Fence In or Fence Out

I know quite a bit about the settling of the Old West.  Most of my knowledge comes from watching old Westerns on television.  I’m sure some of my knowledge comes from my 7th-grade Colorado History class, but I’m not sure how much I remember from that class.  I do remember the day Mrs. Y slapped David B until his nose bled.  You can’t forget a lesson like that.

I feel lucky that we have a television package that includes two old western channels that show the old westerns from my childhood.  You would be surprised how many shows relate to our life in the mountains today.  Some of the old westerns feature cattle drives.  We have cattle drives today, well not today, today but, several times in the spring and several times in the fall.

If I hadn’t watched all those westerns, I wouldn’t know what to do when I encounter five or six cowboys/girls on horses pushing several hundred cows blocking the road when I’m trying to get to town.  In case you are wondering, that is when you fire a couple of shots in the air, stampeding the cows and use your vehicle to push the cows to one side of the road to allow passage.  The cowboys/girls hate that so keep a couple bullets just in case.

But we are not going to talk about cows, cattle drives, or westerns today.  I prefer to write about fencing, old and new.

When Elaine found the property we live on today, the perimeter was partially fenced.  When I say partially, I mean poorly.  Some of the existing fencing was installed when Jack Sloan and his band of outlaws were roaming the area, (not kidding) Broken barb wire, posts missing and/or rotting away.

With a herd of some twenty llamas and alpacas the fencing was not going to work, or was it?  I’ll get to that.  Elaine and I budgeted for some fence repair and some additional fencing.  The llamas and alpacas were safe and contained.

But here come the yaks.  Fencing for yaks is more of a suggestion.  I they want on the other side of the fence, they will get there.  Hopefully they aren’t in the mood to remove the fence to get to the other side.

Mac the yak has always enjoyed his side of the fencing, unless of course a gate was left open.  Franks, our 1800 pound bull never saw a fence that he couldn’t tear down.  Hey, that might be why he was sold to a restaurant.

WE purchased three yaks this past spring.  On of them is a small female calf that sees no reason for fencing.  She can get out between the wires, or under the wires or wherever.  The neighbors call, “Hey, your yak is in the road again, the yak is in our driveway again, the yak is with the neighbor’s cows again.”

The yak, named Small Fries, will eventually get too big to get through the fence, and she knows where she lives and will come home.  The puppies will see to that.

I am a little concerned when Small Fries visits the neighbor’s cows. The neighbor’s hundred-year-old fence can use some attention.  No one seems to mind at this point, but should it become a problem the neighbor will need to fence Small Fries, OUT.  I will not fence her IN.  I’ve watched Rawhide, I know about these things.

God bless, Love ya, Tis the season to knit.  Enjoy

Our crazy lives!

Monner