The Emily & Hallie Cooper Benefit Auction will take place on March 25th on oklahomashowgoats.com.  If you haven’t heard the tragic story involving the loss of these girls parents in a short time span, then go to the banner on that website and check out the auction.  There are 156 items listed.  There has been an overwhelming amount of stuff donated.  Too much for an online sale, so there will also be a live auction.  

     Stock show people know how to step up and take care of their own.  There are cattle, hog, sheep, goat, etc, etc, etc.  Services, feed, semen, equipment.  Check it out and bid.  There is something for everybody.  There is a lot of Rumour Has It semen being offered.  The only way to get Rumour semen is in an auction.  This is for a good cause, so go get it.  

     For those of you that don’t know, OYE stands for the Oklahoma Youth Expo.  I will put this show up against any of the majors in terms of depth of quality.  Why?  One reason is that there is not a more retarded breed of show addicts than OKIES.  Two, the Texans can spread out amongst a pile of majors, large districts and high paying counties.  Add in, that in Texas, if you win a major, then you are done in that species.  Not in OK.  All of the big names are at OYE.  

      So, how about the OYE wether goat show.  Wicked good.  The depth of quality was very good.  The gap has narrowed in terms of feeding and fitting.  There are more kids doing a better job of showmanship. But there are still a pile that don’t do very well.  The good showmen placed, and placed high.   

      My thoughts on the top end.  When I saw the division 1 wether in class, I knew that he would get a piece of it.  If I was judging, he would win it.  That was as good a wether as I have seen, regardless of weight.  I am happy as hell for Chanse Alexander with the res. div. 1 wether.  It wasn’t as high as we were hoping for him, but he was in the grand drive for his first time, his senior year.  Great kid from a great family.  

      The division 3 wether was a good bastard from the time I saw him last April.  Duke and I talked about keeping him, but we agreed that tag 3451–aka TONKA– was the one for Braden’s senior year.  The res. div. 3 wether was cool.  

      The division 4 champion wether was one that I studied as a baby and decided he didn’t have enough to him.  That goat always got along–Lone Star Elite, Champion’s Choice and now OYE.  Very complete, well presented, well shown.  He ended up as Bronze overall at OYE.  Just goes to show what I know.  

       The res. div. 2 and the res. div. 4 wethers were really cool made, wide based wethers that had plenty to them.  These were both shown by the same young man.  I am sure that when they headed to the city that they weren’t planning on having reserve divisions, but it happens.  Really good goats that were well shown and presented.  Tip of the cap to the Newell family and Mr. Pearson.  

        The grand wether was the lightweight–entered at 78 pounds.  He was a bad ass.  Congrats to the Jackson family and Mr. Shawn Sparks.  This wasn’t some accident.  She had the bronze wether at OYE last year and has consistently won classes and better.  Mr. Sparks knows good livestock and how to get them presented.  Congrats to the Pfeiffer family for putting this one together.  I have ZERO problems getting beat by this goat.  He looked the part and handled like a champ.  Hats off to a job well done.

      The reserve grand.  Last May, when I left Quitiquae, I knew that we a had big time player on board.  He was wide based coming and going, heavy boned, big ribbed, but still cool fronted.  He had an ass that was two axe handles wide.  But, he needed to tie just a tick better at his hip loin.  Guess what?  At a 101 pounds, he was still wide based, heavy boned, massive ribbed, yet cool fronted and could tie just a tick better.  He was the right one and the right showman was on him, but there was a better one there.  I really liked this goat and yet, I am still fine with “Tonka”  being reserve grand.   Hats off to the Schovanec family.  Grand at OYE 2012, res. grand 2013 and res. grand 2014.  That’s a heckuva run for anybody.  Oh and they were all from Helms.  And they aren’t done–Schovanec nor Helms.  Good people and great friends.  

