A bit too much bull on the neighbor's side of the fence;
Sissy takes matters into her own hands

By Bebe and Sissy Fenstermaker

It has been a frustrating three weeks. We finally found a real longhorn bull, the age, lineage, and temperament we wanted. We bought him, took delivery, put a breedable heifer in the pen with him and let him settle in. When he and the heifer had bonded, I felt he could be released, and all was well for almost a week. A couple of our young heifers came into heat, and he was all business. However, all of a sudden a group howl arose from a neighbor's cows across the fence.
This neighbor had used our bulls for two breeding seasons. We were willing to share our bull with him until last fall when we decided he should find his own way to get his cows bred. I let him know, and he seemed to understand. We saw what looked like a bull in his pasture in January, which confirmed this. His cows were quiet and gaining weight so we thought they were bred.
When I let the new bull out of the pen, he was in the neighbor's pasture breeding his cows in less than a week. Only then did we find that not one of his cows had been bred although they had been open for almost two years. The animal we thought was a bull was a bullish-looking cow that had been added. It did not matter that we had heifers here we wanted to calve as two-year-olds, that bull did not intend to leave those "needy" cows. I brought him back once and in a day, he was back in there. We have a big problem. Once a bull goes over or through a fence, he is ruined. There is trouble from there on. We do not keep jumping animals because they are a headache that does not end until they go out the front gate in a trailer. Even if we kept such a bull, there is the probability he will injure himself on the barbed wire. Our options are small. Keep a jumping bull, in the corral for his service time and sell him. Out go our plans for his lineage and what it can do for our herd, out goes the valuable animal we saved for. We have to go through the work to find another bull, and somehow manage to buy again. All because a neighbor decides to outwait us for the use of our bull. That is the oldest agricultural joke in the book - the one about the guy who gets his cows bred by the neighbor's good bull, therby bettering his herd for NADA!
There is a bit of hope. Our (good) neighbor who is a homeopath just called and wants to try to do something to pursuade the bull to grow or move beyond his bad habit. She wants to try…so…stay tuned. She did save my dog, horse, me, numerous others here, so many in fact that I refer to us as her laboratory.
Sissy will take up from here about the continuing snake saga. I just want to say, since she will probably not toot her own horn, she did reach in and pick up the stubborn snake (huge!) and drop it into the bucket. Just reached in and got it while Kelly and I were gaping and gasping.
Bebe Fenstermaker

The babies are hitting the ground! Genevieve brought her fawn of less than a day old out in the rain for all to ooh and aah over. Mrs. Nose had her's back in May. The dogs and I, out on a walk one evening, msaw it scampering away. I noticed that Genevieve's oldest daughter has presented her with another grandbaby. All the bucks have velvet covered antler starts showing.

My contribution to the snake episode is that I saw the critter slithering back into the cabinet and I 'grasped' the opportunity to grab it from behind, pulled it out, and dangled it up off the floor. Then I dropped through the hole in the bucket and Bebe stuck a sack of dog food over that. Bebe said our cousin, Kelly, was standing there transfixed and pulling her hair with both hands. Wish I'd seen that site.
Our last Native Plant Society meeting for the summer included a delicious covered dish affair. The speaker was Sue Tracy from Medina. She spoke on Texas ferns of which there are over a hundred throughout the State. I was surprised to learn the Trans Pecos region has the most variety. She brought some from her collection and it was interesting to see the variation of leaf or frond and growth pattern. They were quite exquisite.
The creek stopped running across the Ranch road about two weeks ago. It had run steadily since late last August. There are a few pools still between the spring and the road. It has become a common experience lately both in the early dawn and late evening to see and hear black bellied whistling ducks flying over. Our neighbor, Wally, of Primarily Primates is responsible for extending their habitat. He acquired some and let them loose on his lake some years ago. They have settled in and now we even see them along the Cibolo in Boerne.
Our summer was an early one this year. The temperatures jumped into the 90s during most of May. We even reached 100 degrees once or twice. I'm afraid the summer will be long and hot. We'll be taking it slow and steady.
Sissy Fenstermaker