Baby Cow's Breakfast

The cutest things always happen when I am without my camera. The other morning while Marge and I were out walking, we happened to walk past the baby cows having breakfast. They would have been done by the time that I went back to get my camera - so I whipped out my cell phone camera. Which limited the quality of the photos I could take, but they were still cute.

Here they are lined up for breakfast - if you look closely you can see little baby tongues licking up their oats!

I couldn't get them all in one picture, but there were actually about 15 baby cows lined up here.

They were all hungry...but one in particular couldn't get enough of his breakfast!

He stuck his feet through the slats in the feeding trough so he could reach more!

Cow Eyes

How can you not love those big sweet, sad, smelly cow eyes?

All grown up

Remember Bert and Ernie? (Also, remember that until recently I have had their names backwards. Black face = Ernie. White Face = Bert. I was wrong for a long time)

Remember how they were all cute and tiny when we first met them?


Here they are a few weeks ago:

It's hard to tell from these pictures I suppose, but they really are growing up. They are rather sizeable young cows now.

And still best friends. They follow each other everywhere (most Ernie (black face) follows Bert (white face, aka Fatso))

Introducing: Oscar

Allow me to introduce the latest addition to our Seasame Street themed petting zoo.
This is Oscar:

He came to the farm a few weeks ago and my landlady emailed me to tell me he was here. Her exact words were "He's in the field with Bert and Ernie. He looks like Ernie. He is #52"

Well, I thought to myself "cool, another white faced cow" assuming, as I have been that Ernie is the white faced one. However when I went to find him, I discovered that #52 is actually all black. Meaning two things:

1. I have been wrong all this time about which is Bert and which is Ernie. Bert has the white face. Ernie is all black. My bad
2. That my landlady's comment is actually comical. Oscar "looks like Ernie" in the sense that he is all black....like every other cow in the field. Not a helpful comparison at all.
   

Anyway.

He's a scruffy fluff ball. And I like him.
He is definitely the new cow in town. No one seems to be hanging out with him yet, and he seems very tentative about everything. Hopefully Bert and Ernie will take him under there wing.

Cute faces

I love these little cows.

They just have the sweetest faces.

They are so shy, but curious at the same time.

So cute.

New born

Most of the baby cows (all 20 of them) were born a month or more ago. But just this past week, there was one last new addition. It looks very tiny next to the others.

Here is its mother giving it a little bath.


It is super cute.

They grow fast. The other "little" cows in this video are just a month ish older than the pint sized one.

Not so content

Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence?

This cow sure thinks so.

And there is no convincing her otherwise.

Uncomfortable Nap

It was quite cold and rainy when I took this cute picture.

This little one was napping some distance from its mother.

That is its mother off in the background there, keeping a watchful eye on her little one.

I was able to get a few cute photos before the little one got spooked and ran back to momma.

And knocked the little moveable fence down on the way :-)

A Guest in the vegetable garden

This might be a long story, so we will get right to it.

Last weekend I was out picking some tomatoes, standing right in the middle of my garden, when it a random thought entered my mind, "I wonder if there is any thing else in this garden with me". I don't know what I thought it would be - a snake or a large bug I suppose - but the thought was enough to get me to look up at the garden as a hole

Imagine my surprise when, less than 2 feet from me was a large black furry lump, laying next to the house. It goes without saying that I jumped. I did not scream though. I am not the screaming type.

This is the furry black lump next to the house. I was to the left of it - where the tomatoes are.

Though my first thought was definitely "large ferocious rabid dog"; it didn't take me long to remember that I lived on a farm, and therefore, this black fur ball was probably a baby cow.

Armed with this knowledge, I went straight for my camera to take some cute pictures.


This one from my bedroom window:

This one from right next to her (clearly).

She didn't move, and for a moment I was afraid she might be dead. But upon closer inspection, I found she was blinking, not moving, just blinking.

Though this little cow was clearly on the wrong side of the fence, like the well seasoned wanna be cow farmer that I am, I didn't want to panic, or even worry unnecessarily. However, it didn't take long before I realized that I was very close to this baby cow, and there was no momma cow hollering at me. That is not a good sign. Momma cows are VERY protective. The whole herd, in fact, was on the other side of the pasture, totally unaffected by this little one's absence. This called for a text to the landlady.

She called, said not to worry, and not to do anything they "thought they knew who it was" and would be down soon.

Well, it was a solid 2 hours before they came down. Poor little cow didn't move during that entire time. When the landlord and landlady arrive, the explained the whole story.

Earlier that day a momma cow was screaming up a storm; she was a very unhappy momma for some reason. But they couldn't figure out why, and she was bothering the other cows, so they locked her up in her own little pen. Their theory was that her little one had wandered off and was lost. The little one that I had found, was quite possibly her baby.

The most heartbreaking part was when the landlord tried to get the baby cow into the calf cart; the baby wouldn't move. She looked in the depths of despair. I suspect she was, and that she had resigned herself to dying. For all I know she had been in the garden since earlier that morning, with nothing to eat all that time.
Fortunately, the story ended happily. The momma cow took the baby cow right back, clearly happy to be reunited; and the baby cow ate like there was no tomorrow!

I tired to get a picture of the happily reunited family, unfortunately, the momma cow was in protective over drive; and every time I got remotely close to the pen, momma cow would charge me making very angry noises. Obviously she couldn't get to me, but I still feared for my life, and charging momma cows make for very blurry pictures.

Not What I Intended

I was hoping to get some cute video footage of baby cows walking. But instead, I got this.


I call it

"Momma Cow Standing"

Or alternately:

"I just had a baby and it's still kinda hard to stand up"

Protective Mothers

Given that the cows with names (Molly, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie) all have names because they were abandoned by their mothers, one might begin to think that cows make for lame mothers. But as a general rule, this is not true. They are actually quite protective.

