the Daily Adventure

I went to milk as usual this morning and standing there just outside the field was . . . a half-grown steer! Wow, I thought, the Gods have brought me that beef I've been wanting. Or maybe this was the reincarnation of our beef we killed last summer. Or something.

Of course, I knew it was just one of the neighbor's calves. He's such a character, he of the quote: "I reckon its agin the law, but it ain't agin my law." Love that.

I went ahead and milked, knowing we'd be wrangling that calf sometime later. Just about dead center of milking, in flew the turkey flock. Not 50 feet away. squirt squirt squirt Me thinking about Thanksgiving dinner, looking at this one humongous tom, big wattle, red head and all. squirt squirt squirt There was another male, smaller, getting beat up once in a while. The rest appeared to be females, at least 20 I could see, many quite large. squirt squirt squirt

The calf first chased one of our cats, then decided he didn't like turkeys either.

When neighbor showed up, we tried to drive that darned calf back to his field but, well, sometimes cattle are as stupid as some people. Really, it is not their fault, cattle have been oppressed. Not to mention that they are superstitious about crossing some things, like gate openings. Calf was within feet of going in his field, rejoining his herd, and was too spooked by the thought of the fence, or perhaps by the no trespassing sign, to go. Got all crazy, traversed straight up and down steeper than steep Appalachian terrain. So three people vs. one calf and the calf won. Wore us out.

And keeps us young. And in community.

We will try later to lead our cow with the beef following to neighbor's field, then take our cow back out. A bucket of corn will encourage her to behave. I hope.

We do know where the grouse population hangs out now.