The Farmer and Me

Living out here on this farm has NOT made me more of a country/farm person.  It should have ... after all, I've been here just a week over nine years.  But still, I lack that concept to check things out first before I cry wolf.  I act first and think later!

In fact, late this morning before I left home to go into town, I glanced out the kitchen window and saw a cow licking a newborn baby calf. Granted the cow was out in the next pasture field, beyond both the pond and barn, and halfway to the neighbors house.  It was waaayyy out there!

Just to make sure that I was seeing what I was seeing before I called the troops (the farmers) in, I put my expensive long lens on my camera and zoomed in.  Yes, I was looking through the kitchen window, but still, I know what I saw.

You see, the cows over on this end of the farm are pregnant cows, and they definitely have to leave before they give birth.  It's a big mistake on their part if they aren't checked into the birthing center half a mile down the road.  The facilities are better over there, and the birthing accommodations are to die for (just kidding).  Not that they're pampered more or anything, but they do keep the uppity milk cows in a tizzy.

SO, since I know I saw a baby laying in the field ... I called the farmer (my husband) and left him a detailed voice message.  "Von, there's a teenie tiny baby calf in the middle of the field and I'm afraid that the big cows are going to step on him.  Hurry and come get him ... and why didn't you guys move her over before she gave birth?!"

Then I went to work.  But I did look as I drove by ... and it dawned on me that the view from my kitchen window didn't take into fact the rolling hills down below our house ... or the fact that I what I saw was really the head of one the big cows in the herd laying there soaking up the sun just below the horizon of my view.

But I failed to call the farmer!  Then I forgot all about it.  BUT he didn't.  You see ... it's full swing farming season here in southern Indiana right now, and he's trying like heck to beat the rain that's moving in. He's not always in the best of mood when it's farming season, and he's not always that hunky dory guy that I love so much this time of year.  He's short.  He's short on time, and he's short on patience in April and May.  But overall, he's not too bad.

So a bit later in the day, I get a phone call from the guy.  Simply put:  "There's not a calf out there in that field Sherlock ... and just so that you know, the whole world is not flat!"

I don't think I'll ever actually get it about this farm life ... but I sure am trying!