Slow train

We were soundly asleep when the phone rang this morning.  It was Donna telling us that the steers were out of the corral.  I did not want to believe this as the bed was warm and it was early.  We got up anyways and I took the tractor down to Donna’s.  I was hoping I could just push the steers back real quick and we would be done.  Nope, one of the cows was in the old barley field.  I had to take the tractor all the way down to four corners, come into the field and drive down the dirt road in an attempt to push the cow out.  The other steer came into the field through the open gate, I slowly pushed them to the gate, until they got stuck near the gate and fence.  I had not opened the gate all the way and created a dead end which trapped them causing them to panic. 
They ran back out into the wheat field.  I went around for a second try but by the time I got back both steers had forced themselves through the fence.  I now had multiple holes through several fences. 
We went back into the house, had some coffee and breakfast.  Annmarie created a single syllable swear word by combining three other swear words.  It is quite impressive.  We drug Sarah back out with us again.  We all got walking sticks and we went down to the lower pasture to get the cows.  This time I went into the lower pasture and the girls stayed up on the hillside with both dogs.  I finally managed to get all the cows but the crazy momma and baby going toward the gate, about 1/3 of the way there the cows bolted toward the hillside.  Annmarie turned Zeke and Mouse loose and hollered at them to the turn the cows around.  They did, it was pretty amazing, then Mouse proceeded to push the bull all the way back to the far fence and would not listen to either one of us.  As he ran by me I had to make a dive for the 30 feet rope he was trailing behind him.  I managed to snag it as I was rolling around on the ground.  He is not quite ready to be off leash yet.  We worked the cows down to the barn lot and the first four through the gate had both steers so we quickly shut the first gate.  We then pushed them toward the corral and got them down to three.  I managed to let the last heifer out and trap just the two steers.  This time I chained both gates closed, after latching them!  They will not get out this time.  We went to put everyone back into the lower pasture and the bull took everyone down to the far cattle guard. 
I had to walk down, while the girls blocked the road to the steers.  We coaxed them into the lower pasture without too much trouble. 
I had to go repair all the fence that had gotten torn up.  The repair jobs took about three hours.  The fence looks much better and one small section needed a tune up any ways.  Mr. President came out to finish mowing the lawn as the mower had overheated on Thursday.  Nope, mower now spewing liquids from the wrong spot.  I think the mower may be dead again.  I will be picking up a weed eater from my mother.  They have one that is too large for her to handle. 
I attached the intake onto the pump and then primed it with a five gallon bucket.  I had to leave an upper prime valve open and when I hit the on button it created a huge fountain with water going every where!  I turned the pump off and tried to open the discharge valve and maintain a suction.  Not possible, I had to reprime said pump and create another fountain.  While getting soaked I was able to open the discharge valve and close the prime valve.  It worked!!  Now I just need to get our name on the pump power bill and get some new spray nozzles for the sprinkler pipe.  I want the ones that have a built in valve so you can turn them off.  We looked them up I just need to call Nelson irrigation tomorrow.  I let the pump run full out and the pond was slowly decreasing.  Once we get the sprinklers on it will slow down demand. 
After all this I decide that I need to mow the fields with the tractor.  While trying to attach the PTO shaft I notice a hydraulic leak on the tractor.  I just stopped, loaded the tractor onto our trailer and drove it into the dealer’s.  I parked it by the front of the shop and will call them in the morning.  This seems to be the year of the vehicle. 

$450 irrigation pump part

The part is done!  Sarah and Annmarie picked it up on Thursday.  I had them make it out of stainless steel.  It looks identical to the cast aluminum one but this one will not break when I tighten the bolts. 
We decided the steers really needed to be separated from their mothers.  The newborn baby calves are coming.  We had one born on Thursday, the crazy cow with a green ear tag.  Luckily, this was the one cow without a yearly steer.  So on Saturday we all three went out with two dogs to bring the cows in.  Its never as easy as it sounds.  We had to open multiple gates and get things arranged so that the cows would have a straight shot to the front barn lot.  I took Mouse on his lead rope and Sarah and I went up on the back hillside.  The new momma and her baby were at the far fence in the first lower pasture with everyone gathered around.  The cows wouldn’t move so Annmarie and Zeke went down to push them toward the gate.  The cows were not having any of it.  Annmarie didn’t want to move forward but I hollered from the hill, so her and Zeke started creeping forward.  She got within 8 feet of the momma and sicked Zeke on her.  The cow went bananas and started charging the dog and Annmaire.  There was some high pitched screaming emanating from Annmarie.  This went on until the cow backed off.  We ended up leaving that momma and baby alone.  We pushed everyone else up to the barn lot and managed to sort off the two steers.  After the fence fiasco, it was decided we would leave them in the corral for a few days to let them lose some attachment from their mothers.  We set up the 35 gallon water trough and I brought 1/4 of the cow feeder over and belted it into one of the corner spots.  I cut open the last 800# bale of alfalfa and filled the feeder.  I was feeling sorry for the cows so I thought we should open up all three areas of the corral for them.  This would let them get away from the dogs.  We still had to push the other cows back into the lower field.  This did not go smoothly.  The crazy mother had come down and her baby squirted through the vinyl fence into Donna’s back yard.  The mother promptly followed, there is a reason that vinyl fences are not made for animals.  I now have to replace a section of the fence.  We managed to finally get the cows in the right spot, shut all the gates and went to bed.  There was much noise as all involved parties were not happy.