      The bronze wether was a good one.  Hard to fault.  Sound, wide based, yet balanced, not exteme but still had a show look to him.  Smooth made with plenty of power is the best way to describe this goat.  This wasn’t a high dollar goat.  But it had a good showman with an expert guiding the way.  Ricky Jack Thompson is a killer good livestock man and he knows how to get goats ready to show.  His brother isn’t too shabby either.  These two ag teachers had several head in the premium sale (they normally do have several cashing checks).  These boys are tough competitors and I respect their abilities.  They should be judging big shows.  What about “squints”?

      Rainman had a really good showing with several class winners and other top placers.  Our crew was battered, bloodied and bruised but still faired quite well.  The Poe Cat had a several in the sale.  I’m tired, this could get long.  So I’ll just stop.  Have a good night.  I need to watch some NCAA wresting on the tube.  

    It is actually still St. Patrick’s Day eve and I am well behaved.  Monday, March 17, there is a chance that the wheels will fall off.  It is now OYE time.  It’s time to get serious, just not too serious.  

      I knew that picture would crop up again.  I don’t pose for very many pics, but back on July 4th, Braden took a shot of me with ol tag J099 riding on my shoulder as we were leaving Helms’ pens to go get in the trailer for a ride to a new home.  That was one green, crappy looking goat that day, but like the Roxette song from the 80s,  he just kind of had “The Look.”  JBone, as he is now known as, has since won a class at Champion’s Choice jackpot and was the grand wether at Woodward District.  I like to gamble on a show animals.  It is amazing what a good feed program and a showman can do.  Big Bill told me that I over-paid that day for JBone.  Lexi Vanderwork will disagree as she and JBone brought $6,500 as the grand wether at the Woodward Premium Sale.  Who knows?  If luck has anything to do with it, I may just have to carry that goat again.  After all, a deal is a deal.  

      Good luck to all at the big show this week.  Have fun.  Monday is all about the green–shamrocks, leprauchans and maybe a frosty.  Speaking of frosty leprauchans, thank goodness that the Milligan family is back home and all is well.  Here’s to a pot of gold, blarney stones and holdling onto my shillelagh.

    p.s. growing up, Mom made some kind of cake-like treats for St. Patrick’s Day that she called blarney stones.  I haven’t had those in decades.  I’d probably be a kinder, gentler soul if somebody made me some of those blarney stones.  Even if it isn’t for my big holiday.

      Some people just know how to win.  Doesn’t matter if it is stock shows, sports, academics, music, business, etc.  Some people are just consistently successful.  Hard work, desire, luck (as in the harder you work, the luckier you get).  I’ve been sitting on this blog post for about a year.  I didn’t want to jinx anybody.

        Rewind, to March 2013 and I had a post about watching Lora Riley on tv playing basketball in the state championship game.  They lost.  Fast forward to now.  The Alva team was back on tv in the state finals.  This time they won.  But there was Lora on tv and now, also younger sister Ally on the screen.  Pretty cool deal.  

     For those of you new to the goat world or for those of you with short memories, the Riley girls were possibly the most dominant force in the OK goat world from 2008 or so to 2013.  Multiple grands at Woodward, res grands at Tulsa, OYE and State Fair, several bronze wethers at OYE and multiple division and class winners.  Let’s face it, these girls just git it done.  I think that they get this from their mother.  Last March after OYE, they literally walked away from showing.  They had the goal of winning a state basketball title.  Mission accomplished.  

      I wish that they were still showing goats.  I like competition and if you beat the Riley girls, then you did something.  The cool thing about their basketball team is that they are still young.  They could do it again.  Of course, the Riley girls still have time left to show again.  I would really like to be around for that comeback tour.  It would be fun.

      Like almost all winners, they know how to set a goal, work towards that goal, lose and come back harder to get to that goal.  The Riley’s know how to win, work and have fun.  I like it!

      On a high note around paradise, it rained here today.  Not enough to be measureable, but we heard thunder, rain on the metal barn and it smelled GOOD!  Real good!  We’ve got to prime the pump in order to improve our chances.  

