Horny Cows

The farm scene is coming along

The finished barn

The internet hive mid is a tough mistress. I am making good progress on my farm scene. The barn is done and I have been adding livestock paddocks outside.

I based the barn on images of a barn at Appomattox, VA that is part of the National Park there. I omitted one of the side sheds to make it a little smaller to fit my space.

The model barn has interior details. The interior of the barn is hard to see as it is dark, but it has hay, a ladder and the framing of the barn visible.

Tools from Alkem Scale Models for the shop.

In the side shed, I added a workshop using a set of tools from Alkem Scale Models and some metal castings I have on hand. The tool kit is such a fun little detail to add.

I laser cut split rail fences and made two paddocks. One for cattle and one for horses.

I need to order some bareback horses, presumably for the officers that are staying at the farm.

I have one pack of cows from Woodland Scenics. I have another pack on order.

Being from the south, South Brooklyn, NY, that is, I know nothing about farming except what my brother and I watched on the early morning TV documentaries on TV in the 1950s and 60's.  Thus, I needed some help on how the barn yard should be set up. So I posted a picture to Facebook and asked for some help. And help I got.

I did get lots of relies from folks with good suggestions for water troughs, hay feeding, etc.  So I have a good handle on how the livestock would have been fed and watered. One thing to remember, this cattle pen is a holding area just before the animals would be slaughtered. So the accommodations would be pretty basic. The animals came in by rail, or were walked from Aquia Landing.

Apparently the horns are not a delicacy.

Scrawny cows at City Point, VA

One of the more interesting tangents we got into was whether cows in the civil war had horns or not. If you look at most photos or pictures of cows from the period, you see cows with horns. Of course, my O scale cows do not have horns. The hive mind was happy to point that out.

My options, buy cattle from Aspen Modeling Company. They sell properly horny cows but for a price of almost $9.00 each. Or, I could add horns to the Woodland Scenics Cows. That is the approach I will take.

Now, civil war era cows were scrawny, especially compared to the plump Herefords that Woodland Scenics sells. I do not plan to put my model cows on a diet though. There are some places where you just have to say, "good enough."