Not a farming week.

What a week. Some weeks are great farming weeks. Others are great family weeks, and yet others are great cleaning weeks. Some weeks are nothing great weeks and others are everything great weeks. Great meaning that this is what happens. This week is not a farming week. It may be a cleaning week but I'd really rather not. LOL. But it seems everything is going crazy with the critters. And it's only the middle of the week. I moved the chickens a few days ago. Got the electric netting all figured out around some trees and opened it up to move and BOOM. Every blasted laying hen we have except 1 was OUT. I swear they heard the fence rustle and ran for the hole. Good thing there are only about 25. Our 1 and only turkey actually did stay in. Anyway I put the pen where I wanted it and went to go find some chickens. Sure enough they'd all run right to their barn. They seem to miss their barn come fall and can't wait to leave it come spring. So I got as many as I could in there and closed the door and proceeded to CATCH everyone, including our rooster, and haul them across the yard to the new pen. I didn't get them all, but had to go out after milking and got a few more. It was a bright night so they could see me, so I couldn't get them all. There are at least 5 still out. At least I have not found chicken poop on the porch...yet. Tomorrow the kids and I will have to go on a egg hunt. One fun thing about having hens out.


Then today I had the kids outside for a bit and when it was time to come in I got them all in then looked out the window and what do I see... My cow and the bull BOTH out, munching on the lawn. Not 20 feet from where the kids had just been. I set the kids down to lunch and ran outside to get them in. They had pushed over a board by the stanchion and hopped out. So I adjusted some fences so they had to go back in and got me a big stick and in they went. So I put some pallets in front of the hole and a board and went back in to put the kids to bed. (They had soup for lunch, which they drink out of a big bowl with a straw each, so it takes no time at all) Then I had just sat down with my own soup and a hear a weird noise. Look out the window and here is Bindy back in the yard. This time I had to catch her and drag her around the layer pen, then thru a small hallway between the house and the firewood wall (I was amazed she fit, and that she would go. Both of her sides were rubbing on the 'walls'), though the milking area and back in the pen. Then while I was re fixing the hole she tried it again so I couldn't go get stuff to fix the hole. But I fixed her. Tied the pallets to the fence and put our ladder, which was nearby, across the top. With the large wheelbarrow full of wood (also nearby) holding the ladder and one side of the pallet up. The only bad part about this was that the wheelbarrow had been empty so I had to refill it from the stack. It looks like crap but it works. :):) Tomorrow I'll have to go find some long nails and a 2x6 and fix it up right and proper. By the time I got back inside my soup was cold, nap time half over and I was cranky from the whole mess. Thankfully though the soup and the rest of nap time did wonders for my mood and I'd pretty much forgotten the whole mess by the time Papa got home from work. One nice thing about it was that I actually touched the Bull and he didn't even mind. I sort of pet him over the fence after I put them in the 1st time. He almost let me, then I think he remembered I was a HUMAN. ACK. Chickens, cattle, lets hope it's not the pigs tomorrow. I hate chasing pigs. (Actually I have a great way of chasing pigs. :) I use our pellet gun. It stings just enough that they all turn when one gets hit. Well this is the best way to get them out of places you'd rather not go.. like under the floor or in the garden or when they try and head for the road. I had this problem a month or more ago. My fence was shorting out on a rebar pole and I couldn't find it. Turned out it was on a part of the fence I didn't know was hot. Anyway our 6 pigs got out 6 times in less then 4 hours. I learned I'm a pretty good shot!! Now the fence is nice and hot and the last time we moved them they wouldn't even cross the fence line with the fence down. :)