Ever since owning an iPhone I have had a number of experiences where having the full Internet in my pocket from an information / resource standpoint has been invaluable. I recently however had an experience worth sharing. I was so completely out of my element in this situation and being able to troubleshoot / learn about the situation in real time as it progressed was shockingly useful and invaluable to me.
Many of those who know me and read this will know that I live in a more country setting and have converted some of my land to a working small farm. We raise all kinds of animals for different purposes, however out of all our animals I am particularly fond of our goats.
We noticed earlier this year that one of our goats was pregnant. One of the things about goat pregnancy is that unless the goats were under careful observation it is tough to know how far along they are. Given that we were observing her pregnancy development we knew the time was close but not sure how close.
Over the weekend I noticed some distinct changes that caused me to pull out my iPhone and do a Google search for "signs of goat labor." I very quickly found a useful forum with 15 points designed to help someone identify signs of labor and then assist in the delivery process to ensure a safe delivery. After a quick read it was clear labor was within hours.
Now at this point its important to stress that I did not grow up in a country setting. I am very much a city boy who spent and still spends most of his life immersed in technology, farming has simply become a hobby. So here I am all alone in the middle of a goat delivery and all I have as a guide is the internet. If I was the goat's midwife then the iPhone was my midwife.
So, I followed all the steps from beginning to end and sure enough the delivery was smooth and I provided some assistance which was recommended but not required. Then a series of questions followed that I was able to address with my iPhone post birth. Things like how soon should the babies eat? What signs should I be looking for that could be problems? What should I watch for to make sure the mom is OK? I used that little device to become as educated as possible on the minutes and hours thereafter of baby goats and their mother.
The outcome if you are interested is two happy healthy baby Boar goats. One boy and one girl named Hansel and Gretel. This is a picture of me and our newest additions to the family farm.
I'm sure the outcome would have been the same regardless of whether I was there or I had the usefulness of the iPhone. What would not have been the same was my mental state which was vastly improved by at least having some information to guide me during the process and keep me informed.