dairy air

my friend lives next to an organic dairy farm- here's what he wrote me the other day:

so, some of the more brave hearted bovines staged a prison break the other night -- and
consequently everyone in the neighborhood has an overabundance of cow pies. one of
the cows even went for a swim in our neighbors pool -- the guy said he herd (a bad pun or
bad spelling??? i am not even sure myself) a moo and a splash only to find good ol bessy
doing the breast stroke. anyway, the dairy farm dude felt really bad and has given everyone
some ground beef to placate us because he believes in that old adage "good burgers make
good neighbors"



i spent a month or so living next to this dairy farm myself- the most memorable part about it was not the stinky wafts of cowness that came our direction, but the night... the night of the cow. last full moon we were out around midnight walking the dog and commenting on how insanely bright the moon was when we noticed some strange noises coming from across the field. at first it sounded like drag racing in the distance, but the more we thought about it the more we realized that it must be the cows. so we make haste to the dairy farm to check out the cows, and all the while they're getting louder and more persistent in their mooing. we get to the dairy farm to discover a whole paddock of cows having a right moofest under the mooooonlight. (sorry- arm sorry). what is the meaning of this mooing, we ask? they don't normally moo at midnight. not like this, anyway. the only explanation is that it's a full moon and this appeals to the cows on some level, inciting them to moo like crazy.