B. is a rockstar, a little bit punk rock and a rough and tumble city man, but he is also a country bumpkin. A lot of his family are involved in farm work, especially cattle ranching. When we got married about two and a half years ago, one of his cattle ranching uncles gave us a gift that apparently has become a bit of a tradition on this side of the family, but one that I would have never expected: A bred Heifer! A heifer is a female cow who has yet to have had her first child, so a bred heifer is a young cow who is pregnant with her first calf. Now, this is a bit of a lottery ticket, because some cows lose their first calf and never go on to have another, or have problems with losing their calves, while other cows will go on to have healthy calves year after year, which can be sold for a pretty good chunk of change or raised to possibly have calves of their own or for other things...
Because B. and I live in Montreal, a long ways away from the plains of western saskatchewan, our Heifer was chosen for us. We could have just sold it back to uncle doug for a bit of extra money but, conveniently, my father-in-law also ranches some cows of his own (on what I might add is a beautiful prairie property) and offered to take care of her for us. This past week when we were staying with B.'s folks, we finally got to meet our lil lady, who my father-in-law has named Belle! We basically love her, and are so so proud to be the only people in Montreal we know who own their own cow.
Here she is folks, in all her cow-ly glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment