Post by Lannie on Jul 14, 2014 13:15:34 GMT -5
Here's my funny story for today, although it hasn't yet become very funny for ME. You all might get a giggle out of it, though. Maybe by next week I'll think it's funny!
Yesterday afternoon, I noticed Bean was doing an awful lot of mooing out in the pasture. Each time I checked on her, she was fine. Not stuck, not lost, just mooing. Then I thought, "Uh-oh, HOW old is she now?" Well, apparently she's just a hair shy of eight months already. Where does the TIME go?
I figured with her being in heat, and her first one, no less, that she'd be a handful to get in the barn last night. Normally, I call Bandit and Cricket in for a small pellet treat, and Bean comes right along with them and puts herself in her stall with no fuss. So I was expecting trouble, but she came in just as usual, and I only had to point her at her stall and give her a smart slap on the butt and she went right in. Whew! Got the stall latched (heavy duty latch, mind you) with the backup safety chain clipped onto it, and gave the big girls their pellet treat. They weren't interested. Bandit started rearing up and jumping on Cricket, who's NOT in heat and was very indignant about the whole thing. But Bandit was going to have her way with her, and it was getting dangerous in the barn, which is NOT very big, so I yelled and smacked them with the crop and sent them outside so I could finish the cow barn chores.
Meanwhile, Bean paced her stall and mooed. And mooed. LOUDLY. I'm still not sure I have all my hearing back.
This morning, before sunrise, I went outside (it was finally COOL!) to greet the Pyrs, who were finally out of the coolness of the garden hedge, and I happened to glance over and see Bandit and Cricket walking along the cross fence, heading toward their barn. Except it was so weird, it looked like Bandit was walking on her hind legs. When I looked closer, I realized it was because she was MOUNTING Bean! Bean, who is only 1/4 her size. Yes, the same Bean who I had securely locked into her stall last night. So crap, she must have jumped out or climbed the gate or something. Oh, well, no milk for ME today. I didn't want to get into the middle of three bovines who were all in a heat frenzy, especially when one of them is pushing a TON, so I went back in the house. Bean seemed to be OK, so I wasn't too worried.
When I finally went back out an hour or so later, all three girls were lying out in the pasture, chewing their cud, so I took the opportunity to dash to the barn and see what happened last night. I don't think I can accurately describe the damage. I might have to take a picture. The whole heavy-duty latch was dangling from the gatepost, still clipped to the safety chain. The stall door is leaning at a drunken angle, half open. I first assumed Bean had hit it from the inside and ripped the screws out that were holding the latch, but it seemed odd that the little keeper bit on the post that the bolt of the latch slides into was still securely fastened. If she'd hit it from the inside, wouldn't that have been ripped off?
Rich got up shortly thereafter and I presented him with the latch and told him he needed to fix Bean's stall gate today instead of the mowing he'd planned on doing, and as I described it to him, he said it sounded like someone BIG (Miss Fatty Fat Fatso perhaps?) had reared up and come DOWN on the stall door, pushing it in and ripping the latch loose. I went back out and looked, and sure enough there was some of Bandit's (or Cricket's, but I'm betting Bandit) belly hair stuck on a little rough spot on the top board. And THEN I noticed as well, that the boards themselves are wonky on the side braces, meaning some of the screws holding the horizontal boards in place are sheared off. Oh, and let's not forget, the heavy duty hinges are bent all out of shape.
So Rich is going to have to take the whole door off, take it to the shop and disassemble it, then put it back together again. Hopefully, he can pound the hinges mostly back into shape, but that might be iffy. We got BIG, HEAVY hinges, having learned with Helen that a heifer in heat is much stronger than a medium-duty hinge and latch. So we got the biggest ones we could fit on there. Obviously, there is not a latch or hinge made that will withstand the force of Miss Bandit when she's in heat.
Have I mentioned I love Miss Bandit with all my heart? Which is probably the only reason she's still walking around and not wrapped up in nice neat little packages in my freezer.
