2 #4
but without extra staff to change the residents more often; it’s poorly thought out. In fact, it’s one of the first things inspectors check—my diaper purchase invoices and my reserve stock. As a result, I’ve already stashed away a few hundred surplus diapers to make it look like they’ve been used."
Louane is delighted; this is exactly what she had hoped for.
Louane: "Would you be willing to sell them to me?"
Soazig: "I’d be happy to, but I can’t invoice you for them; that might be tricky for your accounting."
Louane: "That’s not a problem; it’s just a special offer for my clients. I can pay you in cash, and I don’t need an invoice."
Soazig immediately understands what she means.
Soazig: "In that case, I suggest I let you have them for fifty percent of my purchase price. How many do you need?"
Louane: "For now, I’d need ten cartons if possible, but my needs might grow as my business expands. I’m counting on this gesture to build client loyalty, and I like the idea of supporting local producers."
Soazig: "That’s exactly my thinking. I have about a hundred cartons in my hidden stock, and the inventory grows by at least eight cartons a week, so I’ll have plenty to supply you."
Soazig invites Louane to follow her to her office; she turns on her computer and prints out a page, then hands it to Louane.
Soazig: "This is a copy of my latest invoice." "The list price is €1.20 per unit, excluding tax. Given the volume I order, I get them for €1 each. So, you can have them for €0.50, if that works for you."
Louane: "That’s perfect. They come in boxes of 20 diapers, so that works out to €10 per box. For 10 boxes, that’s exactly €100."
Louane takes her wallet out of her bag and lays down five €20 notes, which Soazig puts away in her desk drawer.
Soazig: "It’s a deal. Follow me—you can pull your van into the basement, and we’ll load up your boxes."
Fifteen minutes later, Louane is on the road back from the farm, delighted to have secured a supply of diapers discreetly and at such a great price.
She is right on time for the 4:00 PM bottle-feeding.
The big news of the day is that these two cows will be able to go out into the meadow for the first time.
Gwendal has extended the barn’s central aisle using large, temporary wooden panels; behind them, he is working on the wash area and the future stalls.
The aisle leads to the shed at the edge of the woods, which serves as an exit airlock.
A ten-meter stretch of very soft artificial turf connects to the natural grass of the meadow.
A beautiful one-hectare pasture, shaded by about a dozen apple trees, awaits Louane’s herd.
For now, she only has Sarah and Alma, but more arrivals are expected.
After her two cows have finished their grain-filled bottles, Louane enters Sarah’s stall.
She puts on the halter—complete with a bit in the mouth—and then guides her out of the stall using her stick.
The young cow’s face registers a look of surprise.
It is neither changing time nor milking time; she seems a bit bewildered and apprehensive.
Louane steers her to the right. The door at the far end of the aisle is open, and the rest of the long corridor is illuminated for Sarah’s passage.
She moves forward on all fours, spurred on by light taps of the stick on her thighs whenever she hesitates to advance along this unfamiliar corridor.
Louane has opened both the inner and outer doors of the shed, ensuring there are no obstacles to Sarah’s progress outside.
Sarah pauses briefly at the shed exit, then continues along the artificial turf path before stepping into the meadow.
Louane leaves her there alone, having watched her turn her head this way and that to explore her new surroundings.
Behind Sarah lie the small wood and the hill topped by the farmhouse; to her right and straight ahead stand tall, dense hedges; to her left is the fence separating this meadow from the one where Gwendal’s herd is kept.
Louane turns back to fetch Alma and bring her into the meadow as well.
She has come prepared with a hat, a deckchair, and a book to keep an eye on her cows during this first outing.
The two cows wander away from her, though they cannot communicate with one another due to the halters—and, more importantly, the bits—in their mouths.
They have little way to confer beyond a few movements of their front legs.
Louane watches them move toward the far end of the meadow, then stop before the three-strand electric fence blocking their path.
They are certainly not country girls, yet they clearly know the wires are live and best left untouched.
They try to moo, but the bits in their mouths prevent it, resulting in nothing more than feeble sounds.
Their movement on all fours is more confident than when they first arrived in the barn; here, they enjoy greater freedom of movement across this vast expanse of grass, a far cry from the barn’s narrow corridor.
