Last night our skies were black as velvet!  The rain flowing down upon us creating a frosty feeling to the air.  I watched the lightening and thunder play and dance along the plateau as I fell asleep only to be waked two hours later with the same flashes of brilliance right over our farm.

The lightening was huge running large and small jagged lines from cloud to earth- the thunder cracked at exactly the same moment!  The effect was awe inspiring and very intimidating.  After I finish posting this I must run down to the kid’s house an check everything is okay.  I’m stalling—for if a tree branch has fallen it means work…and it’s way too wet to work right now.  (Although Terry is out wading through mud and mud puddles and slick ditch banks to change the water—the water never stops until harvest…ever.)

The crows are back…fall is in the air here–I can even see the leaves starting to change color here.

This morning I saw a very faint rainbow…very faint but it was still nice to see.

Some time ago I posted that cows were able to take care of coyotes and tried to explain how.

Sara from My Favorite Sheep blogspot….sent me an email about cows running off a bear: It’s pretty stunning I’ve posted it below.

Off now to go see if we have any lightening damage.

Your farm friend,

Linda

Oregon cows and a black bear…don’t mess with Mama!

A couple of evenings ago, an Eastern Oregon rancher went out to check his beef herd. 

He saw a very strange sight — and was able to photograph an unusual battle between

a black bear and some brave cows. The bear began to attack a cow and then the herd

came to her aid.  One cow in particular got especially aggressive and head-butted the

bear right off its feet. Then, two cows sandwiched the bear between their heads. After

that, the bear decided to flee and limped back into the woods.

The blonde and white Simmental cow we know as I-12 went right for him.
She is a very good cow, a very attentive mother and about 12 years old.

She’s in her prime and knows that bears are bad news.

Little does the bear know what is coming.

She tried her best to mash him into the ground. Man, that has to have hurt the bear!

Nothing like a mad cow to give you a hard time.

There are a couple of photos where the bear is biting I-12’s leg and clawing her face,

but she is not giving up. Her stiff tail shows how agitated she is. Wayne said all the

cows were bawling, the bear was squealing and the calves were running around with

their tails in the air.

And here comes some help. This bear is about to know what real trouble is!

When you have two females pissed at you, real trouble has arrived!
A younger cow, R-55, an Angus-Cross cow, age 7, is helping her out as best she can.
It is an incredible photo to see two cows at once trying to crush the bear.
Watch That hoof land home!

I looked up the calving records of both cows who are so aggressive in these photos

and they are both good, calm cows around us, and have given us no troubles

whatsoever. I’ll have to add in my notes that they have a very distinct dislike of bears.
Man, that’s a lot of weight bearing (pun intended), down on the bear like mashing a

lump of butter! It’s a wonder the bear could even move after all the mauling he received.

We’ll be watching I-12 over the next few days to see if she needs Treatment for infection.
I don’t know how willingly she’ll come to the corrals for treatment, but she might not have

a choice. And stay away you won’t be so lucky next time!

Lucky to be able to move at all.

Finally, the bear decided to vacate the area. We thought he’d be dead for sure,
but there was no sign of him the next day.

We’ll have to keep an eye out for eagles in the trees or flocks of ravens flying up. We’re

sure he’s got some broken ribs out of the deal at the very least. Wayne couldn’t believe

his eyes when he witnessed this ruckus.  It’s a once-in-a-lifetime photography event.

Amazing!