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fitzwCows. Large, docile herd beasts. Pretty brainless, not much dexterity. Not much curiosity, pretty much ignore what's going on around them.
At least, I used to think so. The lack-of-dexterity image got wiped out last winter when I saw a cow walk up to an electric fence and jump over it.
Two incidents involving the cows over the past week:
First, the bottom of one of the large window frames at the sugarhouse was pushed in (my father speculated that two of the cows might have been engaging in "horse play" near the sugarhouse), essentially folding it in the middle and breaking at least five large panes of glass in the window. My father had not been putting up the segment of electric fence that keeps the cows away from those windows for the last few years, but we had one broken pane of glass last year and then five more this year, so the fence segment is back up. It will be a little harder to get into the sugarhouse during the summer and fall, but we can't afford the time and money to keep replacing the glass.
Second, my father drives a golf cart around the farm to get to different areas to get work done, whether it's to get to the wood processor to cut and split firewood, or down to the sugarhouse, or out to the far side of the 40-acre field to mend fence.
The other day, while he was mending fence (needed four new fence posts which we split from a locust log), one of the cows decided to get curious about the items that are kept in the shallow wells on the front of the golf cart (we use the paths in the pasture for the golf carts to keep from flattening the hay).
First, she pulled out the hearing protectors/ear muffs. Then she pulled out some other item that I don't recall. Then she started to pick out, one by one, the golf balls that my father collects after they go astray from the neighboring golf course. Then, at some point (I don't think he actually saw it happen), she pulled the key to the golf cart out of the ignition, and we don't know what she did with it. My father had to walk back to the farmhouse and get the key from the second golf cart (not running right now -- we think there might be water in the gas tank), and then walk back to get the golf cart that he was using.
So, I'll be taking the key to the hardware store to see if they have a matching blank, so that we will have two keys again.
Cows. Large, docile herd beasts. Pretty brainless, not much dexterity. Right...
At least, I used to think so. The lack-of-dexterity image got wiped out last winter when I saw a cow walk up to an electric fence and jump over it.
Two incidents involving the cows over the past week:
First, the bottom of one of the large window frames at the sugarhouse was pushed in (my father speculated that two of the cows might have been engaging in "horse play" near the sugarhouse), essentially folding it in the middle and breaking at least five large panes of glass in the window. My father had not been putting up the segment of electric fence that keeps the cows away from those windows for the last few years, but we had one broken pane of glass last year and then five more this year, so the fence segment is back up. It will be a little harder to get into the sugarhouse during the summer and fall, but we can't afford the time and money to keep replacing the glass.
Second, my father drives a golf cart around the farm to get to different areas to get work done, whether it's to get to the wood processor to cut and split firewood, or down to the sugarhouse, or out to the far side of the 40-acre field to mend fence.
The other day, while he was mending fence (needed four new fence posts which we split from a locust log), one of the cows decided to get curious about the items that are kept in the shallow wells on the front of the golf cart (we use the paths in the pasture for the golf carts to keep from flattening the hay).
First, she pulled out the hearing protectors/ear muffs. Then she pulled out some other item that I don't recall. Then she started to pick out, one by one, the golf balls that my father collects after they go astray from the neighboring golf course. Then, at some point (I don't think he actually saw it happen), she pulled the key to the golf cart out of the ignition, and we don't know what she did with it. My father had to walk back to the farmhouse and get the key from the second golf cart (not running right now -- we think there might be water in the gas tank), and then walk back to get the golf cart that he was using.
So, I'll be taking the key to the hardware store to see if they have a matching blank, so that we will have two keys again.
Cows. Large, docile herd beasts. Pretty brainless, not much dexterity. Right...
