So Sayeth the Nabobs

So this is what’s on the front page of Science Daily today (and you should check it out for yourself):

“Although preliminary, this study provides the first quantitative study of the effects of employees’ pet dogs in the workplace setting on employee stress, job satisfaction, support and commitment,” said principal investigator Randolph T. Barker, Ph.D., professor of management in the VCU School of Business.

“Dogs in the workplace can make a positive difference,” he said. “The differences in perceived stress between days the dog was present and absent were significant. The employees as a whole had higher job satisfaction than industry norms.”

I think I will withhold comment on this very illuminating investigation.  Except to wonder aloud why the honorable-Dr.-Professor-Mr. Barker forgot to examine his own underlying assumption that workplaces are about reducing stress and increasing job satisfaction.  Or even care the slightest twit about it.  Do you feel your boss is concerned about your stress level?

I don’t have a boss-as-such right now.  My students are my bosses in a sense, and I feel very stressed out about grading as many as 32 papers in a week.  Does that not sound like a lot?  Don’t make me defend myself! It’s A LOT.  I also have “problem” students. Every semester, without fail.  But I have had authentic-Grade- A-ground-chuck bosses in the past (some with loads of pink slime) and even the best ones — the ones I got a long with swimmingly — did not seem too concerned with whether I felt supported.  Nor did I expect them to.  It’s called a WORKPLACE because you go there to fulfill OTHER people’s needs.

In our place and time, we all work for the man.  And I think I’ve come to a shocking insight recently:  even the man works for the man.  No one escapes.

A N Y H O O….,

I had some outstanding questions in the last post from a curly-haired chick out in California.  I thought I might answer them and then ask you, dear reader, if you have any other farm questions you’d like to pose.

Question #1: Why are there such huge tits on the one sheep who is being shorn in the photo?  Do you use them for sheep’s milk gorgonzola?

Answer:  That one (female sheep are called EWES) has a lamb.  And no we do not make sheep cheese.  Or any other kind of cheese.  Though we do eat a lot of cheese.  The cheese-making process is quite complex and although there are sheep dairies in Vermont,  they usually have quite a few sheep. Like a hundred at least. Bram actually once worked on a sheep dairy!  Can you believe it.  And they sold the milk directly to a high-end artisan cheese maker.  Our sheep are strictly for eating grass, crapping all over our fields (fertilizing, that is), and being cute for the first 6 months of life.

Question #2:  Does the shearer-guy keep the wool as his fee?

Answer:  No.  He charges 9 dollars per sheep for shearing.  Sounds cheap but if you had 300 sheep (the horror!) it would add up pretty quickly.  We give the wool to the woman who helps us with our animals.  I’ll introduce her eventually.  M. is incredibly crafty and handy.  Last year she took the wool, cleaned it, spun it and make things with it including an adorable little christmas ornament for us!.  She knows how to ferment her own beer, can vegetables, grow her own veggies, keep her own chickens, slaughter a cow, make a cow bone into a tool…. It’s pretty amazing.  She has big plans for this wool.  If you’d like some next year, let us know now, but I have to tell you that it’s not easy to process wool and getting it pre-process would be pretty disgusting.

Question #3:  Do you shear the lambs too?

Answer:  No, the lambs don’t have enough wool to get sheared.   Want to hear something funny about lambs?  One they are introduced to one another, they suddenly go into play mode.  Like puppies.  Before they know of their friends’ existence, they’re very serious.

Question #4:  Did you keep the black fleece?

Answer:  Already gave it away, but it’s gorgeous.  If you want some next year, however, it’s yours.  I can get M. to show me how to process it.  By this I mean, clean it.  I know the first step, odd as it may sound, is to leave it out in the sun and rain for several weeks and occasionally brush it during that time.  You CANNOT put it in the washer or that will be the end of the washer PRONTO.  Sheep wool has this wonderful oil in it that makes your skin feel soft and hydrated but your Maytag can’t cope with it.

Please submit other questions.  Tomorrow, I’ll show you a picture of a goose egg.