When you have a bull on the property you need an extra layer of fencing to keep him in where he belongs and won’t go visiting the neighbor ladies. Hopefully. Some of our north fencing is not in the best of shape and even though Hubby has tried to keep it up over the years, we like to run a hot wire when our borrowed bulls come. We don’t keep a bull of our own as we don’t have the proper pens and fencing to keep one full time. And you pretty much have to change bulls every two years or so anyway. We don’t want them breeding daughters and granddaughters. Mostly we have been lucky in having some nice tempered bulls here. I know some can be very mean. The bulls we have are usually fairly young and are good for small birth weight calves. We are getting to the point where we have as many heifers as bull calves.

I am getting a little off track. Sorry. Fencing. We have found that a hot wire can help greatly in keeping the bull from the girls next door, and the bull that is with them. Although the first bull we used did find a way to get past the hot wire and over the five foot barbed wire fence to visit the ladies the second year he was here. Thankfully there wasn’t any bull in with them at the time. This particular neighbor had hot wires running around their property as well. More at the bottom as the previous owners before them had about 200-300 meat goats at one time. They were always coming to visit our side and my mare was always trying to get them and chase them back. Anyway, back to Mr Bull. We could never figure out how he got over there as neither the hot fence, or barbed wire were disturbed in any way. I do know that cows and bulls can jump a fence. I really find that hard to believe as they are not built like a horse. And are not nearly as graceful. But I did see a steer we had jump our pen fence and was not seen for three days. A neighbor found him with his cows on the north side of our property. 

We had to run some hot wire along this north side after Hubby seen the cows were back. I think they go to a different pasture for the summer. We are not sure if they have a bull in with them yet as they were having calves about the time we were working on it. There is a bull on the east property where the goats were. Hubby already had that fence up. I don’t always have to help, but we were needing to get it done before this year’s bull came in a few days. It was a nice day and not too hot for the end of July. 

Our property is very full of trees, brush, weeds and you name it, it is there. We have to run down across a ravine, or more like a waterway, and through trees to get this wire up. Years ago we would pound in medal posts with a post driver and then string the wire. That was hard to do. For me at least. I could do about two, maybe three and I was done. I can’t do the work I used to do when I was in my 20s and 30s.Thank God they have an easier solution now. Step in stakes! They are made of plastic and are light and sooooo easy to push into the ground. At least if it is not too dry. We had had some good rains a week or so before this day, so they went in easy. We did start out with some thin metal electric post that did have be tapped in with a hammer. But, we didn’t have to many. 

And of course along the way the neighbor ladies come to see what we were doing. I had to take a picture of one cow in particular. She had the prettiest markings on her face. At least to me.

There were other surprises that I found interesting as well.

There is one of many spots that I call the jungle on our place. This is one that we had to go through.

And guess who is driving the tractor? Well, yours truly. Although Hubby and I took turns putting in the stakes and driving. He did most of the labor, but I did help some. Especially when we had to run the wire through the slots on the stakes. That took both of us on foot mostly. Good exercise.

And I have to show some pictures from inside the jungle. I found a couple of turkey feathers. And there is the ravine, or waterway running through.

And this is my ghost feather.

There was nothing in this spot except the feather I was taking a picture of. We were in the trees and no sunlight was shining through. I know cameras sometimes have a glare or something, but, don’t ruin it for me. I really like my ghost feather! 

To finish of the blog, as it is pretty long already, I will post a few more pictures of our cedar trees and brush. I am always telling Hubby we need a name for our farm. I think maybe we could call it Cedar Acres, or Brushy Farm. Hubby likes to lean toward The Poor Farm. Any preferences?  😀

Stay Safe and God Bless!