Every once in a while, we’ve had cows get on our property even though it’s fenced. Sometimes a delivery driver leaves the gate open or something else random lets the cows enter.

Last week I looked up from my bed to see a large black momma cow and her baby grazing on our otherwise unmunched grass and felt dread at having to chase them off. (Cows here are very skittish, and chasing them without benefit or horses or dogs is challenging.)

But last year, Brad came up with a new solution to the challenge that works great — a drone!

This solved the problem in minutes, rather than the hours it used to take. Much safer too.

drone’s eye view

Brad and I were hiking back in the canyon a few days ago and saw this solitary cow way up the side of a mountain. (All the other cows were down in the flats where we were.)

Seeing things like this often prompts us to wish we could know what’s going on in these guys’ minds.

Otherwise, things here have been relatively quiet. It’s been cold this month — into the teens at night, anywhere from 40s to 60s in the daytime, but often with wind. We’ve had snow flurries but nothing on the ground.

Like others here, we’ve had a ton of rodents (all outside, thankfully) eating everything in sight, including food we’re growing, cactuses, our compost, and a neighbor’s spark plug wires. We’ve started trapping them and moving them up the road, but it seems a bit like a hopeless task.

I’m starting to think about the garden for next year. In a few weeks, it will be time to get starts going. I’m also thinking about a few new things like shishito peppers. We’ve also thought a bit about more protection from pests, but haven’t made any decisions on that yet.