Gracie Moos come home!

Why does it always pour with rain whenever we have to move the Gracie Moos?!  Yesterday was no exception as we spent most of the day trying to stay upright and keep our wellies on as they were continually sucked down into the muddy quagmire around the farm.

It's almost calving time again!  As you know, David becomes quite an anxious parent and he was keen to get those big old Gracie Moos back up to the farm and settled in well before they start to have their babies.  They have been living just a mile or so away from the farm in a very nice field with lots of grass and, as the weather has not been too bad yet this winter, they have stayed out there rather than come back into the yard.  But, now we need to keep a closer eye on them ..

David has been busy mending fences and putting up new gate posts ready for their arrival.  With everything back in place, we spread lots of straw in the back of their pen:

Everything with cows has to be big and heavy!  So, we had to pick up all the big cattle gates ..

Load them into a trailer and take them down the road where they had to be unloaded into the field:

And a pen set up, with the trailer at one end ...

Of course, as soon as we started doing all this, those girls were off and away down the far end of the field!

The way to a Gracie Moo's heart is through her stomach(s) ... Much shaking of feed bags and whistling ... and they reappeared over the brow of the hill!

And then the difficult bit ... A lot of coaxing, aided by a rather nice bale of silage, finally got everyone into the pen.  It can often take a very long time (sometimes days!) to get everyone in the pen all together, but they were very good girls and everyone was safely gated up within an hour ..

The first 3 loaded into the trailer pretty quickly and they were very soon home and back in their new house ..  Patiently waiting for their friends to arrive ..

Here they come!  The next load backs into the yard ..

And, just in case you needed to know just how muddy it was .. Here's a few boots for you ..

And a couple of pairs of legs ... David and Anita ..

It was hard work, but soon everyone was back home safely and tucking into a tasty 'welcome home' snack!

And here's the baby!  Our youngest Gracie Moo ..

And of course, we then had to do everything again in reverse ... load all the gates back into the trailer, bring them back to the farm, unload them .. and clean out the trailer.  I have to say that we were all absolutely filthy and very tired by the end of the day!