Meet the family bovine!
When I was growin up, we always had cattle around. There was many a night I sat in my Granny's old red '49 Ford pickup truck, waitin for a cow to drop a calf. Occasionally we'd flip the headlights on just to see if anything was happenin yet. Rubbin sleepy eyes to stay awake and not miss anything, I'd listen to the sounds of coyotes howlin, crickets chirpin, and night birds singin.
We had this cow we called "Heifer." Now that's not particularly original, but it worked! I used to have to milk her, and once in a while we'd have a little disagreement over the matter. We had that cow for a very long time, and every time she had a calf, it would be a bull calf. Year after year, after year. Well ole Heifer was gettin on up there in years, and the very last calf she ever had was a heifer, born on Mother's Day!
I remember Granny goin out and callin the cows....."sooo-oook!" Or "come boss!" They come too! Granny was a very proper woman, and never, ever did she refer to a bull as a "bull." She'd call them "animal." Now Granny never had no large herd of cattle, but there was always enough of em around to keep the calves comin, beef on the table, and a few extra to sell now and again.
I reckon I'm kinda like my Granny in that respect. I just kind of cotton to the idea of havin several cows around, and seein them babies playin in the pasture. I'm a workin on that too, and I'm gonna share some pictures with ya of our little herd. Which by the way, is growing!!
Now this here is Maudie, our eldest cow. She's named after my Granny Maude! We got Maudie when she was a calf.
That's Bessie there on the left, and Gracie peekin out from behind the hay bale. Maudie lost a calf one year, so I went to the sale and bought Gracie as a little baby. Maudie raised her as her very own. The next year Maudie had Bessie. I reckon you could say that Maudie is kinda our matriarch of cowdom.
Ok, this is how it works. Gracie is named after my Granny's sister Grace. Bessie is named after my grandpa's sister Bessie. Now wasn't that easy!
This is T-Bone. His mama is Gracie, and she's showin him the proper trough ettiquette.
Nope, them ain't short cows, those are goats sharin the pasture with the cows......and the hay!
Here's our newest addition. Miss Kate....named after my grandpa's other sister. Our neighbors had a cow that had twins, and decided to sell one of them so to take some of the stress off the cow. Well I went over there and saw this little critter, patted her head, she slobbered on me, and it was love! I knew that I was a gonna buy her and fetch her here to live. I got her on February 22, 2005, at one month of age. She's spoiled rotten!
Miss Kate and my granddaughter Savanna. Savanna got her first experience at a cattle auction the day we bought Miss Kate. She thought it was pretty neat stuff! Miss Kate was the first one out in the ring that day, and I dug in my heels and just kept sayin "yep!" The biddin finally got down to between me and another gal. The old guy sittin next to me just grinned and said he didn't never get in a biddin war between two women! I just grinned back and said....."yep!"
Miss Kate again.
So there's kinda where we're at right now. But just you wait, we got a black and white longhorn bull comin this summer. I done decided I'm namin him Caleb. Now I don't know where that come from, that one ain't a family name. But somehow, my heart just says that's the name that should be tagged on him. So come back again, and see how Miss Kate is growin, and watch for pictures of Caleb when he arrives.
Hey guess what? Caleb isn't here yet, but I did get a couple of pictures of him. Was kind of hard with the cattle stirrin around, but it's a start! He's still a youngen.
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