Cows, cows, and more cows

We've been experiencing July/August temperatures in our neck of the woods lately.  It's been so hot in the late afternoon that my husband decided we needed to try fishing in the morning instead.  It turned out to be a good idea.  So good, in fact, that I was too busy catching fish to bother with taking photos from the boat!  My real plan, though, was to take some pictures of the cattle after we stopped fishing.  My husband always checks them and takes a head count each morning.  I knew it would be a good photo opportunity.
Remember, you can always click to enlarge the photo.



There's something about grazing cattle that seems so peaceful!  If you're quiet enough you can hear them!   I attempted a Haiku about it one time:

   Cows attack the grass
Tearing apart the silence
Heads never look up

This one decided to look up.  Excuse me, am I disturbing you?

Looks like the cow on the right is doing some baby-sitting. 
Would that be calf-sitting?

Uh oh.... they don't like it that Jed and Suzy came to the pasture with us.
The calf on the left looks like it's about to charge at them!

                                             This group is keeping in the trees. 
                                Looks like they're keeping an eye on the dogs, too.

Look at the cow in the background! 
She's grooming someone - or maybe it's a dominance thing. 

Peeking over the hill to see if I've got anything for her.

More cows peeking....including Kelly (on the right in case you don't recognize her).
What's going on over that hill?

It's a shady watering hole - and there's Bully!!
It always scares me just a tiny bit when Bully makes eye contact with me.  After all, were're talking a good 1800 pounds of beef here!

Kelly and another cow have joined Bully for a quick dip.

My, that was refreshing!
(Kelly just can't seem to take her eyes off of me!)

When we first got our cows I took pictures of them all the time.  My original Yahoo360 blog was filled with cow pictures.  This blog, as you can tell from the small number of cow entries in the tag cloud, not so many.  Times change.

Shadow Shot Sunday #33

Shadows at the watering hole

Shadow Shot Sunday
Hosted by Hey Harriet

Mooooo!

I came home from Bible study today to find a note on the counter:

"Gone to get cow food. Be home ASAP"


Something about that just made me smile. I never dreamed 30 years ago I would live in the country, enjoy hunting and fishing, and have livestock.

Life is good!

Monday stuff

Things have been going well with Suzy in the house. She gets along great with Alice and Mabel and as far as I know (unless there's something I haven't found!) there's only been one accident in the house. Out of all the dogs I've owned in my lifetime, though, she's the first "shoe thief/chewer"! Naughty girl!!

On Saturday my younger daughter and I hosted a bridal shower for one of her friends. I obviously didn't check the community calendar before I set the date and location. Turns out there was a "Bugs, Bands & Bikes" festival going on all day in the area adjacent to where we had the shower. I haven't seen or heard so many motorcycles in one place since the time we happened to be in Hot Springs during a Harley Davidson Convention! (Bugs = "mudbugs" or crawfish)

Remember the goose couple I mentioned in an entry awhile back? There have been several mornings my husband has seen the entire family, which now includes four goslings, marching down the middle of the levee road which circles our pond. I would love to get a photo of that!

We've had two new calves in the past week or so. We're a small operation, so it's always a big deal when there's a new arrival. Once upon a time I took lots of livestock photos. As I mentioned here, though, it's been ages since I took my camera to the pasture.

At least when something happens right here at the house I'm pretty good about getting out my camera. Jed was barking like crazy at something in the front yard yesterday evening. Turns out it was a snake. It kept a very close eye on me as I inched up to take its picture. It didn't appear to be a water moccasin or copperhead, so I let it go on its merry way after snapping a couple of pix. I noticed Jed didn't get too close. I guess he learned something from his last experience.

A Mother's Day Repeat

I'm repeating this 2006 Mother's Day post from my old 360 blog. Happy Mother's day to all the mothers reading this!

Here's what my namesake (Kelly the cow) gave me for Mother's Day. In honor of her new little bull calf I'm posting this wonderful poem Marion had on her blog recently.

The Pasture
by Robert Frost

I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha'n't be gone long. You come too.

I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I sha'n't be gone long. You come too.

Bovine Wisdom

A Heyday

Or maybe that should be a hayday.

We still haven’t gotten any rain at our house, but it was overcast most of yesterday and the high was only 86. We decided to give late afternoon fishing one more shot. The fish weren’t biting, but we did have a little excitement.