Quite protective.
They get this look on their faces that means business.

See it here? Momma cow, with baby cow behind. I am standing quite a ways away, but she can tell that I have taken an interested in that cute little blob, and she put on her don't-even-think-about-it face.


They all do it. See:

Another momma cow, another sleeping baby cow, and another evil glare complete with ears folded back.

Here I got the evil glare from 4 mothers all at once.

If you push the limits, they start mooing. Intense mooing. Angry mooing. Very different from talking-to-other-cows-mooing.

Then there is the mooing at the baby cows mooing. But more on that tomorrow.

Curly on top

This little lady is about 1 year old.

And she has a little patch of curly hair on the top of her head.

Cow Babies

It's the season for cow babies again. I think it was cow-baby season when I started this blog...so we must be coming up on one year of blogging. crazy.

Anyway - let me introduce you to the farm's newest:

You know how when you spend time with an older baby - say 4 or 5 months and up - and then you get to hold a new born and it just boggles your mind how small they are? Well, it's the same with cow babies. Big Bird has been on the farm since he was just a couple days - and he is not a couple months. But I still consider him to be tiny. Or at least I did, until I saw this little wobbly legged fella. He's tiny!

His mom is VERY protective. Look at those ferociously perked up ears!

I have a weakness for all things baby. What ever is most baby in proximity to me captures my heart. And right now the most baby thing around here is this:

How can you not love that face?

He needs a name. I think I shall call him (or her...I am not really sure) Snuffleupagus.

Fatso

This is Ernie.

But I like to call him fat-so.
Cause he eats a lot.

Seriously, he eats a ton!

There are two other cows in the pen with him, and I don't know how they manage to eat anything.

See Big Bird back there trying to get something to eat? Fats is just wolfing it down.

He is the only one of the three that will consistently get up from where he's sitting and come over if you hold out a piece of grass to him.

Even Marge (who has a never ending appetite) thinks its a little ridiculous.

Fat-so.

The Cows Escaped....again.

The other day, while the landlord and landlady were away from the farm at a conference, I was given the task of feeding the baby cows. I love that task.

The only problem, is that whenever I am on cow-duty, some bunch of cows or another always manages to get out of the fence. Remember this time? Yeah. that one was intense.

Well, this time was no exception. There I was, innocently feeding Bert and Ernie. When I came out from behind the silos...this guy greeted me.

In case you can't tell, he is on the wrong side of the fence, or, more specifically, the wrong side of the silos. (pardon the weird blue tone, I took this picture with my phone)

I tried to remedy the problem on my own. I was going to have Mon Amour drive the car down the drive way in attempts to scare him back where he came from. Only I couldn't find an opening in the fence to scare him back into.

I thought perhaps if I just left him alone, then he would get bored and return to his barn home. But no, he started wandering further away from where he came from.

So I decided to call the landlady. We went through the usual routine - "Is it a big cow?" "Yes, it's a big cow. A very big boy cow as a matter of fact" (they are scarier than girl cows usually)

We finally established that it was a real crisis - and they called a farm hand to come remedy the situation. That brave farm hand remedied the situation by setting out the cow's breakfast - then smacking it on the bum to get it to move. Literally - the cow perked up at the sound of breakfast being set out, then the guy went over, smacked it, and there it went - back home to the pasture.

So, I was later told that there was a hole in the fence where that cow may have gotten out. So I went to investigate.

It was hard to find, but right in between these two silos....

There is a broken fence. And by broken fence, I mean a total absence of a fence. And just on the other side are all the cows. If they wanted to, they could all just walk out.

The farmer assures me that they wont - that cows are dumb creatures of habit, and even though the fence is gone, because they have never crossed that line, its like the fence is still there.

That's a nice thought, but apparently one cow knows the difference between a fence and no fence.

Typical Bert and Ernie

I think I have said it before, but...
I love the baby cows on our farm.

I very much love that they have personalities. Really, they do. If they were identical looking, I would still be able to tell them apart. Let me illustrate - typical Bert and Ernie attitudes.


This is Bert (dark face) and Ernie (white face).

They are peeking through the feeding trough bars at me. Initially both kind of curious.

Then something moves behind them in the pen (probably a bird of some sort)
Bert jumps back in fright and turns to assess the situation.
Ernie sticks his head through the bars to get a better look at me.

Crisis averted behind Bert. Bert returns to assessing the situation in front of him, still very tentative.

Ernie - sticks his head as far as possible through the bars to see if I will give him something to eat.

This is how it always goes. Bert looks sweet, but scared. And Ernie wants to know if you brought food.
Ernie has no fears. None whatsoever.
Bert on the other hand, has only gotten close enough for me to pet him like once.

I try and bring them both yummy clovers to eat from time to time. Ernie eats his right up. Bert sniffs his like it might be poisonous. And by the time he decides it might be safe, and works up the courage to stick out his tongue, Ernie's over zealous tongue (which has already consumed his own snack) swoops in to steal Bert's. I don't know how Bert ever manages to eat anything.

Poor Bert.

Yum

Baby Cows

I love the baby cows on this farm. I visit with them like every day.


This is Bert. He is very shy.

This is Ernie. He is very friendly.

They are both very cute. They are going on 4 months old.



But, my favorite by far, is Big Bird.

He is probably about 1 month old now.

He sleeps a lot. Sometimes I get to feed him his bottle.

How can you not love this sweet little face?

Sigh. So cute.


Though, Ernie does have his cute angles too, even when his nose is covered in food:

Watched

Some times when I walk Marge around the farm the cows ignore us. Other times, for no apparent reason, they like to watch us walk past.

I find it very amusing...every time. :-)