True, but I used to find it relaxing to gig flounder at night. I don’t even know if that’s still allowed in NC.
There are plenty of ways to relax and get away from the Covid thing. Most involve things I have always enjoyed. Hugging a cow? Not on my list of things I would find relaxing but perhaps the Dutch have different cows from those I used to have to deal with OR the New Years swim has changed their DNA over the years allowing them to bond with bovines in a meaningful way that I am not capable of. Whatever works
Kruidkoek.
That stuff is addictive.
I’m not familiar with the term “gig” a flounder.
When I was young I used to go spearing flounder with my father after sunset or before dawn on an incoming tide. We used acetylene lamps to see the shadow cast by the flounder.
I wouldn’t know where to get calcium carbide now but it sure wouldn’t be the local hardware store.
Gigging=spearing. The gig we used had 3 prongs with angled tips to help keep the fish from wiggling free in theory. Also used for frogs. I have a scar in my foot from an errant shot .
A carbide acetylene generator was my first introduction to cutting steel and explosives. Luckily things have progressed.
It really seems to be a soothing experience. A friend, who is seen in the picture, felt the stress drain from her body when hugging a cow. And the cows also like the contact.
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Espera un minuto. ¿Tienes máquinas para colocar ladrillos y los trabajadores de los ranchos se ven así? Tú ganas, tú ganas. Me mudo a Holanda!
Some may think it’s a joke but it’s real. There’s a thread on here about part-time jobs while on the beach but there’s also volunteering. I helped at a horse rescue ranch near Galveston and after a big animal like a horse that has been abused or neglected regains his trust in humans and rests his head on your shoulder or leans against you, it’s an awesome feeling.
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Lo siento compadre, sostenga sus caballos, lo entendió todo mal. ¡Estos no son trabajadores del rancho, sino clientes que pagan por la experiencia de abrazar vacas!
Same experience with the horses as with the cows. It really works.
Y no hay hombres para abrazar a las mujeres. ¿Pagan vacas por abrazos? Me voy ahora. ¡Holanda me necesita!
Hombre, tienes razón. ¡Será mejor que se apresure porque nos gustan los dólares estadounidenses también para comprar más vacas! Modelo de negocio muy bonito y rentable.
Kind words are good for cows. Especially if they are spoken directly by people standing next to them instead of via a tape recording. A study that examined the influence of speaking and petting on animals has been published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology.
“We know that handling also affects milk production and animal health”, says Annika Lange of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna. “Farmers may be laughed at when they talk to their cows, but it really works.”
In the study, the researchers showed that cows relaxed when they were petted and heard a soft voice. They stretched their necks in pleasure, closed their eyes, twitched their ears, and their heartbeat was slower. The relaxation effect was more pronounced when the voice came directly from the person next to them rather than from a speaker on the examiner’s body. A follow-up study examining the effect of speech without contact is still ongoing.
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I remember reading long ago that piping Mozart into the cow barns increased their milk production.
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This I have seen in practice. When I got the bright idea to start raising day old dairy calves I spent a lot of time at a couple of dairy farms. Both had classical music playing in their milking barns. The farm managers said they got a fractional amount more pounds of milk when playing soothing music. It didn’t cost a thing, paid off in more milk and made the workers appear more cultured.
The fast majority of milking sheds have sound systems, perhaps our cows are not as cultured as country and western music seems to be preferred.
There is one shed in our area with robotic milking machines and that plays classical music but very softly. Not surprisingly as they found the majority of cows preferred to be milked around midnight. The cows get a small feed of molasses while being milked and get a back rub with a rolling brush on exiting the machine.
Heavy metal would probably cause them to cop bad attitudes and kick the machines.
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The cows or those who do the milking??
(Since where they use robotic milking machines plays Classical music the answer is self-evident)
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On a cold morning with a hard frost at 04:00 with a coffee a distant memory with the back end of a cow to look at in a herringbone shed I doubt whether anyone is ready for culture. In rotary shed the cows enter and leave the stalls by themselves, the teats are washed automatically and the single milker puts the cups on, the cups remove themselves on conclusion of milking and the cows output is recorded electronically. The music plays outside the shed where an automatic gate keeps the cows moving toward the shed. There is too much noise in the shed to hear the music.
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Hugging a dog also seems to work as does hugging a people, assuming they are not vicious.
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