Chasing Cows on Amish Highway 35

I've been waiting a long time to have a post like this, a true picture of just how exciting life can be here on Amish Highway 35.


I woke up this morning at an amazing 9:00ish. Oh, how I love Saturday's ....


About 10:00 I finally managed to call my hubby, who had been at work since probably about 6:00am. (He does this most Saturdays) I called him to see if he wanted to go to the local downtown restaurant and have coffee with me, and just "catch up". Now that our kids are old enough to stay at home for a couple of hours alone without killing each other, this is is something that we really enjoy on Saturday mornings.


So as I was driving out the driveway to head to town, I noticed two cows in the field across the road from us. Oh oh, Lena's cows. Lena is a single older Amish lady, and recently had foot surgery. Now this is where you can picture that cartoon where there are two different consciences perched on my shoulders. "just pretend you didn't see the cows and go meet your husband for that nice hot cup of coffee" and "you really should be a good neighbor and help out". You'll all be glad to know that the GOOD guy won! I knew this would be a job bigger than myself, and I noticed Jr. (his real name) two houses down on his skid loader, so I hauled butt up there to get his help. When I got back to the field, neighbors Edna and Mary had also arrived on foot. So the four of us began "shooing" these heifers! The kind neighbors told me to stand along the fence, they didn't think I should be attempting to run through the plowed rows with my arm in a splint (this thing comes in handy). I told Jr. "yeah, and that big cow with the horns is probably gonna run right at me". He laughingly told me that if he runs my way I should just grab the handle bars and hang on! We worked this way for probably about 1/2 hour and couldn't get these stupid cows in their pen. They finally ran through an opening in the fence at the back of the field, and we stood and watched as they ran across the next field and across the next county road to another dairy farm. By this time, I knew this job was bigger than the four of us, so I went and looked for Orlan (no luck) and John. At the next farm Darvin and his son joined in the chase! I also went and picked up Sam, who we found out actually owns these fine animals. If you're counting, we now number 8, along with several other neighbor men who were at the far woods waving their arms wildly.


Now, I need to say that cow owner Sam is a wise man when it comes to cows. He informed us that by this time the cows were so riled up there'd be no way we'll get them to go where we want them! He told us to just leave them where they were (at least one mile from home) and he'd come back in the afternoon and lead them home with a bucket of feed. He also mentioned that if that doesn't work, he would just butcher them right where they were, one week earlier than planned. Lucky heifers! So here's the lesson I learned from Sam ... "push dairy cows from the rear, and lead beef cows". I won't soon forget that! Just so you know, I hadn't seen hide nor hair (no pun intended) of those cows before it got dark tonight, so perhaps the Miller's are having a nice roast for Sunday lunch tomorrow.

By the time I got back into my warm house and thawed my toes and ears it was nearing noon. I called my not-so-worried husband to tell him the story and that I was just going to make a pot of coffee at home. As I was cleaning up my coffee cup and fried bacon, I looked out the big living room windows toward the barn ....

Now for the second part, with a little background information to set the scene. We have a large barn in which we have 36 freezers that the Amish people rent to keep all their yummy veggies and fruits that they processed in the summer, along with ahem ... butchered cows and pigs. There is always a lot of activity in and out of the barn, and we have a hitching post by the barn too so they can tie up the horse and buggy, or pony and cart (as was the case today), while they go inside and get some of that frozen food, along with a cold can of pop from the pop machine that is Abbi's side business.

Back to looking out the big windows ... I saw a pony with cart going crazy in front of the barn, like it was spooked or something. And our sweet neighbor girl Joan running along beside the pony trying to grab the reins. If my windows would've been open I would've yelled for her to just let it go, I was so afraid she would fall with the pony and cart running right over her! That crazy pony ran straight for my big windows and took a sharp right around the front of our house. I went sprinting to my front door thinking I could leap off my front porch, like super woman, and grab those reins. By the time I got on the porch, the pony had shot across the road between two cars, and ran through the same plowed field where less than two hours earlier I had chased two mad heifers! Joan had already loaded up all kinds of frozen food, so by the time the cart went flying over the furrows in the field the food went flying too. The whole wild contraption came flying back out of the field , losing the rest of the frozen food on the road, and sprinted down the road to home with Joan running after it, stopping right outside his very own barn. I could see all this from my front yard, as I'm standing in snow up to my ankles with house slippers on (remember my frozen toes?). I went back in the house to put my boots on and get some bags to pick up the food. When I got back out to the road and field, Edna (my cow chasing comrade) met me with a smile on her face. She helped search for and pick up all the frozen food. Her and I decided that we would both just go back to bed and wake up at 5:00.

I took the food to the neighbors and also wanted to check on Joan. She actually did fall, and I'm sure that happened as I was sprinting to my front door, and scraped the whole length of her leg. Other than her leg and a sore shoulder, she's just recovering from a good dose of anger and embarassment, and I can't say I blame her. I'm so thankful she's OK because with the road and cars involved it could've been so much worse.

Now we're just sitting here enjoying the peace and quiet in our little neighborhood. I guess I'd better mention that anytime our neighbor Chris might call when his wife's labor pains get close enough that one of us will have to take her to the birthing center in the next little town east of here. He stopped by about 4:00 and said it seems like tonight might be the night! Ha! That's nothing ... Today was the Day!