Good-bye Earl, Good-bye Giggles

Yes it’s that time again when the cold wind starts to blow and we take a good look at what cows we need to keep during the winter and which ones will need to find new friends.

And sadly this year both Earl and Giggles went to another farm.

Now even though I know it’s coming it sure seems kinda sad. Earl has the biggest eyes and he just kept looking at me as if he was saying ‘Why’? Yea, it wasn’t the best place to be tonight. But it’s part of farming and while we were loading them up to take them to the sale barn, the other cows just couldn’t believe it. They just stood by and almost seemed like their mouths were open in amazement. OK, maybe that was a little dramatic, but they did seem pretty scared and nervous.

I tried to give Earl an apple before we left but he was too scared to eat it. And what a racket that Giggles was making when we got to the sale barn. We thought at first the holsteins that were just getting unloaded in front of us were making all the noise, you know how those holsteins are 🙂 but we found out that it was Giggles just bawling. I think dropping cattle off at the sale barn is like your first days of Jr. High. You are in a new place, everyone is checking you out, you are checking everyone else out, and there are even some loud ones in the group. You also know that you’ll make new friends soon. The only difference is that the lunch hour just might not be the same as what you were used to. I mean do you think their new owners will buy them apples to give them as an afternoon treat? I don’t think so.

I’m going to really miss Earl. It’s not that I didn’t like Giggles, but he wasn’t the most friendliest.Nice, but not just someone that you could walk up to and give him a good head scratch. I think Daryl thinks that I might get too attached to our cattle. When I told him that he will never.. and I mean NEVER sell No Ears he just looked straight ahead while he was driving the pickup and didn’t move at a muscle. He must have practiced this look because he didn’t even flinch. And I was looking pretty close! I said that she can grow old and just eventually die on the farm. Again – no movement from Daryl. But I know he was listening because I could see him giving me a sideways glance like we’re going to have to talk about this some more.