Hi Kevin,
I enjoy reading your posts because they read like a mini-book, but I feel for you deeply, as I am sure that all our garden family does as well. I wish I could put a “brand” on your neighbors backside-maybe one on his forehead as well! I know that that is not neighborly thing to think or do, but it is a double whammy when the neighbor won’t even acknowledge the damage that his herd has done on your orchard! I would have certainly offered to help pay for the damage or offer you some meat in exchange. I know that you strong and you are feeling the emotions of your babies (trees) being violated-but in time, you will bounce back because we will all support you. God bless you and I will certainly keep you in my prayers. Take heart, we are all with you in spirit!
Kevin, you seem to have a lot of luck! just not always good. Your story reminds me of a friend of mine Mary. She is an awesome gardener and cook. A professional grower too. Here is her story in 2014 called
Of Bulls and Romance-A Tale of Woe…
We had been gone for about three weeks and returned home to Mexico for a
short 10 days before leaving for Denmark. We decided to take our boat
out for a day of fishing and left about 6 am and returned about 5 pm.
As we approached our home outside of Merida, We noticed that there
appeared to be a crowd at our front gate. I said to my Husband “Gee, I
hope the house is not on fire…”
As we stopped and exited our Jeep, you could have heard a flea hiccup.
Absolute silence save for one gentleman wringing his hat and with
tears running down his face. For the life of me, I could not figure out
what was going on.
Speaking Spanish at mach one speed, the man kept saying “I am so sorry Senora. I will pay. Please don’t call the police’.
Long story kind of short…The man owns 2 bulls that he rents out to
local cow owners for breeding. It seems his son failed to lock the gate
when he brought the bulls in from pasture. They moseyed down the road
about a mile to my house. Behind our place, there is a man with 6 cows.
We have a great fence but these two lothario’s tore it to smithereens,
& crunched it down in pursuit of female companionship. After
gaining access to our property, they put love on the back burner and
decided that they had landed in bovine food heaven. Isn’t that the way?
Always boils down to food or sex…
We had nearly 5,000 plants that were all just about to hit peak
production. Melons, squash, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, you name it.
Picture in your mind if you will what a large garden would look like if
you drove a riding lawn mower over it, dragging a log, a tiller and a
big rock…They ate, they sampled, they pulled plants out of the ground,
they pooped and peed all over everything, they laid down and rolled on
it, they tromped on just about everything with those nice big cloven
hooves. After a nosh and a nap, they continued on to the neighbor
behind me and tore down that fence and commenced to “do what bulls do
with cows”.
There is very little worth saving. I told our Handyman to bring in
his family and neighbors and take anything they think is worth
salvaging. I can’t even save seed because everything is all mixed up
and I have no idea what is what (I could guess on some but won’t do
that…) It is too late in the year to start over. We travel from August
to December so a new garden is out of the question. I did reassure the
poor man that owns the bulls that I would not be calling the police and
we wanted no money. Apparently, if bulls get out, it is a very steep
fine due to the fact that bulls are well, dangerous…
I’d cry, but really, we got to laughing. Who could ever imagine
something like this would happen? It really does look like a “Vegetable
Apocalypse “ It is truly the worst garden debacle of my life and one
that assaults my manic, anal compulsion of order.
And as a hilarious side note, the buggers did not touch the
tomatillos, cilantro and dill which they could have wiped out and I
would barely have raised an eyebrow (those plants grow in a far off
corner in crappy dirt, full sun for 16 hours and are basically ignored
yet they thrive…)
So whatever your garden woes are, believe me, I think I would have
been glad to trade. 2014…the Year of the Bull at Mary’s house in
Mexico! I am a vegetarian but am contemplating eating beef once more
and with gusto!
thecityman–This is so awful, especially after your previous post which I read with envy. You painted such a nice picture of life with a backyard orchard (I am patiently waiting till I can enjoy mine to that extent), and then I read this post and I feel your disappointment. Loosing fruit to one’s own screw ups is one thing, loosing it to a herd of rogue cows is another.
I don’t understand the farmer’s inability to come and apologize. We raise cattle and I would be truly upset if they did anything like this, my feeling of responsibility would hound me until I made it right.
Oh man. Sorry to hear about this Kevin. As much as it probably feels like 1 step forward and 2 steps back it’s really not. You are moving forward and occasionally run into a hiccup. I’d probably want to turn the cattle into steak dinners too.
