On Horseback
Chapter 11: The Cow Festival
The 4th day of Autumn, the Cow Festival. This was the day that cows from all over the world were sent to the Green Ranch to compete in a competition to see which of the milk-givers gave the best milk! This year, our own cow, Missy, and six other cows were competing for the red ribbon.
Jack hadn't gotten a cow yet, so he was unable to compete this year. He said that he would just sit on the sidelines and cheer our cow on. How very sweet of someone who cursed under his breath about not getting a cow before this festival date.
I woke up early on the day of the Cow Festival. The leaves were gold, red, orange and brown outside. That meant that Winter would soon come. I despised the season. But for now, I wouldn't think about it and just concentrate on the festival that was going to begin at 10:00 a.m. It would last all day. That sucked, as my family had to cook the food and crater it before everyone else arrived.
Jack arrived at 9 a.m. I was in my room, and yes, you guess it, doing my hair.
"Why are you always doing your hair when I come to the ranch?" he asked me between giggles.
I rolled my eyes and firmly answered, "Just lucky I guess. Us women must keep our hair beautiful! Not that mine already is, but you know what I mean. Yes, I know you do." Jack chuckled.
"Where are the other cows?" was his next question. I dropped the hairclip that I was using when he asked that, and I replied, "They're in the barn with the other animals. They'll be released to wander about the ranch in about, oh, say thirty minutes or so?" Jack nodded and said, "I see, Ann."
Karen came by with a bottle of beer that she was obviously drinking.
"Tops!" she called out. I jumped out of my window after doing my hair, and ran over to her and quickly shouted, "HELLO!" Karen was stunned and asked, "What the fu- err, heck was that for?!" I shrugged. "Nothing really, just to make you scream."
Jack laughed as Karen chased me around the entire ranch. Yep, I was in one of those crazy moods where you want to do anything and you don't really care if you get yelled at, or in this case, chased around.
Finally, Karen came to a halt and said, "Fine, you win. But I swear to god if you ever do that again I'll break this beer bottle on your head!" Karen flung the bottle out of her hand and it slipped out of her other hand while it was flying through the air. It crashed down into the grass, luckily, not breaking. Karen's face turned red as she scurried over to get it.
"See what you made me did!" she exclaimed after picking it up. Jack shook his head as Karen stood right in front of me, furious.
"It's not like I was attempting murder. Take a chill pill, Karen," I replied.
At 9:30, I snuck away from Karen and Jack, who were making conversation and opened the barn door. The sheep and horses were locked in their stables, while the cows came out, curious to the environment around them. Well, not Missy, but the others sure were. My father came out and fed them a bit of fodder before the competition began.
"To keep them from getting hungry. They'll be giving milk until sundown. I don't know when that will be, probably around 5 p.m. or so. But we still do this every year, just in case. You never know when a cow passes out from starving or dehydration, which did happen once about three or four years ago, when we were in the middle of an Indian Summer. Always watch your cows, you don't want the worst to come out of it." My father repeated that phrase to Gray and I every year.
Sasha arrived with Kai a few minutes before 10:00. Right after that, a mob of people arrived. Most of them were just tourists. But I was familiar with some. Popuri, of course, and Maria whom I wasn't expecting to come. Lillia came, Popuri's mother. Rick came, too. I was surprised not to see Elli, though. She must've been sick or something.
My father announced the opening of the festival and said, "Let the milking begin!"
This was the first year that we were using milking machines, as all of the previous years always took us forever, and we'd have to continue the festival well after dark. Simple and easy this year. Of course, my father taking almost seven years to realize such a thing...whew. Brain check, aisle four.
Missy had her milk tested first. Five bottles were passed around. One for Jack, one for Kai, one for Lillia, and two were handed out to tourists, obviously people we didn't know. Jack gave Missy a 9.5 and everyone else, strangely, gave her a 9. Oh well. Great grade, that's for sure.
The next cow was Lassie from the Flower Bud Meadow Ranch. I think that's the ranch that sells chocolate milk and ice cream on the other side of the mountains. Wait! There's nothing on the other side, though...oh well. Jack drank his milk in the blink of an eye and held up the 8 sign. I silently clapped. I didn't want anyone to hear me cheering my own ranch on when I was supposed to be cheering all the ranches on. Lillia gave it a 6.5. Kai gave it a 9.5 and both of the tourists settled on an 8, like Jack did.
Cindy, from the Caldwell Ranch was next. She came from the city, and had been giving milk for six years. She was almost at her "retirement" age, and this was her final competition, so her owners were hoping that she would win this one. Every judge gave her refreshing milk a 9. That meant that Missy was still winning, but only by .5.
Milk was good, and as it stood, Missy had the best milk. Relish, the next cow was from some place that I hadn't even heard of before! All I knew was that she gave excellent milk. It was going to be hard for Missy to beat her, from what I heard. The judges drank their milk...and asked for more.
They asked for Relish's milk until they couldn't drink anymore. They all rated her a 10. That meant Missy wasn't going to win.
There were three cows left now.
JingleBells, a marble cow, gave milk that few people liked. Her milk was the milk that you couldn't say "it's okay" or "pretty good, but not the best". It's either a yes or no. That's what her milk was like. Kind of like tapioca.
The judges this time around were Gray, Sasha and three tourists. They said that JingleBells milk was either a "yes" or "no" kind of like in taste. They all rated her a 1. HA! So that meant that they didn't like her milk. Neat, I'd have to try it out sometime.
Torrie had the best milk in the world! Every judge gave her a 10! I wasn't surprised. She was now tied with Relish. These cows had awesome milk! I even tasted a bit of it. It sure was good. I could have it every dawn and dusk and never ever ever EVER get bored of its taste. Meh. One cow was left and I was hoping that it had great milk, too!
Piesch was the last cow. The judges quickly drank their milk and licked their lips. Sasha held up a 6.5. Gray gave the milk a 4. He didn't appear to like it! Two of the tourists gave the milk a 3 and the other one gave it an 8.5. Her milk didn't seem to be the greatest.
"Well, that's it for this year's competition! The results are in!" my father announced to the majority of the town. "The results are in!" I stood in one of the far corners of the farm with Jack and Karen while my father was handed the envelope.
"Torrie will probably win, she got the most 10s the fastest, not Relish," Karen told me. I nodded. That was probably what the case was going to be.
My father ripped open the envelope. "Third place goes to Missy, of the Green Ranch!" Every applauded and cheered as a blue ribbon was placed around Missy's chubby neck. "Second place goes to Relish of the Mirrdon Ranch!" The second cow was handed a green ribbon and taken into a different part of the ranch. "First place...Torrie!"
Everybody cheered. The red ribbon as placed around the lost cow's neck.
"Thank you for coming out to the Cow Festival!" the closing comments came in.
That evening while I was getting ready for bed, I whispered under my breath, "Milk is good. Good for you. If you don't drink it, then you're missing out on what I consider to be the adventure of a lifetime."
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
EEK! This was shorter than what I thought it was gonna be... xx Oh, well. I swear that the next one will be loooongER. I mean it, this time.