Molly and We—Elvira and 'Gorn
Why you would want a cow brand soda I don't know, but this is what a Guernsey or Jersey cow might look like. Jerseys are typically a smaller breed, with very large brown eyes and quite a sweet animal.
We were working at getting a milk cow and a horse, but we started priming the pump with cats. We had a dog named Hey Boy. A farm without a farm dog and farm cats just wasn't a farm.
I think we did end up with Molly the cow next. Some friends knew of a guy that had an Ayrshire milk cow for sale, and the price, we thought was right.
We were familiar with the Guernseys and Jerseys, but the Ayrshire were supposed to be an excellent dairy breed as well. So after examining the cow and determining that she looked healthy, we bought Molly and took her home.
Old Fuzzy wrote a sermon on the joys of our first milk cow. He was quite sarcastic about it, but she was a real challenge. Yes, she gave the best milk, and gave an abundance of it twice a day, but...
As Old Fuzzy's sermon said, 'when you sat down on the milking stool you didn't know if you would be getting back off of it on your own accord, or picking yourself up off the barn floor before you knew what hit you'.
To say Molly was unpredictable is a polite way of saying she had issues. We were new to the process which didn't help.
Milking a cow does not hurt them. It would be like a mother expressing/saving milk for their baby. Dairies using milking machines, would be the same as a breast pump.
***
I think this was in the same year we also got Gus. We named him Aragorn.
Although he was a weanling, we knew he was a king of a horse.
An acquaintance of ours knew a man that raised Morgan horses. I've loved Morgan horses since I read the book 'Justin Morgan had a Horse', and also the Little House book that introduced Almonzo Wilder.
We went to look at the horses, but he didn't have anything we could afford except a pony named Elvira. It was a pony, and we weren't sure if that was what we were looking for.
We talked about it and by the time we got home had decided we would take Elvira. We called several times, but couldn't get through to our horse seller.
By the time I did get back to him the pony was already sold. The same year we went back to look at the Morgans, this time we took the horse trailer with us.
The horse seller, had a weanling for sale. The weanling's mammy was papered (a registered Morgan) but Mr. horseman had missed sending in that she was with foal, so he didn't get papers. That made the baby from papered stock, but not paperable himself.
He was the prettiest little chestnut foal. We took him home and he became a four footed extension of us. He did become a king of a horse. After training he became Old Fuzzy's horse. (The foals in the picture are cute little things, but not chestnut-which is more reddish.)
The funny thing about Morgan horses, according to Young Fuzzy, is that they bond with their rider. As in Old Fuzzy was exclusively Aragorn's rider for years, and Aragorn didn't change riders well.
One year one of the other horses we had (Si) was good at opening gates and whatnots. Si opened the door to the feed shed and Aragorn pigged out on the pig feed stored in there.
Another friend told us to ride Aragorn and keep him moving for several hours to work the stuff through his system. Old Fuzzy was working in town, and that left me to ride Aragorn.
I rode him bareback, but I wasn't 'his rider'. He wasn't a mean horse, but he pouted. Wouldn't move forward. He either just stood still, or backed up. This wasn't a good development. First he backed up into a grain bin. So we were stopped.
Next he swung his hiney around and backed up into the pointy end of the manure spreader. The one that I was really concerned about was when he turned his derriere around and started backing toward the electric fence.
I thought, well I guess, I'd better hang on tight. I would have felt a little less apprehensive if I'd had a saddle on, but oh well...
He stopped about an inch and a half from the fence. We just stood there for quite some time before he decided to go forward. And I finished riding around and around the pasture for our appointed time.
