Thursday, January 27, 2011

Cow Feedin'

My Uncle, who is not retired and has a very nice full time job with the local school district, took us out almost every day to give his cows feed pellets.  He keeps a small herd these days just for fun.  This herd is considerably smaller than what my Grandfather used to have on the property back in the day.  But like I said, he isn't trying to make a living off of these animals, he just really enjoys them.  And so do we Uncle.. so do we!

We'd start out walking behind the house towards the big pond around dusk and the cows would know exactly what we were up to and come a runnin'.  My Uncle has 4 concrete feeding troughs where he dumps feed pellets for the cows in the winter.  This gives them extra nutrients to help get them through the winter months.


They come up all sweet and innocent, but deep down cows are ornery, fickle things.  So we had to be extra careful of The Tweedles to make sure they didn't get kicked by the cows.  Us too for that matter.  Ornery and fickle I say.  Especially bulls.


You eyeballin' me son?  
Who me? Nah.. and that's ma'am to you mister!


My Uncle would put the pellets into little buckets to make it easier for the Tweedles to carry.  He'd hand each of the Tweedles a bucket and they'd go dump the pellets into one of the four concrete troughs.

 

Apparently, once their buckets were emptied, that was some internal Tweedle signal to race back to Uncle to get another bucket.  I'm not sure where they picked up the idea that it was a race, but race they did.


Maybe they just missed Uncle?  Maybe they were afraid of the cows?  Although, it kinda looks like they were fleeing from The Hubs in this photo doesn't it?

Even The Old Guy got into the mix.  Although I don't think he raced.  Maybe he didn't know he was suppose to?  Or maybe he just wanted to let the Tweedles win?  Either way, I never saw him race.  Just wanted that to be clear.  The Old Guy did not race.



Despite all of our antics, the cows enjoyed the meal very much - the pigs!  And I think The Tweedles really enjoyed it too.  Every day around dinner time as soon as Uncle would show up they'd run to him asking if it was time to feed the cows.  I even think secretly the Hubs and The Old Guy had a good time.  I know I did!


You just can't make these kinds of memories in the city people... you just can't.

Seriously.. Thoughts?

5 comments:

  1. I think we need to start a Facebook campaign aimed at Bill: "Get Wendi Back to Texas!" I'll be the first to sign. Have you heard the song "Come Back to Texas" by Bowling For Soup? You'll love it!

    The pictures are great! You have really become an awesome photographer. The littles look like they had a blast.

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  2. Love this, especially that last pic :)

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  3. My cousins had dairy cows. we used to herd them from the grazing pasture to the barn to get milked. it was fun for me. it was life for my cousins. they'd get up at 4am to go do something with the cows. I didn't get up that early. course I wasn't there that long. if I'd stay'd more than a few days, I might of got into the swing of things. we still have cousins in the dairy business.

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  4. I'm the second one to sign up "Get Wendi Back to Texas!" The Old Guy. And yes he loved watching the Tweedles!

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  5. I agree to the getting you back to Texas, and that you take b e a u t f u l pictures!

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