Sept. 07, 2003 ~ Pears
Yesterday evening Husband and I were heading out for a walk, ambling down our driveway, and a lone heifer, Whitey Jo, caught my eye. She was separate from the herd, parked beneath the two pear trees in the hay meadow. I looked at Husband, and I guess we have been married a long, long time, because he laughed and said, "You probably want me to go shake the tree so the pears will fall on the ground."
And of course he was right. That's exactly what I wanted.
"You're serious?" he asked, laughing.
I nodded as solemnly as possible, trying to keep a straight face.
Oh, to have had a camera! He crawled through the barbed wire fence and grabbed hold of a low-hanging branch, and he shook it. And shook it, and shook it some more. Pears came raining down, and Whitey Jo, after getting over her initial surprise, was a very happy girl. She scooped up a pear and took a great, big, slobbery bite. These are hard pears, not good for much but making the cows happy. We're tried eating them, but that's probably a good way to break a tooth. We've tried baking them, poaching them, and I don't know what else, and they never seem to get soft or tasty. But the cows like them.
Husband kept shaking the tree, and pears kept falling (including one or two which bopped him on the head!). This had not gone unnoticed by the herd. First one, then another, and on and on... they all came running, and Husband didn't know it yet. I hollered and pointed, and he turned to see these hungry beasts bearing down on him, and he practically fell over laughing. So there he stood, surrounded by bovines munching on pears, both of us smiling till our faces hurt.
Today we were driving home from the grocery store, and beneath that same pear tree stood Suzy, one of our very favorite, sweetest cows. She was pear-less. And hungry, very hungry.
"Husband," I said, "if you were any kind of a cow dad..."
"You want me to go out there and give that cow some pears?"
"I do," I said.
And since he's a very good cow dad indeed, he parked the truck, crawled through the fence, and shook the tree till the pears rained down. This time, the herd came running right away! We must be easily amused, because once again, we laughed ourselves silly.
It was a good day, and all because of happy cows who like a little fruit with their grass.
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