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we are a small hobby farm

Second Chances at the Illusive Photo

the beginning of a beautiful St. Patrick’s Day, 2019, on the farm

I was given a wonderful and unexpected gift…the gift of a second chance. Many of you know that early in February after doing morning chores, I took a serious fall on ice that was hidden under a layer of snow while I was out taking pictures of what I thought might be the final snowfall of the season. It was breathtakingly beautiful and although it was extremely cold, I was thoroughly enjoying capturing the pure white beauty against the contrast of the drab browns and grays of winter.

The lane behind the south pasture…one of my favorite photo stops.

As I was taking pictures from some of my favorite spots around the farm, my eye caught the beauty of a particular maple tree in the back pasture. I slowly and carefully made my way across the pasture to get “the perfect shot” and as I ducked under an electric fence tape (the one you see just head of me in the above photo), I took a nasty fall. Although I was seriously hurt and I knew it, I was mostly concerned that I had dropped my camera in the snow and that I hadn’t captured the much-desired picture of that maple tree. That last thought has haunted me all of these weeks!

the last photo before my fall. the illusive maple is just showing a few branches on the right edge of this photo.

So, on St. Patrick’s Day, with the temps at forty-one degrees, it started snowing. BIG. BEAUTIFUL. FLAKES.!! At first, it didn’t collect on the ground and then suddenly we realized it was beginning to collect and it was collecting fast. My husband suggested I might take this opportunity to capture some pictures of this wintry wonderland surprise, so I donned my barn coat, and boots and headed out with my trusted camera in hand.

this is what I saw when looking up into the snow as they fell on me and my camera

There are many beautiful places here on the farm to capture scenic shots, but guess where I headed? You guessed it..out to get that illusive shot missed several weeks ago because of my fall. The sight did not disappoint! It was like my maple tree was standing there waiting for me to capture her beauty.

the perfect maple tree dressed in white

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but it was a pretty big deal to me! Each time someone would ask me how I fell, I would tell them the story of the illusive picture and how I could still see it in my mind…the picture that got away. This haunting irritation can now be put to rest. I am quite happy and thankful for the unexpected opportunity for a second chance to capture the beauty of the maple’s last chance to wear her winter dress!

Baby Bovine Behavior (also named The Hilarious Antics of Hazel)

Oh look at that precious face: beautiful and seemingly docile; but, do not let that gorgeous face fool you!  She is ornery and energetic as well as headstrong and fearless!  She took us on a romp this morning that should have been no big deal except for a few special circumstances coupled with her strong personality.

First, let me say, she will be three weeks old tomorrow!  From the first hour of her birth, I knew that she was different from Mocha’s previous three calves in that she was hitting “milestones” ahead of her sisters.  Some milestones she hit days before her older sisters.  She stood within her first hour. She only needed to be shown once how to nurse. She ran around Mocha in the stall within 24 hours of her birth. From her birth, she was too tall to duck under her mama. She drank from the water trough with her mom in the first few days.  The list goes on and on!

She is like the other calves in that she doesn’t like to have the lead rope put on and be forced to go somewhere, whether to the barn, to the pasture or from stall to stall in the barn. She plants her front feet and sticks her chin up in the air with a fierce determination to stand her ground.  In her first few days of life, she rewarded the person on the backside pushing her by defecating on them, which was a good thing as far as monitoring her food intake, but not nice for the person trying to push her to go where she didn’t want to go!

She is pretty independent too!  From her first hours, she just had this settledness and confidence about her. She doesn’t seem too bothered to be put in a separate stall while I milk Mocha.  The other calves would bellow and moo but for the most part, Hazel just lays down and waits until we come for her.

Well, her independence showed in full living color this morning.  For the past several days, she and Mocha have had the full run of the front and side pasture but since there isn’t much grass to be eaten in the back pastures right now, we had to move Jersey and Caramel to the front and put a second strand of electric fence tape across to accomodate Hazel’s small size, thinking she couldn’t get through, allowing she and Mocha to in the side pasture. (A little side note of history, last week, she ran right under the electric tape and had some crazy frolics in the front pasture while Mocha stood in the side pasture yelling for her, unable to get past the single strand of electric tape.)

This morning, that little independent miss just ran and broke through the electric tape and frolicked with her grandma, Jersey, and her older sis, Caramel, running around so fast that her body was literally at a 45 degree angle to the ground! She roused Jersey and Caramel up something terrible!  Caramel is due to deliver her own calf in about 8 days, so needless to say she doesn’t need to be frolicking in the pasture with her baby sis!

To make matters more crazy, while she was running around the pasture and avoiding being caught by me, (and I am talking around and around and around the pasture) Jersey decided to run interference for her by standing between me and her and then just as I would get close to Hazel, Jersey would take off which would clue Hazel in that I was getting close and off she would go again!  At one point, I was so frustrated I wasn’t sure if I was going to cry, yell or just double over in laughter.

I’m not really sure how long I ran around like a fool, chasing the illusive Hazel, but the thought did cross my mind “I now know why they lasso calves!”  I think it would be a skill that would have come in quite handy this morning!

