Terrabyte Farm

It’s hard to even know where to begin.  This week was so intense.  On Sunday our new steer was delivered.  We were told to keep him in the stall in the barn for a week or two until he knows this is his home.  A few hours after he was  closed in, we saw him out in the field.  He had easily pulled off the boards on the back door of the barn and was out looking for friends.  He had been part of a herd of ten or so Herefords, so being on his own was foreign to him.  We fairly easily coaxed him back into the barn with some grain, reinforced the stall opening to keep him from escaping again, and went to fencing.

We had a great day, finishing all but one 300′ section of fencing.  It was at the very back of the property, running along the existing stone wall and barbed-wire fence from when our property was a dairy farm.  The weather forecast was clear, my brother and his buddy were coming to finish fencing the next day, and we tumbled in to bed feeling good and tired.

I woke up early the next morning to check on the steer.  As I walked to the barn, I felt really happy.  Then, when I got to the barn, all the happiness left-all at once and was replaced with cold, stomach turning dread.  The stall was empty; some time between about 7pm and 7am the steer had busted out of the barn.  A quick scan of our property told me that the steer was gone.  I went running to the back section, the one that hadn’t been fenced.  I found tons of hoof prints, no steer.  I ran back to the house and got Mike.  I put both kids in front of a movie and in what can only be described as an act of parenting desperation, put a pile of six dum-dums (from my super emergency mommy-stash) in the middle of the floor for the kids.  I felt HORRIBLE, but I also knew that it would keep the kids busy for a while.  Mike and I went back out and after half and hour of searching confirmed the steer was gone.

I can’t even begin to describe the feelings I had.  I felt that I would never see the steer again.  He was GONE.  How on earth had we managed to lose a 750 pound Hereford?  I called animal control, the state police, the town butcher, and a few local farmers.  I also called the guy we bought the steer from who told us with absolute certainty we would get the steer back as he guessed it would find its way to the local dairy farm at the end of our road once it got lonely and hungry enough.  Bull-sh@# I thought, he is not coming back.

The kids and I spent the morning driving around the area looking and asking people we saw.  The guys worked on fencing, completing the perimeter that evening.  Mike spent an hour at lunchtime in the woods tracking the steer, finally finding the spot were it exited, a spot were the stones had fallen and the barbed wire was slack.  It was exactly where I would cross of I were looking for a way out.

That evening we got a call that the steer had been spotted by several people a mile or two form our house.  Mike, my brother, and his buddies, along with our neighbor all went out with flashlights to look for him.  They had quite and adventure, getting the Blazer stuck in the mud (AGAIN) but did not find the steer.  Needless to say, I did not sleep that night.

The next morning we printed signs and again went around the area looking for him.  My parents were out to help with the kids and the guys were now putting up the paddock fence since the perimeter was fully enclosed.  I took a nap with Charlotte and Mike was working at a school an hour away.  I was so worried, not about the steer, but about what might happen if he destroyed property or was hit by a car.  We would be responsible, a worry I had never even considered.  It never really occurred to me that an animal would escape completely and utterly.

That afternoon, just as Mike pulled in the driveway and I was coming down from my nap, our neighbor who owns the dairy farm pulled in.  He had the steer in with his cows.  Just like everyone had said, he found his way to the closest set of other cows he could find.  It took them an hour and the use of two other cows, but they finally managed to get him in a corral.  The next day, the guy we bought him from met Mike at the farm, and with five guys and a manure spreader as a make-shift shute, they loaded the steer back onto the trailer.  We brought him back for a second trial.  We reinforced the heck out of that stall before putting him in, I don’t think an elephant could have escaped.  The first night, I went out to check on him several times, and the next morning when he was still in his stall I felt so much better.  We have been going out every few hours to give him a little grain and hay.  After two days he let us pet his head while he ate.  Dare I say he seems content, relieved?  Maybe 48 hours in the woods showed him that he actually has it pretty good here.

No one said farming would be easy and it isn’t.  I have never really experienced anything like having a large animal on the loose before.  It was insanely humbling.  It also made us realize, yet again, that we are surrounded by an amazing community of people willing to pull together and help each other in a time of need.  Finally, a couple of cases of Budweiser go a LONG way towards making friends with people who help you contain large cattle.

On a separate note, our turkeys have started laying eggs, we had three from last week, so it seems that turkey poults may be in our future.

Also, baby ducks and baby chicks should not ever be put together.  We lost three chicks before we realized that the ducks get them very wet, causing them to die from being too cold.  Lesson learned, now all 15 ducks and 60+ chicks are doing well and getting very big.

Finally, our seeds sprouted, but probably a day or two before I checked on them first because when I opened up their covers they were LONG and LEGGY. Re-planting them and giving them some physical therapy (blowing on them with a fan, rotating them in front of the window) should do the trick.

We ended the week well, a visit from my sister in celebration of the fact that my brother enters the Air Force next month.  We had an amazing day, great food, and the perfect campfire.  All’s well that ends well and this week ended up great.