Monday, August 25, 2008

A Lot of Bull

Actually, Pum is one step away from a bull. He was, er, divested as a young'un, and is now an ox.
He's a Holstein, mostly white with some black markings, and he is big. When I saw him in the Cow Barn at the Minnesota State Fair yesterday, I was amazed. He stands around 6 ft. high at the shoulder, and weighs in at some 2,500 pounds. Head and shoulder above the cows that were also on view, I thought he was huge. (I've since learned that a Holstein bull can weigh 3,000 plus pounds.)
Pum is one half of an ox team. The other half is Kin, who's some six inches taller than Pum. They were raised on a farm in New Hampshire that also grew (guess what)? Pumpkins.
I won't tell you about Pum's trip to the Fair, except to say he walked most of the way from North Dakota with the Orlin Ostby family. You can read about it here.
I chipped in five bucks for a commemorative button, to help defray the family's costs of the trip (they walked alongside Pum). Their homemade wagon, I'm told, had wheels that were 150 years old, although the axles were through metal braces. The original Red River carts had wooden axles that went through wooden braces, and squealed so bad you could hear them five miles away.
Pum isn't going to walk home pulling a wagon, however. He's hitching a ride in a wagon.