A Lesson in Cow Tipping

"She said, 'we're going cow tipping,' and I said, I don't think so."

• Corrie Norman
  

A Lesson in Cow Tipping

I spent the day repairing the entire west side of my fence because it had become pretty beaten down. Horses can do that over the years. When it was finished I stepped back and admired it. It was back in good condition and I felt great satisfaction in the work. But that satisfaction didn't last more than two days!

I answered my phone about 9:30 at night and the words spoken by the voice on the other end washed all of my satisfaction away like pouring spring rain. It was my neighbor John telling me that my cow, The Pillsbury Dough Girl, had walked through the South fence I shared with him.

He assured me that my cow was fine in kind tones and we discussed a plan to get her back home. We knew it would be a challenge since John has four steers and separating my cow would be more than a two person job. We estimated that it would take at least seven or eight people to get it done so the two of us started counting up the family members we had at home. We were short! My experience in getting a cow herded easily, without the right amount of help, is dismal at best so I began to think of who could help.

I immediately thought of my friends at Alpine Academy and placed a call to my friend Rob to ask for help. He was kind and gracious, as usual, and agreed to bring a few of his students over to help. Everything was going to be just fine! I would receive all the help I needed and the students would be able to participate in a common rural activity as an enhanced community experience.

When the day arrived, I went over to meet Rob and his students and they came over to my house. There were about fourteen of us in total so I had everyone gather in a circle so we could discuss strategy. Then we crossed the fence, spread out in a human chain and in no time had my cow back at home. It was a great success! I couldn't have gotten it all done without their help! But that's not the best part of the story!

Later in the week I was talking with Corrie Norman, Director of Operations for Alpine Academy, and she shared some additional information with me. Before we moved the cow one of the girls came up to her and told her that they were going to go "cow tipping" with me. As you can imagine Corrie was quite surprised because cow tipping is not generally thought of as a positive activity by people who own cows. And, since Corrie knows me pretty well she said, "I don't think so!"

That caused her to follow up with Rob to see what the activity planned really was. And, of course, when she checked with Rob she found out that they were going to help me with cow herding, not tipping. You know the rest of the successful story. But, after I had a good laugh with Corrie I began to think about the importance of good communication and how it makes all the difference. And, after this experience I'll try to keep a couple to things in mind when I'm trying to communicate carefully with others.

First, I'll try not to assume too much. I've found that lots of people just shake their heads up and down not because they agree with me but because they simply want the conversation to be over as quickly as possible. Second, most of us assume that the person we're talking with shares our life experience and so we don't go into as much detail as we should. I know my daughters get annoyed with me when they say, "Do you know what I mean?" and I say no.

Finally, whenever there is a question about information presented it's wise to ask more questions until you get all of the answers you need. Corrie was the perfect example of how to use this approach. She had questions and followed up to find the truth before jumping to conclusions. After all, jumping to conclusions can cause lots of confusion when you're working with a large group to "tip," oops, I mean heard cows.