Seventh Day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...seven Flint Hill pastures,

The view this fall in one of my favorite places!

•  Six cows a'calving,
•  Five awesome kids!
•  Four special friends,
•  Three old red barns,
•  Two cotton work gloves,
•  and a Cow Dog to work beside me.

The Flint Hills are very special to many people. When I'm out in the middle of a pasture, with no power lines, no houses, no fences and only cattle and grass visible, I imagine what it was like to cross the prairies in covered wagons. I wonder what it was like to camp at night on the prairie, listening to coyotes howl and your campfire snap. It must have been a beautiful place and easy to select a place to call your own...to build a house, build a barn, build a life.

Today, it takes about 6 acres of grass for a cow and calf for the entire season. We take care of a few thousand acres of grassland on the prairie, and we are proud to do so. It is a responsibility we feel for ourselves, and for future generations. I have blogged many many times about the prairie. We have approximately seven separate pieces of grass that we have cows in, hence the song's reference...