothing to do with their new bale of hay, didn’t follow me until I was on my way out of the pasture and they acted as if they wanted to be fed something else. I just laughed! The Red Oak Ranch rolls on!!
