Old Annie memories...



When I was growing up, out in the boon docks, we had no

fancy stuff...like deliveries by a milk man. We milked 

our own cows, of which there were several over the years.

I particularly remember "Annie". I don't really know how 

old Annie was, but she'd certainly been around for a long 

time.



Annie was a very docile old milk cow. She was reddish in

color. Probably had quite a bit of guernsey in her, but,

I can't say for sure. Annie's horns were a bit strange,

in my book. They curled back around and actually pressed

back into her skull, forming "handles" on her head. (I 

wish I had a picture!)



A bit of a digression. All our milk cows over the years

were pasture fed. Whatever was there was what they ate.

Well, there was an exception. Daddy planted lupine (a

legume) to replenish the crop soil with nitrogen (I think

it was).

There were two kinds of lupine...sweet and bitter. If the

milk cows ate the the bitter lupine, their milk was...ugh!

Bitter! So, if the milk cows grazed on bitter lupine, the

result was undrinkable milk.



I milked Annie many many a day. My fondest memory of milking

old Annie was the day she kicked me...I know not why.

Perhaps "fondest" is not a good word to use. Maybe "most

memorable" is better. When Daddy found out, he punished 

Annie severely. Daddy was not light on punishment...for 

anybody or anything.



Be that as it may, I will always remember "Old Annie"

as well as her day of punishment.



Brother Wayne adds: Old Annie certainly was a very docile 

cow. You could grab her curved horns and move her head side 

to side and she did not care. You could also lay and sit on 

her. She would spend time laying in front of house at edge 

of road. Did not worry about her wandering off. If she did 

cattle gaps kept her from going on the main roads. The cow 

poop on the road gave the dung beetles something to roll up 

in balls. They lay their eggs in these balls.