meet bean

Yesterday morning, quite unexpectedly, Dave came inside and exclaimed, “I’m a cow Dad!”

Whaaaaaaaaat!? I was a whole mixture of emotions – excited, incredulous, happy… did I mention excited? Dave has been threatening that Tomato will calf “any day now” since February so I was starting to question whether or not there actually was a calf in her burgeoning belly. (Too much hay Tomato?). Nope, there was a calf and oh my goodness she is adorable! When I went out to meet her I went ieeeeeee! because look at her! Teeny tiny, fuzzy, big brown eyes, unsteady hooves and ieeeeee! So cute!

Tomato is super protective of her little Bean so it was hard to get a good shot of her. I did my best!

Bean’s full name is Beannaichte. I have no idea how to pronounce it so forever more, I shall refer to her simply as Bean. According to this website, Beannaichte means blessed. Since she was born in the wee hours of Sunday morning, it fits! The reason for the Gaelic name choice is because Tomato’s real name is Tomag (with an accent in there somewhere too). We bought her from the Cameron’s down the road who have strong Scottish roots. Their farm is called Baile na H’innse and they kept the Gaelic tradition alive in their livestock as well (in case you’re not up on your cow breeds, Tomato and Bean are Highland Cattle).

As our little Bean grows and gains some independence you can be sure that her fuzzy little self will be making many more appearances here on the Harrier Hill blog!