Cows in Love

I didn't know cows could fall in love....but Isla and Explorer apparently are.  They are always mooning about each other, licking necks and goring each other playfully with their horns.  Isla is the only cow Explorer will allow to share the water trough with him while he is drinking.  It's very romantic.  I guess she's a very pretty cow with golden hair.  A few days ago I was putting kelp out for the cows, and Isla came over to see if I had any treat for her, so I scratched her forehead for a few seconds.  I swear Explorer got jealous!  He gave me a glare, and I could see his neck stiffen up the way bulls do when they want to be threatening.  It's funny to watch them - you see humans in love acting the same way.  We're not so very different as we like to think.

This weekend Ethan wasn't feeling well at all, so we didn't get all the things we wanted to done.  Instead we got hardly anything done, but I planted 200 more Dudley corn seeds.  Looking at the seeds I was given from Sally, I realized she selected her seeds very carefully.  They were all broad and round and beautiful.  Last year I saved whatever I had (nothing moldy, of course), because I wanted lots of seeds to give away and work with.  I am still learning with this whole seed-saving thing.

I went through my seeds and picked out the large, beautiful kernels, although I don't know what kind of cobs they came off of, at least they were the well-nourished ones.  This next year I hope to select from the best stalks and cobs.

I have about 300 seeds planted now, but I would like to get at least that many planted again - I think I can do it by next weekend.  There are weeds to pull and compost to haul.  In the late afternoons on Sunday and Saturday I was out there, soaked with sweat, weilding a pitchfork while the cows watched me curiously from where they were lying down, ruminating in the cool shade.

My friend who moved away to Maine this spring wrote to say that there are so many people up there who love gardening.  I imagine it's because when the soil is finally not frozen up there, everyone just wants to be outside after the long winter, and what better excuse than to putter around in a garden? 

Down here, with our sandy soil and 95 degrees in the shade, the only serious gardening types tend to be eccentric-on-the-edge-of-sanity.