Thursday, August 24, 2006

This morning I was delighted when I looked out of
Tyler's bedroom window as I was waking him up.
First I noticed that one of our Jersey cows had a
really big bag and I thought to myself, "Oh she is
gonna deliver any day now." Then I saw a fawn...
only it wasn't a fawn when I looked closer, it was
a sweet little Jersey calf, and a heifer at that.

When I went outside later to water, I was surprised
to find another little red heifer calf. That takes
care of half of our mama cows. And what a relief it
is. Last year we had some major calving problems.
Kent and Billy are in St. Louis and I could not have
handled pulling calves by myself. (Ty is here, but
not during the day.) Last year we had to pull a
900 pound cow up a ramp as she was lying on her
side unable to get up. It was an ordeal of the first
order!

That reminds me of when I was in doing my student
teaching for my Agricultural Education degree. I was
the only female in our teaching block classes. And I
was certainly the only city person in there. I was
definitely out of my element. Don't ask me why I
chose Ag Ed...there is no earthly reason that would
suffice. Mr. Mac, the man I was teaching under,
asked me to do a unit on cows. I told him I couldn't.
He insisted. I insisted right back.

He said, "Listen, all you have to do is teach the material
from the book."

I said, "These guys have cows; they'll know I don't
know what I'm talking about."

He said, "Do it!"

Isaid, "Okay!"

A week or so before I was supposed to start teaching the
unit I leaned over one day during class and whispered
a question to Mr. Mac, "Mr. Mac, what is the difference
between a heifer and a Hereford?"

He said, "How about teaching on beekeeping." So bee-
keeping it was.

If you want to know the difference between a heifer
and a Hereford just ask...I've got it figured out now.

1 comment:

Susannah said...

Great chuckle. I'm getting my aggie education right here, thanks to you!! So you're originally a city girl? Did I read that correctly? If so, no wonder you're stories are so interesting. Perhaps you tell them like a "voyeur."