And I don't mean a round of applause.
There’s an old lady who
lives on the sharp turn next to the sheep land on the county road we use to get
to the Mansion. Farmer H knew her husband years ago. He has fallen on ill
health, and it not quite mentally up to snuff. We used to see him and his wife
working the cattle, moving them from the field next to their house to the field across the
road where they cut hay. Now it’s just her. Sometimes I see one of
their sons helping out, but they must not live nearby.
The cows get out several
times a year. Once time all 20 or 30 of them took a trip a half mile down the blacktop
and across the low water bridge. It’s not hard to get them back. All you need
is a pickup truck with some hay in the back, or a person riding along on the
tailgate holding a handful out to the lead cow. The rest will follow. But it
takes more than one person in order to warn traffic.
Every now and then, a
single cow escapes. Then it wonders how to get back in. Idles in the middle of
the blacktop while ruminating, after finding out the grass is not greener on
the other side of the fence. The #1 son has stopped to help the old lady put a
cow back in.
Last Thursday, The
Pony and I saw the old lady at dusk, on our way home from visiting Mom. The old
lady had her truck parked in the road. No shoulder. She had no choice. And
there she was, on the other side of the road, trying to climb through the
barbed wire fence. No cow was out. The cow was in. Standing by a tree in the
near-dark, with drizzle sifting down, the temps dropping into the 30s. Beside
the brown cow was a white calf. Newborn. And behind it, another white calf. Also
newborn. TWINS! Twin calves! That doesn’t happen very often. I guess the old
lady had been checking on that cow to see when she birthed her baby, and found
TWO.
I don’t know how she
did it, but those two calves are thriving. They’re healthy as two horses. We
saw them again yesterday. Robust and sturdy.
Life must be hard for
that old lady. But now she has twins. I imagine that brought her joy.
4 comments:
THAT is why I'm not a farmer. No rest. No vacation. No "take off for a few days."
Hopefully she'll live to an old age. When she's gone, who will take over?
Sioux,
Well, there's that...and if you're like Farmer H, you think you're the one who discovered, after having one for three months: GOATS ARE HERD ANIMALS!
I'm guessing her sons will sell the place.
I am that old lady when Toni Louise escapes the confines of the yard. I imagine y kids will sell this place, too ..... if I don't beat them to it!
Kathy,
Yeah, and I think you already found twins.
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