Houstonist loves a drive in the country — the fresh air, the quaint towns, the wide-open landscapes. And, of course, we enjoy stopping once in a while to moo at a field full of cows. Which makes us wonder sometimes: What the heck do cows do all day, anyway? (They probably wonder the same thing about us, a bunch of city kids who pull over to torment animals. But whatever.) Yeah, we've seen that "Far Side" cartoon, but seriously, what's a day in the life of a cow really like?

Fortunately, we don't have to wonder any more, thanks to kindred spirits at PBS. Some folks there were just as curious as we were about our bovine friends, so they developed MooTube, the world's first 24-hour, 7-day look at the life of Texas longhorn cattle. At the MooTube website, you can check out the view from three different cows — yes, now you can get a cow's-eye view of eating, sleeping, fly-swatting and the general moseying around that seems to occupy a lot of a cow's daily agenda. The tiny cameras are mounted to the cows' collars or horns and can transmit for about eight hours on a full charge — throughout the day, mobile transmission units stay pretty close to the cows to catch and record the video. It may be the most high-tech thing to hit the ranch since ... uh ... well, actually, we don't know. (By the way, there's also a cow blog. Today, they talk about the storms this morning — because hey, when you live in an open field, it's a pretty big deal.)

MooTube was developed in conjunction with PBS's Texas Ranch House, an eight-part series that will plop 15 people into a recreation of an 1867 Texas ranch. They'll have to not only tend the ranch, but also carry out day-to-day activities like cooking and washing without the help of 21st century appliances. We fully expect MTV to pick up on this — expect to see Real World: Ranch sometime soon.