Dr. Cowgirl shoots from the hip

When I saw Dr. Cowgirl yesterday, I had an ulterior motive than getting Z’s dental done. I wanted to talk to her about the local Vet Tech program, my decision to suspend going to school, and get her feedback on it.

Now, Dr. Cowgirl shoots from the hip. She admittedly pisses some people off when she tells the truth but that is always something I’ve liked about her and probably why we get along. I started using her when no male equine vet in the area would treat my Dear One for Cushings (one actually condescendingly called me “little lady”) about 8 years ago.

Yesterday, I asked her first what her thought was about the VT program itself. Now she has her prejudices and likes things done her way and this is me paraphrasing what she said with my own colorful interpretation:

She felt the program does an injustice to it’s graduates. First, that the program was as hard as the first two years of vet school, so why not go to vet school? (which btw was the same thing brought up at the end of the Intro class I took this summer).

Next, that the program encourages graduates to believe they will be in charge of areas at the clinic, that in Dr. Cowgirl’s mind would never happen in real life. Her example was reading x-rays – only a vet would do that and not ask for the opinion of a vet tech. In this I agree with her as vets, like many highly educated professions, are not going to give this important duty away to a subordinate.

I had the same feeling because they were stating in class that VT’s would be giving shots and whenever I’ve had my cats and dogs done at their clinics (we’ve gone to two different clinics here) it was ALWAYS the vet who did it. OTOH, when I was taking biology with Shannon she told me that at her clinic the VT’s do a lot – and I think this was because the vets were damn lazy (she agreed).

Of all the techs she has had, only a VT graduate did Dr. Cowgirl ever have problems with. IMO this was most likely because the VT told her that something should be done according to what she learned at school, and Dr. Cowgirl deals with real life, not book learning.

An interesting thing she pointed out was, while I would initially earn more money with the degree, eventually I would level out to the same amount that someone with no degree, but experience would be making. She also said that the law does not require her to hire someone that is certified (meaning they took the national exam and the state exam) AT THIS TIME but she thinks this will eventually be changed.

We both agreed that if I was younger and wanted to do this as a longterm career, pursuing the degree would be useful. But at this time in my life, it would be better, she thought, for me to volunteer for some vet to get my foot into the door.

I don’t know if she was thinking the same thing I was, but this segwayed into the next part of my Cunning Plan which was to volunteer for her 2-3x a week during the next year when husband will be gone to MO and I will be stuck here. This will give me experience, that foot in the door, and help me realize if this is something I want to continue pursuing.

She was definitely a thumbs up about this plan so once the kids get their school schedules straightened out, I hope to be working for her in September most likely Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday! EXCITING!!

future paths

I have a deep and abiding need for land. This has been going on since I was a child and you would think, as I’m approaching 50, that need would have long reached some sort of satisfaction. Because of circumstances, and where my life went at the time, and what I thought I should be doing in order to survive (not be happy you understand, but survive), I have not bought land.

Probably the closest I came to living in a place I truly desired, was when I worked for the state’s Department of Agriculture, foresty division as the manager of a museum located in the heart of one our most beautiful state parks. Quitting that job put me into a tailspin of a depression for four years. Of course, other things contributed, but the loss of the trees, the hills, the river, and the beavers was quite a blow to my heart.

Now, however, things are moving along in a direction that is exciting and scary all at the same time. Within two years we could realize my dream of owning land! I can have my horses at home! I can potentially see deer out my backyard!

At that same time, I had planned on returning to work soon by going through with my Vet Tech degree here at the community college in T-town.  Because of husband getting a job in Missouri, I’ve decided to postpone that plan – or maybe even change that plan.

Do I need to get back to work? Yes, not only for my own sanity but it would help the bottom line of our financial situation, especially with a son that is off to college in one year and a daughter close behind. These are some things we are considering -

1.) Boarding horses. This would be my least favorite option because I like my privacy and boarding on my own property would not encourage the peace of mind and haven that I am envisioning. With my knowledge and skill, not counting my own labor, I could make it bring in income.

2.) Vet Tech employment. I could find a vet that would be willing to train me and then take the exam, or take it as a college course and take the exam. There is a college about 1 hour and 20 minutes away from our home base in Missouri.

Before I would settle on this option, I want to work beside a vet, even if it is cleaning cages or doing it for free, to see if this would be the way to go. I’ve also discovered it will tie up a lot more time then I was bargaining for in terms of hours per week. While I love animals and am good at caring for them, this may be a dream that should have been pursued years ago and whose time has passed.

3.) Self-employed with my own business. This would be my favorite idea as I’ve been self-employed before and I prefer it. Let’s face it – I am a strong minded female who likes to do things her way – not always popular with bosses. I’ve got some ideas for businesses but the biggest concern here is that I want a business NOT a hobby. It has to make money not be something for me to “do.”

Some of the business ideas tie back to the land such as providing a delivery service of organically grown herbs to local restaurants and home chefs. I’d also like to have some chickens for organic eggs, but I’m not interested in sheep, goats, hogs or cattle.

