Early for the Party

On Thursday, the mailman asked me if these were our cows.  I hadn't seen them earlier, but there they were, hanging out on the road and in the soybean field to the west of our house. I didn't know whose cows they were, but kind of figured perhaps a neighboring farmer might let them winter on these fields...


A few hours later, as Rich & I were working to get the final touches ready for our first annual Christmas Cocktail Party, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a baker's dozen of early visitors: a herd of diary cows.  They were now in the cornfield directly west of our house, looking for food as the snow steadily fell, and the roads turned
more and more into ice...

Although we had a lot to do, neither one of us had ever had a herd of cows wandering in our yard. And they were now in the front yard (picture here on the right...) They walked through the front yard, and as Rich stood on the porch taking pictures, they stopped to watch him, and approached our entrance... I was worried they might just come on up the steps of the porch and try to come in. They definitely had a collective look that said, "are you going to feed us?" When they realized we were just cow-tourists and had no food, they resumed their search. They walked back to the barn, where for a while they huddled in what has probably at some time in its past held cows... There was no food there, but they did spend quite a while in there (out of the wind and snow, for sure) before exploring the rest of the barn and then the firepit, and one cow even explored the orange extension cord the lights on the barn are plugged into... I was worried she'd snap it in half, but she picked it up and then dropped it. The cows then slowly, and in a very neat line, walked through the rest of the front yard, and down the road to our neighbor, Elizabeth's yard. They hung around the block all night, and we haven't seen them since.


 The party went on as scheduled, and we did manage to get everything ready. I was a little worried as the cows approached the house, though, that they could smell what I was making: beef enchiladas...

We figure this won't be the last time a herd of cows wanders into our yard, but I really think it's a novelty I won't mind (unless they trample my garden...)