The Red Poll Girls (And Apples) In November

The daily bucket of apples continued well into November, though eventually I ran out of good apples to feed the cattle. I was amazed after each feeding to find so many good windfall apples on the ground with which to refill the bucket for the next feeding. The fruit stayed good after many freezes and I began to realize why the pioneers valued apple trees so highly. Such a hardy, productive and reliable source of abundant, delicious fruit which could be stored for long periods truly seemed a miracle from God:

 Pearl has become very playful:

When I hauled a bucketful of apples into the field, the cows ran to begin chowing down on them. The calves took longer to arrive, perhaps because their bellies were already filled with milk:

I've given the Red Poll girls pears as well as apples. They ate the pears, but it was the apples which held a special place in their hearts:

Their coats glistened red in the afternoon sun on this day, but they've been losing red color and becoming more brown as the weather turned colder. I noticed that same phenomenon last year also. Apparently their winter coats are less red:

 Gladys, with milk still covering her face, came over to take a closer look at me:

"Yes, indeed," she must have been thinking. "You are a strange looking biped, but you give us good hay, grain and apples:"

If you wonder why so many photos show apples, it's because the daily apple feedings were the best times for me to take pictures of the cattle:

Rosella, on the left, is a yearling and Gladys, on the right, is six months old. You can see how well this year's calves have grown:

Rosella was fifteen months old when I had her artificially inseminated. The A.I. technician was impressed at how tame she was:

The daily apple feast:

Gladys, Merlin and Annie all came to the empty bucket, hoping to score some more apples which the big cows didn't know about. Sadly for them, they found it empty: