It’s the little things that make things better.  It’s not that you won the lottery, it’s the little, forgotten fact that you actually BOUGHT a lottery ticket in the first place.  It’s not the fact that you bred a great one.  It’s the oft-forgotten fact that you happened to put the right sire with the right doe, almost 5 months before that future champion was born.  We often forget about the little things that took place that all added up to make a big thing.  

      It is Thursday, which is a good day.  We are a week away from next Thursday (No $h!t), which happens to be Thanksgiving. That is a day for giving thanks.  Not for eating turkey or getting ready for that retarded shopping day that follows.  It doesn’t/shouldn’t matter what day it is…if you have something good going on, stop, bow your head and give thanks for the little things.  Because sometimes, those little things actually are the biggest things in our life.  We just take them for granted and forget how big of a thing (family, kids, faith, freedom, opportunities, etc) we actually have right there, in front of us. 

     Remember, that goat meat is the most eaten meat–world-wide.  I really like to eat goat meat, but I am thankful that I have access to a pork chop,  smoked spare ribs, brisket & turkey and that I can afford a killer good, properly seasoned, almost medium-rare ribeye when I so desire.  

     Excuse me while I hit “save post”.  I’m going to go check on Dirt and Rumour as they perform some tasks, trying to make some “little things”.  

     I am very thankful to all that bought and bid on our does in the onine bred doe sale.  Thank you.  That sale shows the power of the internet—two are headed to Colorado, two to Texas, two to Kansas, one to Georgia and two stay in Oklahoma.  I hope to hear good reports out of the offspring of these females.  

     That sale did baffle as to why the two does of Seelke’s didn’t bring a pile of cash.  I don’t get it?  Two well presented, proven females, bred right and ready to go.  I didn’t need two more does, but I dang sure bid on them for a bit.  I think a lot of people missed the boat on those.  

      And to tell you something else that I am thankful for….I am REAL happy that I don’t live anywhere near Buffalo, New York.  Lake effect snow?  Where do they come up with these terms?  Whatever it is, I don’t want any part of it.  

     Have a good day and a better tomorrow.  Oh wait, it’s Thursday.  Thursdays are good.

      It can happen to any of us, at any moment.  That car crash that is a life altering event.  Last Thursday evening, our school superintendent was involved in a collision while out feeding cows.  Nobody was really speeding.  It was just one of those intersection collisions that happens in a remote location and neither party is used to seeing anybody else at that part of the world at the same time.  Unfortunately, the other driver has already passed.  At this time, our superintendent is still in OKC and will be for awhile.  He is going to make it, but we don’t know, just yet, how bad it really is.  

      And since you probably don’t know, the superintendent is a local dude that is about 7 years older than me.  Randy Holley and his wife, both grew up in Shattuck and both work at the school.  His mom was the high school secretary.  His dad was my driver’s ed teacher.  His sisters were the life guards at the Shattuck swimming pool when I was growing up.  And he is a former ag teacher, at Shattuck.  He and I both served on the ag teacher’s board of directors together, years ago.  Tyke taught Randy’s kids.  Bill Taylor has worked with him and showed cattle with him.  Obviously, we all know each other.  Which kind of explains how I ended up teaching again.  

      Randy has a strong family support system and the community of Shattuck, and for that matter, NW Oklahoma will do everything to take care of one of their own.  He will be back in action, but it’s going to be a bit.  But let me tell ya, anyone of us could have this happen.  In a flash, life is changed.  

     Pray for Randy and his family.  And for that matter, while we are praying, let’s just pray that each of us is safe in our day-to-day travels.  Most accidents happen close to home.  GOD bless!

     As most of you all know, I pay quite a bit of attention to other species.  I enjoy cattle and hogs.  Sheep, not so much.  But I still pay attention to what all species are doing.  And without a doubt, cattle, hogs and sheep breeders all have bred female sales.  These aren’t just junk that breeders are trying to get rid of–they are bonafide genetics, bred to popular sires.  They are an opportunity for a breeder to cash a check and more importantly, a great opportunity for somebody else to obtain genetics and/or have a quick return on investment.  

      For some reason, goat breeders have been afraid to “let go” of genetics.  But as a breeder, in order to make progress, genetics have to be made available for 2 reasons.  1–For profit and 2–To make genetic advancements–for others, as well as themselves.  Somebody, somewhere, will find an outcross that probably shouldn’t work, but did.  I don’t know why, but goat breeders have been loathe to let loose of bred females.  I personally think that it is a mistake.  

