woah, boys.  easy now.

while attempting to introduce our two new bulls to the herd (located several fence lines, over the hill, and halfway to grandma’s away), a lapse in one section of our temporary alley allowed the transferees to undermine the plans.  one second they were in the alley, and the next second they were in full trot, in tandem, towards the farthest possible location they could find—the tree line, three hundred yards away. 

son of a.

i can’t quite describe what these moments are like.  not panicky, as you might guess.  and compared to other moments, not really much urgency either.  there’s just nothing you can do, besides wait and see what they do.  no amount of sprinting, screaming, or freaking will solve your problems now.

after quickly eliminating our options, we landed on the idea of grabbing our trucks, and slowly herding them down the pasture and towards either a) the alley we had them in, or b) the same overnight holding pen they were in last night.  either one will do at this point. 

and it almost worked, too.  after two three quarter way successful efforts, and a whole lot of sprinting, jogging, zigging, and cornering on my end, john ivy politely pointed out that i-between me and the bulls—was the only one getting tired.  at that moment, i wished i could have traded all the power under my hood,  for one real horse.

so we gave up.  the two bulls, at last sighting, were napping in the woodline on the far end of their pasture.  we closed off every exit except the one that leads to their holding pen from last night. 

like a middle aged man luring school kids into his van with candy and balloons, we laced the holding paddock with a mound of sea kelp, a pile of alfalfa snacks, and the only access to water this side of seven thousand volts.  the hope is they will enter, spend the night, and we can try this again in a day or two.

this is where we stand.  to be continued.

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p.s.  to me, the live action commentary to start the clip is hilarious in retrospect.  at that moment i knew nothing.  an hour and a half later i was red in the face, and defeated for the day.