Liz Ridenour -- Week 6

Vintage scale head at WMREC.

Week 6 proved to be quite a hot week, and being outside in pastures so much definitely made me appreciate air conditioning like never before! 

Much of this week, I was busy with various tasks at WMREC, such as setting up temporary fencing for our sheep and cattle, sorting through old paperwork, and cleaning out a storage room with Amanda and Brittany (and finding some random but interesting things, like this old, extremely heavy scale head!) 

Pasture walk on Wednesday.

Wednesday, I spent all day outside with Amanda and Jeff Semler, and that day I was able to bring along a friend of mine, Xenia Rivas, a fellow UMD Animal Science graduate. In the morning, we went to a pasture walk with the same group of dairy farmers we visited last month, this time on an organic, pasture-raised dairy farm just below the Pennsylvania line in Washington County. 

Later that day, we went for a farm visit to Susan Schoenian, the retired UME small ruminant specialist, to discuss her pasture management strategies, and were able to see her flock of Katahdin sheep, as well as her goats and meat rabbits. 

This week on our weekly connection, we were visited by Alexander Chan, who gave us advice for mental wellness in the context of a job and career. I think the thing that stood out to me most about his talk was his view on the different causes of "burnout" in a career. I tend to think of burnout as being overworked, having long hours, or, in the context of medicine or veterinary medicine, compassion fatigue. However, Alexander pointed out that burnout can also happen in response to a lack of autonomy and control over your own work. As someone who functions very well in "hands off" setting, this rang very true for me. 

My friend Xenia on the dairy pasture walk!

I know well the feeling of exhaustion when I do not have the freedom for creativity, and one of the aspects of extension work that I really enjoy is the fact that for the most part, the people I'm working with can choose to do projects, publications, or educational events based on their expertise and what they perceive as being most helpful to the public, and they have a higher degree of creative freedom than in many fields. Even this summer I've been asked numerous times by my mentors to write an article or make an infographic, with the topic being whatever I want it to be. Rather than making me stressed, this freedom makes me feel motivated and energized to be creative!

Throughout this internship, I've been learning a lot about myself, and this preference for more freedom over my own work is no exception--it was something I knew about myself but had never quite put into words before. This internship has also been one of the first extended periods of time in which I've worked a traditional, 40-hour workweek, and while it's been exhausting, it has allowed for a lot of maturing and growth. I'm excited to see what I continue to learn through the remaining four weeks of the internship -- about farming, about Maryland agriculture, and about myself. 

Goat kid at Susan Schoenian's farm.