Tucker, a border collie, is Our Friend the Farmer’s partner. He has a mind of his own and as the Farmer says, “We go to work together”, but I’m pretty sure even after many years they are still trying to figure out who is the boss. Tucker prefers to run to work, run at work and just run. He runs the cattle, runs and runs and he can wear you out just watching him.
Our Friend the Farmer has been getting a lot of ‘help’ this calving season. I figured if I started to write about Tucker, you would all consider this a ‘dog’ post, not another ‘cow’ post.
Last Sunday is annually a day that is very difficult for us to get through. This year it was relaxing, wonderful and fun, we almost didn’t miss our beloved football season. We’d issued last-minute invitations to Our Friend the Farmer and My Sweet Girl Friend to come for breakfast after church. The weather was beautiful, the food yummy and we had ideas and plans we wanted to run by them both. We were determined to get our taxes handled as soon as they left…but then we were told there were calves being born… so of course off we went. We knew which cow was calving and it was a long way off, which was just fine with The Teen as she wanted to see it, but not seeing it up close and personal was good with her. We diligently keep our eyes trained on the birthing cow, doing such a great job at this that we completely missed another cow calving just 30 feet away. (Hey, sometimes it just happens fast!) So before we knew it there were two little calves in the field and all looked well.
It was time to feed the cattle which is a two-man operation. Weekends the Farmer’s Top Man is off so he needs someone to help drive the flat-bed through the field. I offered to help and as I’d seen his 10-year-old grandson do it the day before, I was pretty confident that I could tackle it. The fun part is that Our Friend the Farmer just sort of hops out of the truck while it is still going and then the driver slides into position to drive around the field as he throws hay off the back side. The Teen and I had a great time, helping for real and driving up close and personal to all the cattle who were very happy to see us.
We are starting to get to know the cattle. 47 has a hurt leg and moves very slowly, 16 is my favorite as I like her markings and My Loving Spouse likes a tan-colored one that has already given birth to a tan-colored baby. It use to be that if Our Friend the Farmer wanted to have a quick chat with us, he’d drive into our yard. Now more than likely he checks on his cows and we are there, watching his cows as well. The other day the wind was blowing hard and I was ‘cow watching’. One of the cows (not 47) was scooting around the field on her back hoofs and her front knees. Okay, so even I know this is not really normal cow walking. I don’t like pestering the Farmer, but also, if something was wrong that he didn’t know about…well, that would be worse, so I called the cow ‘situation’ in. It turns out he did know about that cow and the problem she was having and he explained to me what they’d done for her and that she’d feel better after she calved (for sure!) He didn’t mind my bothering him, as even I am an extra pair of eyes on the calving situation and I was learning something new about farming, which I think he enjoys teaching. Then I said, I’d also learned something new in this gale force wind today (although I was safely tucked away in the protection of my car), don’t ever stand down wind of a cow that is peeing!! To which he laughingly replied, “You really are from California aren’t you?” Yep!
