Cows in the Corn

Last Friday evening, Hubby and I were sitting on the patio at the farm on, arguably, one of the best evenings of the year. It was 72 degrees out, about 10pm, a starry sky above, and we had just finished a lovely dinner of Spanish lamb meatballs that we had prepared for ourselves. We were having a nightcap outside when I was startled by a specter blanking out the area in front of the chicken coop, some 30 yards away. We jumped up, grabbed the flashlights and, lo and behold, the neighbor's cattle appeared in the darkness. They had apparently decided to pay us a visit and drink from our swimming pool!

We called said neighbor, Tim, who responded immediately with, "I'm putting my boots on" (code for, "In order to deal with the likes of cattle, one needs foot protection" I surmised.) In addition, he mentioned that the fence they had breached had a hole in it that was "big enough to throw a cat through" (apparently a standard unit of measurement in farm circles).

Now, herding the cows back to where they needed to go was not as straightforward as one would think. You can't push them too hard or they will stampede and trample poor Tim. You can't leave them to their own devices or they will keep drinking from the pool (not the cleanest water around) and knock down the fence to the tender greens in the garden (also not desirable). You have to gently honk at them and go behind them in the truck and guide them to where they need to go. Which is exactly what we did.

Here is hubby driving the truck to corral the cows.

And here are some of the cows.

Most farmers around these parts would be pretty peeved that the cows had made themselves at home on their farms. They leave lots of "cow patties", which we happen to like and usually have to pay for; they trample crops, which we don't happen to have right now; and they knock down fences which, ok, we have to fix, but it wasn't that big a deal.

Being the naive, young farmers that we are, we experienced not annoyance but excitement at the prospect of activity in the late evening hours on a nice, late summer evening.

Thanks, Tim!

But let's not do it too often.