The trouble with lawn mowers

• By Natalie Pitfield

Many lifestylers have livestock as lawn mowers.

We get them when they’re young and grow them on to about two years old. Then they head off, and new youngsters arrive. It’s always an interesting experience. Every single animal is different.

We started out with steers. This was great until one kicked my Mum and really hurt her. So, we switched to heifers. While they weigh less and generally fetch less at market, they’re easier to handle. Given that we’d given Mum the job of ‘stock manager’, it was important that her stock behaved. She’s the fittest senior citizen I know, and I definitely didn’t want her damaged.

Most of our cows have been awesome. They tame up very quickly, especially with Mum giving them carrots as treats.

We had one Angus steer who was a nasty piece of work. He’d stamp his feet and paw the ground. You just knew he was dying to have a go at you. I gave him loads of space, and all was well until the day I found him stuck over a wire fence. Most of his body was in the paddock, but his hind legs were caught on the top wire, and he just couldn’t heave himself over.

So, I went and basically pushed him the rest of the way. He was unhurt, but our dog ran into the paddock and started barking at him. I raced in to rescue her and then realised I was within reach of bovine Satan, and I froze. He looked at me. He pawed the ground. And then he bowed his head as if to thank me for rescuing him and went back to the herd. I was shaking after that episode.

His gratitude didn’t last long. He was back to being evil the very next day.

RECIPE: Sticky chocolate brownies

Ingredients

• 100g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 75g dark muscovado sugar
• 125g dark chocolate
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp chocolate or vanilla extract
• 100g plain flour (gluten-free works great too)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• ½ tsp baking powder

Method

1. Lightly grease a 20cm shallow square cake tin and line the base. Preheat oven to
   180°C.
2. Place the butter, sugar, dark chocolate and golden syrup in a heavy-based
   saucepan and heat gently, stirring until the mixture is well blended and smooth.
   Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
3. Beat together the eggs and vanilla extract. Whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture.
4. Sieve together the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder and fold carefully into
   the egg and chocolate mixture, using a metal spoon or spatula.
5. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 25 mins until the top is crisp,
   and the edge is beginning to shrink away from the tin. The inside of the cake
   mixture will still be quite stodgy and soft to the touch.
6. Leave the cake to cool completely in the tin and then cut into squares to serve.