cows

Raining today, but August has been sunny and dry, rivers and creeks are low. After dinner at John & Ellen's on Sunday, I went up in the back to check on the cows. The water trough was empty. By the time that Andy arrived on Monday morning, the cows were very agitated. The plan was to move them to a lower pasture where we can access water from the Ira brook. The only problem was that one of the three new calves was nowhere to be found. Andy said that the mother will hide the calf with instructions not to move, no matter what.
They were in a big field full of high bushes. It looked to me like we could look for a long time before the calf was found. Andy scared up the calf relatively quickly, however. I thought we were set except the calf didn't head for mom like we expected. We had to find her, and move her again... and again. Finally she went to her mother, and we were able to make the expected transition.
The cows got their water in short order. There is plenty of feed for them so serenity returned to the herd of cows forthwith. Speaking of serenity, there is nothing more relaxing than looking out over a pasture full of contented cows. It's a feeling that's hard to explain. The feeling is accentuated when there are calves involved. They lay around, soaking up the sun, wiggling their ears, sleeping.  A calf sleeps the way a baby does...dead to the world. I think at many farms, the calves are separated from their mothers immediately and end up in less than idyllic circumstances. Here they get to hang with mom and the herd, lolling around, dining on milk and sweet green grass. I've got to believe that these days and weeks might actually be the highlight of their lives.