      Many breeders will offer doe kids. The doe kid deal takes years to pay off.  I can walk you to three differerent females on our place that cost about $16,000, that I have yet to turn a single $ out of.  They served their purpose as tax write offs.  But it would be nice to cash a check out of these female dogs at some point.  

     I’ve made mistakes in this business.  The list is long.  I still occasionally wonder if Sweet and I should have kept Blood Pressure.  I would like to have that goat working here, but in all honesty,he will do me more good if Rick Barnthouse can build a doe herd around him.  I shouldn’t have sold any of the bred does that I sold online in the October ’13 Big Willy Sale.  All four does went to good homes and produced.  Schovanec sold a buck kid out of H15.  He and Sweet bought K5 and are using a buck kid out of her and Rumour.  Heath Nelson has a keeper Rumour doe kid out of his purchase.  

      And then there is Pat Lyons and Bill Mein.  They bought K19 sight unseen, no photos, no videos–Pat called and asked about each doe and how I thought that doe would work with their bucks.  I was honest, nothing to hide.  They bought her.  She had triplets.  They sold a buck prospect, kept a doe kid and sent the other doe kid to Georgia.  That doe kid was Reserve Grand at the Georgia National. They made money, kept genetics for their herd AND hung a banner.  AND still have K19 to be used in their breeding programs.  

      On oklahomashowgoats.com this week, there is an online Bred Doe sale.  Seelke’s are offering some very nice females that are bred right.  They have killer pics, descriptions and the does are good.  They have done it right.  Milligan is going to offer some top shelf genetics.  We, here at Kelln Livestock, in typical fashion, have too many irons in the fire.  There won’t be many pictures of our offerings.  

      As a breeder, I can’t think of a better way to help other breeders, than by offering bred does–proven and unproven.  This is a chance to get a hold of genetic matings that otherwise aren’t available.  Sure, I may cash a check.  But the buyers have a chance to add genetics or sell a proven product.  

      We are offering seven No Way/Hang 10 daughters bred to Joe Dirt.  These are really nice first time mommas.  I simply have too many due at the end of January.  A marker was put on Dirt and he was turned out with a pasture of does.  With this teaching gig that I’ve got going, I do not have time to kid out 27 females in one week.  Yes, Dirt takes in his ladies like Big I & Ring take in the frosties–in volume.  This is a gate cut of those  No Way/Hang 10 females.  

     And to further prove that I am retarded, we are offering T’Pau and 1253.  They won’t go cheap or I will just keep them.  1253 has already produced a $3,000 wether and a state fair premium sale wether.  T’Pau is one of my favorites–that I have ever raised, ever shown, ever owned.  I shouldn’t even offer her, but here you go.   I firmly believe in offering people a chance.  If you buy T’Pau, I want a shot at buying her offspring–doe kids, bucks or wethers–I don’t care.

      Have a good day and a better tomorrow.  

      Where would we be without it?  Maybe better off.  Probably not.  We are all attached to our phones, the internet, facebook, whatever.  All I know is that it is frustrating when something isn’t working.  I have been fighting this blog page server for almost 2 weeks.  For some reason, it is working tonight.  This afternoon, my iPhone wouldn’t work.  I tried shutting it down, recharging, everything except doing physical damage.  I loaded up and went to AT&T in Woodward.  I told them the problems.  “Did you try this? Did you try that?”  Every time they asked, I physically showed them.  Finally, the chick asked for the phone.  She holds the same two EFFING buttons that I had just tried right there in front of her.  Guess what?  The phone shuts down, reboots and comes back to life.  F!!!!!!!!!!!!!   There went an hour of my life that I can’t get back.  

      I need to be sending info to Milligan for the bred doe sale on Monday.  Yes, I know, I am late.  But I have all the info.  Now, I can’t get my email server to work properly.  It’s all wonderful when things are working.  But sometimes, on occasion, you just want to slam your head in a sliding glass door. 

       And yes, we are offering several bred does.  Some No Way/Hang 10 daughters bred to Joe Dirt.  And an absolute proven well bred doe bred to Rumour Has It.  

      About 8 weeks ago, our resident football player broke his wrist in practice.  Okay.  It happens.  Now, I am up to $3,000 in bills.  There was no surgery.  And I have insurance.  I thought that we had good insurance.  I’m pretty sure that a person is better off NOT having health insurance in today’s times.  I know that this is a small amount compared to people that have serious medical issues, but I could have casted his wrist and had a vet do the x-rays and saved about $2,800.  Oh well.  