I feel for you! If there is a bright side, it can only get better.
Once again, all your comments and especially your empathy is much appreciated. In fact, you’ve been so kind and considerate and understanding that I feel compelled to say this situation, at the end of the day, isn’t all that bad. Looks like a loss of just 3 trees and a lot of my garden. 3 trees is certainly a big deal to most of us, but 1 of them wasn’t a good tree anyway, and considering I lost about 18 trees last year from my neighbors spray, this isn’t a huge deal. Most of all, as I said before, I don’t want to become “that guy” who is always on here complaining and “woe is me” and telling you what a victim I am. I had some bad luck a couple years in a row, I need to suck it up and accept it as part of life in the country. If I don’t want cattle stampeding my land or errant spray drifting onto my land, I can always move into a downtown condo or apartment. With that choice, I’ll take the problems of country life any day!
Thanks again for all the wonderful support, humor, and compassion. I’m sorry if I’ve become the local complainer and in the end I do know this is minor compared to life problems many people face!
Hey Kevin,
Glad you posted here. Don’t hold back. Who else could possibly understand the hit you just took. Hopefully a lot of good will come from this.
I don’t see sharing your misfortunes as being a complainer, you are just stating how your day went and using this forum to vent to people who would understand.
I never was one of the “Buck up and Suck up” brigade. We all will have our chance to look for support when bad things happen to our own orchards.
I have had cow damage but at least they were our own. We were driving them to pasture a few springs ago. Everything was going fine, I was driving the truck in the lead with a bale of hay on the back which the cows would follow down the drive, out onto the road and then head south to the pasture, with the men on either side to keep order.
It always makes me nervous to see our cattle unfenced, there is something unsettling about the whole process and I am not happy until they get safely back behind barbed wire. Anyway, this time all did not go as planned, for some reason they stampeded past me, down the drive and just before they reached the end they hooked a hard right, motored straight thru my field of 800 new peony plants ( of which I was immensely proud as they were healthy and full of promise for future sales ). A fence at the other side stopped them, they looked at it wondering what next, did and about face and motored back thru the peonies down the drive and put themselves neatly back into the coral. I will never forget how quick it went, how calm they were once back where they started, and the stunned look on all our faces as we watched the whole comedic debacle unfold, helpless to stop them.
Just thought I would share a smile
Hey Kevin been wanting to post on this for a few days and I’m now getting the chance. I too have had some tough breaks in the fruit growing game through the years. I’ll never forget when my 4n1 Asian pear made its first crop and right as the fruit matured one night a racoon ripped every branch out of the tree. All of em. I lost two entire crops of peaches back to back years due to PC and OFM when I was trying to do the organic thing. I also lost a whole crop of what was to be my first ever crop of Magness pears to a record hail storm. That same storm claimed all my pears that year and the FB that ensued claimed some of my trees. Dont even get me stated on the bird and squirrel losses. Most recently about two years ago now I had a drip irrigation clog while I was on my vaction and I lost My Honey Blaze nectarine, One of my peaches and a Santa Rosa Plum. I had built cages and surrounded them with chicken wire to eliminate birds and squirrels and put roofs on top to keep hail off and lastly installed drip. I had someone set to come and check on my tree when I was gone but it didnt happen. When I got back and saw dead trees and not to mention massive squirrel damage on my not even near ripe pears it stung me so bad I almost quit. I mean it too. I nearly dug up all my trees and scrapped my containers and hung it up. I basically took a year off. Something happened though and I realized a part of me was missing and I had to get back into the game. Then I found this forum and it really renewed my enthusiasum and I’m so glad I did. I am soooo sorry about what happened and I know nothing can make it quite right but it will get better. Hopefully the great harvests you have already had this year and the watermelons that will ripen this year will help ease the sting a bit. Hopefully some of the damaged tree recover. I get the feeling you have a pretty indominable spirit when it comes to this stuff and I know you’ll get right back in there. I feel your pain on this one. Can’t wait to here you tell us how great those melons are!
Drew
Those last 2 posts were especially helpful and I sincerely want you to both know how much I enjoyed them and how they really and truly did put things in perspective and make me feel better about the whole thing. I don’t know what it is about the human condition that makes us feel so much better when we see others who are struggling with the problems we are. Put another way, misery really does love company- as sad as that is to say. So hearing your stories really did remind me that I’m not the only one who faced troubles and it won’t be my last time.
