Cow Chips: Fences--All Fences Have Flaws

One thing that I learned over the summer of 2009 is that “All fences have flaws”. This being said I learned some important truths about cows and fences. First: All fences have flaws and the cows will always find the flaw. Second: A content cow will stay within the fence, even if it is not adequate to stop the cow from going through it. Third: There are some cows that are never content and will therefore find the flaws in the fence. Last: There are not very many fences that will hold a cow if the cow decides that it really wants to be on the other side of the fence.

After spending the summer building fences I made the mistake of thinking that I had become good at it. I was proud of my fences, I was mistakenly confident that the fences that I had built would hold the cows where we wanted them to be. One of the most surprising things to me was which fences failed, and which ones worked. Some of the fences I built in a way that I thought would work. Other fences that I built I called “scarecows” because scaring the cows away is the only way that they could work. The first test of my fences came when we first put cattle in the St. George field. The day after we put the cows in the field I went to check to see if the fences were holding. This was the day I learned firsthand where the phrase “the grass is always greener on the other side” comes from.

To explain I need to describe what I saw on this particular morning. As I drove into the field I got to a point where I could see the first fence that I had built across the Santa Clara River. This fence was built in a path that I had made through the willows, trees, weeds, and cattails. Because the fence was built in this path there is a narrow trail along the fence. The important point here is that the willows, trees, weeds and cattails are identical on both sides of the fence. What I observed on this particular morning was several cows standing on one side of the fence in the willows, trees, weeds, and cattails pushing against the fence so that they could reach the identical willows, trees, weeds, and cattails on the other side of the fence. This particular fence held, but this is not the only place the cows have pushed on the fence trying to get to what is on the other side. I have not been so fortunate with some of the other fences and corrals that I have built this summer.

There are several lessons that can be learned from observing the cows in relation to the fences. One of my first observations is that many times we will look longingly at something that we want when what we have is every bit as good, possibly even better. Sometimes we will “push the fence down” only to find out that what was on the other side is detrimental to our happiness and not such a good thing after all. There are other times when we will stand contentedly within our fence not doing anything more than what we are doing when things could be much better if we would simply push our boundaries a little bit. I’m not saying that we should jump the fence all the time, what I am getting at is that we need to not let our boundaries hold us back from becoming better. Sometimes if we step out of our comfort zone we learn and grow and become better for it. Do not get me wrong, the cows are never better for getting past the fence. However, people are not cows and can reason well enough to know when to push a boundary and when to be content.     

Cow Chips: Strays--Being Led Astray

I went with my brother Allen and cousin Nick to Panguitch to get the cows. I can vaguely remember riding to Panguitch in the big truck (2 ton cattle truck that we used to use to haul our cows) when I was a kid. I have never been involved in moving the cows to or from Panguitch since I have reached adulthood. On this trip we were picking up the calves so that we could wean them; one load would go straight to the auction, the rest would go to Santa Clara. The cows would be left at Panguitch for a little while longer. Most of the cows that were at Panguitch this year had been there before, and they seemed to know what was going to happen. When the trucks show up they know that there will be hay. We had loaded several bales of hay; several of the cows came right up to the corral knowing that there would be hay there. Most of them were too far out in the meadow to notice that we were there. Allen had brought his horse, Monty, to gather the cows out of the meadow and get them going toward the corral. Normally once they are headed in the right direction they will see the hay and go right to it. Of course this was not a normal day, so things did not go as planned.

Once Allen got the cows gathered out in the meadow and had them started toward the corral we ran into a little bit of a problem. There were several strays in the herd that were not familiar with our little program and had other ideas about what was going to happen. Cows are like any other livestock and have a tendency to follow the leader. They are not as inclined to do this as sheep, but, when one cow takes off in a certain direction, there are going to be others that will at least try to follow. This is what happened, the strays decided that they did not want to go to the corral and took off back out into the meadow. With only one horse, Nick and I could not cover enough terrain on foot to head them off and get them going in the right direction. The strays successfully led the entire herd back out into the meadow, which caused a great deal of yelling from all of us and much swearing from my brother and cousin.

The solution was to start over by separating a majority of the strays out of the herd in the meadow and then bring our cows up to the corral again.  Once again Allen brought the herd up the fence line toward the corral. Nick threw some hay out where they could see it. This worked much better and without the strays leading them astray, we were able to get them into the corral. Once the cows were in the corral we could separate the cows and calves and be on our way.

