I was talking with some friends to today and we were discussing our gardens. My comment to them was that I was really hopeful for mine this year and I mentioned how much better my garden was doing this year than the last even though we are still somewhat considered in drought conditions. My garden corn crop was tall or taller than I am (5'5") and they would start coming off in the next week or so; beans, peas, and squash were doing great, cukes were coming off left and right...things were really looking great.
So later (early this evening) I happen to walk by the back door and look out at the sky as I knew we had the potential for some income storms and they were posting some warnings for the next county over...well, much to my dismay it looks as if the storm had dropped a twister right over my corn patch! To better explain, the cows got out and had ate half of my corn in the garden! I put Breanna in her playpen and go flying out the door while calling my hubby on the phone to tell him to come home quick. Put the extra wiring up on both ends of the house to keep the cows confined to the back yard and also shut the gates at the drive ways for extra protection should they break thru the wiring I had just put in place. I literally run back to the backyard and come up from behind them from the other end of the garden to try to get them out of the garden while also keeping them from destroying the half of the garden they hadn't got to yet. Start calling at them and "shoo-ing" at them, and they wouldn't budge...just looked up at me like I was crazy and kept munching. So I grad this piece of limb that was near by and start waving that at them...still didn't move an inch. By now I was mad and about ready to come in the house and get the bird-shot, so I took that tree branch and knocked the one nearest me on the rump. She moved then! Managed to get them all out of the garden by the time the hubby & Wyatt got here (they had been harvesting wheat) and I was purt near in tears standing there looking over all the damage done to the garden. Between the 3 of us we then got them all back in their fence and got the fence repaired.
Total damage report: half of the corn is destroyed, tried to right what we could of it, but of the damaged corn stalks, they are all knee high or lower now. An equal half of the peas, beans, & squash were all trampled but otherwise appear to be able to recover. I can't even look at the corn patch without crying now though...pregnancy hormones I guess, but pregnant or not, it's still discouraging to look at. I know there is plenty of other corn around here, but this was my own corn patch, not some my hubby planted for someone else! So now I'm frustrated, discouraged and very disgusted with the cows.
How's everyone else's gardens doing?
~Rae