Sid's Cowventure

My niece Sidney is now in the cow business.

She and her folks came up this weekend so she could look at some cows to buy.

Sid is a freshman in high school. She is a fine girl.

John had sorted a few out on Friday because the forecast called for a windy day on Saturday....and they were right. He put the sorted ones in a small pasture fairly close to the barn so they would be easy to gather and bring in. Sid rode Kitty and John rode Little Joe Pat and they were off.

My brother, Tim, fed a couple of bales with the team and then drove in front of the cows on in to the corral.

Rex was there just waiting for the chance to chase an ornery bovine. He got a couple of opportunities and probably created a few more for himself in the process. Rex could benefit from a daily dose of Valium or something equally as mellowing.

Then Sid looked the group over, decided which ones she wanted and they put them in the chute to preg check them.

Ring was there just in case any of them decided to get out of hand....he can show you the quickest way to the fence.

Sidney got the opportunity to try a couple of them. You gotta love John's pink gloves.

The first one she did she didn't feel what John was describing.






Let me just take this opportunity to confess that it was things like preg checking cows that contributed to my confusion about exactly where babies exit the body from. Yes. It is embarrassing but preg checking cattle (where they feel the calf through the rectal opening) was only one factor. The other even more contributor was my friend Jolene's cousin. We went to visit her in the hospital right after she had her first baby and when Jo asked her if labor had been awful, she replied "Oh, not at all I just pooped her right out!" Ok. So now you know. It was something that wasn't exactly clear to me until I was in nursing school. I am not kidding.

She was also branding the ones she wanted in the chute.

A little later, John said "Okay Sid, this one is really easy to feel the calf, come try it again."

I happened to catch her subtle but wondrous expression when she felt the calf inside.

Unfortunately her folks missed the picture so Tim asked her to re-enact it....she was a little more animated the second time around.

I can't remember why we had her do a third fake "first time I felt the calf" re-enactment but the third time was really animated. She was a good sport. So was the cow!

They loaded up her cows and headed home.

Tim and Carolyn (speaking of good sports.....horses and cattle are not Carolyn's favorite things but she is great about supporting the rest of her clan whom are all very into them.....she's a keeper).

It was a fun day and we hope Sid gets along good with her new cows.