      Speaking of chances, it’s Saturday night and maybe I have a chance.  If not, I’ll keep trying.  

Here’s to hard work, goals set, goals attained, horseshoes, shamrocks, luck, work ethic, desire, fun and a whole bunch of congrats to those people that just seem to always get it done.

   Two more days until the Kelln Personal Holiday.  

     I don’t understand the proper protocol of this facebook crap.  Who do you friend request?  Who do you confirm?  What’s appropriate?  I guess that I will do this deal like I have done everything else in my life.  I’ll do it until I screw it up and then I’ll fix it and not do that same mistake again.  It’s a little bit scary when you confirm or friend request and that person immediateley responds.  I understand a smart phone, but it is almost like Peyton Manning waiting on a reciever to come open.  It seems like they were….wait, wait, …waiting, here it comes, YES.  Confirm.  Touchdown.

       Speaking of protocol.  It should be a law that if you call somebody and they don’t answer and then you text them “CALL ME”.  It better be dang important.  “Call me when you get a chance” takes the urgency out of the call then text.  There ought to be some kind of protocol regarding this kind of instance.  

      It ought to be protocol of weathermen in a major metropolitan area to give the weather forecast for the entire state OR just punt and be honest with the outliers.  For example, it would be decent of Jed Castles to say “We have a 90% chance of good precipitation in OKC on Saturday.  However, for all of you west of highway 81, you have little or no chance of getting anything other than a butt-load of wind.”  Or just say, “We are likely to get rain in central OK but for those of you in the western counties, it will be like prom night and you most likely won’t get any.”  

     I don’t really care what the weather newspeople say, but I have a customer base that listens, but doesn’t hear.  So therefore, I get a lot of discussions on Wednesday about our high chance of rain.  Then on Thursday, I get the same person telling me how we missed our chances.  I watched the same news channels but I saw/heard it differently.  And, really I just think there are realists, optimists and pessimists.  I sound like a pessimist most of the time, am actually a realist and I really want to be in a good mood like an optimist.  But actually the facts bear me out to be an optimist.  I’m an OSU fan–next year is going to be better.  I deal in agriculture–we are always the next rain away from being in good shape.  We show animals–well if this one isn’t the great one, the next one is.  We raise show animals–this should be the kids we have been trying to make.  

      Most of the time, I come across as a donkey-hole but I truly want to see people succeed.  I would like Kela to come home, but I truly want to see her succeed at chasing her dream(s).  I want Duke to excel at something, but actually I just want him to find his own path and go down that path with proper protocol–whatever path that may be.  I want to help people with their show animals, but actually I just want to watch people get better with their show animals.  I want people to take pictures with their prize winning animals, but I will almost always break protocol and not get in the picture.  Almost always, the picture is better without me.    

      It truly scares me as to what the proper protocol to write this blog is.  I don’t know.  This is an edited version.  I re-type MOST of these blogs as I don’t want to offend, but in the end, actually I really don’t care if I piss somebody off.  Really, the only protocol that I follow on here, is the fact that my mother and my daughter read this stuff.  They read it and go “Ounhh?!  It could have been worse.  He could have written the LIVE version.”  

      Here’s to everybody having a good day.  We are only days, now hours, away from my personal national/religous holiday.  CAN’T WAIT! 

     Yes, I have survived a full day after setting up a facebook account.  I will also admit that I am guilty.  Yes, I got done with chores last night and came to the computer and clicked on a website–not the Chive or oklahomashowgoats as has always been my routine.  I went straight to facebook to see if I had any new friends.  

     Don’t be expecting me to write anything on facebook.  The Dragon Lady has banned me from writing on there.  She thinks this blog is dangerous enough.

     There is a lot of crap about that website that I don’t undertand.  The “like” button.  I don’t get it.  If I like a website, I go back to it on a regular basis.  Why do I need to click “like”?   Asking somebody to “like” a page?  That’s kind of like giving yourself your own nickname.  

