Post by Lannie on Oct 17, 2007 16:11:31 GMT -5
I swear, sometimes I'm convinced my neighbor just doesn't want me to have a cow. Maybe she's afraid of losing business. Or she wants me to think cow raising is a huge mysterious business that somebody like me shouldn't even be involved in.
She went on and on over the summer about the fact that she didn't think Bandit was pregnant (now, mind you, she's never even SEEN Bandit, so how she knew that I don't have a clue). She told me that pasture breeding is too iffy (which makes no sense at all, because that's how she breeds her cows), and that unless I had her preg checked, she just wasn't going to be pregnant. (Good logic there, huh?) Of course, I know that's silly, and I mostly ignored it until a few of you here said she didn't look pregnant from the pictures I posted, but now I know she is, and when I told the neighbor (she keeps asking), she said, "Oh, that's wonderful. Do you have birthing chains?" I told her no, and now she's convinced I'm going to lose either Bandit or the calf because I have no way of pulling the calf if there's a problem. I have rope. And there IS a vet who's willing to come out if I need him to.
Then this morning she was asking about re-breeding. I'd really like to just say, "I'm sorry, but I don't want to discuss cows with you," but that would be rude and un-neighborly, so I told her that Nels would bring one of his bulls up here for us if we wanted. She went on and on about the dangers. I told her I understood full well about Jersey bulls, and she said it didn't matter - ANY bull was a hazard. Well, from her point of view, I can see that because she has a whole passel of little kids who don't know NOT to get in the pastures. But I think I'm savvy enough to be wary of a bull, Jersey or otherwise, and I told her so. Then she tried a different tack: She said, "Well, I hope Joe doesn't mind having a bunch of half-Jersey calves then." Oh, ARGGGHHHHH!!! For one thing, there's a 5-foot high tensile field fence on 8-foot posts (3 feet is buried) and I really don't think one bull with an available cow is going to be trying to get through that fence. For another thing, Joe breeds his cows to calve in April, so they'd all be bred by the time we'd have the bull here and (hopefully) none of them would be in heat. I suppose there's always the exception, though.
Then of course, when she heard about the trouble with preg-checking Bandit (not from me, from the neighbor that did it) she had to tell me that it was going to be next to impossible for a novice (me) to milk an untrained heifer (Bandit) and it was bound to be a failure.
WHY would she be trying to submarine me like this? I just don't understand. Other than this one subject, she's the nicest person you could ever meet. And she's even nice when she's telling me I'm a total failure even before I start. I just want to pull my hair out!
Everybody has to start SOMETIME, right? So what if I'm starting a little later in life than most people? At least I'm DOING it! I know I shouldn't let her affect me this way, but for some reason I always end up down in the dumps after talking to her. Not a very good way to keep up my positive thinking now, is it?
I guess I just needed to get that out. I actually feel a little better already. Just typing this all out and rereading it makes me realize how silly she's being about this. And how silly I am for getting upset about it.
~Lannie
She went on and on over the summer about the fact that she didn't think Bandit was pregnant (now, mind you, she's never even SEEN Bandit, so how she knew that I don't have a clue). She told me that pasture breeding is too iffy (which makes no sense at all, because that's how she breeds her cows), and that unless I had her preg checked, she just wasn't going to be pregnant. (Good logic there, huh?) Of course, I know that's silly, and I mostly ignored it until a few of you here said she didn't look pregnant from the pictures I posted, but now I know she is, and when I told the neighbor (she keeps asking), she said, "Oh, that's wonderful. Do you have birthing chains?" I told her no, and now she's convinced I'm going to lose either Bandit or the calf because I have no way of pulling the calf if there's a problem. I have rope. And there IS a vet who's willing to come out if I need him to.
Then this morning she was asking about re-breeding. I'd really like to just say, "I'm sorry, but I don't want to discuss cows with you," but that would be rude and un-neighborly, so I told her that Nels would bring one of his bulls up here for us if we wanted. She went on and on about the dangers. I told her I understood full well about Jersey bulls, and she said it didn't matter - ANY bull was a hazard. Well, from her point of view, I can see that because she has a whole passel of little kids who don't know NOT to get in the pastures. But I think I'm savvy enough to be wary of a bull, Jersey or otherwise, and I told her so. Then she tried a different tack: She said, "Well, I hope Joe doesn't mind having a bunch of half-Jersey calves then." Oh, ARGGGHHHHH!!! For one thing, there's a 5-foot high tensile field fence on 8-foot posts (3 feet is buried) and I really don't think one bull with an available cow is going to be trying to get through that fence. For another thing, Joe breeds his cows to calve in April, so they'd all be bred by the time we'd have the bull here and (hopefully) none of them would be in heat. I suppose there's always the exception, though.
Then of course, when she heard about the trouble with preg-checking Bandit (not from me, from the neighbor that did it) she had to tell me that it was going to be next to impossible for a novice (me) to milk an untrained heifer (Bandit) and it was bound to be a failure.
WHY would she be trying to submarine me like this? I just don't understand. Other than this one subject, she's the nicest person you could ever meet. And she's even nice when she's telling me I'm a total failure even before I start. I just want to pull my hair out!
Everybody has to start SOMETIME, right? So what if I'm starting a little later in life than most people? At least I'm DOING it! I know I shouldn't let her affect me this way, but for some reason I always end up down in the dumps after talking to her. Not a very good way to keep up my positive thinking now, is it?
I guess I just needed to get that out. I actually feel a little better already. Just typing this all out and rereading it makes me realize how silly she's being about this. And how silly I am for getting upset about it.
~Lannie