Tanya Vanderham’s heartwarming memoir of life growing up on and running her own dairy farm. There are many animals lovingly represented in this book; birds, dogs, cats, goats, horses, and a few surprises are among the menagerie, and of course, COWS! Each chapter a story in itself…some happy, some sad, some informative, ALL charming! You will thoroughly enjoy this book.

Excerpt:

When a cow becomes seven months pregnant, she gets to go on her vacation to the “Dry Pen.” All the cows in the dry pen are pregnant. In the dry pen all they do is eat, play, and sleep for two months.

One of my favorite things to watch is when a cow is on her way to the dry pen and dominance over the pen has to be established. There was always a “Boss Cow” in the dry pen. I loved to see the cows being put in an unfamiliar pen. Some would just go in peacefully, running, bucking, happy as pie. Others, however, all the way to the dry pen would be psyching themselves out, puffing up, arching their backs, walking slowly sideways ready to fight for the dominance. Of course, the boss cow would see this too, psyching herself out, puffing up, arching her back, standing sideways and waiting for her new challenger.

The fights were not much; only a few head butts trying to push one another off their feet. Usually the boss cow would win after five to ten minutes, then it was over for good. What cracked me up is usually the boss cow was a great big cow, larger than all the rest.  But some new opponents were really small and that made no difference. They would fight the big boss no difference. They would fight the big boss cow and usually lose, but not for lack of trying.

One particular cow named Crystal was really confident of herself and she was really small. I had seen her in her milking pen run many other cows off just because she wanted their spot. The cows in her pen were afraid of her.

One day I saw her pen coming into the barn to be milked; 30 cows, 30 stanchions. Crystal’s spot was second from the end. If the other cow was in her spot, they weren’t for long. She would knock them out of her spot. Now, you may say, why second from the end? Every cow gets a 15-lb shovel of grain placed in front of them each time they are milked. Crystal had a cow on her left and a cow on her right. They would be staring straight ahead, scared to even move while Crystal was eating her grain. Then Crystal would eat the cow to her left’s food and the cow to right’s food. Only when she became full would she allow her left and right buddies to eat. I saw this many, many times.

Now back to the dry pen. Crystal went dry ten times ten times. On her walk to the dry pen, you never saw such confidence. All puffed up, walking sideways, arching her back, blowing snot out of her nose . . . she was a real show. But guess what? In the dry pen there was a giant boss cow, little Crystal didn’t have a chance. She would always lose after a long battle, but in her mind she knew someday soon she would be going back to her old pen where she would be queen of her castle once more and reclaim her throne.

Tanya Vanderham