Baby Cow!

The kids got invited by my sister's in-laws to come see the baby cow on their small farm. It had only been born about 24 hours before!

I guess this is one of the advantages of being here for such a long time. Things like this just come up, you can't exactly schedule them very well. The girls had seen lots of cows at the rodeo, but it was just not the same as being able to stand on the fence and stare at a couple of cows up close for an hour. Also it was a lot less smelly than that back area of the arena at the rodeo where there are like 5,000 cows each in a very small space. And getting to see the calf drink milk was also a big plus!

There were lots of other exciting thing about their little farm other than the calf, including horses. THE BIGGEST HORSES I'VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE. Then my sister's mother-in-law said that the horse veterinarian even said that and that made me feel better about my lack of horse experience. I'm serious they were enormous. Apparently they're some of the biggest breed in the world, specifically bred for heavy lifting. (Read the section on Uses to see just how big I'm talking about.) M worked up her nerve and asked very politely if she could sit on top of the mare, and they let her and I'm pretty sure it was the best day of her life, although she seemed conflicted between that day and the day she got to ride a pony at the zoo in Vienna. That's right, a couple of hours at a small farm in the middle of nowhere was in competition with the oldest, most famous zoo in the world. Kids, man. It's so fun to see them discover the world.

Of course, there was also a tractor. That was probably G's favorite part. And also my dad's favorite part, since he's got tractor fever these days. They let my dad drive the tractor around and he put G up there on the seat with him and he just loved it. Actually, it's not totally clear who was having more fun between G and my dad. But at any rate, the kids all agreed that it was one of the best days of their lives.