It’s been a while since you got a chuckle out of our farming mishaps so I thought I would summarize the latest fun facts we have learned in the past two months on Green Acres.

Cows CAN and WILL walk across a cattle guard. Make no mistake about it. When you look up and see them contemplating the spacing of the bars, (Seriously, I think I could read their minds!) you need to get involved. Quickly. As I was telling my husband repeatedly that I thought the cows looked overly interested in the front gate and escape route, he assured me that it was “impossible” for them to get across. Right. The Titanic was also “unsinkable”, remember? Soooo, we had a not-so-fun thirty or so minutes trying to chase down two young heifers on a 70-mile-per-hour highway with two lanes, no shoulder, and steep hills. That was fun. We did get one of them back because several of our neighbors came out to help. The other one is now a “guest” on another ranch until it can be captured.  Just because I think this is funny, I think it is ironic that it is a “burnt orange” and white Longhorn heifer that ran away.  I bought it in honor of my son who is in school at the University of Texas.  The heifer must have heard I am an Aggie! 😉

Second fun fact.  The thunderstorms seem way more sudden and violent in the middle of nowhere. I have lived on the Coastal Plains near Galveston for the past 50 years. My move to Central Texas brought with it a new respect for lightning and thunder storms that roll across these areas. During a storm, I feel like I am sitting outside with a lightning rod in my hand. The lightning could not be any crazier or any brighter. The noise could not be any louder. It could not be any closer to our house. I’ll be honest, it is pretty frightening at times. Not only is the lightning impressive, but the water runoff in the creeks and ravines is equally as impressive. Since I have never lived in a hilly region, I am fascinated by the way the creeks, streams, and ponds fill up and spill over into fast-moving rivers during a thunderstorm. On Green Acres, we have at least three different wet-weather creeks that pop up during a big thunderstorms. They even have rapids that build up in certain areas. It is pretty interesting to watch the runoff patterns that develop all around our area. The Outdoorsman and I walked around Green Acres last night in the light rain just to see the little creeks and watch how the water drains off our land. We are so thankful for the layout of our thirty acres and how well everything drains to the back of our property into a creek and off of our land.

Another interesting tidbit.  Just when you think the cold weather is over, it isn’t.  We had thousands of blackberries growing on our land and then, bam, one last, hard freeze occurred and wiped them out.  I had been watching them grow and looking forward to picking them and saving them in the freezer.  Now, we only have a little container of the ones that didn’t freeze.  The good news is that it looks like they are going to give it another try so we may end up with some in our freezer after all.   In our farmhouse, we do not have central air and heat so we are constantly going back and forth between our space heaters and our window units during any given week.  I keep wanting to put our heaters in storage, but we keep having cold snaps that keep me wanting to hang on to them “just in case.”

Now moooving on to cow and donkey facts. 😉  Just like the variety of students I teach in any given school year, our cows have distinct personalities as well.  I had no idea that cows could be so full of mischief and personality.  One of our cows, Sophia, actually tries to head-butt our huge Excursion every time we pull into the driveway.  She knows it is us and thinks it is a funny game. We have also caught her several times sitting in the golf cart and she has taken the keys out of the ignition several times as well.  She and our donkey, Gypsy, are chalked full of personality and sass.  They lead the other cows to the hilly area on our land and start a game of chase in which they all run as fast as they can up and down the hills and in circles around the ones not participating.  I will definitely video that sometime because it is really fun to watch.

Overall, our Green Acres adventure has been an amazing ride.  We haven’t had to learn too many hard lessons…..okay, besides accidentally electrocuting one of our chickens because we had used the wrong wiring for our electric fence.  Fried chicken, anyone? (Sorry, I know that comment isn’t appropriate, but you know you are thinking it, too!) Other than that, we have been blessed with wonderful weather, healthy animals, lots of rest, and tons of family time.  Have we finished all of our projects?  Not even close.  I am actually thankful that we didn’t do some of the big projects we were initially planning to complete before we moved in because we have changed many of our designs and plans since living there and seeing the weather patterns, direction of the winds, layout of our land, and more. We are taking our time and, to be honest, I’m not even worrying about it because I am certain that this farmhouse is our forever home.  We have plenty of time to get our house and land looking like the dream in our heads and hearts.  One project at a time in between raising our three children and raising a myriad of farm animals.  No worries. Just trusting God with timing and details.  A seemingly small, but life-changing thing I have experienced since our Green Acres Adventure began exactly four months ago today!