Cows And Eating

I realized, as I was uploading these photos, that they all involved the cattle and eating. But of course two of cattle's main jobs are eating and pooping, and you wouldn't want to see all pooping photos, would you? Picture number one is little Merlin, who was in the barn to get milk from his mom as she ate grain:

The girls scrambled for the apples I was throwing onto the grass:

That's Rosella on the left with the number five ear tag, and she was begging for more apples:

Gracie, pushing for food - and I do mean pushing. I have to watch out behind me as I walk with a bucket of apples:

 Casual dining on pasture:

 Frenzied dining on Mom:

 Milling about, just outside the barn, waiting for me to let them in for grain:

 Burping, cud chewing and napping after a full meal:

Dispersing after getting some grain. They were headed back out onto the pasture to eat more grass:

Early in the morning before it's fully daylight, the herd was coming in for grain because they saw me at the barn door:

Because there are more cattle this year, and because they're now used to eating apples, I'm giving them almost a full bucketful every day. Gracie (on the right), however, looks like she just ate a sour one:

Gathered around the stock tank after a meal. I wonder if they gossip after dinner and drinks like people do:

The Duck Pond And Oxbow Trail - Part 2

The dogs and I were hiking the Duck Pond trail and had made it to the Oxbow (see yesterday's post), but hadn't found any easy access to the water. So we headed off along a deer path which skirted a side hill:

The brush was thick, and there were many fallen trees, causing me much difficulty walking because of my leg braces. Many of the pictures I took were unusable because it was difficult for me to keep my footing and because the brush hid the dogs I was trying to photograph. But I did snap this photo of Seamus and Fergus with their new haircuts:

And I got a photo of these Blue Bottle Gentians (Narrow-Leaved Gentians) along the way:

Despite the difficulty of taking good photos at close range in all that brush, the vistas out over the Oxbow were magnificent:

I kept hoping to find an easy path to those lovely waters, but I never did:

Eventually we gave up and turned back toward the trail:

We started back toward our car, an occasion every bit as joyful for the dogs as when we'd begun our hike:

This was lovely country:

The dogs had slowed down by this time and took numerous side trips to sniff interesting things:

As for me, I was happy to stop and eat wild raspberries:

I remembered seeing Azure Mountain from this trail in the past, but never spotted it on this hike. So we just walked happily along:

We don't hike far anymore, and shortly we were back at the car. I hope to return soon and drive in as far as we hiked this time in order to explore farther: