Cows and other critters...

After a little detour for Cows and Fishes (next post down), we return to Oklahoma where I am sure there are both.  And in fact we can testify that that there are plenty of cows, and we even saw some up close.

MFO’s nephew lives well out of Henryetta (see interesting footnote at the end of posting) and has a few acres there.  We went out there for breakfast the day after the graduation ceremony (Saturday).  MFON's wife prepared quite a spread, featuring locally produced sausage and bacon as well as eggs and biscuits ‘n gravy.

After stuffing ourselves on the sausage and bacon, we took a little walk around his house and property.  These little darlings live in a pen near the house.  How can you not love these?

They love to come and see you

and like to hang out together

They also keep sources of those eggs we had

And then there’s “Norman” (I may have the name wrong, memory fails, but pretty sure starts with "N")

Norman is a proud member of the Limousin breed of cattle, originating in France.   I kept a fence between us and admired it from afar.  His wife also keeps a very nice garden

Not only does he have the animals on the property, he also owns more acreage out of town where he keeps a larger herd of cattle

6196

As well as some imposing grown up critters

And king of his domain

The barn that was being constructed (not on his property)

Was being done by the Amish

And of course to manage a farm, you need real toys

It certainly was refreshing to get “out in the country” and see real animals.  Not that we can’t see them around here, but not quite in the quantities we sat at MFON's farm.  Turns out you have to feed the critters, so it takes a fair amount of effort on his part.  They have two kids (human variety), so they have quite a happy life.  We spent the rest of that day sort of hanging out and enjoying the bucolic (okay, now I’m getting poetic, so I should quit).  That evening we had a dinner at a local restaurant (that i think might make a "just right" list), and then the next day MFO and I headed back to OKC where we had another interesting dinner experience.  I’ll cover both in the next edition, keeping this one to the four legged critters. 

As we replaced thoughts of cows, goats, chickens, with thoughts of rental cars, standing (or sitting in this case) in lines airports, more than once Walt Whitman’s poem from “Leaves of Grass” came to mind:

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and

self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat and whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of

owning things,

Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of

years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth

Pretty pertinent, eh "Norman"?   

And animals are always

DFD

Footnote: Doing the blog is always interesting.  After remarking about Henryetta in the first Oklahoma edition, i got a back channel note from a reader who has suffered me almost from the inception of the Feeder.  Turns out her mother and several relatives are from there.  She was back for a reunion a couple of years ago, and enjoyed the vicarious visit..  Small world..