Sayonara

Loaded Dexter up in the trailer.
Sayonara!  Adios!  Zai jian!  Chao!  Bye-bye!  Hope you'll have fun with
your next new adventure, Dexter!

We fixed up some more fencing.  Have you heard of a tool called Hog's
ringer with spring before?  This tool is the greatest invention ever!
I asked hubby how he knew about it.  He said he's just always known
about it as if everyone should know what this thing is.  Well, seriously why
 would a city girl know what a hog's ringer with spring is?!  But this tool is
so awesome and it makes it so much easier to tie the tension wire down to
the chain link fence!

This is how we work!

Jelly is getting big, he's about 6 or 7 months old now.  We really need to wean him off and take him in to get castrated.  We were going to do the castrating ourselves, but we found a vet in the area would actually do it for a very good price.  So we're just going to take Jelly in to get castrated so we don't have to deal with it.  We're also going to wean him off.  So we separated him from Peanut Butter yesterday.  In the next 2 weeks or so we are probably going to hear a lot of back and forth mooing between these two.

Jelly is getting big!  And look at those little horns growing out.

Jelly is saying good-bye to his mama before the weaning process begins.  

                                    

                                                           Let the mooing begin!

oh chute!

So the other day I was saying Dexter's latest thing is getting out of the pasture, right?  A few days ago he escaped and wandered off.  After we located him and with the help from one Constable, and five neighbors later he was back in our pasture.  I really don't understand why all of our animal escape stories are so dramatic!

You remember I was just saying the other day that we want to get rid of Dexter?  I wasn't kidding!  We already put him on Craigslist and someone is supposed to come buy him tomorrow.  We are so tired of dealing with him already!

Yesterday when I went to check on him he escaped again!
And he was staring at me like he's just so innocent!

                               

                                  This is me attempting to put Dexter back in the pasture.  I can't even pretend like I know what I was doing because I didn't.  But hey, it only took me 20 minutes, walking through an area full of tall brushes and trees before he was back in the pasture.  Not bad.

So after talking to people who know what they're doing, the reason why Dexter has been escaping is most likely because we have too small of a herd.  Apparently two girlfriends ain't enough for Dexter.  If the two cows are really pregnant like we think they are, then Dexter is definitely not getting any action at all.  Since he's not getting any action, he escapes because he's not "entertained".  Right now we don't want to get more cows (eventually we would like to but just not right now), and since Dexter is such an escape artist, we really don't have the time to deal with him.  So he has to go!

We finally finished our cattle chute project.  It was relatively easy.  And I think it looks pretty darn good.

Hubby designed and built it himself.  I'm so proud of him.  Though he
did most of the work I did help him a little bit.

From a different angle.

It's one good-looking, well-designed cattle chute, I think.

Big bully

Sorry I really haven't been very diligent lately in updating my blog.  So this post will be a post where we catch up with all the latest farm news.

As of late, Dexter, our bull, has been liking to escape out of whichever pasture we put him in.  I really don't understand why he does that.  I know pasture is always greener on the other side, but EVERY SINGLE DAY?  Come on!  We have made it into a habit to drive by our property everyday to check on him.  And everyday undoubtedly he was in a different pasture than where we left him the day before.  We have been trying to fix up all the fencing, but he always finds a spot to escape somehow.  We are tired of dealing with him, so we are trying to get rid of him.  Anyone interested in buying our registered Dexter bull?

See Dexter?  And you see the other cows on the other side
of the fence?  Yeah, that's where Dexter is supposed to be--
the other side of the fence!

I don't know if you can see this picture very well.  It's not just
a lame picture of dead grass.  If you look closely you can see
some metal looking clips, they're called wire tighteners.  Up
until the time hubby discovered wire tighteners we had been
using fence stretcher to tighten all the barbed wires.  But now
hubby swears up and down these wire tighteners are way better
and easier to use than the fence stretcher.

Fence stays also help keep the barbed wire tight so Dexter couldn't
escape where the fence stays are in place.

Before we get rid of Dexter we are hoping he already got these cows pregnant.
Does it look like she's pregnant?  I've been told she definitely looks pregnant.
What do y'all think?

Different angle...does Blackpearl look pregnant?

We think Peanut Butter might be pregnant too.

I don't know if you noticed, this area used to be our pig pen.
Hubby took the fencing out the other day so we can put
in a cattle chute.

Working on our cattle chute.  Making pretty good progress.
We chose to use wood instead of steel for building our cattle chute
because steel is a lot more expensive.  You're looking at into the
thousands of dollars using steel.  We're using wood and it will
only cost us a few hundred by the time we're done with this project.
We figured we only have dexter cows they're not as big as the
regular-sized cows, so we're taking our chances and hoping it will be fine.

Working hard or hardly working?