Fur In The Paint

So when I asked a friend (who’s also a good customer and dear to me like family) whether they still had Hereford’s he said no, but offered to keep an eye out for me. I really didn’t want them to go to any trouble and said as much. Partly because I had something very specific in mind and partly because I hate to be a burden.

What I wanted was some hairy Hereford cattle. But the hair couldn’t be too long or too short. It had to be juuuust right.

Yup … it’s just like Goldilocks and the 3 bears. Except I’m not a cute little blond girl who’s into petty larceny. So I suppose my fairytale would be called Grayinglocks and the 5 cows. And instead of worrying about being eaten by bears, my only worry was about being slipping in the cow poop soup and then being drooled on by the curious cows. Yeah, it’s totally like a fairytale.

Low Expectations
So as I mentioned previously I went into this particular photo safari with low expectations. For many reasons.
1. I wanted hairy cattle but not so fluffy they look like toys. This late in the year that is what you usually get.
2. They are feedlot cattle which means nose to tail filth generally. Not pretty in pictures.
3. They are in a hoop building meaning poor lighting at best.

But in the end it was awesome. Awesome because the farmer was an absolute doll and had separated 5 head for me from his herd of over 700 cattle. I don’t know what criteria he selected them on but they all had white and clean faces unlike so many of the other feedlot cattle. They were in a smaller clean pen (well cleanish … keep a cow in an enclosure long enough it it’ll get covered in poo.) that I was allowed to enter and move about them. And they were in the open so as you can see by my photo they are struck ever so lovingly by the sun.

At any rate the farmer went well above and beyond what I was expecting and went to far more trouble than I deserved. So now I will definitely do a painting at some point, if for no other reason than to give him a framed print just to say thank you.