So I have heard that I need to share my cow story with everyone.  I'm a city girl, no doubt about it.  With the move to the country I've exposed to some things that have to date been foreign to me.  The biggest one is the cows.  The owners raise beef cattle, pigs and crops.  To the north and west I see corn, to the south and east, beans and the "front yard" is hay.  There are around 80 cows here and they keep the rest of around 300 or so at the other farm.  Now, I love cows, I collect cows and this will be my third kitchen decorated with cows.  So one day I decided to go and visit the cows.

Yep, they are smelly and the flies are pretty ucky but the cows are also very curious creatures.  So it took me about 15 minutes to get one of them to come to the gate and sniff and lick my hand.  Boy do these cows have long tongues!  Rough and long and somewhat reminiscent of Kiss' Gene Simmons (does that date me??) is about as descriptive as I can get.  His "name" is Number 35.  That's his ear tag number.  I am trying NOT to actually name the cows since they might become my next double cheeseburger. 

I make at least one visit every couple of days and so Number 35 has become pretty consistent about visiting me at the gate.  He lets me scratch his ears and head and likes to lick my hands.   A few of the other cows have become more interested in what's going on with myself and #35.  I like to think #35 is going around telling the other cows that hey that person is OK.  Jean insists it's just because they are getting used to me being there. 

Number 46 is a pushy kind of cow and decided that it was his turn.  Within a few minutes I had him with his head thru the gate pushing against me for ear scratches and neck pats.  Now the big guy basically comes pushing up to the gate when I go out and call for #35 and #46.  He sticks his head thru, sucks on my shirt and/or jeans and then will lean into the gate so I can scratch his back and sides.  Basically, he's a big black and white goober.

I'm not giving up meat, but I have apologized a couple of times when I'm out grilling burgers.  They seem pleased when I throw chicken or turkey on the grill--eat more chicken is their motto!  The cows will be here until March and I'm sure I'll be sad one day when I come home and they are gone.  But I am sure that there will be another #35 and #46 to be friends with.  I asked about buying one of them, but they are out of my price range and I have feeling feeding one of them would put me in the poor house.   Besides I have a feeling my friends would have to initiate an intervention if I start collecting real live cows!

Until next time...

Moo to you!