Go Toward the Light and Avoid the Sinkholes

Our dairy cows go out on pasture everyday. My first job in the morning is to drive the tractor out in the field and round up any of them that didn't come in on their own for the first milking. Today when I went out the lights died on the tractor. Pitch dark. It didn't bother me and I decided I would just make a small loop around the field and any cows out there would hear the tractor and follow me in.

It is funny how the mind can wonder sometimes. While driving around I thought back to when I was in high school and my science teacher who told some crazy stories in class. One was about a farmer who walked out in his field to check on some cows and disappeared. His family was watching from the house and saw him just slip out of view and was gone. The theory my teacher proposed was that he fell into a tiny sinkhole in the ground and was gone. Did I believe the story? No, but was I thinking about it as I drove around in the dark? Yes.

There are no sinkholes in the pasture. No lost farmer and no lost cows. I followed the lights back to the barn and two cows followed me in for the morning milking.

I think fixing those lights will be very high on our list of farm chores today.