Never a Dull Moment

Last night's events are just too exciting not to share on the blog!

It started out rather uneventful. I got home from St. Louis and after dinner, Rachel and I headed to the fair so I could see Nick. I hadn't seen him for 3 days and I didn't want to wait until 9pm. Rachel LOVED the fair...there was lots to look at, puppies to squeal at, and random cars to wave at. I kept her out a little later than I had planned so when I pulled onto our street at 7:30pm, I was explaining the short bath and bed plan that I had to Rachel. Then I noticed Nancy standing in the road...with a stick. I thought it was kind of odd and it wasn't until I was going up the driveway that I noticed Mel in the corn field attempting to coral 3 steers. NOT GOOD. Not good at all. As it would turn out- they had been trying to do this on their own for quite some time. I didn't even take a minute to change my shoes and just headed out to try to be of some help... in hindsight, my sandels were not the best choice for steer wrangling.

After about 20 minutes, I had named the steers. We had the Wild One, the Follower, and Fat Albert. The Wild One spooked easily and was determined to run off on his own any chance he got. The Follower, of course, followed the Wild One, and Fat Albert...well he was in steer heaven with an all you can eat buffet of new corn plants and the johnsongrass that grows in the ditch. I'm not sure how long Mel and I worked on it before I asked Nancy if we maybe shouldn't have one or two more people...and could we call MaryAnn and Larry. Larry wasn't home, but MaryAnn came right down and we called Nick to ask that he please join us. It got really interesting when Wild One made it over to the neighbors corn field and decided to cross the road in front of a truck (by this time it was dark). Nick sprinted (at least I assume he did based on how fast he made it down the field edge), to keep Wild One from getting to 245. That would have been very, very bad. By this time Fat Albert and the Follower had been coraled. Tracking a black steer in the dark becomes challenging. When I could no longer see Nick and Wild One, I made my way across the neighbors yard- following the steer tracks in their manicured lawn- and found Nick in his parents backyard with Wild One. Slowly, Nick opened the gate and Wild One trotted back into familiar territory. After the initial relief came the realization that the main gate was still open! A quick yell to "SHUT THE GATE!!" solved the problem.
Yep...never a dull moment around here. I know that Mel probably isn't ready to laugh about it yet. The nightmare every livestock owner has and hopes never to live is their animals trotting up and down the countryside...but maybe, just maybe he'll be able to chuckle about it in a few years.

Until then, I'm very much looking forward to a Wild One ribeye..