This is my kind of photographer…..

☆ November 28, 2011

both the photographer taking the picture and the photographer in the picture.

{ from Viciously Cyd }

{ Awesome Elsewhere ☆ 22 Comments }

Sunning Winter Cow Family

☆ November 22, 2011

also, proof that sometimes Daisy is dirty

{ Daisy, Farmily, Fiona, Frisco, Solo Photo ☆ 12 Comments }

Bulls Eye

☆ November 18, 2011

A happy consequence of having turned all my bovines into pets is that I have been able to doctor them myself. Daisy, Frisco, and Sir Baby have all had separate, major “events” in the past six months ~ left unchecked, I’m sure they would have been fatal conditions for Daisy and Frisco and would have resulted in Sir Baby losing an eye. And, under normal circumstances, treatment would have required a vet and sedation. But since these cattle are used to me climbing on them and laying on them, brushing them and fondling them, I was able to doctor all three myself with no drama, no sedation. Well, with Frisco there’s always a bit of drama but that’s another story.

I took Daisy, Fiona, Frisco, and Sir Baby up the mountain with me this summer, but they didn’t all come at once. Daisy and Fiona loaded easily together in the front compartment of the horse trailer, but getting the two boys in the back was… I should have videoed it. Baby would step in, then, as Frisco was getting in, Baby would turn around and step out. Frisco would lumber in, and just as we were getting Baby back in, Frisco would hop out. Around and around and around. So finally we just loaded Frisco and left Baby with the Special Project cows until Mike had the opportunity to bring him up to me at a later date.

I was so thrilled when Baby made it up to our mountain home but immediately noticed his left eye was bothering him ~ he kept it tightly closed and it was tearing up. Mike blew it off as dust from the trip up but I knew it was more than that. Mike returned to the valley that night, and the next morning, Baby still had his eye closed. I was determined to find, and hopefully fix, the problem, so while Sir Baby was lying down for his mid-morning cud chew, I climbed on top of him and scratched his shoulder blades, rubbed his neck, and moved my hands toward his check.

Baby squeezed his eye closed even tighter as I neared it. I scooched my body up his neck so that I was essentially laying across his head and, with both hands, gently pried his eye open. I saw a flash of something pale and straight – something foreign – before he slammed his eye shut again. I relaxed back on Baby’s shoulders and rubbed him some more, giving him some time, then laid across his head again and opened his eye again. This time, I saw a huge grass seed head poking into his eyeball. Sharp side in.

I let him close his eye and relax a bit as I readied myself for the extraction. After another rubdown session, I planted myself on Baby’s head and pried his eye open once more, using the fingers of one hand and the side of the other hand and, once his eye was open, quickly reached in with my fingertip and thumb and pulled out the giant, treacherous seed. Baby had his eye open by that afternoon, and it had stopped watering and was completely back to normal after two or three days.