Good neighbor, bad cows

[ponder]

Yet again(ninth time and counting), a herd of 30+ cattle (ooh, the bull is out too!) has run amok through my carefully tended park-like yard and gravel driveway, churning the ditches and road to mush and setting holes eight inches deep, ruining our park-like grass with divots, trashing perennials, trees, fruit trees and shrubs, patties everywhere...and the owners were not answering their phone, didn`t appear to be home when I drove over, and the cattle are still at large, though not in my yard - they have moved to the freshly seeded barely fenced piece of the owner`s rented property a few meters from a rural development. Good morning, world! Too early to call the RM office so I called the RCMP. No one has come yet - 2 hours later. Husband is due to return from fishing trip and will see the mess...before he even gets in the house! Ought to be a lovely homecoming
First day of my holidays, forecast is rain rain rain...yeah summer. Round pen has become a slurry and is unuseable, footing is treacherous at best in the arena. I am already ready to go back to work LOL
But for now I will try to block the return of the trashing herd. Wonder if they will notice a full freezer of beef = missing cow...hmmm. I am going to make coffee and grab a good book, some mosquito repellent, pellet gun and flags and park at the driveway entrance. After all, I am on holidays and I may as well have fun

[hang-on]

Are we all invited to the bad cow BBQ? I like my steak med well with mushrooms and onions and garlic!

[ponder]

Bad cow bbq - great idea!! Except, once again, it is pouring rain. The cows were just taken home via their own property...neighbor pust have either listened to messages or RCMP or woke up and noticed they were gone.

[cowgirl]

Say no to Bad Cow BBQ.

We had one who was a trouble maker, so we took her to the meat packer, and just to spite us she was tough and horrible to eat as she was when she was alive. This year I'm saying any trouble makers can be sent to the auction, I'm eating a placid one.

Sorry your having such issues Ponder, that sucks.

Can we get someone to do a 'stop raining for $^%#$# sake' Dance it really is getting old, I want to ride dammit

[ponder]

We are fortunate enough to get the three legged calf that seems to happen every year at the in-laws. Less roast on that side, but whole beef is nice and tender since it is corralled until butcher time. They get around amazingly well for such large animals. Darn snowstorms and early calving.

Another 5/8 inch rain today. Jeez. I checked the well and it is up to 13 feet deep. Seven feet up this year on the water table - that's pretty significant!! Our basement is now only sitting four feet above the water table - yay. SK was an inland sea once...

And the neighbor apologized when I caught up with him on the main road, sort of - when I pointed to the wrecked trees and hamburger driveway - he said the trees were damaged by last night's wind . Yeah... Wind leaves cloven hoof prints.

[cowgirl]

. Yeah... Wind leaves cloven hoof prints.

You never heard of dust devils???

[Saskia]

What a mess Ponder! I feel sorry for you.
We kept it dry yesterday but again chances of thunderstorms this afternoon. Let's hope they go away. Pffff....enough with the rain!

[Paintedhorses]

I feel for ya. Our neighbour has way to many cows for the amount of pasture he has, so they knocked over the fence a few years ago and have been trampling in our fields and last year destroyed my garden. He has been told several times to fix the fence, so he fixed about 700ft of it and then just propped the rest of it up on the trees. Like he thinks we don't ride the fences or something???? duh!

We have just decided to invest in a paint ball gun and when his cows come back (and they will, they do every year because he doesn't have enough pasture and they want grass, not hay) we'll send home hot pink, orange, green, yellow, purple, blue cows! Maybe then he'll get the hint. If that doesn't work, then we'll invite him over for a BBQ and when we're done eating, we'll thank him for the meat he supplied!

[penny]

she was tough and horrible to eat

Oh boy - I bought a heifer to fatten for butchering but as it turns out she is one of those "bad cows". On the day that we purchased her and after having only been here for about three hours, she managed to break down the corral two times. On the third and final escape she broke down a section of the corral and the barb wire fence in the main pasture and ran off. When we caught sight of her she was a mere black dot on the road - she was barely distinguishable. We tracked her for hours. By midnight we had her home and tightly secured in the barn. Since then we have lined the corral with pellets. The double barrier seems to keep her contained but the corral itself looks rather ridiculous. And feed time is still an issue. I thought we had came to an understanding about how to behave at feed time ... but apparently not. Just last week, I lost my footing scurrying over the pellet lined corral and I landed my butt in the water trough. Grr. Instead of trying to train her to behave at feed time, I decided that it would be safer just to change my feeding technique. Now I make sure that the grain dish is set near the edge of the corral so that I don't have to cross the pen with a bucket of grain. And I get the hay in the pen before she finishes her grain. That seems to work reasonably well unless she moves the dish between feedings! I have been putting up with this renegade beast on the notion that I will like her when she is in the freezer. But perhaps I won't like her then neither!!!