Friday, November 9, 2012

Hello Moo-tiful!

| | 7 comments
Hello Mootiful!

I decided to go for a walk in that slim evening hour before everything gets way too dark, way too early.

I hadn't been in the back pasture for awhile.  I wanted to see if there was anything new to see.

Spoiler alert - the next photo is not pretty.  

When I rounded the corner where the 10-acre hay field ends and the ridge drops down to rolling wild grassland I stopped in my tracks at this new sight.


It's not that I've never run across a deer kill before.

I just haven't run across one so close to my grazing alpacas before.

And although the kill was fresh enough that the head still had intact eyeballs, the rest was picked clean as a whistle.  Even most of the hair was gone.

It kind of creeped me out.  And then I wondered if anybody I knew wanted the antlers.

{I left them there, in case you're wondering.}

With that pleasant vision behind me I headed into the lower part of the back pastures, down where the small spring-fed creek runs across the lowest corner.

I noticed the neighbors cows grazing as usual on the other side of the perimeter fence.  I had seen them over there all summer.  I even accidentally waved to one once.  From a distance it looked like a man in black with a white cap.  Turns out it was a cow's rump.

Oops.

Time for a little Meet & Greet

I stopped and watched the biggest cow at the fence - a Holstein from the looks of it.

She Moo'ed to me.  I shouted back, "Hello Cow!"

I'm not sure what the proper cow-greeting-etiquette actually is.

I kept on my walk but the cow stayed at the fence watching me.

She Moo'd again.

This was odd. 

They had always ignored me before.

Could you be more adorable?

"What the hay," I thought, maybe I should saunter over and say "hello" in person.

So I did, expecting the cow to turn and run away at any moment.

She didn't.

All the other cows that had been grazing nearby also came jogging over to the fence line.

The big one, a Holstein I guessed, was scratching its head on the fence post.  She took front and center, the other smaller steers hanging to her sides and rear.

Shy little steers

I put out one hand, tentatively.

I think she could have completely grabbed my wrist with her tongue if I had let her.

Then she proceeded to slime me with snot and saliva all up one arm and down the other.  I had to hold onto my stocking cap to keep her from taking that, too.

Afterwards I felt like I had just had one bath and needed another.

Trying to keep my hand away from her snot and saliva I scratched her cheeks and under her jaw and around her ears.

She kept trying to eat my hand.

I got a few sniffs and licks from the smaller cows, but she was commanding all the attention.

There was one shy mostly white one in particular that I just wanted to take home with me and cuddle up in the sheep shed.

Hello sweet shy thing... please come home with me.

{I left him there, in case you're wondering.}

Did you know cows at this time of year are fuzzy?

After watching them for awhile and trying my best to capture the shy one on "film" (saying "on digital" just doesn't have the same ring, does it?) I decided I needed to continue my walk.  It gets dark pretty darn fast these days.

I backed away from the fenceline snapping more photos as I went and then I realized...

Mama cow was a HE.

Oops.

Cheers -
Gypsy Farmgirl says, "Hello Moo-tiful!"





I'm trying a Blog Hop today, linking up with Tayet at Farmlife At Its Best.  I hope you'll click over to see the other farm-y folks who've participated this week.

Farm Life at its Best

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your alpacas are absouloutly adorable! The cows are pretty darn cute too. Thanks for linking up, I hope you'll come again next week!

Anonymous said...

P.S. Just looked at your About page and I'm a Wisconsin gal too!

Bella Sinclair said...

Ooooooo mmooooOOO! I love cows! Love 'em, love 'em. I never knew they could be fuzzy, whoa! Oh goodness, so soft and plush looking. Adorable! That poor deer. Makes me wonder how hungry the other wild critters are. Thanks for the lovely walk. I enjoyed the photos immensely!

Victoria Strauser said...

Thank you Tayet! I will visit again I promise! And Bella - yes, love cows! Don't have any of my own... yet! ;o)

Victoria Strauser said...

Tayet - Yay, WI! I'm in the south-western region near Tomah - are you close?

Jess said...

Coyotes took a deer down RIGHT behind our barn last week. Based on when our dog started barking, they cleaned the entire back half to the bone in three hours (when I discovered them). Unreal.

Victoria Strauser said...

Yikes Jess! Isn't it amazing and frightening?!? I can't believe I didn't lost any poultry or sheep on our farm last year.

 
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