There are some days when everything just doesn't go as planned - especially when you live on a farm! Recently we had a day when I was especially thankful to have Border collies who will work. First, when I let the cows out of the front pasture to move them to the back, they took off and headed 1/2 mile down the road to a neighbor's property while I was working with Duncan on rounding up the goats. Once I realized they were gone it was too late to stop them, so I just moved the other animals, then hopped on my horse, Fannie, called Duncan, and set off to find our missing cows. They were grazing in the yard belonging to a house which is being remodeled. The grass is knee high and the blackberry bushes are higher, so though I could see the cows, Duncan could not and I had to help him find them with (lots of) verbal directions and hand signals. He eventually found them and got them out of the yard, then we headed home. He did great, and wasn't discouraged by the thorny blackberry bushes catching his fur, or by getting kicked, but just went in there and brought the cows back to me, then kept them nicely together all the way home. The video clip below shows part of the trip home. Sorry it is so extremely shaky and kind of bounces all around... It's just not easy to video and handle dogs and livestock at the same time! Later that same day, one of my younger siblings came running into the house shouting that the neighbor's turkey was in our pasture. Now that situation could turn really hairy in a hurry, because none of the younger dogs have been around turkeys before, except from the opposite side of the fence from the neighbors', and they always wanted to chase them through the fence. So, fearing that they might try to protect our property from the turkey, or herd him to death, I ran out to deal with the situation. Sure enough, the very confused First I locked up Kep (who is good with poultry, but wouldn't be very helpful in this situation, Duncan, and Flossie, then called Cleone and headed to the pasture. I chose to take Cleone instead of Duncan because I have a better handle on her and I was confident I could call her off the bird if she got too excited to herd him safely. I didn't need to worry though. She handled the situation really well and since the silly bird apparently couldn't figure out that he should just go out the way he came in (under the fence) she helped me corner him, when I caught him and threw him back into his own yard. As you can tell in the video, I was slightly worried about handling him since I have very little experience with turkeys and definitely don't want to have one attack me. Thankfully he was not aggressive, and Cleone got some valuable experience. And, on a side note, I found it rather humorous that he was a Blue Slate turkey and his colors almost matched hers almost perfectly! Enjoy the video below. (Note: the BC on the other side of the fence (near the end of the video) is not mine. He belongs to a neighbor and does not have enough to do, so he runs up and down our fenceline a lot.)
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AuthorMy name is Alayna Feldman. I have been greatly blessed and am thankful, first and foremost, to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who has saved me. I am also deeply thankful to my parents, who have raised me in a stable, safe, loving home and taught me about what is most important in life. Archives
February 2022
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