Last night I had decided not to water the garden since I had watered it so well yesterday morning. The plan was that I would come in early and knit. Ahh, an early night in my chair and progress on the first Camp Loopy project.
Vince was out tilling up the spot where he’s going to put the grapevines. I fed and watered the chickens, caught the escapees for the third time since noon and went to fill the watering tub for the cows. It’s been yucky for a while but it has no valve to drain it and the guy who owns them says it’s ok. It was getting worse but when I looked in before turning the water on, there was a dead bird in there. Now why was there a dead bird in the cows’ water?
Vince was busy with his tilling and wasn’t happy when I told him that he had to come fish this dead bird out and the cows couldn’t drink the dirty water that was now contaminated by a dead bird. He said “What am I going to do about it?” Simple! Drain the tub, scrub it and put some fresh water in there!
We’re both halfway scared of the bull. Let’s say Vince is about 50% scared of the bull and I’m about 99% scared of the bull and when I’m on the wrong side (cows’ side) of the fence with them, I’m about 120% scared of all of them!
We got the Softscrub with Bleach, a new toilet brush that had never been used, and a bucket and we loaded it all into the RTV and off we went . . down to the gate and back down to the water bucket.
I’m sitting in the RTV . . in the driver’s seat . . with the keys . . with the motor running. No, not really . . the motor wasn’t running but I was ready to take off and leave Vince if the bull came up. Vince doesn’t like dirty, nasty stuff. Let’s just say that show “Dirty Jobs”, you won’t ever find Vince on there! He’s fishing the bird out in this picture and I think he’s formulating a plan in his head about why he shouldn’t attempt to clean out this nasty water.
Then he must’ve decided that dealing with the murky, stinking water was easier than convincing me that he wasn’t going to clean it out. He began dipping and he was walking over to some trees to dump the water but after a while it was all draining back towards him anyway so he just began dumping it on the ground.
Oh, he doesn’t like to get nasty. Neither do I but . . I’m a girl! He was griping the entire time. I think I heard a few four letter words. I was glad the cows weren’t around to hear what I was hearing. I think somehow he had figured out that this was all my fault. My fault the water was dirty. My fault the bird died. My fault he was probably going to die too from standing in this dirty, stinking water.
Oh, great! He found a little piece of styrofoam on which to stand in order to keep from getting his feet wet. I said “Aren’t your boots waterproof?” No! They are NOT! Then I said “Well, why did you buy them?” And, I think I heard more of those four letter words and decided we’d better change the subject. And the next subject was . . The cows are coming!
She wanted to know why we were there. Why were we on her side of the fence? Why was there so much mud around the water tub? Why was Vince dumping all the nasty, stinking water. Then, I think she said “Are those boots waterproof?” All we wanted to know was . . where’s that big, black bull?
Then Vince dumped the water tub and turned it on its side and we left. We decided the rest of our job could be done from our side of the fence . . safely behind 6 strands of barbed wire. It’s a good thing because all the rest of the cows appeared . . including the bull.
Vince took a break from scrubbing the tub to go give the cows a treat. They know he’s so easy and they can always convince him to stop working and feed them something.
Excuse me . . but we have a job to finish down here!
They all had to stand there and see what we were doing. This is so interesting! They’ve probably never seen anyone clean their water tub before. By the way, Vince decided Softscrub with Bleach was probably not safe and he ended up just squirting the tub out with water and then refilling it.
Wouldn’t you be scared of him? He has mean eyes! He looks at me like he thinks he needs to show me who’s boss. I know he’s here for a reason but I wish he wasn’t here. I liked it better when we just had three nice girl cows and one bossy girl cow and four babies . . though they’re growing up and they’re all bulls too.
They couldn’t wait to get a drink of fresh water. You would think since we sometimes go for days without seeing these cows that we could have just half an hour without them but . . no . . they are so nosey! And, I guess they were kinda thirsty too.
Can you see her using her tongue trying to get the water coming out of the facet?
