Those Darn Cows!

Yesterday morning my son comes in first thing in the morning to inform me that the cows found a way into the garden and ate the last two cabbages.  Well, I'm not a morning person, and news such as this, on top of that....let's just say all I could do was nod and say okay.  I'm not too worried about the cabbages, really.  It's the fact that the cows got in!  Like other ruminants, they eat anything!

They are not dainty creatures.  They do not exude decorum.  They're more like bulldozers.  These midnight marauders trampled right over my chicken wire trampling the plants while chomping into anything that their noses drifted over, including my garlic!  Now, not much bothers garlic but that didn't seem to phase the beasts.  Not when you regularly see cows out in the chaparral with cactus stickers covering their entire faces!

Of course, the flowers were almost finished, but it would have been nice to enjoy the last few cosmos that WERE blooming!  To add insult to injury they left their deposits everywhere, as you can see at the bottom of the picture.

 

And more here... They didn't even bother the tomatoes!  What gives?

I'm not too keen about their manure because it's full of weed seeds.

It could have been worse!  They could have spread their destruction throughout a thriving garden!

Ugh!

A Little of This A Little of That

Since the weather is teasing us with warm days, it's prompted a mix of activities.  On top of which, we are house and cat sitting for a neighbor.  And as neighbors go they are about 14 miles of dirt road from where we are at home!  How's that for a 'neighbor?!' 

Not only is it dirt road, as all our roads are, but there are some pretty hilly, rough and rocky sections that make it hard for road maintenance.  So, maintenance usually doesn't happen.  It's a really good thing having 4 wheel drive!  But here, it's all in a day's work.  You just accept it as normal.

While driving to my neighbor's house, I took a picture of this scene.  It's only a portion of my 'backyard.'  It's our very own mini-grand canyon!  Only a couple of the ranchers out here know the only real (best) way to cross this canyon.

You just can't beat this southwestern-style vista!

On the way home, my steely-eyed six year old saw these foraging javelina out in a clearing.

Back home, I dug up the old zinnias saving most of the seed-heads.

Then I planted garlic in the raised bed.  We'll see what happens.

One of my other little projects has involved the herbs I'd hung to dry.

While separating the herbs from their dry stems, the aroma was delightfully strong and pungent!  Maybe that's what I'll do for little Christmas gifts, homemade herbal sachets...

Hopefully the weather will hold out for awhile, this has been nice compared to last year!