by Jan Fielden
Hauling hay! I love to haul hay even though most people think it is a boring job. Not me. I get to be outdoors, see all the sights, have a competition with myself, etc. Saturday I was hauling from the back 10 to the big hay meadow. Coming through the hay meadow, I left the gate open to make it easier to haul. So, out of the hay meadow gate to the Long Pasture, and on to the Back 10 Pasture where I left that gate open. Things were going just fine until I was looking at the cows staring at me!. They were in the Northwest Pasture but it unnerved me to think they were right there. I just knew they were going to come through the fence into the Hay Meadow. I knew that if they did, Katie Bar the Door! They would never come out of there!
When I had dropped off the bale from the 10 in the Hay Meadow, they walked down the line and watched me all the way until I went into the 10. When I came out and started back to the Hay Meadow, they turned around and walked the fence line back. This went on almost the total time I was hauling from there. Not one cow came out of the Northwest Pasture but I worried that one would and thought I should just close each of the gates after I came through. I knew this would add a lot of time to my hauling but I thought it was probably the best thing I could do…except I didn’t. I kept telling myself that I would close the gate the next time I went through it. Finally, I had one bale to get. I closed that gate, went through the gate into the Hay Meadow and closed that gate. But since the cows were there, I walked over to the fence line and told them how much I appreciated them not busting through the fences, how good they were, etc.
The Colonel just laughed at me. We have lots of laughs at the Red Oak Ranch!!