At least they have clean water . . without a dead bird in it!
Diana in TX says
Had to pass this one on to Galen! I could just see the two of you and hear Vince. Maybe you should invest in a fishing net so you can retrieve what ever falls into the cow tank!!!!
Ranch WIfe says
LOL! You two are a hoot and you are spoiling those cows! 🙂 I’m certainly not telling OUR cows what y’all are doing over there because then they’ll think THEY need their tanks cleaned out.
Lynn says
Vince was right about the cleanser – don’t think that the cows would like the after taste of the water or how safe the chemicals that are in it either, even though it would be rinsed out as good as you could. Our cows drink out of stock tanks that are cleaned every couple of years at best and they drink out of the ponds in the pasture too during the summer. You can guess what they do while standing in the pond so they are not too picky about sparkling clean water although they probably did like the fresh water you gave them. Good to get the dead bird out though – it probably fell in while trying to get a drink.
Trina says
You are a hoot!! The laugh that I received while reading your blog was very much needed here. Thank ;you.
Trina
Saska says
I’m with Lynn, when it’s hot our cows are out standing in the pond up to their eyeballs in the water and I’m sure they don’t excuse themselves to go potty before they get back in!
Put a board–or something that will float in your tank so if a bird falls in it then it can get out. All of our tanks have something in them to save critters.
Shirley says
This is what we do. After several birds and one squirrel died we put a block of wood in. It sits above the water line and if they fall in they can climb out. No more dead birds. Shirley in Oklahoma
Shirley says
Oh also we put a gold fish in to eat the wigglies.
Liz says
It probably helped with decreasing the mosquito problem, if you have one.
Linda Steller says
What a wonderful thing to do. If I were a cow, I wouldn’t want dirty water with a dead bird in it either. Obviously, since that cow is trying to get the water fresh from the faucet, she doesn’t want dirty water either. I think it’s time to order Vince some knee-high brown boots with blue bulls on them! 😉
Linda in NE says
You tell the best stories! I’ll bet the cows really do appreciate the nice clean water. Actually the bull looks kind of mild-mannered. As for the young ones being bulls….that can be fixed!!
SarahB says
Oh my, you gave me a good chuckle as I can sooo picture it all just as you described it! Good for you taking care of your neighbors cows…
Gwen says
We keep goldfish and an algae eater in the water tank for the longhorns. We also have a board across one end. Found a dead squirrel once before we put in the board. Our metal tank like that one develope a hole or two from being hit by horns so it is now a flower planter at the house. The next one that leaks will get some lettuce and tomato plants!
Debi McIntosh says
Vince is a good man – the cows would have loved the fresh water!!
lw says
It’s smart to give the cattle fresh water. Imagine the bacteria and mites in that water with the dead bird– ick. It was kind of you and Vince to make sure the cows and the bull got clean water.
Sara in AL says
About once a week, especially in the summer, I clean out the tank for the horses. There is a circular spot at the bottom of the tank that can be popped out and a regular faucet screwed into it. We did that for our tanks, that way we just open the faucet and drain the tank. I have a scrub brush that I use to get the algea off and we rinse it with the hose. They seem to appreciate the clean tank of water. I believe that all of God’s creatures deserve to have clean water to drink.
Susan in OH says
Just had to laugh. I clean out stock tanks for cows too! I must say though, I’d prefer that bull over those cows … don’t like horns one bit. We used to have a cows the loved to scratch her head up and down your leg so I was real glad she didn’t have horns. Most of our bulls are nicer than some of our cows. Our bulls are pretty much spoiled rotten and love to be scratched. Still have to watch out though because they are so big. I’ve been but down by cows with calfs a couple of times but not by the bulls, actually, I’ve been saved by the bulls a time or two.
Sherryl says
I LOVE the way you get inside those cow’s heads. I just know they are thinking exactly what you think they are thinking! I passed this post on to my sister. I know if she and I were living together on a little ranch like yours that “I” would be “Vince” – um… without the four letter words of course! LOL