On the lawn

It's March 28 and Dinah already thinks it's time to go out to pasture. I forgot to put the gate up in the barn this morning so she let herself out the front door and is now grazing on the lawn. What she's actually eating, I'm not sure, because the lawn is only starting to look green.

Glen, upon seeing her out the kitchen window just now, said, "Great, now the rest of the cows are going to be jealous and everybody will be out."

While it's true that the rest of the cows would probably be jealous, it would be much more difficult for them to get out. Dinah doesn't get tied up in the barn, so it only takes a small oversight for her to get out. Since she won't lay down in a stall, she has a little pack to lay on in the entryway of the barn. She goes freely between her stall to eat and her pack to rest. The only thing that keeps her in the barn when the front doors are open, as they are now, is our drop gate — the one I forgot to close.

Soon she'll be laying on the grass, looking much like one of the gigantic sculptures on The Lawn at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul Campus. I can only imagine what the neighbors think as they drive by and see our cow out lounging on our lawn.