The Last 24 Hours

Have been as exciting as can be. It started snowing here yesterday and by the time I got to checking fences it was late afternoon and many of them were already down from the weight of the snow. As a matter of fact, when I was walking to the barn, five heifers met me outside the milkhouse. I spent hours clearing snow and ice from the fences in the driving snow in an effort to keep dry cows and heifers from walking to Earlville. As it was, I knew I was short 5 or 6 animals. Happily, they showed up just before dark, wandering in from the north 40. By the time all the animals were safely inside reasonably secure fences it was 11 pm. 25 dry cows and heifers spent the night and today down in the grove of trees in the southeast corner.

Then the trucker arrived at 8 am to haul the 30 cows down to PA. It was snowing and he had a pretty big rig. He got hung up two feet from the pole by the pool that holds the electrical wires running to the barn.

But he knew all the ins and outs and we hooked the tractor up to the trailer and dragged it back to the cattle chute. The trucker was about 60 y/o and not an ounce of fat on him. He'd just driven 420 miles since midnight and yet he was spry and lively. Once he got backed up to the cattle chute we loaded 30 cows without any problem.

There are now only 31 cows in the barn, all of them in the upper end. The other 30 are Amish cows now!