Stories from a Life #4

                                                        Calves In The Spring

   It was an old fashioned farm very different from most farms today.  Dad raised pigs, cattle and chickens on his farm of 160 acres which expanded to 320 acres.  This expansion happened when my cousin quit farming and moved to WA. in the early fifties.
   His cattle were mixed breeds but primarily Shorthorn and Hereford.  Initially he had more Shorthorns but as time went on he added Herefords.  Shorthorn were thought to be a kind of cross over breed good for both beef and milk.  Hereford on the other hand are a beef breed. Whatever the intention of the breeders he both sold the steers for beef and milked the cows.
   The barn, built at the turn of the century (i.e. about 1900) had a ground level hay mow that separated the horse barn on one side from the cow barn on the other.  The cow barn had milking stalls for 8 cows and calf pens.  When a cow calved during the calf was weaned and kept in the pens until spring.  The cow was milked, the milk separated and the cream was sold.
  As my brothers and I became old enough it became our duty to help with the chores.  This included milking by hand, pitching hay to the calves and carrying water from the tank at the windmill, which was about 50 yards away, for the calves.
  When spring arrived and the grass in the pasture greened there came day when the calves were let out.  These calves had spent their entire lives penned in the barn.  It took some pushing, pulling and prodding to get them from the barn to the pasture.  When it dawned on the calves that they were not constrained they ran, jumped, cavorted with their tails held high delighting in their new found freedom.  They also put on weight and looked healthier after a few week. 
  Of course we looked forward to this event.  It was delightful to see their joy and now we'd not have carry so many heavy pails of water to the barn.