Sheep vs. Cows

Wow I swear one of these days I will post something of substance besides livestock videos. Until then...

Sheep Vs Cows - Funny home videos are a click away

Grass Fed Beef

It's a hard sell on grass fed beef, but a co-worker recommended the website and the facts seem to jive with everything else I've seen on cows and grass.

http://products.mercola.com/produce/grass-fed-beef/

And I'd like to add that if you live in Michigan, I've got a beef ready to go so it's not as hard to come by as the article indicates. :-p

Why I Farm

http://www.fb.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/28/why_do_i_farm

Feelin' this farmer this morning, especially after getting the skidsteer stuck last night and a live calf born in less than fifteen minutes on Tuesday. Enjoy!

Rain, 'Riting, and GMAT 'Rithmatic. Arg!

Raining here today. A nice break from the oppressive summer heat. Momma J even got Dad to put in an air conditioner in the bedroom. Well, actually J and I put it in, Dad just dealt with it. The humidity is still awful, but that’s summer in Michigan. One of these days we’re all going to have gills again, I swear.

Working on book reviews, my WIP, and other writing-related projects this morning, so not even out of jammies yet. One of my fav parts about the writer thing. Looking to get my grad school ap off today or tomorrow and start that rolling. One of the best parts about the CDM program at SVSU is students can work for clients while in school, so it’s encouraged to make money and study at the same time. What’s not great about that?

Took a walk through the cows yesterday and everybody (save the big red bitch, but that’s typical) is looking heavy in calf. Essential, my oldest cow, and a heifer that’s about a half-pint short of a full-load (I blame her horns since they probably put undue pressure on her brain) are looking the closest, but a few others look a few weeks out as well. It’s gonna get crazy around here, I tell you what. Next year I hope to have the girls synchronized to squeeze calving into a predetermined weekend instead of having calving spread from “sometime” in “early August” to “maybe sometime around late October.” But that was how it worked out this year so deal with it and move on. It’s the farmer way. :-)

This isn't one of mine, by the way. Though the horns are getting close, or at least J and his arm think so...
http://www.gimmecorn.com/cow-tongue-biggest.html

Cow Facts and Kryptonite

On average, 350 squirts are needed from milking a cow to make a gallon of milk.

No wonder our hands cramp, lol.

Heard a really interesting webinar yesterday with Peter Shankman from HARO as the key speaker. For those of you not familiar with HARO, it’s Help A Reporter Out, an email that comes three times daily with listings from reporters all over looking for experts, laypeople, quotes, ect on various topics. Pretty fun. Anyway, the webinar covered “How Self-Promotion Will Change the World.” Pretty big claim. But after listening to the discussion, it makes perfect sense. If you help others more than you help yourself, it’s not self-promotion. It’s getting others to do your self-promoting for you because they like your product or brand. And building a brand or product with an unselfish, positive image these days is far more ambitious and effective than just ranting on your soapbox collection of social media sites.

You can find Peter Shankman at http://shankman.com/ or on twitter under skydiver. You can sign up for HARO at http://www.helpareporter.com/.

What was most surprising about the webinar and positive self-promotion is that the idea actually has some root in Buddhism, at least from what I can connect to what I read in “The Art of Happiness” by the Dalai Lama. Being happy and bringing happiness both involve doing for others and doing outside of yourself. We are a very me-centric culture. What if we thought about others before ourselves and spent more time analyzing how our branding, how our self-promotion, could help others rather than glorify us? What kind of a world would that be?

Probably still one where I think it’s cool that a cow can sleep standing up. :p Again, facts courtesy of http://www.funshun.com/amazing-facts/cow-animal-facts2.html. Happy day all, and fingers crossed for upcoming interviews!