Their gait remains somewhat awkward, however, with their rumps—well-covered by diapers—swaying as they walk.
The two cows evidently decide to circle the entire meadow, as if looking for a weak spot in the perimeter.
The electric fence is continuous, broken only on either side of the small shed.
The hedges directly behind are tall and thick with brambles—completely impassable without a wide plank or a ladder to try and flatten them.
The wire-mesh fence separating the two meadows stands two meters high, supported by sturdy wooden posts spaced every two meters; Gwendal has done a fine job.
Beyond the meadow lie the farm’s fields; there are no roads or hiking trails, as it is private property.
Aside from the small copse adjoining the farmhouse, there is no woodland on the property to attract mushroom pickers or hunters in search of game.
Louane is therefore at ease regarding the privacy of her herd and her ability to keep it hidden from prying neighbors.
After circling the large meadow, the two cows settled down side by side, leaning against the trunk of an apple tree in the shade of its foliage.
With both the inner and outer doors left open, Louane can faintly hear the sounds of Gwendal’s tools as he works in the barn.
He promised Louane the washroom would be finished by this evening.
That works out well, since her two cows will be frolicking for part of the afternoon and will need a good shower.
Gwendal showed the plans of the bathroom to Louane who approved them.
It is a room close to the changing room except that it is entirely tiled with a water drain on the floor in the center of the room.
The shower table is similar to the changing table except that it has a hard plastic top with a largely perforated surface to allow water to drain.
Handcuffs at the four corners of the table to be able to immobilize the hind legs once the bottom of the suit has been removed, then one front leg then the other when removing the front legs of the suit.
The goal is to always have two minimum safety points when handling the cow.
Once the diaper is removed and the cow is naked, Louane will have a shower attached to the ceiling and hung above the table with which she can wet her cow.
With a bath flower and soap she can wash it before rinsing it.
Gwendal even went so far as to install a hot air blower above the table to automatically dry the cow, freeing Louane to do another task in the meantime.
A message on Louane's cell phone, accompanied by the faint sound of a blower coming from the shed, Gwendal tells him that the bathroom is ready and that he is finishing the blower test.
Louane is delighted to have a genius handyman in Gwendal.
She observes her two cows who seem to want to continue their exploration of the meadow after their break at the foot of the tree.
In the meadow next door appear the cows from Gwendal's herd who don't seem any more curious than that to discover their new neighbors.
Louane continues reading, taking advantage of a little moment for herself, she has given herself until 6:45 p.m. before bringing her cows into the stable so that they have time to enjoy their first outside outing before milking.
At 6:45 p.m., Louane gets up from her deckchair and takes her stick to go look for her cows.
They return to the stable without too much difficulty.
Louane can see that their udders are heavy with milk and that their teats are protruding under their overalls.
Sarah is no longer too reluctant to milk, certainly happy to be relieved twice a day from the pressure in her udders.
It’s less obvious at the moment for Alma.
As it is Sarah who enters the stable first and Alma follows her, it is she who Louane directs towards her stall, while she brings Alma back to her stall as she passes in front.
Once Sarah is in place and tied up in her box, Louane goes to look for Alma and installs her in the box adjoining Sarah's, she releases the udders of her two cows and applies the milkers to Sarah's two udders before doing the same with those of Alma.
When the milking is finished, Louane first takes Alma back to the stall before returning to pick up Sarah.
She accompanies her cow to the new bathroom.
She puts her on the shower table as she would have put her on the changing table.
According to the elaborate protocol, she removes the suit from the hind legs before attaching them to the table with handcuffs then she pulls the suit back up until she takes off her right front legs then attaches it too to finish with the left front leg.
She removes Sarah's halter as well as her leather collar so as not to get them wet.
She runs her tongue over her snout, her mouth certainly sore from having had a bit in her mouth for part of the afternoon.
Louane then removes her diaper then takes the shower suspended above the table and generously waters her cow.
She positions herself at the head of the table and sprays her cow then with a bath flower and liquid soap soaps her completely.
She insists on the crotch, the pubic hair of which she shaved the day after Sarah's arrival to be able to better clean and cream her penis.
Louane then rinses Sarah thoroughly before starting the blower to dry her.