They luxuriated in leftover hay, a soft and relatively warm place to snuggle on cold days. Notice the cow with her head down:
And a great place to lie down and chew their cuds, oblivious to the cars racing by on the county road:
Amy was one of the cows who always came rushing into the barn for grain, but she apparently had such a good winter on hay that she stopped bothering with the grain:
Life has been pretty good on the east side of the barn, where they have some protection from cold, westerly winds:
Alas, being on the east side of the barn doesn't protect them from snow:
When the winds are howling and the temperatures are frigid, the girls cluster close to the barn:
Violet has continued to get fatter and, if it is even possible at her age, taller. She's a big girl. I had to buy her an extra-large collar a year or two ago and loosen it perhaps six months ago. But I noticed her collar kept getting tighter and I fretted about it, because Violet will not let me touch her:
But one morning she came into the barn for grain and I noticed that only she and Gracie were left inside after everyone had eaten. I closed the barn door on them and was able to get Gracie outside, leaving only Violet. Then I herded Violet through the squeeze chute and into the head-lock gate. She was so wide that I feared she'd bust out the sides of the squeeze chute and so tall that she almost couldn't get her head in the gate. But I finally got her locked in place and was able to loosen her collar. If she gets too big for her collar again, I guess I'll just remove it:
Our weather finally moderated sufficiently for the sheep farmers up the road to bring me two more loads of stemmy hay (their sheep only eat the leaves). Because I didn't want to lure the cows out onto the slippery ice, we dumped it right inside the gate, near the stock tank:
Rosella was the first cow to discover it:
Then Scarlett joined her, and the next morning I found all six of them sleeping atop what they hadn't eaten. These red-haired gals are having a good life:
