Steer Roping Event
No one took up my invitation to join the Iwashige Parents and Sons Steer Roping Event this morning. It's only in retrospect, of course, that we know the proper name for the event.
This morning at 7:00 the outlaw steer was lurking in a hedge row west of the pen and barn. Shane opened the fence panels at strategic points to funnel him into the pen where he belonged, then appointed Hiromi and Grant to watch so that he didn't go out through any of the electric fences enroute to the pen. I was stationed on the outside of the wooden panels the two steers had scaled last night. My job was to look and act menacing. Shane headed around him to drive him east toward us.
Lots of activity ensued, with the steer, the four-wheeler, and Brandi making many north-south trips up and down the tree row. Going east was not part of the steer's travel itinerary. Finally, the steer got away toward the south, never having come any closer to the pen than when we first saw him this morning.
When Shane first arrived, he searched the shed and the garage for the lariat he knew he had bought when he had Rambo, the berserk steer he fed as a 4H project. After a phone call to Grant to ask him where the rope was, he found it on a shelf in the garage. He looked for a place to leave it easily accessible and lamented that he forgot most of what he ever knew about roping. He hoped that if this steer ever got as exhausted as he had the last time, maybe he could slip a rope over his neck and pull him in that way.
After the steer disappeared from the hedgerow and went south, Shane, whose conveyance didn't negotiate the fences as easily as the steer did, drove around a bit looking for him, then found him in the alfalfa field south of the buildings. He was headed west. Shane must have thought he noted some weariness, so he called Grant and asked him to bring the rope. Grant left in the truck. I eventually trailed out there and couldn't seen any sign of the men or the steer. I took up the hose to water my flowers by the house. Hiromi followed in the car after a bit and told me later what happened.
I don't know all the details, but eventually they got the steer tied to a tree along Centennial Road (Before it had a name, we always called it the Salt Creek road.), a mile west of here, and south of Illinois Ave. On the way Shane roared across part of Jamie's property, feeling very apologetic for doing so, but knowing that he was doing less damage than the steer surely would if he couldn't keep him off.
After the steer was anchored to a hedge tree, Shane or Grant left with the truck to get a trailer, and then they tried the tricky part: getting the rope unwound from the tree and pulling the steer onto the trailer. This did not go as planned, and the men proved to be no match for the big steer. He ran off, dragging his rope.
Dwight's heifers in the pasture were the next distraction, and the steer plowed through the pasture fence to join them. At this point Dwight got involved and they brought all the heifers back across the road into the holding pen by the dairy barn, the steer happy to follow the crowd. In the holding pen, Shane got the steer tied up again. Back across the road the heifers went, leaving the steer behind. Then the trailer got backed into place, and the steer thought he spied a new escape route via the open back end of the trailer. In your dreams, buddy.
He's back in the small pen by the barn now. No more gestures of goodwill are likely to come his way. Shane thinks he will take extraordinary delight in seeing that steer all done up in neat plastic packages.
This morning at 7:00 the outlaw steer was lurking in a hedge row west of the pen and barn. Shane opened the fence panels at strategic points to funnel him into the pen where he belonged, then appointed Hiromi and Grant to watch so that he didn't go out through any of the electric fences enroute to the pen. I was stationed on the outside of the wooden panels the two steers had scaled last night. My job was to look and act menacing. Shane headed around him to drive him east toward us.
Lots of activity ensued, with the steer, the four-wheeler, and Brandi making many north-south trips up and down the tree row. Going east was not part of the steer's travel itinerary. Finally, the steer got away toward the south, never having come any closer to the pen than when we first saw him this morning.
When Shane first arrived, he searched the shed and the garage for the lariat he knew he had bought when he had Rambo, the berserk steer he fed as a 4H project. After a phone call to Grant to ask him where the rope was, he found it on a shelf in the garage. He looked for a place to leave it easily accessible and lamented that he forgot most of what he ever knew about roping. He hoped that if this steer ever got as exhausted as he had the last time, maybe he could slip a rope over his neck and pull him in that way.
After the steer disappeared from the hedgerow and went south, Shane, whose conveyance didn't negotiate the fences as easily as the steer did, drove around a bit looking for him, then found him in the alfalfa field south of the buildings. He was headed west. Shane must have thought he noted some weariness, so he called Grant and asked him to bring the rope. Grant left in the truck. I eventually trailed out there and couldn't seen any sign of the men or the steer. I took up the hose to water my flowers by the house. Hiromi followed in the car after a bit and told me later what happened.
I don't know all the details, but eventually they got the steer tied to a tree along Centennial Road (Before it had a name, we always called it the Salt Creek road.), a mile west of here, and south of Illinois Ave. On the way Shane roared across part of Jamie's property, feeling very apologetic for doing so, but knowing that he was doing less damage than the steer surely would if he couldn't keep him off.
After the steer was anchored to a hedge tree, Shane or Grant left with the truck to get a trailer, and then they tried the tricky part: getting the rope unwound from the tree and pulling the steer onto the trailer. This did not go as planned, and the men proved to be no match for the big steer. He ran off, dragging his rope.
Dwight's heifers in the pasture were the next distraction, and the steer plowed through the pasture fence to join them. At this point Dwight got involved and they brought all the heifers back across the road into the holding pen by the dairy barn, the steer happy to follow the crowd. In the holding pen, Shane got the steer tied up again. Back across the road the heifers went, leaving the steer behind. Then the trailer got backed into place, and the steer thought he spied a new escape route via the open back end of the trailer. In your dreams, buddy.
He's back in the small pen by the barn now. No more gestures of goodwill are likely to come his way. Shane thinks he will take extraordinary delight in seeing that steer all done up in neat plastic packages.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
2:55 PM
1 Comments:
Your life is quite 'drama'tic, I must say! =) I'm relieved with you that critter is inside the pen! May he rest well. =)
~Susanna
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Anonymous, at 7/10/2012
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