Were we filming a documentary about cow poop for the RFD Channel? Nope, just setting the scene for a picture to use on my book’s author bio page and for our 2012 Christmas card. My vision was for Bill, our golden retriever, Cricket, and I to stand in front of a barbed wire fence with our cattle grouped behind the fence. That vision also included props—cow pies on the ground around us. We selected the spot we wanted to use for the picture, then set off in the mini-truck in search of photogenic mounds of manure.
We had already identified some good prospects on our walk the previous evening. The tricky part would be to move the cow pies to our photo shoot area. For that chore, we brought along a shovel and sheets of tin for transport of the pies.
We found our first prospective pie and unloaded the tools. Bill carefully worked the shovel under the cow pie, gently lifted it onto the piece of tin and slowly pulled out the shovel blade. The pie slid smoothly, but not too cleanly, off the blade. We carried the tin with the pie back to the truck, loaded it in the bed and went in search of the next cow pie.
Oooh! This one was huge and perfectly shaped—symmetrical and nicely domed. Well done, whoever laid this one down! I just hoped it would stay together during transport. As the cow pie slid off the shovel blade onto the tin, it started to crack. Bill slowly finessed the blade out and the pie remained intact.
The next cow pie was not as sturdy as it appeared. As Bill pushed the shovel underneath it, the structure collapsed. He turned the shovel over, dumped out the inferior pie, wiped the mess off the blade with grass and we drove on to the next one.
Once we had six cow pie props, we headed back to our photo site. We carefully unloaded the sheets of tin, set them on the ground and Bill used the shovel to lift the pies and put them in position. The scene was set!
For the picture, I wore blue jeans, blue chambray shirt, gumboots and held a red hay hook. Bill was dressed similarly, but without the gumboots and hay hook. Cricket wore her usual big smile. The cows and calves stood quietly behind us, munching on the pile of range cubes Bill dumped on the ground. Our photographer, thoroughly amused by the whole scene, focused and clicked a dozen times. The Hilbert’s, Cricket, the cows and their calves, and the photogenic cow pies were preserved for all time!
We had already identified some good prospects on our walk the previous evening. The tricky part would be to move the cow pies to our photo shoot area. For that chore, we brought along a shovel and sheets of tin for transport of the pies.
We found our first prospective pie and unloaded the tools. Bill carefully worked the shovel under the cow pie, gently lifted it onto the piece of tin and slowly pulled out the shovel blade. The pie slid smoothly, but not too cleanly, off the blade. We carried the tin with the pie back to the truck, loaded it in the bed and went in search of the next cow pie.
Oooh! This one was huge and perfectly shaped—symmetrical and nicely domed. Well done, whoever laid this one down! I just hoped it would stay together during transport. As the cow pie slid off the shovel blade onto the tin, it started to crack. Bill slowly finessed the blade out and the pie remained intact.
The next cow pie was not as sturdy as it appeared. As Bill pushed the shovel underneath it, the structure collapsed. He turned the shovel over, dumped out the inferior pie, wiped the mess off the blade with grass and we drove on to the next one.
Once we had six cow pie props, we headed back to our photo site. We carefully unloaded the sheets of tin, set them on the ground and Bill used the shovel to lift the pies and put them in position. The scene was set!
For the picture, I wore blue jeans, blue chambray shirt, gumboots and held a red hay hook. Bill was dressed similarly, but without the gumboots and hay hook. Cricket wore her usual big smile. The cows and calves stood quietly behind us, munching on the pile of range cubes Bill dumped on the ground. Our photographer, thoroughly amused by the whole scene, focused and clicked a dozen times. The Hilbert’s, Cricket, the cows and their calves, and the photogenic cow pies were preserved for all time!
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