Have you seen the cows?!

Here is a pic of the 3 Scottish Highlanders when we got them back in early June '09. They gained much needed weight eating all our green grass over the summer/fall. And they're still fat eating on our hay over this winter. No grain for them - grass fed only. We haven't found many treats that they really like - one of them seemed to enjoy some turnip greens that were offered.

When we first got them they were so hungry and enjoyed our grass so much they stayed in the fenced in enclosure and were happy. But then I think they thought they had eaten all the good stuff on their side & wanted to try the green grass on the other side of the fence (you know 'the grass is always greener on the other side' saying?). Well, they found a weak spot in our fence line and climbed over wire fence EARLY one summer morning. I went out to feed them at my usual 6 am and they were NO WHERE to be found. I yelled for Chris....we had no idea where they had gone or what to do. We began to yell for them, got a feed bucket w/ grain in & shook it and then decided to head out into our field to see if maybe they went toward the wood line for shelter from the heat. Even at 6am it was probably 70 degrees already that day. Of course, we did not find the cows so we headed back toward the barns. As we did, we saw a white van pull into our driveway. It was a neighbor who asked if we were missing some cows. He had been driving into town early and found the cows nearly ON 308 so he used his van to herd them to another neighbors horse farm & put them in one of her enclosures until he could find out where they belonged. We got our truck & met him at the neighbors horse farm. Yes indeed, there were our cows - now enjoying her field grass! We decided to use the vehicles to herd the cows back to our place all on the back roads btwn the 2 farms. We looked like a very haphazard parade going by I'm sure. It probably took us about 30 minutes to go 1.5 miles but we got them back where they belonged. I was exhausted! What a way to start a day and it was barely 9am by then! Thank goodness my sister & her boyfriend were here (from MD) and helped us block roads etc and chase the cows home. Shortly after Chris put up a whole new fence line & we haven't had a problem since! phew.