The winter solstice.
The full moon, accompanied by a full lunar eclipse.
All of this occurring in the space of one night.
Along with this...
we got one more gift.
It was a gift we gave ourselves.
An opportunity became available to buy some really nice, well bred cows from another farm.
40 of them to he exact.
So that is what we did.
Shipping live animals is an art ( I have learned) and we finally agreed upon a shipping date and put our trust in the ability of a trucking company to haul this precious cargo.
The bovine ladies would be moving from their "Big Easy" life in New Orleans down here to Florida. To make transit as easy as possible, they were fed, watered, milked and loaded on to the semi for transport. All of this meant that they would, of necessity, be arriving at about 4 A.M.
Their own private field was all prepped and readied for them with two large round bales of our very best hay and fresh water..
and we waited.
Things went even better than hoped for and the call that the cows were almost here came in at just before 2 A.M. The driver was pulling on to the farm!
I don't think I have ever seen such an unexpectedly beautiful sight.
The "N'awlins" ladies looked like they brought the Mardi Gras with them! A dazzling array of lights (and some mooing). A veritable lagniappe as it appeared out of the dark, like a floating party barge in its very own parade.
I expected trinkets!
Beads!
Doubloons!
Tossed down to the crowds as it rolled its majestic way across the hay field
The bovine beauties and the big eclipse arrived at pretty much the same moment. The celestial darkening and the big puffing brightly lit semi creating quite a vignette that was definitely a first.
We unloaded cows during the eclipse in a dark frosty barnyard so cold the air stung your eyelids and made your nose run.
But nothing can prepare you for an eclipse. So awesome and indescribable.
I did not take the picture below but it is the closest one I could find to convey what it actually looked like.
photo by Goodimages
The cows never looked up. They came down out of that huge trailer (it was two stories high and each cow had its own stall - amazing)and once on solid ground they sniffed the ground in big blows of white foggy breath, decided they liked what they saw and moved right to the hay and water.
Not one cow had to be chased or blocked or coerced. Even by the dark of the moon they seemed happy to get off a rolling truck and back to more familiar things. As is the way timing sometimes goes,just as the last cow entered the field and the gate was shut the moon burst forth blazingly white again.
The eclipse was over.
The cows cows long voyage was over and now the fun begins of getting to know 40 new personalities while they get to know us!
Laissez le Bon temp rouler!
Let the good times roll!
more on the eclipse:
The December moon is called The Full Cold Moon, the Full Long Nights Moon, or my favorite: the Moon before Yule. The moon is above the horizon for a long time and, according to the Farmers’ Almanac, it has a high trajectory across the sky because it’s opposite a low sun.A total lunar eclipse during winter in the northern hemisphere is somewhat common, according to NASA. But a lunar eclipse falling directly on the date of the winter solstice is extremely rare.
With the full moon high in the winter sky, the lunar eclipse will be visible from four continents, with the best views from North America and Central America if weather permits, scientists say.
This year's event will take 3 hours and 38 minutes. The eclipse begins on Tuesday at 1:33 a.m. ET, when the Earth's dark-red shadow will turn up on the edge of the moon, according to NASA. It will take about an hour for the shadow to cover the entire moon. Totality begins at 2:41 a.m. and lasts for 72 minutes. (courtesy AOL News/Lisa Holewa contributor).
http://www.shadowandsubstance.com/
What a gift, not only the eclipse but that big treasure box full of cattle is very exciting to me.
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