Porch Sitting

Today I spent a about half an hour on my stoop watching the new born cows chase each other. First of all sitting on my porch is one of my favorite hobbies, especially since it is too hot in my kiln of a room. Second, new born cows are surprisingly playful and entertaining. For some reason I thought they would be more like the adult cows that only move for shade, food or water and occasionally to avoid people. No, these calves have been tearing around the yard at a pretty good clip just because they can I suppose. Definitely foreign enough to me seeing playful cows to justify an extended viewing. Unfortunately for me, these cows will get tired of running and figure out the good life is chewing some cud next to a tree. Hopefully not for a while though.

As I was watching these young cows, I was reminded of an audiobook I just recently finished called “All Creatures Great and Small” which frequently talked about birthing cows more than I thought I would ever hear about. By the end I was convinced that unless some human was guiding the process, cows just couldn't give birth anymore without the mother dying or something else awful happening. Of course this is not the case, just a little bias with the selection of stories. A completely uneventful, unaided calving wouldn't make the cut as an interesting veterinary tale. I would think at least, this is all coming from my complete lack of any farm or veterinary knowledge whatsoever.

I have often thought that most of the animals around here get by pretty well without much human intervention. On the other hand I am sure there are plenty of problems I don't know about, all sorts of lost livestock which means lost money which could have been prevented. I am sure that a rural vet would have his or her fill of business out here if the people ever decided to take their collection of cows, goats, chickens, sheep, donkeys, and horses to the next level. These are the sort of thoughts I have when porch sitting. How many times have I talked about cows on this blog?

Holy cow! The one on the right is licking inside its nostril!
Socks and Underwear: Porch Sitting

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Porch Sitting

Today I spent a about half an hour on my stoop watching the new born cows chase each other. First of all sitting on my porch is one of my favorite hobbies, especially since it is too hot in my kiln of a room. Second, new born cows are surprisingly playful and entertaining. For some reason I thought they would be more like the adult cows that only move for shade, food or water and occasionally to avoid people. No, these calves have been tearing around the yard at a pretty good clip just because they can I suppose. Definitely foreign enough to me seeing playful cows to justify an extended viewing. Unfortunately for me, these cows will get tired of running and figure out the good life is chewing some cud next to a tree. Hopefully not for a while though.

As I was watching these young cows, I was reminded of an audiobook I just recently finished called “All Creatures Great and Small” which frequently talked about birthing cows more than I thought I would ever hear about. By the end I was convinced that unless some human was guiding the process, cows just couldn't give birth anymore without the mother dying or something else awful happening. Of course this is not the case, just a little bias with the selection of stories. A completely uneventful, unaided calving wouldn't make the cut as an interesting veterinary tale. I would think at least, this is all coming from my complete lack of any farm or veterinary knowledge whatsoever.

I have often thought that most of the animals around here get by pretty well without much human intervention. On the other hand I am sure there are plenty of problems I don't know about, all sorts of lost livestock which means lost money which could have been prevented. I am sure that a rural vet would have his or her fill of business out here if the people ever decided to take their collection of cows, goats, chickens, sheep, donkeys, and horses to the next level. These are the sort of thoughts I have when porch sitting. How many times have I talked about cows on this blog?

Holy cow! The one on the right is licking inside its nostril!

6 Comments:

Blogger Ryan said...

Whoo audiobooks! From the way things go for the animals at my site, I reckon they survive okay without much management, but the random casualties are immense.

Though I did hear that Rinderpest was declared unofficially eradicated last month. The cows have that going for them.

November 3, 2010 at 10:10 PM  
Blogger Noah Prescott said...

Yeah I am sure there are plenty of animals falling by the wayside. Where are all the bodies though, is your site strewn with animal carcasses or what? I find it hard to believe that they get buried.

I had to look up Rinderpest and that is pretty great. Let's hope that the anti-vaccination crowd doesn't get to the cows too!

November 3, 2010 at 10:45 PM  
Blogger Ryan said...

The corpses go in the pit toilet, or they get et by the cat.

Yeah, I can just imagine Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey out there forming a human blockade to protect the sheep. Though how would you know if a sheep was autistic? Is there some kind of sheep Asberger's syndrome?

These are the questions that kept me out of the really good schools.

November 4, 2010 at 11:38 AM  
Blogger Noah Prescott said...

Oh good lord, that pit toilet must be even more putrid than most.

Well the best way is for the sheep mother to be an indigo ewe that can sense this sort of thing about its offspring. Now we just need to learn how to communicate with the sheep. I think crystals will play heavily in the solution.

And easy man, don't let the other Reedies hear you talking about your school like that.

November 4, 2010 at 11:59 AM  
Blogger thesixkillerlibrarian said...

The only 2 animal carcasses i have ever seen were: 1)the dead cow in marapyane. I would run past that thing every afternoon and tell my host mom it was still there. "how!" she would exclaim, taking at least a week for me to figure out she wasn't asking a question, and 2)just last week, i was walking home to my village from watching a crazy terrorist movie with john travolta at jackie's place, and laying at the edge of the village entrance was a half eaten something. Goat or sheep/goat, couldn't really tell cause the upper half area was gone. Do you guys have those half goats in your villages? I didn't know sheep and goats could interbreed like that. Probably sterile, though. My friend Tshepo helps farmers vaccinate their animals. Now i am gonna ask if she has ever been interrupted on the job due to protests. I enjoy socks and underwear

November 6, 2010 at 5:31 AM  
Blogger Noah Prescott said...

1) I never heard that story and that is hilarious. Ao, wena!

2) I was quite skeptical about the possibility of a sheep-goat hybrid but apparently it has some reported cases. I have not seen any but am quite curious now.

As to what killed the poor beast. You may be dealing with the first documented case of an African Chupacabra. Do you realize how rare it is for an African Chupacabra to attack a half sheep-half goat?! I smell an income generating project, cryptozoological tourism.

November 6, 2010 at 11:58 AM  

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