The Benefit of Having Animals, and Cow 'Sorting'
Mates,
Appropos of OT season, a buddy sent me an article about having livestock or pets when younger, helping to deal with stress better, later in life. I have linked the article below, but some quotes are here:
German researchers recruited men under 40 whose childhoods fit one of two starkly different patterns. Either they had spent the years before they turned 15 in a city of more than 100,000 people and had never had a pet in their childhood home. Or, they spent those years on a farm that raised livestock.
And some of the findings include this:
In their responses to questionnaires as well as in measures of acute physical stress, the study's 20 country boys clearly felt the heat of the social challenge more strongly. Their levels of cortisol — a "fight or flight" hormone — spiked higher, and they reported higher levels of anxiety. But the young men who had grown up petless in big cities showed a more sustained immune response to the social challenge.
However, before anyone gets a too idealized notion of rural living, and farming in particular, lets talk 'Cow Sorting'. This is what you do when you are 'sorting' or dividing up a herd, generally getting ready to keep some, take others to market and/or maybe put some in one field or another. Yesterday's cow sorting with the neighbor included carrying a steel gate around to deflect cows, fortunately sufficient to defend against a spooked bull who weighs a literal ton, and to encourage many other smaller critters (700-1200 lbs) to go one way or another in tight quarters. All of this in an ankle deep soup of cow scat and lots of rain water.
Cow sorting led to 'cow chasing' this morning, as one steer in particular thought he was Cool Hand Luke and escaped. He is back after quite a rodeo involving all the sons, a tractor, the neighbor, a gator, some hockey sticks, etc. But that's not a story you'd be interested in.
Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-pets-cities-stress-20180501-story.html
So my questions to you are:
1. Did you grow up with animals, livestock, farming at all
2. Think the study, in general, might be accurate?
XM
Heck yes, I try to communicate to people as much as possible how much we have lost "nature" and "wilderness".
From medical studies, to psychology, to neuroscience, they all show how just being in natural environments helps our hormonal, immune, and psychological systems (and conversely how cities literally harm them).
Human beings have been domesticating animals for over 10,000 years.
Also we've lived in the agricultural world (non-industrial) world for over 80,000 years.
Those habits, affinities and skills don't just change overnight.
And modernity is so freaking weird, each decade brings massive upheaval of old ways.
We're still anatomically modern humans which have been around for 200-300k years (believe it or not), so things like nature, animals, "the outdoors" (lol, absurd when you really think about it), and exercise (also absurd when you think about it), are so natural to our well-being.
Modern life has absolutely removed us from much of our connection with nature (and of course, helped us avoid much of the negatives of the natural world as well--but we've clearly thrown out the baby with the bathwater).
You skipped the part that makes the rural setting seem like a benefit: even though the rural group spiked cortisol higher than the city boys, "...this response in the country boys waned after five minutes, [while] the city boys' immune systems stayed on high alert for at least two hours. And the urbanites were less able to tamp down their stress-related inflammatory response with the release of anti-inflammatory chemicals."
This is crucial - I thought the first part made the rural group seem more reactionary and likely to do something stupid when under pressure, but the second part implies that they also get past it quicker.
I think that growing up in a rural setting and experiencing what some would incorrectly call the simpler life is a big part of the equation. I don't have an answer for this, or even an opinion after growing up in the city, but I don't think it can be ignored.
On a personal note, I was in the Michigan Band and went on a road trip my freshman year to Wisconsin. We went a day early and performed at the Whitewater High School game on Friday evening. It was freaking cold and there were more of us in the band than at the game. Afterwards, the high school band parents split us up and we stayed at local houses for the evening. I and a few others stayed at a dairy farm. The farmer asked if we wanted to get up early and help milk the cows. My fellow bandmates responded with a quick, "Hell no!" and i reluctantly went along. I regret that decision to this day. I still haven't experienced a dairy farm and wish I had added that exent to my life.
you know the saying, see the mother, marry the daughter. in your case though, fugitive, it was a slightly different: murder the daughter....
surprised your in0laws still visit.
Not him, his brother-in-law is the one armed guy.
I love dogs but just can’t have them or cats in the house due to family members with pretty bad allergies.
If I had all the money in the world and still had to pick an occupation it would probably be farming. Loved being around it when I was a kid and miss it as an adult.
we've got work for you. could've used your help yesterday and today, too. cow sorting can be, uhm, exhilirating if the critters get skittish.
