World's Purtiest Cow Contest

I don't know why, but I just love the purtiest cow contest.  There's something about engineering a fancy costume over, around, and under a big ol' heifer.



Here I am in probably 2004 with my first attempt:  Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.  I had no idea she wouldn't like to do it.






In 2011 Juicy came in as Runner-Up dressed as CLEOPATRA and escorted by Julius Caesar (me.)  Good times!

I can't believe she stood perfectly still while we dressed her, behaved like a perfect lady throughout the judging, and THEN we took off the costume and led her right back into the ring where she helped me win Jr. Showmanship!!!  What a trooper!  God love her!


Now I can say that I own the World's
SECOND-PURTIEST cow...for now.


I already have her outfit planned for Tulsa 2012!

Rattlesnakes!!!

Although I'm tired of working in the cold and the wind, I'm not looking forward to the warmer temperatures that bring out the rattlesnakes.

This past spring, my mom killed three rattlesnakes in the barn where I keep my feed.  Every day she entered the barn like a Navy Seal watching for signs of an ambush.  Ironically, on the day Mom killed her first one, one of the other Dairy moms was struck in the foot when she got home that day.  Her recovery was a long, slow, painful process. 

We will be very watchful.

The Barn Shark

You probably don't know this, but there is a new species of shark... the barn shark! Well, not exactly...

Last summer, I was sweeping the barn, and there was a sheet of tin on top of some bricks. So, I was sweeping past it and I felt a little scratch, I thought it was a little scratch, but when I went outside limping, and my mom saw my face and opened the truck door, she meant to say,  "What have you done this time?" but she ended up screaming and slamming the door.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "Seriously, woman!?"  When she slammed the door, (of course I was putting my weight on my left leg cause my leg was freakishly wrong!) I looked down... big wound that cut clear through the fat in my leg!!!  Gravity was pulling the bottom edge of the wound down like a big bloody open-mouth smiley face.  No wonder mom screamed.  It looked like shark took a bite out of my leg!

My mom put me in the backseat, and she used a toolbox to elevate my leg, and then slapped some napkins on my leg. We drove to the school because she had a first aid kit in her classroom, but she came out with it and said, "Yeah, I don't think I can fix this.  We're going to need to take you to the doctor." So she went and taped the napkins to my leg, and instead of crying, I started laughing. Yeah, weird right?


We drove to the local clinic. When we got there, my mom said, "Hi, she just got cut, we need to see a doctor." The lady said, "Does she have an appointment?" and my mom said,  "No, she JUST got cut," and I backed up to look at something and she saw the blood running down my leg and immediately said, "I'll see what we can do." So we sat and waited and waited and waited. Finally they said my name and we went into an exam room,  and the doctor came in, and told me to lay down, and he said they would have to numb my leg and put stitches in. He also said I'd feel the first stick and burn, but NO!!!! I felt them all!!!  I got two inside and twelve on top. 

I wasn't allowed to walk so the nurse offered to carry me to the truck but I said no, and I remembered that there was a wheel chair in the lobby so she carried me to it and I got in it and wheeled me out and I literally jumped into the truck! Well, onto the running board and into the truck. Then went to Walgreen's and bought $40 crutches!

You know the punch line to this not joke? I was hosting a party the next day!  I was recliner-ridden for the whole day...and a few weeks. But it's all better now! I have pains in my leg that feel like the stitches felt. That's my barn shark story!

A Howdy and a Hi Hi!

My family and friends call me MaddieMoo because of my LOVE for dairy! I am a 4-H dairy exhibitor right smack dab in the middle of the great state of Oklahoma. I've been in 4-H for three years, although I had been IMPATIENTLY waiting to turn nine so I could JOIN 4-H since I was FOUR!

I've requested GODBLESS as my prefix for my animals because I've been blessed from the start. I was given an Ayrshire heifer as a gift to get me started. If that hadn't happened, I don't know what my life would be like today.

Since that first heifer back in 2009, I have since expanded my herd. I was given an opportunity to purchase a Holstein, a Brown Swiss heifer, a Brown Swiss nurse cow and two beef calves to put on her, one bull and one heifer...and the herd KEEPS expanding! The Holstein is going to have her heifer in June, and the Ayrshire is going to have her heifer in August! WOO HOO, BABY!!!

As you can see, I keep pretty busy with my animals...and would you believe it if I told you I live in TOWN? Now don't tell anybody this, but my first two calves...we snuck them into our neighborhood in the dark, and I raised them in my GARAGE for the first four months or so!  Yeah, that's right, IMMA REBEL!!! (Hey, I didn't want my babies to catch pneumonia!)  I don't know how many laws we broke doing that, but I'll tell you more about that another day.
Until next time!
-MaddieMoo