     If you need any stall dividing pens for OYE (or any other show for that matter) give Tim Dunkin a holler  580-334-8910.  He has some really handy panels that are lightweight and pin together to make handy pens that fit inside the OYE horse stalls.  Plus, you can use them around the house to make portable load out pens, keep a set of twins caged, creep gate or whatever uses you might need.  He can deliver to OYE.  

     This facebook deal is absolutely retarded.  I don’t have a clue what I am doing and I don’t enjoy doing something that I don’t know what I am doing.  I don’t like the website fundamentals of facebook, but the software is OBVIOUSLY scary effective.  How the heck does it know to list me to all of these people?  I will gladly buy a goat from the first goat breeder that “accepted” me.  And, well hell, that was quick, we already have a winner.  I’ll send Tyke and a gooseneck.  Just hold the check for a day or two.  

      I’m still looking for the button to click “This is what I ate for dinner” or “I shouldn’t post this but…”

     RUSM?  I just “friended” the Gambler holding TWIN grandbabies.  I don’t know what the heck I am doing.  It isn’t comfortable.  But, I bet we figure it out.  If Kenny Rogers can do it, surely I can figure it out.  

Oh, WOW!  I just got accepted as a friend of Tammy Kelln.  YES!   We’re friends.  Wait a second!  WTF?  She told me that she was asleep and to leaver her alone.  Is there an auto-approve deal on facebook?  Hhmm!?  Thwarted, once again. Maybe this deal has alterior uses.  

      If the goat pics I posted are up, well it’s like Tony the Tiger–GREAT!!   Remember him?

Tag 1421 needs to be seen in real life.  No blog, facebook or pics can do him justice.  This goat is bad ass.  If there is a pic of Bill near a goat’s b-hole, I apologize.  Brooke made him do it.  

     Tomorrow is hump day.  So  it has to be better.  The Milligan’s are getting ready to come home with Grayson, so it is all getting better.  My heart goes out to those girls that lost their parents last week.  When facebook is the worst thing that I am dealing with, well, life could be worse.  Say a prayer or two or more for those girls and we will talk more later about the upcoming online benefit auction.  

      Wait a second…wait….RUSM?! It seems that I am now friends with Slash.  Maybe I will quit my day job and start touring.  Hhmm.  Probably not a healthy endeavor.  Wait…Wait…I just took a look  at my tax returns and cancelled checks from 2013.   I’m pretty sure that almost every endeavor is better financially than a stock show program–other than a drug or alcohol addiction.  I can write off a stock show addiction.  The other, I don’t think so.  Now, the price of having a kid active in a productive event such as stock shows–PRICELESS!!  Our family is working up to solid Cs for a very attainable goal.  Although not the desired GPA, i’m not worried about this kid becoming a productive citizen.  He will be fine.  

…like a gutshot Comanche in an old western movie.  That would describe the wind that hit this piece of paradise this afternoon.  It is blowing relentlessly. What lilttle soil moisture that we had from the little bit of snow is now gone.  But enough about the weather.  

     My dad saw my last feed bill.  “I don’t know how you afford to feed that high dollar stuff.”  Goats have an inverse ratio as compared to any other species.  Sows and cows do well when fed avg. quality feed stuff.  You can supplement a cow or sow with some protein and get by.  

      A doe goat–nope. If you are in a commercial goat setting, then you can’t afford to feed any added feed.  If you are in a show/purbred operation, then you feed all that you can.  And if you want them to milk, you feed them high quality feed and high quality hay–does and kids.  Like my old buddy Tom Lamle says, “The only thing harder to bloom than a yorkshire baby pig is a #@%! goat.