We kept hearing the cows mooing. More so than usual. Sure enough, we soon saw two calves that had gotten out and were frolicking around outside the pasture. Fishing poles set aside, we headed to the pasture side of the pond so my husband could get out and start rounding them up. Meanwhile, I took the boat across to the dock to get the truck and head back to the pasture. (I’ve gotten pretty good in the john boat with a single paddle)

The calves were herded through a gate into the pasture and the escape route was located (a tree over the fence). That wasn’t the only problem. Somehow, the rest of the cows had broken through the fence into the area the hay is kept. They and the three remaining donkeys were having a grand ole time at the “hay buffet”! That required opening more gates and shooing everyone into a different pasture until repairs could be made this morning.

So much for a peaceful evening of fishing. Now, moving on to puppies…

Their eyes should be opening soon, so I’ve been checking on them daily to see what I could see. To my surprise, I saw more yesterday than I anticipated. More puppies, that is! There are nine of them, not seven! How will we ever find homes for all of them?!?

Cows and calves

I went down to our pasture this morning for the first time in ages. I was surprised to see a red calf with the black ones and several black calves with some red mixed in their coats. Most surprising, though, was the calf with little horn nubs! Despite having the trait bred out of them, the occasional cow will still end up with horns.

The cows use to not let me get very close to them, but the older girls have been around long enough now that they’re pretty friendly. I got a kick (not literally!) out of petting Kelly, my namesake.

Here’s a picture of one of our newer cows and the little calf she had recently. They’ll both start fattening up soon. In honor of this calf I’ve included a poem by Wendell Berry from my Garrison Keillor anthology.

Her First Calf

Her fate seizes her and brings her

down. She is heavy with it. It

wrings her. The great weight

is heaved out of her. It eases.

She moves into what she has become,

sure in her fate now

as a fish free in the current.

She turns to the calf who has broken

out of the womb's water and its veil.

He breathes. She licks his wet hair.

He gathers his legs under him

and rises. He stands, and his legs

wobble. After the months

of his pursuit of her, now

they meet face to face.

From the beginnings of the world

his arrival and her welcome

have been prepared. They have always

known each other.

Wendell Berry

My own Haiku

I knew after reading Quid’s Haiku this week that I wanted to try writing some of my own.
Here are my first efforts and what prompted them.

Each Spring I am reminded anew just how many variations there are on the color green. I see it in my daily walk to the mailbox, particularly on a bright, sunny day.

Vibrant shades of green
Brand new leaves against blue sky
The colors of Spring

These same daily walks are often a time when I feel very close to God. Perfect for praising, praying or just listening for Him.

Marking steps with prayer
God’s presence all around me
Speaking to my soul

I mentioned in a recent entry that my bird feeders were busy with Cardinals and Goldfinches. The past few days they’ve been joined by Indigo Buntings… one of my favorites!

Bold, red Cardinals
Buntings of electric blue
Bright yellow Finches

I’ll never forget the first time I discovered how noisy cows can be when they graze! It made me laugh to hear the steady ripping of the grass as they slowly worked their way across the pasture.

Cows attack the grass
Tearing apart the silence
Heads never look up

Top quality? Nah, but the important thing is that I had fun writing them and want to do more.

Christmas 2008

Our family gets together on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. This tradition began one year when our children were small and Christmas fell on a Sunday. We knew it would be hard to get them up, do “Santa”, open gifts and still get to church on time. So… we opened gifts the night before and it was such a success, we decided to continue doing it that way every year. With the kids older now and some having to spread their time between more than one place, it works out quite well.

Another tradition we began several years ago is our annual game of “Holiday Bingo”. I like to be the “caller” and pick out the prizes, simple stuff like candy, fishing lures and fun lip balms. Last round is a cover-the-board game for the grand prize, a Wal-Mart gift card. After bingo we open gifts then spend the rest of the evening playing games, visiting, watching TV or whatever. This year Older Daughter, her new husband, Younger Daughter and I had some serious competition going with the Pictionary game!

Rather than trying to have a sit-down meal, we found it’s much easier to provide an array of snack items. Chip & dip, cheese & crackers, mini sandwiches (turkey, ham, beef, goose), boiled shrimp and lots of desserts. More than enough for everyone!

Things were quiet here on Christmas Day. My husband came in from checking the livestock and announced we had a new arrival, so I visited the pasture that afternoon with camera in hand in hopes for a glimpse of the “Christmas calf”. No luck, she had it hidden somewhere. I did get a few pictures of the donkeys, though. Here’s one of the baby Jenny had in October. He has on his fuzzy winter coat! I also couldn’t resist taking a picture of this cow (or maybe it’s Bully??) curled up in a ball. Cute!

Cow clip

I was playing around with my blog today and thought I'd try loading one of my own videos. This was taken almost three years ago. The bull pictured is at least twice as big now. We breed the cows each year and sell their offspring, so any calves shown have long since gone to the livestock sale. That's why although most of the cows have names, the calves rarely do. (would you want to eat a steak that once had a name??)