What free time?

Several weeks ago we had parent teacher conferences and I didn't have to go to school until noon. So, my dad and I naturally felt compelled to make sure we had my morning filled. The mission was simple enough...to move cattle home from a CRP field about 10 miles from our house.

Of course, since we had such a limited amount of time things went wrong immediately. The first thing that happened was a VERY dead semi. We charged it for quite a while, but it didn't work. Since we didn't have the semi, it meant it would take several trips with a pickup and gooseneck trailer to move cattle home rather than one trip in the semi.

We took the Mule along filled with oat and feed bales to tempt the cattle into the corral we were going to set up.

Once there, we set the panels up into a temporary corral to gather the cattle before loading them into the trailer.

The cattle enjoyed the bales and went to work quickly eating them. We had to move the cattle home because we were only allowed to have them graze the CRP for a certain period of time.

This is where the pictures end. We got two loads of cattle loaded up before I had to head home. My dad and uncle remained behind to finish the job.

Although it was short and rushed, the time outside was a welcome change of pace from my teaching job.