MOOVING COWS - Part 1

I’ll be putting up a series of posts about the cattle which will involve lots of photos so they will be very visual and thereby artistic! – and educational – and maybe even funny. But if you aren’t into cows, don’t give up on me! I’ve got too much going on right now to get much painting done and, also, just gotta keep the hubby happy, ya know! I promise more painting information will come soon!

Moving the cows involves a few steps. In this, Part 1, I will explain moving the “equipment”.

The equipment consists of the water trough onto which is attached the new shade roof and the water hose on a reel with the mineral feeder dragging behind - all of which is referred to as the “shademobile” - See Photo below:
First my husband has to open up a new area for the cows to be moved into (more about this in Part 2).
Then my husband backs either one of the tractors, the gator or the mower up to the hitch (sometimes this requires more than one backing up move, since he has to get it “just so” before it will hook up, and since we have nothing but hills, it’s not always an easy task). Then he hooks it all up and off he goes – slowly! He has to be careful about the angle of the hitch on those hills. Also, because of the hills, the trough is hung on metal rods that allow it to swing so it will remain relatively level. As you can see, the "girls" wait patiently for all of this!We have water lines buried and after so many moves he has to unhook the hose and re-hook it to a new water line. I even got to help do that (lucky me!) My job was to drive the gator to the next water hookup holding the end of the hose while he pulled the hose along farther away from me. That was not bad, I was on flat ground!

Below you can see a water hose in the foreground and Mike mooving the "shademobile" into the area he has just opened up. The "girls" already have their heads down munching on that new grass!The time before that I was simply driving the gator from one area to the next to pick him up and the hill I was driving toward didn’t look that steep so I didn’t have my seat belt on. However, it turned out to be so steep that I began sliding out the side - even though there is a tiny little piece of metal tubing that supposedly will keep you in. (That wasn’t going to hold in my less than tiny butt, I can tell you!) I began sliding left, hanging onto the steering wheel and shrieking before it dawned on me to hang onto the right seat, which I did - - but then it dawned on me that seat would fold down, so then I grabbed onto the other tiny little piece of metal tubing on the right side of the gator (are you getting this image in your head yet!) and drove to where my husband was - - - doubled over with laughter!

Turned out that part of the sliding problem was due to the fresh cow **** combined with the angle of the hill. But I made it! (Sadly – for you, not me – no one was around to take a photo!)