Elizabeth came into my life quite unexpectedly when I found her in a small parcel outside my neighborhood in 2020, on my 50th birthday. I had always been an enormous cow fan, and moving to Tennessee sure fed that obsession because you cannot go 1/2 a mile without seeing a herd of cattle. I watched the cows come and go in the field next to my house. Calves were born in the spring, and I watched them grow, and then one day, they were gone...

Elizabeth was only a few months old when I first saw her. I immediately went to say hello. Eventually, I ran into the young man who bottle-fed her and asked if I could visit her daily. Not only was she orphaned, but she was also blind in one eye. I thought it was a stubborn infection, but it turns out that, regardless of how it started — whether from an illness or an injury — her eyesight couldn’t be saved.

At the end of December, the young man said he didn't want her, and it was time to sell. Before I knew what I was saying, I blurted out that I would take her. As the words came out of my mouth, I looked across the field to my home and realized I would have to move to keep her. Thanks to COVID and the manure-filled year we all had, it wasn’t the best time for any of this to happen. I certainly couldn’t keep her in my HOA neighborhood.

I attempted to find a farm rescue for her, but they were all full. I tried to find a home for her with people who would care for her as a pet and not return her to the farming industry, but I had no luck. She is a registered Charolais with excellent breeding and would most likely have been used as a breeding cow, but I didn’t want that for her. She was a bit timid and skittish because of her decreased vision. It was necessary to have patience with her.

After weeks and weeks of sleepless nights and days filled with crying and worry, my daughter finally encouraged me to keep her. Having never seen me that distraught over anything, she said I needed to keep the cow, no matter what it took. Limited funds, lousy timing, low home inventory, land selling in days...I had to find a way. Even if I could have found someone, giving her to someone else didn't bring me joy and left me in tears.

I purchased 14 acres of vacant land in McMinnville, TN to open the Tennessee Cow Rescue. After searching for land for months and miles, I came across this parcel and knew it was the “right” (samma in Sanskrit) place for us. Shortly after selling my house and moving here to the farm, Agnes joined us, and it was well-timed because Elizabeth was tired of being alone. Cows are herd animals, and being was hard on her.

The first year, I lived in an RV with Buddha, my 160lb dog, before building a garage with an apartment above. I’ll build a house someday, but right now, I’m too tired, and there are too many other things to do. Building a barn for the animals is more important to me than building a house.

In the last four years, we have rescued twelve cows, fifteen cats, and a sheep. I was also able to save dozens of other cows by finding them new homes. I added a roof to an old corral to create a hay barn and summertime shelter. Sanjay, our handicapped mini cow, has his own house in his pasture, where he lives with Little, the lamb, and our blind heifer, Faith. The cows have an additional shelter in the main pasture, which we added several years ago, and we have a run-in for cows in quarantine. An ongoing project is to clear the woods, creating a clear path to the cave for visitors visiting the farm.

Updates:

Our livestock guardian dog, Akiva (“Defender” in Hebrew), proved to be a remarkable addition to the farm, despite receiving little training or direction from me. He takes his job very seriously. His main job is to protect Sanjay and Little from coyotes. Akiva was donated to us by someone in our local community. My Old English Sheepdog (Buddha) passed in October, and Akiva was growing more and more lonely on the farm. LGD usually work in partnership with another dog, so I searched and searched until I found Samara “Protector” in Hebrew). She is a seven-month-old Great Pyrenees and is currently in training. We call her Mara for short. Akiva is not a fan of Mara being here, and I hope that by the time I update this post, they will be friends.

We are desperate to fertilize, lime, and reseed the pasture this fall and spring. The pasture requires more regular upkeep and maintenance than time or money allow, and we are paying the price because we have to supplement with grain and hay this summer. The grass isn’t sustaining the eight cows who currently live in the main pasture. We added the tractor two summers ago, and the payment continues to be painful. Over the past few years, we have sold several items to make the payments, and I worry that we won’t be able to keep it until it’s paid off and becomes an asset instead of a liability. It certainly makes the work easier, and we’ve been able to eliminate the need to hire someone else with a tractor to complete work here on the farm. I’m not sure how I could do this work without it.

Our financial situation remains precarious, and I worry about our future. We are over four years in and have still not achieved economic stability, a necessary condition for us to move forward. We have been unable to expand as planned because we lack the funds required to purchase the adjacent vacant land. We have yet to build the barn. But, in time, we hope all of those things work themselves out. We take every day as it comes and do the very best we can with the resources we have.

We have added chickens to the farm; they will be pasture-raised and are here primarily to eat fly larvae and fertilize the pasture as they scratch their way around. Miraculously, I also planted a garden, and it amazes me every day to go out there and (so far) see it thriving. The garden scraps are given to the chickens and cows, and the chicken manure is added to the compost bin for the garden. Over the fall and winter, the entire garden will be planted in garlic, which we give to the cows for fly control.

We added a calf pasture next to Sanjay’s and turned the side-by-side shelter (sold for the money) into a cow shelter and hay storage. Murphy stayed there this past winter. We are finally halfway through enclosing the quarantine pasture (a $1,000 grant partially funded the project).

LOSES:

Grace passed away in October of 2024, but her 20th baby, Frankie, is thriving here on the farm. Grace died of heart failure. We lost our sweet angel, Annie, who struggled for the ten months she called the rescue home. They were our first resident losses, and they occurred within a few weeks of each other, making for a difficult fall. Annie and Buddha are buried together in the quarantine pasture, and we buried Grace (Momma) right where she used to wait for me to supplement her food and sneak her treats. When Grace arrived, she wouldn’t let me touch her or Frankie, so it meant the world to me that she died in my arms; we had come a long, long way together.

UPCOMING PLANS:

We have two groups of VIP donors visiting the rescue from out of state this summer, and we are thrilled to have them meet the animals in person and to see for themselves the difference they have made for these loving animals. Without regular donors, I don’t know what we’d do.

In 2026, we plan to add a cut flower garden and a beekeeping area. It’s essential to us to demonstrate that bees can be well cared for and that you can harvest a substantial amount of honey while also allowing the bees to retain all the honey they need for healthy hive survival. The bees and flowers and garden and chickens…all work together and are part of our regenerative farming practices. In years to come, we may have vegetables, sustainably sourced honey, cut flowers, and eggs from our lovely chickens to sell at our farm stand and to visitors. This is one way we could generate additional funds for the nonprofit. It’s exciting to share these experiences with the kids who visit the farm, and it has always been a long-term plan to offer classes in regenerative farming, composting, recycling, and farm animal care, among other topics.

We have applied for a grant to build a shed at the entrance of the farm. This shed would solve several issues for us by providing a meeting space for visiting groups, a place for visitors and volunteers to store their belongings, and a much-needed bathroom for visitors. This would allow us to host more groups and plan more events without having to drag in a porta-potty. We also applied for grants for a second water fountain for the cows and a prosthetic for Sanjay, our handicapped mini cow. In the years to come, we hope there will be more time available to apply for grants. As of now, time is still a precious commodity.

And.. no, I STILL haven’t managed to edit and post any of the hundreds of hours of video I have from the day I met Elizabeth…I hope to get it uploaded this winter…someday.

(edited/updated 6.15.2025)

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