Sometimes, though, I want to just knock her in the head with a 2x4...
~Lannie
Yesterday afternoon, I noticed Bean was doing an awful lot of mooing out in the pasture. Each time I checked on her, she was fine. Not stuck, not lost, just mooing. Then I thought, "Uh-oh, HOW old is she now?" Well, apparently she's just a hair shy of eight months already. Where does the TIME go?
I figured with her being in heat, and her first one, no less, that she'd be a handful to get in the barn last night. Normally, I call Bandit and Cricket in for a small pellet treat, and Bean comes right along with them and puts herself in her stall with no fuss. So I was expecting trouble, but she came in just as usual, and I only had to point her at her stall and give her a smart slap on the butt and she went right in. Whew! Got the stall latched (heavy duty latch, mind you) with the backup safety chain clipped onto it, and gave the big girls their pellet treat. They weren't interested. Bandit started rearing up and jumping on Cricket, who's NOT in heat and was very indignant about the whole thing. But Bandit was going to have her way with her, and it was getting dangerous in the barn, which is NOT very big, so I yelled and smacked them with the crop and sent them outside so I could finish the cow barn chores.
Meanwhile, Bean paced her stall and mooed. And mooed. LOUDLY. I'm still not sure I have all my hearing back.
This morning, before sunrise, I went outside (it was finally COOL!) to greet the Pyrs, who were finally out of the coolness of the garden hedge, and I happened to glance over and see Bandit and Cricket walking along the cross fence, heading toward their barn. Except it was so weird, it looked like Bandit was walking on her hind legs. When I looked closer, I realized it was because she was MOUNTING Bean! Bean, who is only 1/4 her size. Yes, the same Bean who I had securely locked into her stall last night. So crap, she must have jumped out or climbed the gate or something. Oh, well, no milk for ME today. I didn't want to get into the middle of three bovines who were all in a heat frenzy, especially when one of them is pushing a TON, so I went back in the house. Bean seemed to be OK, so I wasn't too worried.
When I finally went back out an hour or so later, all three girls were lying out in the pasture, chewing their cud, so I took the opportunity to dash to the barn and see what happened last night. I don't think I can accurately describe the damage. I might have to take a picture. The whole heavy-duty latch was dangling from the gatepost, still clipped to the safety chain. The stall door is leaning at a drunken angle, half open. I first assumed Bean had hit it from the inside and ripped the screws out that were holding the latch, but it seemed odd that the little keeper bit on the post that the bolt of the latch slides into was still securely fastened. If she'd hit it from the inside, wouldn't that have been ripped off?
Rich got up shortly thereafter and I presented him with the latch and told him he needed to fix Bean's stall gate today instead of the mowing he'd planned on doing, and as I described it to him, he said it sounded like someone BIG (Miss Fatty Fat Fatso perhaps?) had reared up and come DOWN on the stall door, pushing it in and ripping the latch loose. I went back out and looked, and sure enough there was some of Bandit's (or Cricket's, but I'm betting Bandit) belly hair stuck on a little rough spot on the top board. And THEN I noticed as well, that the boards themselves are wonky on the side braces, meaning some of the screws holding the horizontal boards in place are sheared off. Oh, and let's not forget, the heavy duty hinges are bent all out of shape.
So Rich is going to have to take the whole door off, take it to the shop and disassemble it, then put it back together again. Hopefully, he can pound the hinges mostly back into shape, but that might be iffy. We got BIG, HEAVY hinges, having learned with Helen that a heifer in heat is much stronger than a medium-duty hinge and latch. So we got the biggest ones we could fit on there. Obviously, there is not a latch or hinge made that will withstand the force of Miss Bandit when she's in heat.
Have I mentioned I love Miss Bandit with all my heart? Which is probably the only reason she's still walking around and not wrapped up in nice neat little packages in my freezer.
Sometimes, though, I want to just knock her in the head with a 2x4...
~Lannie