I also agree that there is nothing wrong with talking about our challenges- its one of the best things about this site. The reason I worried, though, about sounding like a victim or constant complainer is that this is the second time in just over a year that I’ve created a thread about how upset I was at something my neighbors did to my trees, and as I felt how much compassion everyone expressed to me I just felt a little guilty to be asking for empathy so often when the reality is that I know these issues pale to other peoples problems. We’ve got members here with serious health problems, and we all know people who have lost love ones and suffered other serious tragedies. So me complaining so much about loosing some fruit trees just felt a little wrong on some level. But obviously you all understand that while there are much worse problems, on this day and this time this one seemed bad to me. Thanks for that.
Anyway, I hope you all also had a chance to read my post just a day or two before this happened where I was feeling so good about my orchard and what I’ve been able to do with all your help. For the most part I still have that pride and positive feeling and still cant wait to keep working on my orchard! Thanks again to everyone.
Kevin, so sorry to hear of your misfortune. Knowing your general area, when you began to describe the extent of your damage, my first thought was you had a group of feral hogs visit your orchard and garden. I can only hope that as a few days pass, you are able to salvage something, take a deep breath and just continue on as you have so far, growing with a curious mind, and once again get that orchard in shape as best you can for this season, and make plans thru the winter as gardeners do. If you receive a freezer full of beef it’s a bonus, and with this lousy event, you should surely have 5 years of good karma ahead of you!
Thanks for a good laugh
I’m sorry you’ve again had a setback. It’s a real shame when people know they’ve done wrong and can’t step up, man-up (no offense implied ladies) and make right,
No one here hasn’t felt the pain of such damage in one way or another. Vent away.
Scott
So sorry to hear about your tribulations Kevin. Makes the deer attacks on my plants pale in comparison. I had to chase one out of my tomato patch last night, but not before it had chomped a couple plants pretty good, and damaged 4 others a bit.
I was incensed, but I can’t imagine what I would’ve felt like if some rogue bovine came thru my plots and ravaged them. My neighbor on the north side of me does have cattle, but we’re separated and protected from them by a thick tree line.
Our gardens’ aren’t doing so hot anyway. Half of our huge tater patch is dying back already, way too early for that. So we have to dig up those taters up now before they rot in the ground. I don’t know what happened to the plants, maybe that late freeze last month hurt them more than I thought, plus the beetles have been getting after them as well. We had a very wet cool April and May, so that didn’t help either.
My wife said some of the corn is starting to tassle, I’m like WTH is that happening now, that’s way too early too. It’s only been growing for about 6 weeks! We planted our beans with them a couple weeks ago, and they’re coming up well, just hope the corn gets big enough to support them.
We planted cukes and leafy veggies at the same time and the cukes are up, still waiting on the other stuff. But I’m going to have to fence that plot in soon too, or the deer could destroy that too eventually.
Sorry about sidetracking the thread with a story about my troubles. Guess it won’t be the last time we’ll have to deal with adversity on the farm, just have to keep on keeping on. That’s why we’re out here, right?
I was thinking earlier about all this earlier before I even read your story. What would’ve happened if we weren’t blessed enough to be able to move to this farm, despite all the stuff we have to deal with? It’s not been easy, but we came here for a reason: to get out if the big city, be self sufficient, learn the old ways, before the poop hits the fan. Will it happen tomorrow, or many years from now? God only knows, but at least we took that first big step. It may be presumptuous of me in saying this, but I think you might be of the same mindset.
Sorry for the sermon, just my thoughts on the matter. Don’t feel the need to apologize on here about mentioning your troubles, that’s why we’re on here, to vent and learn and share our experiences. Best of luck to you.
I always enjoy your posts very much. I also feel a bit of connection with you, not only because we are in the same area and almost the same state (I’m 1/8th of a mile from KY but on the TN side of the line), but also because it seems like we both left the city for the country and both enjoy growing things and being -at least to some degree- somewhat self sufficient. Oh…and because we both tend to be a little more expansive in our posts. ha. So you know I have similar thoughts about how lucky we are to have been able to move to the country and about trying to be a little more prepared/self sufficient. Now, I’m not really one of these “preppers” . who is convinced that society is going to completely break down after some natural or economic disaster, nor am I under the delusion that if it did my fruit trees and garden and farm animals would allow me to be completely self-sufficient. But I still get some comfort from knowing that my farming skills and resources can and do give me a least a little more independence and some resources that people living in a big city wouldn’t have. I think you get that.
