I lost some hens to predators. I figured that the thing to do was to fire up the tractor, mow next to the fence while keeping an eye out for game trails through the grass, and then move the fence slightly. It's just a couple of strands of aluminum fence wire on step-in fence posts, so moving it is easy.

That would deal with the grass that's shorting out the fence and perform a reconnaissance that might reveal where the predators were coming from. On the tractor, I sit up high enough that I get a better view than if I'm on foot.

Well, keeping my eyes peeled for predator sign meant I wasn't watching where I was going, and I bogged down in some very soft ground. Now what? When a vehicle is stuck, I pull it free with the tractor. If the tractor is stuck, I got nothin'!

One of my neighbors came by, asking if he could borrow the tractor to pull out his pickup, which is stuck on his own field. He thinks he can borrow a pal's 4WD tractor and pull out both vehicles. Let's hope.

As it turns out, the predators were getting through because the feeder wire for the electric fence had burned through. If I'd checked that first, none of this would have happened!