Milk Cows on Winter Vacation

Do you ever feel like you just need a vacation?  Time to get away?  Today we loaded up Bessie (our friend's Jersey), Daisy, Rosie, and Bully into the cattle trailer and drove them an hour and a half away.  They'll be on vacation until early January. Cows need vacation too.

All packed up for vacation

Having milk cows is truly a wonderful thing and we've never regretted getting the girls.  One thing that anyone with dairy cows can tell you is that having milk cows ties you down somewhat.  Milk cows need milking every day, even on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  When you have a special event and end up getting home after midnight, guess who's standing by the gate moo-ing and waiting for you to get changed in your 'milking clothes' and go milk them?  Yep, you guessed it.

It's nice to have a break every once in a while and we have a friend who needs some extra milk and has agreed to keep the girls for a week or so and milk them for us. So we packed them up (cows don't carry much luggage - just some hay and a sack or two of feed) and left after church today to bring them on vacation.  We also brought Bully.  Bully will romance some of our friend's cows while on vacation.

When we arrived at their vacation spot, it was truly a sight to see.  The property overlooks the river and there are other cows, goats, chickens, peafowl, rabbits, dogs, and horses to pal around with. The cows exited the trailer and ran around to familiarize themselves with their new surroundings, just like we do when we are in a new and different locale.

Our little farm seems very quiet right now with all the cows gone.  Well, not all of them...  Amy is still here.  She's a little perturbed about not being able to go on vacation.

Amy's pouting since she didn't get to go on the road trip

Tonight when we arrived back home from dropping off the cows, we changed clothes and quickly headed to church for our potluck supper in the fellowship hall. When we pulled up to the house after the potluck, ordinarily we'd have to change clothes and go out and milk the cows.  Tonight we didn't have to!  We welcome the little break from milking.  But we already miss the girls and it'll be nice to have them back home.  Vacations are always nice.  It is great to get away, but it's even better to get home.  I wonder if cows feel the same?