Think Think Think

[ladysprite]

The downside of being terminally tired is never quite having the energy to write anything serious here.

Today was a group outing to Plimoth Plantation. I've never been there before, which is fairly ridiculous of me considering both how nearby and how fascinating it is - I'll have to go back when it's warmer and sunnier, and spend much more time going over all the tiny details and immersing myself in the surroundings. The one detail that hit me today, though, more than anything else, was the realization that I miss farm work.

That's a horribly silly and self-indulgent statement, I know, but it's true. I never really set foot near a farm before I was in vet school, and I started my senior year with less than no idea of how to handle anything that wasn't a housepet, but none of that stopped me from having ludicrous amounts of fun in my Food Animal rotations. When I talk about them, most of what I tell are the wacky stories - cow-surfing, wrestling cattle trying to pass stomach tubes, explosions and messes and exahustion - but I'll admit that that's mostly because they're the best for tale-telling. The day-to-day stuff wasn't nearly as interesting, and the uglier parts were ugly in non-entertaining-to-a-mainstream-audience ways.

I know also that most of the fun of farm work for me was knowing that it wasn't going to be part of my long-term career. I got to try a lot of new and interesting techniques without having to worry about perfecting them or permanently internalizing all the data. It was like playing around in an area of a park that you're not usually allowed into, a little vacation from small animal medicine with no long-term commitment issues. If I had to do it every day, it would actually be a lot more like work.

I'm more than happy in small-animal land for my permanent career. I like having individual patients instead of units of production, and I like having my treatments driven by care instead of efficiency. I don't really miss the llamas, and goodness knows I'll be happiest if I never work on another horse again. But.... I never in my life thought I'd say this, but sometimes I kind of miss the goats and sheep and cows.

Comments

[wren13.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I really was planning on doing ruminant medicine, but my health intervened.
I like cows. Really.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

When I talk about them, most of what I tell are the wacky stories - cow-surfing

Is it inappropriate to shout "Cowabunga" while cow-surfing?

[new-man.livejournal.com]

First...

The one detail that hit me today, though, more than anything else, was the realization that I miss farm work.

That's a horribly silly and self-indulgent statement, I know, but it's true.

No to both. It'd be horribly silly if I said it, because I've never done farmwork. And there's absolutely nothing self-indulgent about it. You like what you like, regardless of whether you've done it once or 100 times, for love, money, or school.

That being said, your schedule is flexible enough these days that you might want to volunteer at one of the local farms. Boston has a surprising number of small farms within easy reach, many of which have educational or "higher" purposes (organic, non-GMO, free range, farming, etc.). You also might want to contact the Franklin Park Zoo, which has a farm section, as well as exotics.

[tafkad.livejournal.com]

Suddenly getting an image of ladysprite playing "Death TETRIS" with cows and chickens.

[mermaidlady]

Funny-eyed goats! Vexed cows!