rockybane's Blog

come blow your horn,

the sheep's in the meadow,

and the cow's in the corn.......


Our cattle regularly find a hole or loose place in the fence, and come into the yard. We run them back through and we find the place and fix it.

I've never minded much, since they usually eat the yard down while they're in it. You know the old saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Well, it is greener and more tender in the yard, I can see why they want it. They also leave piles of fertilizer behind. I'd rather not have it quite so fresh, but it works anyway....LOL.

If they would eat the grass and be satisfied, I wouldn't get so upset, even with the manure dotting the yard, I can put up with that, it's fairly easy to move after a few days, but no, they like a little variety, and that's where they get on my last nerve.


Through the years they have eaten my tubs of impatiens now and again. And almost every summer they stick their heads over the fence and eat the tops out of my Rose of Sharon bushes. And last fall they broke my young southern magnolia tree in half, and I thought it was done for, although this year we've had so much rain, it has bushed out with new leaves, and may be even prettier than it was.

They're better than the hogs we used to raise, I don't think there was a fence made that would keep the young pigs in, and they absolutely loved my daylilies. They rooted up and ate every one they could find, until I was down to 2-3 little plants. Now the daylilies are back thicker than ever.

But, back to this week. Sunday morning we had to take the son back to Kansas City to catch a plane and we were gone all day. When we got home, the calves were in the yard, again. I didn't think much about it. We ran them out of the yard, and couldn't find where they came through, so didn't worry about it right then as we were both tired. The next morning the calves were back in the yard again, and standing around my hosta bed. Hubby ran them out of the yard again, and I went to look at my hosta bed, or what used to be the hosta bed. They had eaten every hosta, and every impatien I had planted in between. I'm gonna try to post a picture of what my hosta bed looked like the last of May, it was really starting to look lush...They had also been in a few other flower beds and stomped or eaten where and what they pleased.

I could have bawled.

I said "I give up"

I said "I don't care"

It was our fault, for just running them out of the yard and not finding out where they were coming through, but I was so mad at the little boogers that I felt like steak for every meal.

Anyway, I spent the first few days in a blue funk, and fixing fence, and wondering why on earth we have cattle......I  was never going to garden again, I said my time was worth more than that.........and of course, I went back outside today, and looked over what was left, and started planning what to do to the bed, my fence, and decided to start concentrating on making my yard "cattle proof" , not worrying about what has happened this year, cause wish as I might, I can't change it one little bit.

And try as I might, I can't quit gardening and wanting to grow things, wanting to make my yard a little bit of something pleasant to look at and live in.

It's an addiction.