HOLY COW! THE COWS CAME HOME.
Welcome HOME, cows! I look out my bedroom window and see a field of cows in our backyard. This is one of the first indications that warm weather is finally here. For some of the herd, our land is their vacation home, where they come to summer and enjoy 10 acres of fresh, sweet grass during the warm months.
Growing up in the suburbs, I never had much experience with livestock (although I did still dream of one day owning chickens and keeping bees, and I kept my inner country-girl happy by hiking in the woods, tending a vegetable garden, and riding horses at every opportunity available).
In addition to the assurance the cows give that we won’t ever have to mow at least 10 acres of grass, I find it comforting to coexist with these massive, sentient creatures. They spend most of their hours, heads bent, mouths munching, ambling along, in one end, out the other. They are very efficient at what they do. EATTING. Oftentimes they tolerate me enough to hand-feed them wildflowers plucked from our yard. This, I do through the electric fence that divides our territories. OUR turf. COWS’ turf.
IT IS AMAZING HOW QUICKLY A CALF LEARNS TO STAND. FULL OF VIM AND VIGOR ALREADY, THIS LITTLE GUY WAS BORN ONLY A WEEK AGO.
I SWEAR HE IS GIVING ME THE STINK EYE. DON’T WORRY, LITTLE GUY, I WON’T EAT YOU OR YOUR FAMILY. MY DIET HAS BEEN MAMMAL-FREE FOR OVER A DECADE.
ONE OF MY FAVORITE COWS IS “BIG RED”. SHE STANDS OUT FROM THE HERD (for obvious reasons) AND BECAUSE SHE IS SUCH A NURTURER. WHEN “BIG RED” IS NOT MOTHERING HER OWN CALVES, SHE IS ASSISTING YOUNGER MOTHER COWS WITH THE REARING AND NURSING OF THEIR CALVES. SHE IS A GENTLE SOUL.
We are so blessed to have this land to share with our friends and our friend’s cows. Very blessed, indeedy.