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09/14/2006: "Queen-size bedding"

One of the conversations that we had during the Labor Day cider-pressing concerned livestock. Our friend Dorothy is a realtor with contacts all over the Willamette and Yamhill area, and she mentioned casually that sometimes she hears of situations in which someone has a cow either for sale or to give away to a good home. Of course, we told her we were interested in hearing about situations like that, and a week later she called us. "Do you want a purebred Dexter cow?" Do we ever!

We won't get Aura (or Queen Aura, as we've taken to calling her) for about a month. In the meantime, we've been scrambling to collect bedding for her and get it somewhere dry. With rain in the forecast and clouds moving in, Nate and I were racing to get the straw from the lower pasture up to the cowshed. There's a hillside to climb between the two. It doesn't seem that steep when you're just walking up it, but it's Everest when you're trying to haul a load in the cart. Enter the Suzuki Sidekick.


Nate and I were considering trading the Sidekick in for a truck. But after watching the little car haul a few tons of hay, negotiate the pasture and climb the hillside, we're rethinking the truck.



I really hope our neighbors appreciate us. There we were, out in the field, pitchforking bundles of straw into the back of our mini SUV. We tried to drag extra, but the bungee cords weren't cooperating with that. And Nate kept dragging the bedding through blackberries, which might of had something to do with the failure. When the sidekick got so full that we couldn't keep the straw from falling out, I would lean myself on it while Nate packed more in around me. I'm still picking hay out of my hair. Nate bungeed the straw into a stable mass while I disentangled myself from it. Then we'd climb in and drive up to the cowshed. Once there, one of us would fork straw out of the Sidekick and the other would fork into the stall. It was a bit of a race. The stall would fill up quickly and we would have to stomp it down.



It was frustratingly enjoyable to try and stomp the straw down, and yet very cozy once you gave up and allowed yourself to fall in.

Nate and I had so much fun bringing in the straw that we're planning on inviting a few friends to join us next year. I'm sure Queen Aura (and the neighbors!) will appreciate it.