cows and snow

During the evening and through the night on Friday, about 6 inches of snow landed on Bowling Green. I think it's been about a decade since we've gotten that much snow in one night. Usually we get an inch or two from time to time, but rarely this much.

Lucky for us, it happened the first year we had cows....pregnant ones at that. So, I've been worried that one will drop and freeze, but so far, so good.

As long as we keep enough hay for them, they stay warm. They grow thick wooly coats (scroll down for photos of this), and like the vet informed me, "people make coats out of this stuff" (meaning their leathery skin).

This is one of the first photos I took of the cows in the snow and I laughed out loud when I caught it. Looks like a milk mustache :)
One of the calves staring me down. (By the way, I used my Canon 100mm 2.8 for all these photos.)

Another calf...love that wooly hair.

Our one and only brown cow...she's so wide, getting close to calving.

I just think this wooly hair is so funny. They look so disheveled. Normally they're 'do's are perfectly coifed, but in the winter they look so haphazard.

See the narrow trails they make in the snow. It's so funny to watch such a big animal make such small tracks.

Gertrude looking up to say, "hi!"
And, as soon as we took off toward the feeding trough, they raced after us. I was so worried they'd slip and fall, after all they don't exactly have shoes for this terrain.

Stampede!
a bucking bronco (or heifer, more than likely)
And, this shot just makes me laugh. She looks CRAZY!!!

Strange to see this running after you and I'm surprised I was able to get photos in focus.

Once we got to the trough, Greg threw me out of the side-by-side and told me to stand to the side. He grabbed the feedsack to beat them to the trough.


Digging for a knife (which is the same knife I ran through the wash last night. I'm constantly washing his things, like an entire set of spark plugs and a title to a car we bought in Florida...now that was a typical Greg moment.)

And there they are. One is staring me down to make sure I didn't get in on the action.

And our last straggler, a "short-short" (aka "old" for cows since their teeth are ground down). Greg is so compassionate and always keeps back a portion of the feed for her.

I'll have more to share later, but hope you've liked this glimpse of our wintery farm.