Gldno ~ How cool is that!!! What have you named them? To think that you just got a cow and you have already made ricotta and mozzarella cheeses and buttermilk also. Way to go lady! I am proud of you and your achievements.

Of course it fits into the cottage garden theme.

Thanks for sharing and I would love to see pictures and will enjoy hearing stories about your cows.

Have a great Thanksgiving week ~ FlowerLady

My grandmother told me about a dream she had. She said their cow had eaten some elephant ears and was foaming from her mouth.
That night she dreamed the "foaming" cow was chasing her. GM was trying to climb over a fence, but could not get over. She really laughed when she woke up trying to climb the wall on her side of the bed.

In the 40's my aunt's husband brought my youngster uncles a baby alligator from Louisiana. They kept it in a wash tub with screen. The cow kicked the tub over and the alligator escaped.
Fast forward to the early 60's. GM's friend, Mary, called to tell her Mary's maid had seen an alligator in the canal near by. Mary asked if there were alligators in the area. GM said, "Oh, I guess it is possible".

Soooo, don't feed the cow elephant ears and don't let an alligator escape.

I would not have a clue how to make cheeses.

Aaaawwww!!!!! I want to see pictures!!! Lucky cow and baby to have such a wonderful home.

I think cows fit well with a Cottage theme.

When I was a kid living in Germany we visited Switzerland. There were beautiful cows roaming everywhere. They were a soft tan color with the longest eyelashes I'd ever seen. They all had beautifully painted bells hung around their necks. We visited a dairy farm as well. When the mother's were being milked the babies were kept separate. We were allowed to pet the babies and I remember one little guy sucking on my four fingers. Those are some of my fondest memories.

Edna

Ohhh - I think that is sooooo Cottage. That was the whole point right - to be as self sufficient as possible. Mmmmm...buttermilk, fresh. I wonder how much land I'd need here to keep a cow....

Nancy,

I just now thought -

first it was the new arrival of chicks ...

now it's cows ...

what's next? *LOL*

Of course it's cottage: in a word, MANURE! Compost from the barn, my mother called it.

what's next? *LOL*
Ducks? Lambs?

We're selling the gates and panels that formed the pens where cows were once herded before they went on vacation to Colorado. The old barn is a pile of rubble. I have a marvelous new stone the size of a bushel basket that was under there somewhere, with unbelievable fossils.

Change is good.

Nell

Piglets?

Can't get more cottage than cows! Well, maybe sheep as well... If you go to the Azores and Ireland, you'll see cows everywhere, most of the time roaming free along the roads. In Scotland's Highlands is the same, but with sheep instead, and sometimes Highland cattle.

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There's nothing that conjures up more thoughts of a bygone slower pace of life than cattle near our homes and, as Nell says, they also mean manure to gardeners :-) I'm fortunate to live in an area where sheep farming is still a profitable activity. I absolutely love to watch the sheep, even if it means I need to stop the car and wait while they cross the road :-)

Now we need the names of these two beauties and photos, of course.

Eduarda

Guess what? I do have pictures!

I am working on the piglet thing right now...I have the perfect pen for them, the old dog pen. DH is dragging his heels a bit on that one. We have had them before.

Eduarda, I love the picture with the lush greenery and the beautiful Highland cattle. I agree; there is just something so peaceful about animals out grazing the fields.

Here are my two girls. Willow is the cow and Annabelle her daughter. Annabelle is about 5 months old. They are both purebred Milking Shorthorns.

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Willow is a bit thing, but I am working on that. I bought her from a "grass only for cows" person. That seems to be a large movement now.

Is Willow taking any more of a liking to grain than she did a month ago when you first got her? They are beautiful animals, Glenda.

ThinMan

Yes, she comes in from the field (usually) without anything other than me waving a feed bucket where she can see it and she cleans it up. She still doesn't seem much fatter, but I guess that is the dairy genes in her.

That is so cute!!!! And now, you need a guard goose!!!!

Nancy, who really wanted one of those!!

Good for you! Cows are great pets and productive, in the case of your milk cows.

I raised a Holstein calf when I was in elementary school. A farmer gave her to me. She was one of a set of twins (the other was male) and he said that she was sterile and couldn't be used for a milk cow. Her name was "Little Girl" because my pony was named "Flicka" (you know how kids name pets! :-) I would groom both of them all the time. I used Flicka with a pony cart and I had in my head that I could train the cow to pull the cart, too. My father made me sell her when she was grown...and I don't want to think of what happened to her. :-(

Speaking of twins, we had a mystery black angus calf appear on the farm two days ago. Two cows had calved that day, one in the same field as the new baby and one two fields over. No one claimed the baby; it followed the cows around trying to nurse, but they would have none of it.

We think one of the cows had twins and didn't accept this one.
So we brought it down to the barn. My wonderful Willow is going to allow this stranger to nurse her! I have to be there and she kicks a bit but finally settles down and allows it. Not all cows will do that. It is a heifer calf and one cow has a heifer and one has a bull calf so there is a possibility the baby in the barn will be a freemartin (heifers born twins to a bull) and will be sterile. She is a very aggressive little thing.

Life is never dull on the farm!

Nancy, my local greenhouse owner has a flock of poultry, including geese and ducks. They are the noisiest things you can imagine. I love the way it looks, but don't think I will expand the poultry flock.