Cow Tippin'

I grew up in a rural area where the farmers were just starting to fizzle out and the reaches of the city were extending into the rural areas with new subdivisions and new laws telling families that they couldn't have cows or horses anymore.

Still, we had plenty of fun catching tadpoles, playing with the barn cats, getting lost in corn fields, and always joking about cow tippin'.

When I started working in Buffalo, many of my "city" friends wanted to know if I'd ever been cow tippin'.  Seriously, did they really think you could walk up and push over a cow ranging from 500-1000 pounds?  Yes they probably did.

We had a septic system at my house and of course a leech bed in the yard where the grass was really green and long.  Once I invited my city friends over and they wanted to know about area of the yard to which I replied, "its the leech bed."  They wanted to know if there were really leeches out in it to which I sarcastically replied that yes there were and we used them to drain off our blood when we were ill just like in years past.  I still wonder if some of them believed me or not.

As you all know, we've had quite a few eventful weeks with things breaking and leaking around here.  So last night, I went to shut the chicks up for the night and I noticed our dog on the other side of our fence in the neighbors bean field.  The cows that are in our back pasture were bellowing so I figured he was bugging them and I had no idea how he got out there.  So, I called him and he appeared at my side.......the black animal on the other side of the fence was one of the calves.  It was dusk and I really didn't look thinking it was Shadow.  So we called out Trey and the owner of the cows came over and we chased the calf threw the bean field and back to her mama.  It was quite the adventure.

I silently pictured cow tippin' the whole time the Green Acres theme was running through my head.

So, then last night I'm on the phone with Kevin relaying the events.  He tells me that he would have chased the calf around the property to get her back up into one of the front pens. (The cows are in the back eight acres of fenced area.  The front four acres are divided into four pastures and the house area.....all of which is fenced except for the driveway).  I kinda thought that was  a lot of work trying to drive her so far when the gate was fifteen feet from where she was at.  And then he told me that he would have just chased it, caught it, and put it back with its mama.  I told him next time he was home I was going to have Dan bring a calf into the back eight acres and watch him "chase and catch it".  I'll have my video camera ready.  Let the chuckles and snorting begin!!  hehe