D.Koenemann
03-13-2004, 02:18 AM
Are you good at communication? How about negotiation? Do you ever find yourself in a situation that you wish you could talk or negotiate your way out of? I know I have many times. Here is a little story of one of my many experiences.
I have managed a poultry farm for almost 18 years and have encountered quite a few problems over the years. Pests are one of the biggest problems I had to deal with. Seems everything likes to eat chicken.
About 1 year ago I was out in one of the poultry houses around midnight doing a final check before retiring to bed for the night. I had just finished walking through the last of 3 houses, everything seemed fine. That is until I exited the door.
There is a light out in the parking/loading area, which is all I used. So a lot of the time when you exit out of a house a night it takes a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. I know the area like the back of my hand so this was no problem.
This particular night was to be a little different however. As I exited the door I noticed some movement about 3 feet in front of me, which I assumed was one of the cats that always was sneaking around. I did'nt pay any attention and just proceeded to walk forward. It was about that time that my night vision returned and I suddenly realized that it was not one of the sneaky cats. It was a skunk!
By the time I could see that it was not a cat the skunk had began to pat the ground with his little front paws. They will do this many times as a way to warn you. He was definately giving me a warning that I was to close and he was just about to do his little handstand. For any of you that may not know this, a skunk does not have to turn around to spray you. They are very good at doing a handstand as I call it and they just swivel their little rearend around and cut loose. They can be very accurate also. They will usually aim for the eyes.
When I saw what was about to unfold in front of me I did a perfectly executed military aboutface to go back into the chickenhouse. What I had not realized in my haste to get away, was the door had not closed all the way. I ran smack into the edge of the door with my head about knocking myself out. All I can say was I ended up on the ground eyeball to eyeball with Pepi LaPue.
He was not very impressed with the fact that I was down on his level, and I just knew that I was going to stink for a long long time. I knew that I would not be going to bed in my home with my wife for a while needless to say. You know how wives don't have much of a sense of humor sometimes.
The only thing I could think of doing was to start talking to the very upset skunk. We had a very long talk. He would start to act like he was going to leave and then he would resume his threatening posture. Believe me when I say that I talked and negotiated my little heart out. I believe it was the longest 20 minutes of talking and negotiating that I had ever done. I made a lot of promises to that little feller, even promised him free access to all the chicken he wanted, if he just would'nt spray.
He must have liked whatever I said because after about 20 minutes he finally ambled away and left me no worse for the wear.
The art of calm talking and negotiation won out that time. Or maybe it was the pleading and begging. :rolleyes:
D.Koenemann :D
I have managed a poultry farm for almost 18 years and have encountered quite a few problems over the years. Pests are one of the biggest problems I had to deal with. Seems everything likes to eat chicken.
About 1 year ago I was out in one of the poultry houses around midnight doing a final check before retiring to bed for the night. I had just finished walking through the last of 3 houses, everything seemed fine. That is until I exited the door.
There is a light out in the parking/loading area, which is all I used. So a lot of the time when you exit out of a house a night it takes a few seconds for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. I know the area like the back of my hand so this was no problem.
This particular night was to be a little different however. As I exited the door I noticed some movement about 3 feet in front of me, which I assumed was one of the cats that always was sneaking around. I did'nt pay any attention and just proceeded to walk forward. It was about that time that my night vision returned and I suddenly realized that it was not one of the sneaky cats. It was a skunk!
By the time I could see that it was not a cat the skunk had began to pat the ground with his little front paws. They will do this many times as a way to warn you. He was definately giving me a warning that I was to close and he was just about to do his little handstand. For any of you that may not know this, a skunk does not have to turn around to spray you. They are very good at doing a handstand as I call it and they just swivel their little rearend around and cut loose. They can be very accurate also. They will usually aim for the eyes.
When I saw what was about to unfold in front of me I did a perfectly executed military aboutface to go back into the chickenhouse. What I had not realized in my haste to get away, was the door had not closed all the way. I ran smack into the edge of the door with my head about knocking myself out. All I can say was I ended up on the ground eyeball to eyeball with Pepi LaPue.
He was not very impressed with the fact that I was down on his level, and I just knew that I was going to stink for a long long time. I knew that I would not be going to bed in my home with my wife for a while needless to say. You know how wives don't have much of a sense of humor sometimes.
The only thing I could think of doing was to start talking to the very upset skunk. We had a very long talk. He would start to act like he was going to leave and then he would resume his threatening posture. Believe me when I say that I talked and negotiated my little heart out. I believe it was the longest 20 minutes of talking and negotiating that I had ever done. I made a lot of promises to that little feller, even promised him free access to all the chicken he wanted, if he just would'nt spray.
He must have liked whatever I said because after about 20 minutes he finally ambled away and left me no worse for the wear.
The art of calm talking and negotiation won out that time. Or maybe it was the pleading and begging. :rolleyes:
D.Koenemann :D