When it comes back, full circle, to the land question, I know in my mind that I want a mix of prairie and woodlands. I want it to back onto government land for a barrier – i.e. one property of an acquaintance backed onto a railline and then a river – no neighbors there; or into a protected park area. I want it to be a minimum of 10 acres and I prefer 40. I would prefer to be on a gravel road, close to a dead end. And it needs water on the property, preferably in a stream or river.

And I want to restore it back to it’s native grasses and trees – so land that has been abandoned or not farmed for some time would be better.

Tall order, and we have a long way to work to get there… but for the first time in 10 years I see it as a REAL possibility and not just a pipe dream.

rain and rainbows

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”
 ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We got some rain yesterday, it lasted about 10 minutes. Last night I woke to the sound of it hitting the windows and the pavement is wet so that should evaporate by 9 a.m.

I have a lot to report but unfortunately the Big News must wait in the wings until it’s time to speak it’s lines. My blog is public and I discovered husband has it bookmarked on his work computer. I never underestimate the snooping potential and releasing this information would be premature at this point.

However, the BN has impacted my ability to get things done, especially with horses over the weekend. We have been in state of limbo where many things need to line up and research has to be done, but nothing can be implemented yet. I like to move at hamster-speed and so this is mighty irksome.

Today, is my last day of my summer class, Intro to Vet Tech, and I have to report I was mightedly disappointed. Or would it be underwhelmed?

I have some mixed emotions about this program. First, the classes are taught one day a week, instead of two or three. Next a class and it’s lab is taught all in one day. For example, class starts at 8:30 a.m. and then I get a break at 1 p.m. for 1.5 hours (too long for lunch, not long enough to do anything) and then back to the same class for another 3-4 hours.

This type of schedule is not my favorite. I don’t do well with long stretches of learning like this – I start to get bored. It’s also harder for me to pace my studying. For example, with a M/W class, I study T/Th – the off days but since there is a rhythm of going back to class I am able to stay on track.

Pacing my studying has been a huge problem this summer. With the one day a week class, and a class that isn’t very intellectually demanding, I’ve blown it off. This means I’ll probably get a B when I could have gotten an A – a bad pattern of mine is when I become bored or the class isn’t demanding enough I stop putting forth effort.

Another thing that has emerged from this summer, is that the Vet Tech has far more responsiblity and longer working hours with lower pay then I was expecting. My personal goal in doing this was to find something fun to do part-time or until I could turn it to self-employment, not work grueling hours at a job I wasn’t appreciated at.

Instead I discover that I will be doing a lot of stuff – giving medications, shots, doing dental work, x-rays, lab work, ultrasounds, and be in charge of anesthesia during surgery, etc… and that the hours are long – over 40 a week with high burnout rates, and the pay will be less then $35,000 a year (remember, that is for a full-time job).

I feel a little uncomfortable with this knowledge, especially the class discussion about a vet that was told to put a healthy animal to sleep because the owners didn’t want anyone else to own it and they were moving (!!). Some of the ethical issues may be really hard for me to deal with because with my family gift of genetics I would probably have injected the human with the needle and missed the dog!

I think before I step off the deep end and invest this amount of money and time, I need to work alongside a vet and see if this is something I truly want to do. I had been meaning to ask my equine vet if there was 1 day a week I could go out with her and that would be a good start to making this decision.

So with the BN coming, I’ve decided to postpone starting the Vet Tech program. It is a two year committment and that may be an issue on getting completed especially because of the BN. I am not willing to start something I can’t complete, especially expensive school (conservatively this fall semester would be about $1500).

This puts my personal future in limbo again so I need to spend the next few months really making some hard decisions about what to do.

official notice

Friday I got my letter from the Vet Tech program that makes it official that I have been accepted. They had told me at the end of my interview that all was good to go, but I like having it official.

That means one class during the summer, then full-time in the fall. Full-time means ALL DAY on the days I go which was something that I was not aware of until I toured the facility on open house. It doesn’t change my intentions but it does mean that getting kids home from school may need to be neogtiated with some other parents if husband goes out of town for work.

With school out for a month I have been bored out of my friggin’ mind. It will be good to get back to a schedule, which work or school forces you to do, and have a framework of something productive to do.

While I most likely will seek employment with a small animal vet when I approach the last year of school, my long term plan may involve going back to being self employed such as running a stable for special needs horses, a kennel for special needs dogs and cats, or some other business related to animals.

What this really means is a PLAN – and GOALS – to bring myself back to life from being a stay-at-home mom with little money, an out of date degree, and big dreams.

spring school finishes

Update -grades are in and I got A’s in both classes! That’s amazing as the last Chemistry test was extremely difficult; he must have curved the grades for the class as we were all sitting there, struggling with it, right to the last moment.

That completes all the prerequisites I needed to enter the Veterinary Technology program (to be certified as a Vet Technician). I have an interview with the department this coming Thursday and then I’ll know soon after if I’ve been accepted.

The only thing that concerns me about that is my age – I am not the typical student entering this program. Technically and legally they cannot discriminate against me because of my age but we all know that discrimination on all sorts of levels is still done.