Farm Fresh Blog

When I'm in the city, I'm always on the look-out for 2-legged predators. When I'm at the ranch, I'm often casually scanning the darkness around me for lions, and tigers, and bears, but I almost fell over when I saw this:

 Do you see it?

Try some available light photography and he'll stand out.

Look again.

I was most relieved that the large creature staring at me in the dark turned out to be Bully. For some reason he was drawn to us that night. He just stood there in the dark, watching us.

We just assumed the girls had left him. They often wander all over the ranch and Bully pretty much confines himself to the west side which is much tamer. So we talked with Bully and he stood there, staring at the fire and watching us grill steaks. (sadly ironic, wasn't it?)  Bully stared into the flames like he was contemplating the great mysteries of this world.  I just assumed that he came to hang out with us because he was lonely.

And then Trace pointed out something on the other side of the fire.

 Clearly Bully was not alone.

The cattle at the ranch are doing just fine with bountiful grazing and lots of space to roam, but clearly they are missing something.  Us. Either that, or they are bored and we are the most interesting thing going on in 133 acres. Most of these cows were former show cattle and so they are a bit more social toward humans. As Other Half pointed out, they have always associated us with food and safety. Now they are free to roam, free to eat, and free to do whatever they want, but they clearly still want some contact with us.  This greeted me every morning when I woke up.

They became so pesky that we often had to have the dogs send them packing.

Still, I couldn't help but wonder why? Why does a cow even care about splitting logs, stacking wood, and building fires?

And what does Bully think of when he stares into the flames?