It is interesting to note the effect that the strays had on the herd of cows, leading them away from the corral and back out into the meadow. As I reflect back upon this effect, I realized that our acquaintances can have an effect on us as well. We try to teach our kids to pick good friends, friends who will have a positive influence upon them instead of the opposite. There are far too many examples out there where good people have been led astray by the influence of a friend. On the flip side, there are also many examples of a friend having a positive influence on others. I hope that I can be that positive influence; I also hope that I can teach my kids to be a positive influence and lead their friends to do good and not be led astray by their not so good acquaintances.   

Cow Chips: Of Cows and Men

One of the first lessons that I learned from the cows really did not have anything to do with the cows. This lesson came to me shortly after we first put cows in the St. George field in early October. I can remember driving down to the field the first couple of days and checking to make sure that my fences had held. I spent a lot of time watching the cows and feeling a great deal of satisfaction with my work. It felt good to see them grazing in the alfalfa, or stomping around in the growth in the river bottom. The calves were getting plenty of milk from their mothers and the cows looked fat and healthy. The fences were holding; the cows were content and doing well. The image of the cows in the green alfalfa field is burned into my memory. This is not the first time I have seen this scene, however, this time it made an impression on me.

As I reflect upon why seeing the cows in the hay field this time made such an impression upon me I realized that I enjoy the work. There is satisfaction in working hard. There is something that a person gets from hard physical labor that can be obtained in no other way. Seeing the cows in the St. George field this fall had an impact upon me because of the time and effort that I put into making it possible. I have been taught all my life that there is joy that comes from working hard. Seeing the cows this year helped me recognize the joy and contentment that comes from a job well done. Reflecting back, there are many aspects of farm work that causes this reaction in me. I have always felt satisfaction in seeing freshly cut hay in neat windrows, bales in lines in the field, a new stack of hay or a freshly planted field. This time seeing the cows in the field helped me to recognize that there is joy in these things.

Satisfaction in hard work is not the only thing that I learned about myself over the summer. I realize that I truly love the land. Deep down I have always known that I have a love for the land and what it can produce. I have always been sickened by subdivisions, commercial developments and golf courses being built on farm land. My own home is sitting upon a onetime onion patch and hay field. Progress will continue to claim more and more land; the thought saddens me. Seeing a lava rock pile pushed over for homes dose not bother me so much, but I really hate to see good farm land used for building lots.

I miss the days of going to the St. George field and not being able to see the development around. This part of our farm was undeveloped when I was young. There was no golf course or houses. When we were on the property we were at the farm, and that was the amount of it. We could go and work at the farm and no one knew what we were planning to do with the property, and no one asked. As I was building fences I had people from both sides of the Santa Clara River come and ask what I was doing, wanting to know what my plans were. I had people at Sunbrook tell me that I couldn’t build the fences across the river; they were going to go to the “city” and put a stop to it. I had one neighbor to the west tell me that we could not put cows on the property arguing that there were no cows there when he bought his property. There were others who were upset because my fences blocked the four wheeler trails; and still others who were upset because the fences blocked their access to the river bottom. I had to move one fence to accommodate a turnaround at the end of a street. I learned to bite my tongue, to be patient, to explain what I was doing, to be a liaison between the neighbors and my dad and to negotiate with people. Working through all of the difficulties was a pain, but in the end I was able to work it all out.

In the end I have had great satisfaction in seeing the cows on the property. For the first time in my life I really liked seeing the cows, I found myself looking forward to seeing them and some of the interesting things that they do. I started looking for the lessons that I could learn from them. Some of my observations were funny, all were thought provoking for me. This became even truer after Barb asked me to write this book.

Cow Chips side note;

It is an interesting side note that the the fences that I worked so hard on in the summer of 2009 have since been washed out by another flood and once again need to be replaced. The problem now is that I have a full time job and I do not know when I will have the time to put them in. Last fall we didn't open the creek bottom up to the cows because we could contain them away from the creek. This year, after my dad's little accident with the fire, the barrier that kept the cows out of the creek is now burned up so fences will be required to keep the cows from visiting our neighbors across the creek at Sunbrook. That is another story in and of itself, I believe I called that chapter of Cow Chips Houdini.

Angry Daughter

After posting the introduction to Cow Chips on my blog my oldest daughter Rachel cornered me after work and informed me that I can't just put the introduction on and not the rest of it. She was not very happy with me when I told her that she would have to wait to see the rest. I do not want to post any part of what I have written until I have reviewed and in some cases altered it to my liking. This takes time and is something I decided I would do on my lunch break at work. So for any one else who is impatient, I am sorry but that is the way it is going to be.

