To add a little "levity" to an otherwise somber thread about the perils of country living, I need to throw this story in. Wife and I came home one day only to find one of our stallions going on about something.
I take a quick peek to see what is going on and there are two buffalo outside the paddock. We had purchased the place less than a year before so we had not really met to many neighbors but from driving by, I knew they belonged to the farm over the hill behind us. So, I drove over to their place and spoke with the daughter who knew they were loose and had called her father to come home. I told her to tell him where they were.
By this time, these two bulls as it turned out had made their way around the fence to our back yard and were raising heck with our pine tree wind break scratching themselves. I have pictures somewhere of them drinking out of our bird bath, lol!
So, they then moved over by my other stallion and got him all smoked up. About that time the neighbor shows up. He was not sure he could get them home but with a bucket of grain and some prodding, he managed to get them back to their paddocks.
He and his wife came back over to thank us for letting the daughter know where the buffalo were and to apologize for the incident. He took notice of my "hotstraps" over my gates to keep the horses off. He said that was what he needed to do. Seems the two bulls were interested in greener pastures during that season's dry summer and broke down a gate.
Now, I suppose I could have shot them but they really had not caused a problem (though my stallions kept an eye out on the hill for the next several days). I would have pretty much put a big dent in his breeding program at a time when he was just getting some results. I made a friend that day and not an enemy.
Besides, I would have had to go buy several chest freezers to put up that much meat.
