Thirteen Cows And Counting

I have some mighty fine grasses in the Tall Flower Meadow. They have to be big to stand out. Lit up by the morning light they look very enticing.

Lucky for me that cows are picky eaters.

Lucky for me that cows don't seem to be fond of tall and Lush. I get regular floppage as it is. Cow stompage is a squashing on a whole other level.

I like my meadows perky.

If this keeps up it won't be long before there is a feral cow colony roaming the mountain to go along with the wild pigs and chickens.

I counted ten in the first batch that grazed by my neighbor's scalped hillside of grass. Then they headed down the byway and brought traffic to a halt. There were three in the second batch by the time I got my camera.

Lucky for me my neighbor scalps his hillside of grass. Feral cows will go for that over my Lush every time.

I called my usual cow farmer with the one hundred year old fence that loses cows most often even though I knew these weren't his. He has been training me in proper cow identification. The single most important item to note is the color of the ear tag. Yellow. He is doing orange this year. Not his cows.

I highly suspected these were Madison County cows. Last week a couple of people stopped at Bulbarella's to report loose cows just over the line. Then I got called. Not my county. Not my problem.

This morning they were directly across the byway. Now it is my problem. I called my usual farmer because I don't know who to call in Madison County. I thought he might. I also called cow farmer number two in case they might be his, but told him I thought these cows were illegally crossing the border. Did he know who to call over there?

First he was going to check on his own cows and then make some calls to the other side.

Well it turns out these were indeed Madison County cows a good mile away from their pasture. I met a new farmer on the byway above my house this morning. Help was coming. The grass is always greener on the other side of the county line.

And it turns out cow farmer number two was also missing some cattle.

I swear. All these damn loose cows head to the top to plot their freedom and the foundation of new colonies. I won't be mowing anything so don't get any ideas.

I don't think loose cows are fond of fine produce, but they most assuredly will walk all over it and trample it to pieces. I harvested the rest of my orange and yellow striped warty gourds this afternoon just because they were ready.

You never know when a feral cow colony might decide to wander down the driveway. Cows don't like steep which helps keep them on the byway, but they will do gently sloping gravel no problem. The rickety split rail fence on both sides might also be a discouragement. They just escaped. Fences are bad.

I asked the universe for rain, not cows. Maybe tomorrow it will work out right.