Stubborn Determination

“He that can have patience can have what he will.” 
~ Benjamin Franklin

That’s Daisy Mae in the picture above. She’s the one staring cheekily at the camera from the right-hand side of the photo. She’s eyeballing me because she has been breaking into the house paddock and eating all my new vegetable seedlings and petunias.

But there’s another naughty cow in that photo. Do you see her? She’s standing behind Daisy Mae – look for the red cow with the pink ear tag. That’s Tilly.

Tilly has been sneaking into the house paddock too. But not by opening the gate. Tilly has slender legs and feet, and has found a way to walk through the cattle grid and into our yard.

After we locked Daisy Mae out we still kept finding mystifying evidence of cow break-ins but we couldn’t find the culprit. Until yesterday. As I looked up from washing the breakfast dishes there she was, staring back at me just a few feet on the other side of the window. Tilly got such a shock, and so did I. By the time I got outside she was in the process of delicately picking her way back over the grid to safety.

Twice more she got back in, waiting until she was sure we were in the house and then stealthily crossing into our garden.

After the third time we put rope across the driveway to keep her out.

And when we were making a late afternoon cup of tea there she was again. She’d wriggled underneath the rope on her belly!

Finally, late yesterday, Ben and I moved the cows down to the river paddock. It’s flush with feed and so there is no need for her to eat my garden anymore.

It’s hard to be cross with her though. What a strategic and determined girl she is as she goes after what she wants. Qualities I deeply admire.

Hugs and Love, Nicole xx