Eventually, by putting Mocha back in the corral, Hazel could no longer overcome her innate desire to be with her mom, so she headed back to the corral as well. But, what a workout she gave us! I often think how cool it would be if some “eye in the sky” was videotaping the antics that happen here on the farm, so that we could relive them and have a good belly laugh from time to time!

A Girl is a Girl is a Girl

If you are a girl/woman, do you like to go to the beauty parlor to have your hair done?  I do!  It’s so nice to sit back in a chair and have someone wash, cut and style your hair and all you have to do is sit and relax! Do you know that on some level cows are like that too?

We have two jersey cows for milk. About this time of year, they begin shedding and need to be brushed.  This morning, Mocha was laying in her stall after the milking was done.  She looked so cute so when I finished milking Jersey, I went in to love on her a little.  I knelt down beside her; she was so loving and docile and it was then I realized how much she is already shedding.  I began combing her with the curry comb and it was obvious  how much she enjoyed it.  I brushed everything I could reach and then without warning, she suddenly stood up so I could get the rest of her.  As went from side to side, she kept watching me to make sure I wasn’t leaving. She enjoyed it so much.

A couple summers ago, our girls were standing in the barnyard and I began brushing Mocha. She stood so still which was abnormal. Our other cow at the time, Heidi, came up to see what I was doing to Mocha. She tried resting her head on Mocha’s head which made it nearly impossible for me to brush Mocha. She tried to push Mocha out of the way so she could have her turn. Mocha wasn’t going to allow that to happen and stood firm.  Soon I realized that Heidi was standing behind Mocha, like she had gotten in line behind her, waiting for her turn. It was our Bovine Hair Salon!

It’s funny because Mocha is pretty persnickety when it comes to what she wants and doesn’t want. If I was just going to come up and pet her while she was in the pasture, she wouldn’t want anything to do with me.  However, if I have  a brush or the curry comb in my hand and the girl in her shows up! Regardless of species, we girls enjoy being pampered!

Wellerism or Reality?

According to Wikipedia, “wellerisms are sayings of Sam Weller in Charles Dickens’ novel The Pickwick Papers that make fun of established clichés and proverbs by showing that they are wrong in certain situations, often when taken literally.”  One wellerism I heard many times while I was growing up was  ‘”Each to his own”, said the old woman as she kissed the cow.'” The official wording of this wellerism is “‘Everyone to his own taste,’ the old woman said when she kissed her cow.”, but the meaning is the same.

The funny thing is that for fifty-some years, it was just that…a funny saying.  But in 2015, that wellerism became a reality for me at de Good Life Farm.  In March of 2015, we brought home our first bovine.  She was actually classified as a heifer at the time which is a female bovine over one year old who has not borne a calf or has borne only one calf. Mocha was fifteen months old and pregnant when she came to live with us.  I had known her a since she was a couple of weeks old.  She was a beautiful calf and I fell in love with her. I remember one time pulling in and I couldn’t find her…then saw her little tannish ears peaking out from the bean field.  She had escaped the electric fence and was enjoying a little freedom!  She was so adorable and quite proud of herself!

Each time I saw her, I tried to gain her confidence. I would stick my hand out toward her and talk sweetly to her, but she was pretty skittish and really wanted nothing to do with me. By the time we were ready to bring her home to the farm, I had only been able to coax her within twelve inches of my hand.  She had no idea how much I loved her but soon she would!

Mocha’s life experiences had been pretty limited until we loaded her on the trailer to bring her home. She had been with her mama, Jersey, from the day of her birth.  It’s all she had known.  Not too long before she became ours, the farmer bought some jersey heifers.  It was so comical to watch her assert herself over them.  There were two of them and one of her and she ruled the roost, so to speak.  The farmer would feed the heifers and she would chase them away from their feed. He would then put feed out for her and the heifers would go eat her feed since she was eating theirs…and when Mocha saw what they were doing (when she would eat, she would position herself so that she could keep her eye on the other heifers)  and she would literally run (more like bound) over to them and push them away from the feed.

On the day that we brought her home, we loaded her up on the trailer and as we pulled away, she began mooing loudly…and I could hear Jersey mooing loudly back at her.  Her baby was leaving in a trailer! Mocha mooed all the way through town. Every time we came to a stop, the sound of her mooing filled the air.  It broke my heart.

We got her home and put her in the stall in the barn. Several times each day, I would go out and spend time with her in the stall, trying to gain her confidence.  She had no idea how much I loved her. I brushed her, talked sweetly to her and just spent time with her so she would know she could trust me.

That is when I realized WHY the old woman in the wellerism kissed her cow.  Mocha’s fur smelled like cinnamon!  I kid you not!!!  I would nestle my nose in her neck or back and the faint, sweet scent of cinnamon filled my nostrils.  I began to realize that she liked it when I nuzzled her face or buried my face in her fur. She began to trust me and I grew to love her more and more.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  She is still that stubborn, silly girl when she wants to be! But she knows I love her and I believe she loves me too!  And, even when the barn doesn’t smell sweet, burying my nose in her fur still fills my nostrils with the sweet scent of cinnamon.

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