Meet the Herd at Maple Hollow Farm

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Meet the Herd
a few of our sixty-two girls, with their official tipping records

Every cow on this farm has a name. Our daughters named most of them when they were growing up, which is why we have a Pumpkin, a Pepsi and a cow named Duchess. Marcia keeps the names and the ear tag numbers in a spiral notebook by the phone. Here are some of the ones people ask about. No photos yet, the camera's out of film and the cows won't hold still for the drawing Ben tried.

Cow	About her	Tipped?
Pearl	Oldest in the barn, nine years old. Boss of the herd. Walks into the parlor first every milking and nobody argues. Lies down more than any cow we've got.	No
Butterscotch	Friendliest cow on the place. Will follow you along the fence line hoping you've got something. You don't. She follows you anyway.	No
Duchess	Named by our younger girl Kari at age seven, because she said this calf walked like she owned the place. She still does.	Certainly not
Pepsi	Mostly black with a white stripe on her face. Kathleen named her in 1992. We've heard about it from the Coke people at church ever since.	No
Big Bertha	Our heaviest girl. Ben would like it on the record that if anybody could tip Bertha, it would be a news story, and it hasn't been.	Ha
Pumpkin	Born on Halloween, 1996. Scared of the barn cats. Not scared of teenagers with flashlights.	No
Clementine	The one who stares. If a car pulls over at night, she's the first one at the fence, and she will look at you until you leave.	No
Dot	Youngest milking cow, first calf this spring. Still figuring out the parlor. Very polite about it.	No

The 4-H Visit

In August a 4-H club from town came out for a farm tour, and two of the girls, Jami and Kristen, both ten, very politely asked if they could see a cow get tipped. So we took them into the barn and showed them Pearl, who was lying down in the straw, chewing, with her eyes half shut. They looked at her for a long time. Then Kristen said, "She's already tipped." Jami said, "She's pre-tipped." We laughed so hard Ben had to sit on a bucket.

They both got to help bottle-feed a calf, which they agreed was better than tipping anyway. They sent us a thank-you card with a drawing of Pearl. It's on the fridge.

A Note From Marcia

We're having fun here, but I'll say it plain one more time: please don't go climbing fences into somebody's pasture at night. You won't tip anything, you might get hurt, and the farmer will be up in about four hours anyway. If you want to meet a cow, just ask. Most of us would be tickled to show you around.

Last updated Saturday, September 18, 1999