Can I become a cow whisperer? And will that make me a better mother?  Halter breaking calves is one of my new favorite hobbies.  (We'll call it a hobby right up until I get paid for it, one day.)  And I can't help but notice, no matter which way I turn, I end up in the education industry.  And there is a lovely layering of parallel between the calves and the children and teaching the calves and teaching the children and teaching the children about calves, which ends up also being a metaphor for teaching the children about life.  

I hear Ralf Moody in my head as I work.  "Go slowly with cattle.  Be calm.  Don't hurry 'em." 

Yesterday I worked alone in the barn yard cleaning out the huge water trough.  I upended it, got on my hands and knees, and used big handfuls of hay to scrub off the algae.   Raspberry stood next to me with her ponderous head inside the tank, next to mine.   I scrubbed.  She slurped.  Little Red danced away and back, carefully watching both of us.