Cow Chips Introduction

I have never really thought that cows were amusing before the summer of 2009; nor did I ever dream that there was anything to be learned from observing the behavior of cows. Spending a summer unemployed and working on the farm has changed the way I look at the cows that we own; and the way that they relate to my life.

Although my family has been involved in the cattle business my whole life, I have never really had much interest in the cows. My interest has always been in taking care of and operating the farm equipment used to raise and harvest the hay crops used to feed the cows; I would only help with the cows when extra hands were needed. I have always considered the cows to be one of the dumbest animals on the face of the planet and treated them as such. This being the case I have never really wanted anything to do with them.

In June of 2009 I found myself unemployed with no immediate prospects for work. Dad had plenty of projects that needed to be done around the farm, so I spent the summer helping with some of them. Most of the summer was spent in two areas. One was irrigating, and harvesting the hay crops for the coming fall when we would be feeding the cows. The second was replacing the fences on our farm on the Santa Clara River so that we could once again put cows on the property. The fences for this piece of ground had been taken out by a subdivision on the west and the 2005 flood in the Santa Clara River. There had been no cows on the property since the fall of 2004. After the flood in January 2005 this property, known to my family as the St. George field, had been baron until the previous fall when we purchased and installed a sprinkler line and once again planted an alfalfa crop on it. Dad was anxious to get the fences back up so that we could use the alfalfa for pasture and put part of the cows on the property in the coming fall. Building the appropriate fences was a project that I started to really take ownership in. It became my personal project.

Anyone who has ever been involved in building barb wire fences will understand what a project like this can turn into; and I need to explain the process a little bit in order to set up some of the lessons I have learned from the cows. First, do not wear any clothing that you do not want holes in. You cannot work around barb wire for any length of time without destroying your pants, shirts, gloves, or any other article of clothing you might be wearing. Second, you are going to bleed. I had my fair share of battle wounds over the course of the summer. I don’t think that there was a day throughout the whole summer when I didn’t have scratches from building fence. Third, building fence is hard labor. Most days while building fence I did not make it much past noon on the fence. The afternoon usually found me working at one of the many easier tasks that my parents needed done at the house or one of their rentals. Fourth, building fences across the Santa Clara River (creek) is not an easy task. The river bottom is choked with willows, reeds, cotton wood trees and many other plants and weeds. In order to build a fence across the creek, or in my case two different fences, paths had to be cleared by hand through the undergrowth. Finally, you never know how strong the fence needs to be to keep the cows where you want them. Sometimes the strongest fences will not hold, other times, the weakest ones do. These last two points are significant and will come up again later in the book.

After spending the summer working on fences, mangers, corrals and other projects on the property I started to really take ownership of the work that I was doing. For the first time in my life the farm was something more to me. It had always been my dad’s or my brother’s thing in the past, I helped when I could, but never really felt like I had a part in it. That all changed over the summer of 2009. I had worked hard building new fences and repairing old ones around the perimeter of an approximately thirty acre piece of property. I had rebuilt mangers and corrals, cleaned up trash, harvested alfalfa and repaired sprinkler lines among other things. The crowning event took place the first part of October when we brought in nineteen cows and calves and a bull. This was the test to see if my work was in vain, would the fences hold?

This is when the lessons I learned from observing cows started. I started to notice the behavior of the cows, things that I had never paid attention to before. The cows intrigued me; I would tell my family some of the funny things that they do when I would get home. It was one of these conversations around the dinner table that inspired this book. My wife made the suggestion that I write about the experiences so that she could read them. At one point she requested a “book” for Christmas, a book with the stories that I had been telling the family about the cows. Thus, Cow Chips was born, the idea for the name, and many of the stories that I would include were formulated that evening. As I was thinking about the different stories I realized that there was more to it than just amusing stories; I realized that many of the things that I observed caused me to think, and that there were lessons that I have learned about life from my observations.  I decided to make the book more meaningful by sharing the insights about life that I have had occur to me from observing cows. The following is my attempt.

Cow Chips

A while back (about 3 years ago) while I was unemployed I spent a lot of time at the farm. While working on the farm I spent a lot of time observing the cows and their behavior. While telling my family about some of the things that I observed they said that I should write it down. I started to but never finished. Cow Chips is the name of the work, as I started writing it some of the stuff I liked, the rest I didn't so I never finished. Writing about my adventures in the mud at the farm this morning made me think of Cow Chips and I thought I would share some of it. Unfortunately, there are some of the chapters that I never got around to writing. I will add to it as I get time and as I can remember what I was thinking when I made the 18 chapter titles.