This scene from the middle of April twelve years looks very different than today as there is no green grass, no yellow blossoms and the white today is from the snow on the ground and not the white dandelion seed heads.
Not This April Spring Scene
Picture of the Day for May 4, 2020
As spring days continue, these dairy cows are enjoying some green grass and new dandelion leaves after a long winter.
Pasture Time
Picture of the Day for April 18, 2018
While looking out on a sea of white snow it, it is hard to believe that some Aprils on this date are green with trees leafing out. Instead of cows grazing on green grass, they are still eating hay which is causing a shortage for some farmers due to the extended winter season.
Cows on Pasture
Picture of the Day for January 2, 2015
“On the Eighth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me Eight Maids a-Milking.” I don’t think any wise maid milk would stick around during a Wisconsin winter to milk a herd of cows when the highs will be below zero. Of course technology has changed the way cows are milked with even robots do the milking, and while the machine might breakdown occasionally, they don’t call in sick from a New Year Eve hangover!
Eight Machines a-Milking
Picture of the Day for November 15, 2014
The sun might have shone bright yesterday, but the cows don’t have a nice grassy pasture to lay on as the fields are ice and snow covered with more snow coming today.
Dreaming of Greener Pastures
Picture of the Day for February 18, 2013
Many people have the day off for Presidents’ Day but I’m celebrating a different event. February 18 is also the Elm Farm Ollie Day which the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin celebrates every year. They even have a three mustard set as tribute to the three most famous cows in history — Elm Farm Ollie, Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow, and the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon. The mustard connection? According to their web site, “Here in Wisconsin, we have a saying: ‘A cow who cuts the mustard is a cow who can be trusted.'”
Who is Elm Farm Ollie? Elm Farm Ollie (known as “Nellie Jay” and post-flight as “Sky Queen”) was the first cow to fly in an airplane, doing so on February 18, 1930, as part of the International Air Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The two year old Guernsey cow was also the first cow to be milked in flight in the Ford Tri-Motor airplane. Wisconsin native Elsworth W. Bunce milked her, becoming the first man to milk a cow mid-flight.
Elm Farm Ollie’s milk was sealed into paper cartons which were parachuted to spectators below. Charles Lindbergh reportedly received a glass of the milk. Ollie’s stunt proved so popular that a large crowd, apparently thirsty for milk, gathered on the field where her plane was to land, forcing it to be diverted to another site.
In addition to having her praises sung in such works as “The Bovine Cantata in B-Flat Major” (from Madame Butterfat) and the stirring “Owed to Ollie,” she has been the subject of stories, cartoons and poems. E. D. Thalinger even painted her portrait for posterity.
So grab your glass of milk (or the jar of mustard) and raise a toast to Ollie.
Celebrating Elm Farm Ollie Day
