Dairy Daze...and Now Beyond

On Wednesday, about...oh...maybe 3ish PM, I was fixing supper and happened to catch a glance of the palm of my hand out of the corner of my eye. On it was written, in black Sharpie: 47  That's all.  47 I remembered writing it there, but for the life of me I couldn't remember WHY or WHAT it stood for or WHEN I'd put it there.  I mean, that IS my age, but why the samhill would I write my age on my palm? I finished preparing supper; we ate, did chores, went to bed. In the course of time the 47 wore off.  But my curiosity remained. On Thursday I pondered; off and on.  Well, Wed morning I'd gone to our Book Study.  But there are no Sharpies readily available there.  Afterward I'd stopped by my mom's.  We keep a Sharpie handy there.  Ellen uses it to mark off the days on the calendar to help my mom remember what day it is.  (Not that this works, but that's a different blog post altogether.) But why 47? Hmmmm I keep a  Sharp...

Last night we had just finished eating supper...maybe about 4:30 PM, when the phone rang.  It was sister-in-law who was just getting home from work, from Lebanon way.  Here's a brief version of the conversation: SIL:  "Yeah, I think your cows are out, down at the creek on P Highway." ME: "What, what?" SIL:  "They are all Holsteins and it looks like the whole herd, some are in the road." ME, talking to hubby: "She says there's a herd of Holsteins on P Hwy at the creek." Hubby: "It has to be them, their the only dairy cows in the area. Get the car, get going!" ME:  "!" SIL, half hour later:  "I asked what I could do to help, but I was talking to empty air; you'd hung up on me."  LOL Hubby got on the 4-wheeler and Ellen and I jumped in the car really quick and off we went.  It's not too far from us; just a mile around the corner maybe. When we got there only 2 cows were on the highway...

It is finally spring here in the Missouri Ozarks.  The cows are happy to forego the hay and nosh on grass and clover. There is a pasture to the west of the farm barnyard here where hubby puts the milking herd at night in the spring.  He has kept this pature shut up until now because he had to put up cattle panels to protect some new equipment we put out there this winter. So the grass and clover are ankle deep; lush and green.  Last night, for the first time in months, hubby opened the gate and let the cows go out there after milking.  Boy did they ever enjoy it.  They enjoyed it so much that in the morning they were rather uninterested in coming into the barn to eat during milking.  Hubby said he opened the door for the first batch, all of which usually come into the barn voluntarily, and they all just stood there and looked at him.  He had to go out and coax them in.  They'd filled up on green stuff. So, after milking in the mornings in sp...