I grew up with a few cows, chickens and rabbits, and pigs. Just a hobby farm. I thought I hated it, but as an adult, I've ended up raising pygmy goats (keeping two to three dozen at a time), plus the usual farm dogs and cats -- and one orphaned pygmy goat who is now a pet. It was a pretty good supplement to the homeschooling curriculum.
Oh, and XM, I love your farming stories. You should do a diary just of those adventures. I would read it. :-)
yesterday with the poop soup and the skittish critters. the bull was skittish too, but fortunately not mean. he took my 'suggestion' with the metal gate, which was really good. if not, it could've gotten ugly (and messy).
also, what do you do with the pygmy goats? wouldn't they all basically be pets? can you eat/milk/fur them?
We sell them, but only occasionally as pets, because we don't remove the horns. Most of them actually are sold for meat; there's a small but very appreciative middle-Eastern community that provides regular business. A few are sold for milk, and we've got a man coming to look at a couple of males next week for breeding.
When I refer to the orphaned kid as a "pet", I mean that she was bottle raised in the living room, sleeping in a playpen, and she considers us her parents. She won't be sold.
I remember slogging through the manure as a child in boots that were too big, rounding up cows who didn't want to go where they were directed. And I remember using the dry patties as bases when we played baseball. You don't slide into home!
especially, don't slide head first.
I'm in a similar urban environment and I have a subset of your doomsday set-up. Know of any good online resources for that type of thing (city survivalism)?
I can't just let your comment stand. I hesitate to get into this discussion, but sometimes remaining silent is wrong.
I'm referring to what you said about being an "urban survivalist", and your admitted "disassociative sociopathy". You actually seem to imply that city folks are missing out, or at least "clueless" because they aren't sociopaths. Wow.
By self-description, you are a sociopath; by your later statements, you sound possibly psychopathic as well.
What you implied you might do in an event "comparable to Ferguson or Baltimore" is terribly disturbing. Good gracious, man - it's NOT cool to say you have the willpower to blow away 500 human beings! Seriously, you need help.
Based on an admittedly less-than thorough search, it appears 1 person died in Ferguson, and 0 in Baltimore attributed to the uprising/riots (excluding Gray/Brown, of course). Yes, there were injuries (14 in Ferguson, many more in Baltimore, including 20 police officers) and of course property damage, looting and arson.
Murdering 500 people is an entirely different, horrific magnitude of violence.
Which leads me to your contradictory, very disturbing statements "I developed a deep and genuine appreciation for all life forms", and "I have the ability, expertise, and willpower to mow down 500+ criminal arsonists or other invaders within minutes, and then to sleep soundly..." So, you'll hesitate to harm a pig, but have no qualms about murdering people you deem to be "criminals or invaders".
Unless this was just internet tough-guy talk, you, sir, are ill. It's frightening that a person with your state of mind has a "small arsenal". For the sake of everyone in Chicago (including many of my friends and family), please get help.
I'm sincerely not trying to pick a fight. Your words are pretty scary.
I too would like to hear an explanation for why Esterhaus thinks responding to a "Ferguson style" riot or insurrection with overwhelming deadly force is appropriate.
Who's downvoting??
I have the ability, expertise and willpower to mow down 500+ criminal arsonists or other invaders within minutes and then to sleep soundly after enjoying a beer or two."
I could get mad at my chickens if I tried.
It would be awful if you choked them.
I've always wanted a hippo
I was thinking hippo because he's stuck at the hip!
This could be a whole new OT thread: MGoDad Jokes.
Groaners that are guaranteed to embarrass your teenage daughter in front of her friends.
Like, "When it comes to cow tipping, does the standard 15% apply?"
I'll show myself out.
I grew up on a farm/ranch. I am way more relaxed in the country than I am in any town or city. I'm in Fargo now but I lived in Phoenix. Way too chaotic. I do however still help my old man in the spring with his baby calves and getting the moms and babies out to the green grass in a different plot of land or pasture as we call it. It's pretty fun seeing the little ones running around on a day like today. Watching them battle eachother in the sun. I always said I'd never go back but I cant imagine liking a big city or bigger town with all of the creeps and assholes for the rest of my life. People aren't meant to be crowded like that in my opinion. That being said, if you have a thousand acres of farmland paid for and some grassland for cattle or horses, there's no better life than that to grow old with. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish my Bud Light!
How are those community farms doing in Detroit?
representative picture. not the one we used.