Friday, January 7, 2011

Occam's razor in action

Yesterday morning I went out to release the chickens from the coop, and I was startled to see what looked like fresh elk poop right by the coop. Elk poop is disc-shaped with a depression in the middle, and this looked like a classic case. Wow, it's not too often we have elk passing through! I was thrilled.


Hoofprints in the snow confirmed it was indeed an ungulate...though the prints seemed a bit small for a full-grown elk.


Nonetheless I started building a little elk fantasy in my mind until I went into the haybarn and saw...


...Smokey, who obviously had jumped a fence during the night and parked herself where there was the most food.

-- Thus proving that Occam's razor (often misquoted as "the simplest explanation is more likely the correct one") applies here.
Posted by Patrice Lewis at 7:14 PM
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2011 at 8:06 PM

    Next time, when talking about poop, please drop a dime by the stuff so we can get a sense of scale. Or just grab a handful and hold it up to the camera. You wouldn't mind doing that for us, would you?? :-/

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  2. Patrice LewisJanuary 7, 2011 at 8:10 PM

    Let's put it this way: each poop disk is about the size of a dime. 'Nuff said.

    - Patrice

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousJanuary 7, 2011 at 10:03 PM

    Not really elk-duds then, eh?

    snrk snrk

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2011 at 8:08 AM

    That's still mighty small for a heifer's poop. The tracks appear to be bovine, now that we know Smokey is on the loose and those are probably her hoofprints.

    Hey, I know, maybe the poop was left by the Bandits. (You know, Smokey and the Bandits?) Nevermind.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousJanuary 8, 2011 at 6:59 PM

    That's not bovine poo.... :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. CarolynJanuary 8, 2011 at 8:18 PM

    I'd have lost a bet if you told me that was cow poop. Guess I haven't been around enough cows.

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  7. small farm girlJanuary 9, 2011 at 11:19 AM

    That's not cow poo. If it is, it's not like OUR cow's poo.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2011 at 12:02 PM

    Ohh My GOD, Your animal poop is throwing us into global warming or was it "climate change". I know it sounds funny but you can believe me when I say that animal agriculture is under attack. BIG TIME!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Patrice LewisJanuary 9, 2011 at 12:16 PM

    It's not COW poo. It's CALF poo. Smokey is only about eight months old.

    - Patrice

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJanuary 9, 2011 at 1:32 PM

    Just scoop that "poo" up and throw it out before we all get in trouble here. O.K. ?

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownJanuary 10, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    Hahaha. Must have been the best night of Smokey's life! All you can eat buffet!

    Great post. As a city boy, it's always cool to see the inner workings of the country.

    Love it
    Thanks,
    Rob

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousJanuary 16, 2011 at 7:10 PM

    I'm afraid I would have joined those swearing it wasn't a bovine product. Didn't realize calf poop was so different. Or perhaps someone just needs to tell smokey about Fiber One products...

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2011 at 11:06 PM

    I still want to see her hold it and take a picture to help determine scale!

    ReplyDelete

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