     It’s a good thing that I joined a club a couple of weeks ago.  This club is saving me some money, so that I can pay medical bills.  I’ve enjoyed watching the commercials for the Dollar Shave Club.  At first, I was hesitant to buy cheaper razors.  I was having visions of cuts, nicks and lots of blood like the old Bic razors used to deliver.  You see, I have sensitive facial skin then you throw in the fact that I have hair like a Berkshire–you know, COARSE.  Therefore, I use an electric shaver to brush hog the bristles and then use a blade with a moisturizing strip to shave.  In other words, I hate shaving.  The only thing worse than shaving, is going about 4 days without shaving.  Then I run the battery down on the electric shaver, and step 2 is to dull a new high $ blade to get it back to skin level.  And I can’t grow a killer good beard, just good stubble.  It doesn’t look good in beard form and the Dragon Lady doesn’t llike it.  And I dang sure don’t want to miss out on that semi-annual chance.  

       Razors are kind of like shoes, chips, pop and beer, buy the good stuff.  I went against personal beliefs and decided to give the club a try.  I am now two weeks into this experiment and I am real sure that the cheap razors are better than the high dollar deals that I was buying.  i also really liked the shave butter sample that they sent with it.  The scary part is that I ordered the mid level razor.  They have a higher priced one.  I just might have to try that out.  Throw in the added benefit that you don’t have to go to Wally World or wherever to buy razors.  Truth in advertisement, the mail brings them to you.  

      Speaking of ouch.  The wind and cold did hit NW OK and it was a bit painful when it hit the skin.  Plus, I remembered how to break ice and bucket water.  The joys and discomforts of agricultural life.  

     They were right.  The artic front arrived right on time.  At 3:00 this afternoon, the pickup temp said that it was 90 degreess.  It felt like it.  I threw a hoodie into the pickup–just in case.  I went fifty miles southeast of paradise to Larry Moore’s to pick up a set of barrows that I bought online last week.  He made the comment, “I bet the weather changes before you get home.”  He was right.  When I got to Vici to grab feed, it was down to 73.  And by 6:15 when I got to the ag farm at Shattuck, it was down to 51.  And when I made it back to Fargo at 7 it was 45.  The wind was howling like a gut shot comanche on an old western movie and the temperature was cut in half.  

     There are two things that are kind of against my own personal religious beliefs when dealing with goats–1) I don’t wash Duke’s wethers and 2) I don’t blanket wethers.  I guess I committed a sin this evening.  SInce it was 90 earlier today, the wethers were naked.  Duke was gone at 7:30 and the temps were dropping, so I broke down and put blankets on wethers.  He made it home, dryly said, “Thanks.  Hunh! Didn’t know you knew how to put blankets on?”  I think there was sarcasm in his voice.  

      Had a dude tell me that the enjoyment of reading this blog is similar to watching NASCAR.  You are just waiting on the big one.  That big wreck and things come unhinged.  No big wreck on here tonight.  

Winter is on its way.  The weather experts have been calling for this artic front for a week.  WInd and sub-freezing temps for a week.  I spent yesterday evening draining water hoses and unhooking float valves on water tanks.  The wethers will be wearing multiple blankets.  The good thing about the upcoming cold….we should be rid of flies till next year.

We came to the lone star elite jackpot. We like this show and still do, but we didn’t fare as well as years past. However, our crew is still leaving with a pile of cash as Scott Comstock won the $10,000 drawing. Good things come to great people. I couldn’t think of a better dude to win the cash. Our krew wasn’t shut out as Haley Schovanec had the res grand doe. We had become accustomed to getting a peice of the wether show. NEXT year. Schneberger looked like a box of 64 craya crayons. I guess his wife buys his clothes. Our kids showed and acted like winners. That’s what it is all about. Kids. And, when driving through Texas, does everybody have to have a big gate entrance, even if they only have 3 acres. Rancho Not So Grande and Rancho Costa Plenti. They all have a big gate and a… Lone star. Welcome to Texas. Nothing wrong with some state pride. Especially since this state has the best highways and some friendly cops.

Schneberger is happy to be here and his wife says that “Jared should by supper at Outback for everybody.” Schoovy has his hat on backwards. Which means he is getting smarter. Duke and I are just wore out from washing and shearing his 4 wethers. Bill wants a drink that looks like tea. Lone Star Elite Jackpot is tomorrow. Big fun.