Ahead of schedule

On Labor Day weekend, we had a list a mile long and the benefit of having family members available to help at different times throughout the weekend.  I also had to work mid-day on Saturday which meant we had to keep to a really tight schedule to make sure I wasn't late for my work commitment.  Our Saturday morning list included finishing some cleaning and repair work on a rental home that we own in a neighboring town.  We were really proud of ourselves when we headed back to our house ahead of schedule.  Then, things got interesting.

We were headed down a county highway and all of a sudden there were cows in the road.  What?  Cows.  Standing in the middle of the road.

We realized that the farmer traveling towards us had the gate to his stock trailer fly open and most of his trailer full of cows spilled out onto the highway.  All the girls looked uninjured, but a little dazed.  We pulled over and so did a young guy in the pick up behind us.

My dad was with us and he drove our truck up a few yards and jumped out to stop traffic.  My husband, the other good Samaritan and I tried to keep the cows together and on the road instead of in the bean fields on either side of the road.  The farmer was quick enough to close the trailer to catch a few of the cows before they exited.  Still, we had eight or so cows in the middle of a highway with cars backing up in either direction.

The farmer decided that running them back a couple of miles to the pasture from which they originated would be the best bet.  My husband accepted this challenge - he drove them all the way back to the pasture on foot.  He checked is run for the day off his list.

The whole situation was made better by a series of fortunate events.  When it first happened, there wasn't any traffic except the truck and trailer, us, and the other good Samaritan.  We had just enough people to help keep the cows together, stop traffic, head them off at the appropriate corners (we had to make two corners and the turn into the pasture), and everyone was willing to help.

My dad and I picked up the farmer's wife because she had jumped out to help and the truck and trailer sped off to help us find the pasture.  She could not have been more thankful for the help.  We had a lady delivering mail that stopped and help turn the cows into the pasture.  Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when all of the cows were back in the holding pen.

As we all climbed back into our truck, my husband laughed and told me that we were still two minutes ahead of schedule.

The funniest moment was when I was running down the highway.  My dad had pulled ahead and my husband was way ahead behind the cows.  One of our friends and his daughter pulled up along side me and asked, "What are you doing?!!!"  I tried to explain that a farmer lost some cows on the highway and my husband was running them back to the pasture.  Of course, that is what everyone does on the Saturday of a long weekend.

(The picture above is not of the cows that enjoyed the 5K run with my husband.  These girls were in a pasture near our house two springs ago.)