Ahhh the green leafy shade on a hot day

The other day it was 104 and our cows decided to go on walk about looking for some shade that was cooler than the shade they had in our field. They decided that breaking down the fence was a good idea.

Anders called us as we were headed from the doctor's office to drop Brian off at school. I told him I was at least an hour away. He said he had already tried to get them back in - no way were they cooperating. I told him to keep an eye on them and I'd be home as quickly as possible.

At home I  loaded up tools and a bucket of feed & headed out in the pickup to find the breach in the fence and our cows. It turns out our neighbor has a beautiful forest of mature pine trees, with a lovely carpet of green at their feet. Our cows thought it was a lovely place for an afternoon nap.

I coaxed the cows back in with a tempting treat of feed. (Good thing they are all chow hounds!) I felt a little like Hansel and Gretel leaving bread crumbs to find their way home. I had to drop a handful of feed every 10 feet to keep them coming along while simultaneously  brushing off giant black horseflies and wiping the sweat out of my eyes.

When I finally got them back in, Anders and I started to patch up the fence. That's when I realized the lovely carpet of green in the neighbor's pine woods was lovely green  POISON IVY!

We high tailed it in for showers as soon as we finished. I think I did pretty good I only got a little patch of rash on my ring finger and my right ear.  Not too bad for having waded through it and touched it bare handed while patching the fence. :^)