I also enjoy hearing about your gardening challenges. As I said above, for some strange reason when we have struggles and challenges we like to know we aren’t alone and that others are also dealing with similar problems. I’ve been hit with potato beetles in the past and man, those things can completely devour potato plants within a day or two of showing up. But your dying plants sound like something different. Its a shame to have to dig your potatoes so early, but its better than letting them rot and, btw, few things are better than fresh dug, baby (or “new”) potatoes. Especially if you have some onions! Mmmm.
And while my cattle stampede may have resulted in more one-time damage than your deer have caused, my situation was (hopefully!) just a one-time event and very unlikely to happen again. Your case is (and many others here dealing with deer) is really worse because it is an on-going threat without much of a solution. So you have to worry every night if a deer is going to show up and damage or destroy your trees or veggies. So lets face it, this hobby of ours is not easy. We all fight animals, insects,diseases, weather, careless neighbors, and/or many other challenges. Yet here we are. You, me, and almost everyone on here has described struggles and losses, but we soldier on. And not because we have to, but because we want to. And for me, and I suspect you, it’s the small successes we have that makes it worth the hard work. Do you ever just sit down for a good dinner that includes fresh veggies/fruits (or in my case even eggs and occassional meat) that you grew and just think how neat it is that you “made” that food. You know what is in it/on it, you know its fresh, its healthy, and most of all its just more delicious than anything you can buy- but you just walked behind your house and picked it. I LOVE THAT. Or like the day I described recently where I got off work and come home and without even going inside took a relaxing walk in my orchard and picked 4-5 kinds of fruit and enjoyed the wonderful snack minutes later.
AH…the more I think about all of the things we are talking about, the more I think I should change the title of this thread. With my life and this hobby, I honestly should be saying I am “THE LUCKIEST GUY IN THE WORLD”! I suspect you agree.
Well, you are certainly closer to self sufficiency than we are. Obviously, you’re already able to enjoy fruit from your own trees, and are able to have your own eggs and meat, although you don’t mention what kind. Maybe a chicken or deer? Plus plenty of garden stuff. Things will get better for you after this setback.
My wife keeps nagging me about fixing the old chicken coop and getting some of our own. But, we have other more pressing things to deal with. Besides, one our neighbors always keeps us stocked with free eggs because her hens are really producing a lot now. They seem to have more flavor than store bought.
I was just out in the tomato patch staking up some on the plants, they are looking pretty good for now. Didn’t see any more deer damage after I placed a second perimeter fence around the patch. Instead of tape I used fishing line at 3 levels. I figured the deer might be disturbed if they run into a resistance that they couldn’t see. It may not work forever, but thought I’d try it and see. Plus I put up a “scare person” in the patch to add another deterrent.
Hopefully the rest of our veggies will do well, I’ve not totally not written off the potatoes, but they’re not looking good. Guess we’ll have more new taters this year.
We do have a bumper crop of onions this year unlike others, so we got that going for us. Had some pinto beans with fresh green onions and cornbread for the last couple days, good stuff.
You are a few more years into this than us, but we’ll get there eventually. I guess you could say we are preppers, in that we’re trying to detach from the system that we see is becoming increasingly unstable in an economic, social and spiritual sense. So, growing food is just one way we are prepping. One just has to look at the news and see that things are deteriorating at an alarming rate over the last few years. The mainstream media tries to portray a rosy picture, but if you do a little digging for real news, you’d be surprised at what you see.
On the economic side, this Brexit vote that pretty much severed the UK from the European Union has really caused a lot of volatility in the markets. Banks in Italy, Germany, Spain, France and so on have really been hit hard since the vote last week. With the UK leaving the EU, this could provoke other countries to leave. There are a couple of big banks in Germany and the UK that are really teetering on the edge of collapse, and if they go, it’ll have worldwide consequences.
Our economy is also running on fumes despite what the “news” networks would like you to believe. To be honest, we would have been in a depression if the Federal Reserve wouldn’t have gone into a printing frenzy over the last 8 years. And this is going on in every major economy in the world- Japan, Europe, China.
