Stress makes one foolish

No one and no animal was injured in this story.  But I was pretty dang scared for a while.

Norman and Ethan

Ethan on the right and Norman on the left are normally very nice steers. But last evening when I was doing the chores I heard the animals trying to drink from the trough and it sounded too dry. I turn the flashlight on in my phone. Then I released the lower electric gate and crawled under the upper one. I headed across the pasture to the drinking trough. 

Suddenly I heard behind me "Thump Thump Thump!" I turned around to see both steers running from the other side of the pasture towards me. I was still pretty far from their drinking trough. Boy did I move fast! I turned my back to the building put my arms up and straight out and yelled "Stop! now!" They stopped 3 to 5 feet away from me.

I  filled up the water and while I did one of the steers ran around the pasture scratching, jumping and arching his back and acting like a maniac. There was NO WAY that I was going out the same way that I came in.

I slid along the side of the building to a locked door. I turned around only enough to unhook the latch from the eye and slide the door open.  I called my nephew who lives 3 miles away. He was on his way home from work and still 10 miles away. It was then that I thought of an alternate route out.

I lifted a bale of alfalfa with my good arm and used it to block the door. Then I crawled between the boards and lowered myself down to the stall below. At this point I was in South stall and all the animals were in the North stall watching me. My two risks were that the stalls were open to each other and that the pastures were open to each other. I was lucky and the gates in between both were closed. I still had to crawl over the gate blocking the entrance to the South stall. Although it was challenging with one bad arm, doing it slowly it worked. I walked across the West pasture and unlatched the gate. I was out and safe!

So why did this happen? There are 12 weeks out of the year that women should not walk in a pasture. I was so stressed and I didn't realize it. I didn't stop to think. At least God was watching over me and provided a safe path out.