There’s a pasture behind the back pen that our neighbors use. A couple of days ago, when we were feeding our goats, the neighbors’ cows were back there grazing. It’s hard to tell their size from this photo, but, these cows are bigger than pianos.
Believe me, I know something about pianos. The average studio piano weighs 400-500 pounds. The average baby grand weighs 500-600 pounds. Concert grands weigh anywhere between 900 and 1,200 pounds.
The average Black Angus cow weighs 1,200 pounds, and the bulls average more than 1,800 pounds.
My first husband’s family raised Black Angus. They started out as city farmers and learned as they went. In one of their first years farming, they had a calf who had to be bottled fed. I can’t remember why. But, they had a split-level ranch home, with sliding glass doors in the lower level that opened into their back yard. So, it was easy for them to just bring that calf indoors for feeding.
They thought that calf was so cute, and they hated to stop bottle feeding, but eventually they did. And everything was fine, until winter. The winter that year was especially cold, and their back yard wasn’t really fenced in. You could walk straight out the sliding glass doors, through the yard, and on out to the barn.
That bottle-fed calf, who, by winter, was already the size of a studio piano, was apparently sick of those South Dakota snow storms that coated her fur with ice and threatened to freeze her eyes shut. So, she simply walked to the sliding glass door that she'd been brought through so many times in the spring and early summer, and pushed. Pushed against the glass, which gave way. Because a piano can win in a contest with a sliding glass door. That was the last time they brought a calf into the house to be bottle fed.
Speaking of feeding, I think I’ve mentioned that Rain only wants to feed her son, Roger. She doesn’t let her daughters, Puddle and Ocean, eat if she can avoid it. So, we’ve been bringing her onto the milking stand along with her daughters so that they can get a decent meal while Rain is captive.
Rain and Roger have gotten wise to this. So, in the afternoon, Rain feeds Roger ’til he’s stuffed so that when we bring her in with her daughters for the late afternoon milking/feeding, she’s empty. So, now, they regularly drink from their Aunt Delta. Sheesh. I think this photo is particularly cute, because Puddle has her back feet on the floor, drinking away.
Meanwhile, we’ve started feeding the babies grain.
The first time we poured grain in their little tubs they didn’t know what it was. When the mamas came back into that part of the pen after milking, they devoured the grain. The next morning, all the babies knew it was something good to eat. Now they crowd around the tub as soon as we pour the grain in.
And, this is a photo of our hay cart, the way it looks when it’s loaded and ready to feed all the goats:
In the winter, when I’m pulling the hay cart out to the pens, I sing “Anatevka” from Fiddler on the Roof. But, in the summer, I sing “It Was a Real Nice Hay Ride”. That’s a song that was cut from the musical, Oklahoma. (I think the hay cart in the musical was pulled by horses, not a person). Rodgers and Hammerstein never threw anything away, though. When "It Was a Real Nice Hay Ride" was cut from Oklahoma, they re-purposed it as “It Was a Real Nice Clam Bake” and put it in the musical Carousel. Which is how I know the melody.
Another famous example of Rodgers and Hammerstein re-purposing songs is “Getting to Know You” from The King and I. That song was originally in South Pacific. It was in the place that is now occupied by “Younger than Springtime”. The original lyrics (remember, sing this to the melody of “Getting to Know You”) were:
Suddenly Lucky
Suddenly my arms are lucky!
Suddenly Lucky
Suddenly my lips are kissed!
Josh Logan, who directed South Pacific, put his foot down and told them the song was inappropriate for the scene. No one had ever said that to Rodgers and Hammerstein, and they were furious. But, that didn’t stop them from writing “Younger than Springtime” in a cab after leaving that meeting.
Another great thing I’ve discovered about being on a farm is that you can have the vet come to you. We had the vet come out this past week. Man, what a great thing that is! So much less traumatic than taking each individual animal to the vet’s office! We had three dogs and two cats who needed vaccines, claw clippings, and other services. My cats were so relaxed, I don’t think they even knew they’d seen the vet. It was dreamy. So, here’s a photo of Zuli (the tabby) and Bela (the Turkish Van) dreaming. Maybe they’re dreaming about the vet!
