Quote for the Day 5/16/2008
Hiromi: You ought to collect owls instead of chickens.
Me: What? Why?
Hiromi: Aren't owls supposed to be smart? Chickens aren't smart.
After I took a phone call from someone I'd never met--from another state, but visiting here. . . . She was asking for my recommendation on a good Kansas wildflower book and where to buy it. Wildflowers and Grasses of Kansas by Michael John Haddock. Buy it at Dillon Nature Center. (I have an autographed copy, which I remembered when I was checking the publication date and saw it.)
******************************************
I stepped outside the front door and announced out loud, just in case anyone was within hearing range, that "There's a calf romping through the yard south of the house."
"I'm well aware of that, " Lowell said as he rounded the corner of the house stalking grimly after the flighty calf.
Later--
Lowell: So that's why I wasn't in the mood right then to tell a story.
Last night and earlier this morning we had heard both a lowing cow and a bawling calf. I knew Lowell and Dad had been moving cattle to pasture yesterday and couldn't figure out what they had done if we still had both a calf and cow here. I thought it seemed early for weaning, but usually that's when we hear unhappy cattle.
When they were herding the cattle toward the catch pen that funneled them onto the trailer, cow Number 58 had been the rogue individual, and her calf was almost as bad. Finally all the cattle were on the trailer except #58, so they left her behind in the catch pen so that she could later be reunited with her calf. The calf was unlikely to stray far if its mother was close by. When they returned from hauling the first load, four panels of the catch pen were flattened and neither #58 or her calf were in the vicinity. Then they spied them, a half mile away toward the east, grazing on Tim Ayers' wheat. They went after them, and after chasing her next through Morris Yoder's east field and then his west field (both of them south of here) and then through our field a half mile west of here, and all parts in between, she was back in the catch pen, and "escaped" it by running into the trailer. They penned her into the front section. The calf, unfortunately did not immediately join her in the trailer--still lofting its tail and gallavanting. So they left them both here overnight, #58 locked in the trailer, and her calf outside it. They obviously missed each other.
When Lowell arrived this morning, he first set up a trap for the calf and then tried to ease it toward the trap. I don't know where all it had gone first, but when I saw it in the yard near the house, it was very close to walking into the trap. Like its mother, this calf escaped the trap by running onto the trailer.
I've noticed many times that "headstrong" animals provide wonderful examples of the costs of high-minded, stubborn, and proud behavior. The "freedom" to thumb one's nose at authority is usually short-lived and the end result is usually more restriction than before. For cattle, it may result in a "final solution" with a trip to the meat packing plant. For people, retribution is not always this swift and final. But the cost is high nonetheless.
Me: What? Why?
Hiromi: Aren't owls supposed to be smart? Chickens aren't smart.
After I took a phone call from someone I'd never met--from another state, but visiting here. . . . She was asking for my recommendation on a good Kansas wildflower book and where to buy it. Wildflowers and Grasses of Kansas by Michael John Haddock. Buy it at Dillon Nature Center. (I have an autographed copy, which I remembered when I was checking the publication date and saw it.)
******************************************
I stepped outside the front door and announced out loud, just in case anyone was within hearing range, that "There's a calf romping through the yard south of the house."
"I'm well aware of that, " Lowell said as he rounded the corner of the house stalking grimly after the flighty calf.
Later--
Lowell: So that's why I wasn't in the mood right then to tell a story.
Last night and earlier this morning we had heard both a lowing cow and a bawling calf. I knew Lowell and Dad had been moving cattle to pasture yesterday and couldn't figure out what they had done if we still had both a calf and cow here. I thought it seemed early for weaning, but usually that's when we hear unhappy cattle.
When they were herding the cattle toward the catch pen that funneled them onto the trailer, cow Number 58 had been the rogue individual, and her calf was almost as bad. Finally all the cattle were on the trailer except #58, so they left her behind in the catch pen so that she could later be reunited with her calf. The calf was unlikely to stray far if its mother was close by. When they returned from hauling the first load, four panels of the catch pen were flattened and neither #58 or her calf were in the vicinity. Then they spied them, a half mile away toward the east, grazing on Tim Ayers' wheat. They went after them, and after chasing her next through Morris Yoder's east field and then his west field (both of them south of here) and then through our field a half mile west of here, and all parts in between, she was back in the catch pen, and "escaped" it by running into the trailer. They penned her into the front section. The calf, unfortunately did not immediately join her in the trailer--still lofting its tail and gallavanting. So they left them both here overnight, #58 locked in the trailer, and her calf outside it. They obviously missed each other.
When Lowell arrived this morning, he first set up a trap for the calf and then tried to ease it toward the trap. I don't know where all it had gone first, but when I saw it in the yard near the house, it was very close to walking into the trap. Like its mother, this calf escaped the trap by running onto the trailer.
I've noticed many times that "headstrong" animals provide wonderful examples of the costs of high-minded, stubborn, and proud behavior. The "freedom" to thumb one's nose at authority is usually short-lived and the end result is usually more restriction than before. For cattle, it may result in a "final solution" with a trip to the meat packing plant. For people, retribution is not always this swift and final. But the cost is high nonetheless.
posted by Mrs. I at
5:30 AM
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