Anticipation is building at Audarya...in only two days Gita will be flying out from Lousiana to become a permanent member of Audarya. Guru Maharaja himself will pick her up from the airport.
Who the heck, you may ask, is Gita???
A couple of hints: she's young, extremely beautiful, and destined to be one of Gaura-Nitai's milk-producing mothers! That's right, Gita is a calf and the newest member of Audarya's herd. At ten weeks old, she's also the herd's youngest member. The circumstance of her getting the fortunate entrance into the most exclusive herd on Earth is that her cousin Gauri was sold to Audarya as a bred cow, but since it turned out that Gauri was not bred, the farm we got Gauri from is sending Gita instead. Gita was born on the auspicious appearance day of the Gita! She comes from a prestigious lineage of two grand champion zebus.
But the good news doesn't stop there. A vet came to Audarya today and comfirmed that Seva and Kishore have hit their marks and Gauri and Goloka are now both bearing calves!!! Yes, you heard me right, we have at this very minute two auspicious calves that are the first members of the Audarya herd to be conceived right here on campus. Sound the buffalo horns! Call the dancers, musicians, and brahmana priests!
What a wonderful news! Did the vet say what would be a delivery date?
But the good news doesn't stop there. A vet came to Audarya today and comfirmed that Seva and Kishore have hit their marks and Gauri and Goloka are now both bearing calves!!!
Lets hear it for the prashadam ie ghee, butter, cream and milk for Guru Maharaja.
Great news.
Looks like we will start to need find some flat pasturing ground.
This is so cool!
Do the cows really need flat pasturing ground, or will grassy hills do fine? My grandfather's dairy herd spent much of its time in the hills around Lompoc. When he died, I met a boyhood friend of his who won an Olympic gold medal (mile, I think). He told me he became an olympian by chasing cows around those hills with my grandpa. (I come, it seems, from a line of cowherds. )
I recently got an email from Swami Maharaja that there were "three, maybe four pregnant cows!" So just two for now are confirmed? Looks like things are very rapidly increasing
These news filled me with joy. As far as the pasture, it would be nice, but the only pasture near Audarya is relatively far and there are mountain lions... No way, I could never sleep.
I remember noticing how the Bhagavatam mentions the cows of Vrndavana being herd in the forest, and when I saw Dharma and Bhumi they really looked natural, like deer, and it warmed the heart to see them munch on so many things other than boring grass. Still, I doubt they'd be able to thrive on munchies from the wood without the daily bails of alfalfa.
As for the delivery dates, Goloka is six weeks pregnant, which would be a late October or early November due date, and Gauri is about two months. The vet came earlier and thought that Raga was pregnant, but he turned out to be mistaken. Guru Maharaja is also hoping to get Nandini bred, but since the bulls have not had any luck thus far with Raga (because she's bigger than Gauri and Goloka), I think it will be some time for Nandini as well.
Here is a QuickTime movie of Gita, low and high resolution. I hope you can view it, because it is really wonderful.
P.S. The low resolution version is suitable for dial-up connections and the high res version for broadband.
Well, we're in love. For some reason, I can't get the video, but I get the audio. My wife came running into the room when she heard the "moo!" and I showed her the pictures. Does anyone have any ideas about why I can't see the video images and how I can fix that?
Are you using a PC or a Mac?
If it is a PC, you should download VideoLAN (http://www.videolan.org/) and use it to play the movie.
It will play almost any audio and video format. It is available for Mac as well.
Got it, and it works quite well! Thanks, Gauravani. And now we're really nuts about her.
name='Babhru das' date='Mar 1 2006, 05:41 PM' post='6983']This is so cool!
Do the cows really need flat pasturing ground, or will grassy hills do fine?
No hills are fine but there needs to be grassy knolls which are very close by and with in a few miles for hay and alfalfa.
. She was quite a hit at the airport cargo department.
I can see why she has nice socks and eye rings and is quite beautiful.
Here is a QuickTime movie of Gita, low and high resolution. I hope you can view it, because it is really wonderful.
P.S. The low resolution version is suitable for dial-up connections and the high res version for broadband.
sweet it sounds like she is saying I want milkkkkkkkk.
I thought I'd give my version too, make it like a gospel, from the Sanskrit "go" (cow) and... spel.
Gita was lying in her little cage when I first saw her. She was much less stressed than Bhumi and Dharma when we moved them to Point Arena and finally to Audarya; nontheless her nostrils were flairing, as you could see from the pictures, her eyes wide open and ears pricked out.
I put myself in her condition and it must have been stressing with all those lights and noises. Plus, her food and water had run out.
Anyway when we managed to unseal the cage she wasn't that thirsty after all, so we tried to get to Audarya as fast as possible.
As soon as we laid the cage in front of the stable to open the doors, she mooed vigourously and so did all the other buddies, who were dying of curiosity, as I am, wondering what they were telling each other.
We set up a bedding, heat lamp, food and water and spied from the closed door. She is a cutie, her limbs are all round and short, like in every baby, but Guru Maharaja said her face is really elegant and tapered. She comes from two beauty champion parents.