It is a mathematical certainty that all this debt and money printing will no longer work, and when that happens, it will collapse in spectacular fashion. How long can they can keep it up? Who knows, but they’ve just about run out of tricks.
OK, sorry about the economic rant, this something I’ve only discovered over the last few years, and it really surprises me more people aren’t aware of it. Hopefully people will wake up. And I’m not even going to get into how fractured this country has become and is like a powder keg awaiting a match to set it off.
I better stop, this isn’t a political or economic blog, but thought I needed to get that off my chest.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program!
Yes.
The one thing that unites all of us in this community is our interest in growing fruit (and nuts, veggies, herbaceous, and flowering plants) as well as we can under our individual circumstances. Our reasons will vary. General political and religious views are irrelevant here, unless they directly affect our ability to successfully grow fruit.
It’s time to get back to, and stick with, what we do best - supporting one another in our quest for increasing success at growing things.
I will accept full responsibility for getting too far off topic, and I apologize. It’s fun and interesting to get to know each others personal views and opinions beyond fruit, but we have a category (Lounge) which is at least somewhat more open to non fruit discussions, though I suspect the Mods like Muddy would prefer that even there we stay away from hot button topics like politics, religion, and the like. Sometimes I feel a little limited and frustrated by such guidelines but in the end I understand them and am glad they exist. We’ve all seen forums that come off the wheels because people go too far in expressing personal views, arguments break out, the foum members get divided, and many leave. Or the whole forum becomes filled with people with a particular ideology (like liberals/conservatives).
We also have all seen forums that aren’t properly moderated end up being so filled with off-topic discussions that 1/2 the time you spend there is wasted on reading posts that have nothing to do with the stated focus of the forum (Fruit, in out case.
Anyway, as the one who led this thread off the proverbial cliff,I wanted to apologize and say I understand and even appreciate Muddy’s effort to keep things on track, even if it is a little embarrassing. Everyone knows I tend to be quite expressive (READ: blabber-mouthed) in my posts but they are usually only about fruit growing. I should also say that I have much respect for @subdood_ky_z6b and love to read his posts and I don’t presume to speak for him here.
Again, sorry I went off topic too much, and thanks for reminding me, @MuddyMess_8a. I can’t promise my posts will be shorter but I can promise they’ll be more on topic!
Kevin
Well, I wouldn’t say that you went off topic, it was your thread about your garden and orchard troubles and you can obviously take it where you want, within the guidelines of the forum.
I don’t presume to speak for the mods, but I don’t think they care how wordy yours, mine or other folks’ responses are. Some of us just express ourselves differently; some are “long winded”, some are succint and to-the-point. Folks I talk to in person I’m sure would rather have the Reader’s Digest version instead of my overly detailed responses. I am usually pretty reserved and quiet in person, but once I get to know someone, I can get rather chatty.
It was me who went off on a tangent talking about prepping and my views on the state of the world, as I see it. Whether it’s true or not, it’s not really relevant here. So I’ll try to stay on topic.
BTW, we just got back from town picking up some more provisions and I picked up some Charleston Gray melon seeds, so hope we can get those in the ground soon.
Thanks for that nice post. I had a moderator send me a note saying no one minds our long posts at all, so you’re right about that. I also didn’t realize it until now, but apparently newer members don’t have access to the category called “the lounge” which I mistakenly told you we could go to talk just a little bit more about non-fruit growing topics.
OK, before I get another well deserved “ticket” for off topic chat, lets get back to fruit.
I’m glad you got yourself some Charleston Gray (Grey?)seeds and you know they are one of my standard watermelons. But I’m really worried that you are too late this year. Because of endless rain this spring, I planted my watermelons a full month later than I’d ever planted them in my life…and that means I planted them the first week of June this year and I’ve been worried sick about whether they will have time to ripen. You;ll be planting the first week of July and I have serious doubts about whether they will make it. I think the official line is that they take about 85-90 days so the math kind of works (probably won’t frost by first week of October) but in my experience, watermelons just sort of loose their steam by mid september, no matter how old the plants are. Kind of strange, but they just sort of peter out when the days get shorter.
But if you are like me- and I think you are- you should (and probably will) give them a try anyway. Seeds don’t cost much, its fun to grow melons, and you just might pull it off! Let us know how it goes, and good luck.