Standing guard

An early phone call from BCMS (British Cattle Movement Service) saying the Railway Authority had been in touch with them having found an animal on the railway - alive - and had noted its eartag number which happened to be one of ours and put it into an adjacent field. We also had another phone call from a neighbouring farmer with the same message but two more animals. So N, T and I donned our Wellington boots, grabbed our sticks and decided to move the rest of the cattle through the wood into a new pasture away from the railway line, including the first escapee. We then got the trailer and drove the couple of miles (only a quarter of a mile or less as the crow flies!) to our neighbours. They live in a lovely old farm with a treasure trove of bits of old rusting machinery inherited from their uncle and a nanny goat on guard at the gate! She was supposedly quite safe as long as one didn't turn ones back on her! N still preferred to place his stick in a strategic position!

The railwaymen had been clearing the embankment exposing areas where the fence poles had rotted so now we have our work cut out for us although it is the responsibility of the railway!