On Sunday afternoon we had a scout outing with our Den. We went to visit the local University's Research and Teaching Farm. I had always known it was there but had not a clue what they do. Now I do. They have horses, sheep and cows. We got to meet two of their very special 'science' cows. These 2 cows have a canula inserted into them. It is about as big as a frisbee, with two identical sides, kind of put together. In the middle is a plug that can be popped out. One side of the canula is sewn into the cow's hide and the other side of the canula is sewn into the stomach wall. Yep, you guessed it. You pop the ol' plug out and you can see directly into the cow's stomach. Some of the scouts donned shoulder length gloves and reached on in. My boys could not bring themselves to do that, so of course, mom did not want to show them up, so I declined too. Everyone kept saying how warm (it's about 100 degrees inside their stomach) and squishy it was. Just looked like lots of watered down hay. The two cows are so big, 1800 pounds, that a few days before our arrival one of them got stuck in the walkway on the way to the chute. So, the lady showing us around had not fed the cow we saw in about 24 hours. Amazing how much stuff was still in her stomach. There are several different ways these science cows are used. If a rancher has a cow that has some stomach issues (diahrrea), the rancher can bring a thermos to the University farm and get a thermos full of good gut material to take back and inject into his sick cow's stomach. They will also take these 2 science cows, empty out their stomaches, then send them out to pasture with different grains. Then after a few hours, bring them back in to see which grains were preferred. They also use them to test minerals, etc. It was all very interesting. We went and saw the sheep too. They each have a numbered electronic tag in their left ear. Their feed is set up so that it sits on a scale and only one can eat at a time. So, anytime one eats, the number of the animal, the amount eaten and how quickly, all pop up immediately on a computer screen. Here are a few pictures. Here is all the kids standing in the chute. This is where the animal is contained for testing or for them to weigh them before giving meds. Here is a side view of the canula. Here is a kid sticking his hand inside the cow. Here is a close up of the canula. Could not really get a good shot of the cows showing there size.... The only time that B puts on his uniform is for a scout event. So, he does not wear it often. There have been a few times though, either before or after an event, that we were out in public. The comments we get from people when they see his uniform is amazing. Almost similar to what I would expect a military person to receive. So many of the comments are along the lines of 'good for you', 'stick with it', 'what an honor to wear that uniform', 'hope you make Eagle someday', 'takes a special person to wear that uniform'. It makes me proud to see him wearing it. He has decided to continue on next year. I am very glad for this.