when are we ever going to use this?

When are we ever going to use this?

Do kids in school still say that? Well, here's an example. Let's say that you have a little first calf heifer and she is calving and you realize that the calving ease bull that you bred her to has given her a calf the size of a shetland pony and that that thing (pony calf) is never coming out of this thing (cow vagina) without your help.

So you put your calving chains on the calf's legs. And you could (either) pull with all your might. This might work okay if you are 6'3" and 210 pounds. But if you're 5'2" and 120 pounds, you're not going to do anything but exhaust yourself. So (or) get your 7th physics book out and make yourself a second class lever like you learned about. Attach a rope from the calving chains to a post behind the cow. Now you can lean on the rope with all your weight (effort). The rope will go down some with your force. But by the time that force is applied to the calf (resistance), which is a much shorter distance from the cow (fulcrum) than you are, the force applied will be much greater. You will help the cow get the calf out and be awesome.

And that, dear children, is when you are going to use this.
You can use "pull a calf" in the "give your own example" section on this page:
http://www.schools.utah.gov/curr/science/sciber00/8th/machines/sciber/lever2.htm

it's a start.

Gentle readers, I got a farm! Well, I got to rent a farm! It is small and sweet just up the hill from town. With a huge barn and a small cabin. No running water in the cabin yet, but there is in the barn, so at least the place has the right priorities. "This is God's own country," says the old man who has driven 2 hours to deliver my wood stove.

I have a calf. She is tiny. Her mom was tiny. She was born with her head bent around backwards but ended up okay anyway, so it seemed a shame to put her on the beef truck. One day next week I will put her on a blanket in the back of my Ford Focus and take her home.

I try to imagine cows in the barn. Hay stacks in the fields. Me in the house doing a crossword puzzle after chores. I almost can.

did i post this same picture last year? it's like that movie with the kid who wants a bb gun - it never get's old.

Driving home I see men making hay.
Long windrows stretch out behind tractors.
Undulating stripes of light green and dark green.
Snaking and circling to the horizon.
And of course, I think of my husband.
The smell of silage and diesel and the roar of the mower stretching over the hills at dusk will always remind me of him.
That's why,
With my money from the divorce,
I'm buying a team of horses and putting up all my hay by hand.

It's national dairy month!

Since it's national dairy month, I figured I should post something. Here's some news that's almost a month old!

In early May the National Conference on Interstate Milk Shipments declined to lower the national standard on somatic cell counts in US milk to the EU standard of 400,000 cells per mL. The US secretary of ag - Vilsack supported the lower limit. The vote was 26 to 25. I do not understand why the US dairy industry keeps shooting itself in the foot this way. Where to they think they're gonna sell all the milk they make? *sigh* Fuck commodity agriculture.