October 2, 2009

My husband started his career working with large animal vets.  As a group, they are interesting people - brave, quirky, smart.  It is good to be reminded of this.  I have a meeting today with a large animal vet.  Raspberry appears to have a pox of some sort.  A pox upon her, yes.  So we need to sort that out.  But I am leery.  Knowledge of family cows is nearly dead, gone with the generation before last.  What do vets know about family cows?  What can they know?  They know about factory cows.  They know the attitude of the factory farmer.  They know business.  They know milk pooled in bulk tanks, sterilized, dramatically altered.   None of which is relevant to the old family milch. 

The old vet is on vacation.  So I have to deal with the new vet.  When we were on the phone together I told her there are pox.  She said I should be wearing gloves.  I said the time for gloves was about two weeks past and that I already had the pox upon me.  She actually giggled, then.  She said she didn't know about the zoonotic implications.  Well, that doesn't really inspire confidence, now does it?

So, we fly by the seat of our britches.  Just like homeschooling.  There are no experts.  No one can even tell you exactly how to feed a family cow.  Seriously, you might think there were instructions.  There are no such thing.  The best advice I've gotten, so far, is to experiment and to keep doing what ever seems to work.   And that may be the best lesson, in all of this, for the children.   If something is valuable to you, become your own expert.  Query everywhere, learn all you can, ask for help, but take the responsibility of knowing on yourself.  

Henry is now writing his "own rock riffs, Mom."  Ry is spending hours on the chin-up bar out in the woods.

3 comments:

Mwa said...

Great advice, becoming your own expert.

candyn said...

Sorry to hear about your cow having the pox. Hope she is okay!

Sarah said...

http://matronofhusbandry.wordpress.com/

That woman is amazing. You need help on how to feed a family milk cow in a way that you feel good about, she's your girl.