Bad cows …
I had big plans to work out early and get out to the shop. But, just as I finished my lifting, our neighbor Andrew texted me at 7:30am, “I got a text from my neighbor Dan Green. Your cows are in his pasture.”
Ugh. There went my early start in the shop.
We piled on clothes (below freezing this morning), loaded up the UTV, and headed over to Andrew’s fence line (the cows have been borrowing Andrew’s pasture). Sure enough, the cows had created a nice wide entrance in the wire fence.
The moment the cows heard our UTV, they recognized it was feeding time, so we lured six of them back to Andrews pasture. Of course, one dumb cow, our 7mo steer, couldn’t figure out how to get back through the fence, so, of course, he went over another part of the non-barbed wire fence, damaging it. Ugh.
Once at Andrew’s pasture, we wooed them over to our pasture with food and closed the access gate to Andrew’s place. With the cows grounded, we went to work on the fence.
Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to fix the fence. I.believe our two mischievous 2yo steers (they become meat next month) were leaning over the fence to get some tall grass in Dan Green’s pasture, which caused the fence to collapse. Bad cows.
Now for the cage progress. I’ll skip the explanation (am tired) and just get straight to the pics. The big loop is completed, along with the back bars and the rear cross bar. Everything is, level, square, tacked-in-place, and ready for more bars.
There will be no work on Friday (quick trip to Seattle), but I plan to get back to it this weekend. I’ll add more bars for strength, then begin work on the front loop.
There are no bad cows. There are only bad cowboys.
Bill,
Need I remind you about the evening on one of the coldest cold nights this past December when one of the “bad” cows pulled the heater from the trough causing the water to freeze? Bad cow!
– Dave
“There are no bad cows. There are only bad cowboys.” This had me in stitches. There are however, knucklehead steers.
Dave, I always had a hot wire about two off the ground on the inside of my perimeter fences. And it was charged by a very big fence charger. Never had any escapees with that setup, even with some pretty rickety old barb wire sections.
This is really a blast from the past. I loved the fact that my three brothers and I grew up on a very small 40acre farm in Iowa. We had room to roam and lots of adventures……..but……I HATED trying to round up cattle and sheep back in the day before UTV’s or any other “mechanical horses”. And yes……there are bad cowboys…..I was one of them. I was the only one with a horse and I can still hear my dad yelling at the top of his lungs with just where I should have been with the horse to slow the escape. Would not trade those days for anything !!
What? No Bull jokes?
With all due respect, is this web site E-WILLYS or MOO-WILLYS, less content about Willys Jeeps, and more content about “COW CHIPS”.
I have enjoyed reading the posts on E-Willys for many years, highly recommended, but as of late, much like the cows, we seem to have lost our way HOME.
Not my intent to be a “WISE GUY,” just making a point that needs attention. Respectfully, Mike Finegan
I certainly agree with Dave Morgan and his electric fence advice. A solar fence charger and a strand or two of wire to go with it helps most fences get due respect. Gotta say you all grow big fence posts there!
The cage looks good too, glad you’ve got good help.
Tom & Dave: Our 2.5 acre pasture has has hotwire on all sides. We also put up temp hotwire on half the 3 acres of the neighbor’s pasture. I was told by my neighbor that the fence between him and his neighbor was in great shape and I could see it had Hotwire on it, so I didn’t worry about it. However, the cows discovered that the hotwire was no longer active (which surprised me, as they have goats over there). So, I agree with you both, that hotwire is very effective.
Mike: I appreciate your feedback. You are correct. There has been more moo-content lately. Similarly, there’s been quite a bit of remodeling-content over the past year combined with Tom-Cruz-cat-content and parents-dying-content and, before that, there was moving-to-new-house-content.
But, to be fair, the site has always followed my life, from the site’s inception in Boise where I lived with my then-gf while recovering from the 2008 crash, then breaking up with her in 2011 and moving to my parents in Renton, to finding Ann and moving to Pasco, then moving here to Prosser.
The content problem also stems from, in part, a lack of “new” vintage jeep content. I’ve searched online newspapers to death, bought over $12K in brochures and books over 15 years, explored non-paid-for eBay content (like the WWII photos with captions), and dug through old magazines. If there is a repository of great vintage jeep content that I have ignored, I welcome an introduction!
The content-problem also stems from the time of year. There aren’t events to report about or folks are holed up either waiting for spring or quietly working on their jeep projects.
Compounding the problem are the billion jeep-groups on Facebook where a lot of content has been landing. This means less content is being directed at me so I can report about it.
A content-problem also stems from a lack of time. Even if I had the content, I just don’t have the time to do the research and writing necessary. Instead, my time is going to cows, to working-out more regularly, to spending more quiet, unplugged time with Ann, to working on various projects, and, lately, to working on my race-jeep (to be followed with work on Biscuit).
So, I appreciate your feedback. I know their are readers who couldn’t give two-shits about my moo-content. But, some days, it’s moo-content or nothing.
All that said, my HOPE is that
1) the new jeep will help promote new content;
2) the racer build will provide new content;
3) Biscuit’s repairs will provide new content;
4) an annual event, still TBD, will provide new content;
5) we miss doing our trips, so we hope that we can resume them in some manner, once we feel we can do them safely.
So, I hope this long explanation helps give you some perspective on where eWillys is at what I’m able to do with it.