# It takes a village...(of critter-helpers!)



## amysflock (Jul 29, 2008)

My hubby left yesterday morning while I was at work for a week-long fishing trip at the coast, leaving me to hold down the fort, care for the animals, etc. (which I do by myself most of the time anyway, ha!).

Last night I was enjoying my dinner in front of the boob toob and looked out back to see Sheila staring into the "off-limits" part of our pasture, over the double hot wire. She would graze some, then look up and over there with quite a bit of interest, then back to grazing. Then my American Foxhound, Honey, who's usually running back and forth watching something, ran to the corner of our backyard (adjacent to that pasture), stared, then turned and looked right at me through the living room window with a worried look on her face.

That was enough to make me wonder where Bridgit, our 2-year old heifer, was, since I couldn't see her.

Yep, she was in the "off-limits" part of the pasture, going to town on a previously untouched apple tree! She must have ducked her head between the hot wires and then stepped through. Sheila's too big to do the same.

I went out with the comb and she was unmoved, so I gathered a tiny bit of grain in a bucket, plus the halter rope, and tried again. She wanted to run around the tree at the sight of the halter, but the bucket was enough enticement. I wasn't able to get the halter on her nose, but did get it around her horns and was able to lead her to the "gate" part of the hotwires (where those springy connector things are - yes, I had unplugged the fencer beforehand).

Sheila came charging over at the sight of Bridgit struggling against the rope, but I chased her off, got Bridgit through the "gate," ran Sheila off a couple more times, got the halter off Bridgit and ran her off, and got the fence put back together without either girl going back through. 

It turns out our fence isn't working...at all. The ground wire is hot, and the others aren't. I walked the fence line and did find where a corner connection had broken, so I fixed that and restrung that wire, but there were no other obvious problems I could see. We think we need to redo the ground (hubby took a shortcut and didn't put in as many grounds as were suggested, and with our rocky soil, we probably need even more than suggested). The girls are locked in the paddock until hubby comes home and fixes the fence.

My lessons are: 
1) If they're going to do it (insert anything naughty), they'll wait until I'm alone
2) If the dog looks worried, go check it out...she doesn't cry wolf often
3) When in doubt, try the grain


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## Chris aka Barney (Jul 29, 2008)

Great Story Amy!  
 It's the truth! When a husband's away...anything can happen! And I mean anything!!


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## Farmer Kitty (Jul 29, 2008)

Yep! They always wait until your alone to get into trouble. I've done more chasing when DH is off to work than when it's both of us here!  Glad you were able to get yours back in without to much problems.


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## wynedot55 (Jul 29, 2008)

glad you was able to get her back into the pasture without much fuss.an cows do love to get out if they think they can bother you.


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## allenacres (Jul 29, 2008)

yup when in doubt, get the grain bucket. 

This rain we are having should help your ground, but yeah you cant take short cuts on the ground. I went overboard with our tension fence and I think I put in 6 grounds as I cant get them deep enough with the rocky soil. So I put 3 on one side and three on the other, works great.


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## Farmer Kitty (Jul 29, 2008)

With ground rods if you can't go straight down you can go on an angle. It is a matter of having the grounding rod into the ground-not how far in. We live on a rock ledge and couldn't get a ground rod straight into the ground. The electric company were out putting more ground rods in (electric field was to high) and DH watched them and that is how they were doing it. He inquired why and that's when they told him it's getting the rod into the ground to distrubute the electrical charge rather than depth!


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## allenacres (Jul 29, 2008)

yup Ive heard the same thing, but that was after I did mine. So my solution was to go shorter but go with more rods.


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## amysflock (Jul 31, 2008)

Good to know.

I think our fencer required 3 2-foot lengths for grounds, so instead, my hubby (this is how he thinks) attempted to drive 1 6' copper rod in (apparently because 3x2=6). Um, yeah.

I was skeptical and read the instructions later, and saw not only the spacing, etc. recommended for the 3 rod method, but also read you need to double for rocky or dry ground, which means we really need at least 6 2' lengths.

I hadn't touched the hot wires when they WERE working (not needing to experience that myself, having once shocked myself on a light socket in our previous old house), but after I accidentally leaned on the (hot) ground in the pump house while trying to unplug the dang fencer, I realized it wasn't so bad so felt all the way around our fence's "hot" wires...and determined they're just flat out dead. DH is gonna have work to do this weekend when he's back from fishing!


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