Cow door

Yesterday’s hike was taken along the west side of the ranch, just for variety’s sake. Some places we had never seen, or maybe not seen for years, were pretty fascinating. One was a hidden tree cave, or at least a tunnel through the low growth of trees, where the ground was so churned up by pigs that it was absolutely fluffy to walk on! Mushrooms everywhere, leaves as deep as you could poke your hand into, and dark. We marveled at the feeling of being in a dark place on a bright sunny day.

Then we turned toward the fence line and followed it north. Very soon we ran across what is shown here—several hundred feet of fence wire lying on the ground, obviously a cow door. Oddly, there weren’t any horse tracks, so there is no reciprocation on their part; it would be nice if the horses shared our neighbor’s grass as much as his cows enjoy ours.

Here we see a fence post that has outlived its usefulness. The bottom is rotted off; the top is burned off. It couldn’t hold another wire beside the one held by its lone staple. Thanks for your hundred years’ service, little post remnant. We’ll give you a place of honor on our firewood stack.