A few years ago my mom took a photo of my dad sitting on the tailgate and playing guitar in the middle of the ranch, surrounded by cows. When asked what he was doing he told us he was “just watching the cows eat grass.”
Every now and then I come across that picture and laugh, but the older I get, the more I understand why an afternoon of just sitting around and “watching the cows eat grass” can be so nice in the midst of our busy, overscheduled lives.
We’ve been trying to clear out our back field, so our goats have been hard at work this past week. I got one of those mobile “pet gazebos” pens from the store and I move it on top of a big patch of weeds on the hour, and “Cutesy” and “Ginger” just demolish everything that’s there, right down to the roots. Sometimes, I just put a stake in the ground, and tie them out…and it’s been really amazing to see what they can eat their way out of! There’s lots of little pieces of junk and big sticks hidden underneath the brush in our field, so some of it is nearly impossible to mow…but not for the goats! They can take down a small tree in 15 minutes, like it’s an appetizer. Even my husband is starting to appreciate our pet goats, which he resented me buying at first.
When I first got goats, and was waiting in line at the store to buy some stuff for them, a fellow customer laughed and warned me that “They will eat everything!” and that’s certainly true. You’ve got to be really careful what those little monsters can get their little mouths on, or it’s “here today, gone tomorrow,” but I’ve really enjoyed them. And like my old dad I’m having a good time, just “watching the goats eat grass.”
Speaking of how they eat everything, I almost didn’t have a column this week. I was sitting outside watching the goats eat grass as I wrote this column (the first time), and when I untied them they bolted for my paper, and Ginger took a nice, big bite before I could yank it out of her mouth!
If you’re wondering what the point of my rambling was today, it must have been on that piece of paper Ginger took a bite of! I’m not going to worry about it today…I’m just going to sit here and watch the goats eat grass. And if A’Dell ever comes to school and says her goats ate her homework, I hope her teacher believes her cause it might be true!