The Cows Weren't in the Meadow...

Blog recovery: original Sunday 22nd July 2012

We have an elastic gate in one of our paddocks. When it's stretched across the opening, thin wires in the elastic carry the electricity through it, helping to keep the cows in their paddock. Great idea - but, like any gate, it only works if it's closed...

That's our bedroom window and front door - and hoof prints in the garden bed.

Mel had wanted to round up the chooks on Friday night, and opened the elastic gate so she didn't have to climb over it. Job done, she came inside for the night. Well, the job was nearly done.

When I opened the curtains on Saturday morning, our two steers were at the gate, just inside the wrong paddock. I say it's the wrong paddock because the one they were in is open to our front and back yards, and they could have walked down our driveway and onto the highway...again.

Fortunately, when they saw me, they ran back into the right paddock. Gate shut, job done. All's well that ends well. I mean, they could have been in our front yard during the night and we'd never have known...and that's when we saw the hoofprints. In the soil. 6 feet from our bedroom window. At least 20 metres from that gate.

Safe - behind the elastic gate again.

Seems the steers were on their way back home from a nocturnal exploration. It could have been so much worse...