       One thing that we need to remember is that the good LORD put these beasts on this earth to eat stuff that nothing else would eat.  So, it shouldn’t be surprising that it takes a pile of corn/alfalfa/and other expensive goodness to make a goat look good.  Then, you get to worry about a kidney stone which is a direct result of feeding high quality feedstuffs.  

      Speaking of howling, I have been trying to setup a Kelln Livestock deal on facebook.  This is a g-d trainwreck.  I don’t want my life history in my profile.  I want limited info and that website is not setup for “limited” info.  It is designed for maximum information overload.   I’ve talked to my IT person that lives in California.  All she did was sigh and say “I knew that this wasn’t going to be fun when you decided to do this.”  All I want to do is put some pics of goats out there for the world to see.  If I want to dispense other crap, I can do it on here.       

      How about this weather in NW OK today?  It was stupid nice.  Too good.  Too hot and no rain in the forecast.  But it was a good night to watch a jr. high baseball game.  Got home and did chores, then came inside and turned on the tube.  I could watch JAWS or a concert on PBS.  Duke and I decided on the concert on public tv on this fine evening.  I like to watch some PBS as I have always loved Marty Stouffer’s “Wild America” shows.  Throw in some concerts and the fact that Kela had lots of air-time on OETA and I will gladly donate some cash to the cause to keep PBS on the air.  It’s their annual fund-drive time of year. 

      The concert tonight is going to make me update myu under-rated list.  The band name basically consists of two letters, kind of–the BeeGees.  I know, I know.  RUSM?  The BeeGees?  The disco band from the 70s?  YES!  That is exactly the band.  They are easily recgonizable because of their vibrato and falsetto voices, but these dudes were huge, yet they get stereo-typed into disco music.  Yes, they wrote several songs for soundtracks of some big movies.  But they also did everything else that the music industry has to offer.  

     Get the facts and lets argue.  The only artists to sell more records than the BeeGees—are you ready for this list?!–The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, Paul McCartney and the king himself– Elvis Presley.  The group played together for 45 years.  Soft rock, elevator music, pop, disco, folk and just plain old good music.  These three brothers harmonized their way into millions, as in $s.  Better yet, they wrote ALL of their own songs.  And a couple of others such as the theme song to GREASE and one of my all-time favorite tunes– “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers.  It is a Who’s Who list of artists that had hits written by the brothers of the BeeGees–Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Jimmy Ruffin, Diana Ross, Destiny’s Child, etc, etc, etc.  Google the list of songs that the Gibb brothers wrote and the artists that performed them.  Plus the 3 brothers helped their baby brother into a #1 career.  

      Laugh all you want, but you have to admit that when you hear the bass line to “Stayin’ Alive”  you get the jive feeling going and wish that you were wearing a white suit like Travolta did in Saturday Night Fever.  That is one of those tunes that if you were in the finals of the old tv program “Name That Tune” that you could go “I can name that tune in one note” and get it right.  Everybody knows their songs and kind of likes them.  I have some of their stuff on iTunes.  

       I don’t which mental image is funnier–some of you going WTF?  The BeeGees.  And the rest trying to look up what falsetto and vibrato mean.  That and I think that there is a closet near kitty-kway that has a white suit in storage.  

     Good night, good day and I hope everybody is as lucky as I am. 

      I will be the first to admit that the time change did NOT affect me waking up and heading to the couch to watch some Law& Order about 5 am.  However, I did fall asleep on said couch and did not wake up until 9:30 am.  Which means that it was 8:30 am yesterday morning.  So, I gathered up some goats to wash, clip and take a few pics.   With considerable help from the Taylors, Tammy & Duke and limited help from Mikey, we clipped and sorted some stock.  

      This evening, Tammy showed me some pics on facebook of our long, lost friend Sidney Yost.  Sidney was a WAY fun kind of person that loved to win stock shows.  Plus, he and his family weren’t afraid to work towards winning.  It dang neart brought tears to my eyes looking at those old pics of Sidney and his shit-eating grin.  When I was serving my 3 year sentence teaching at Billings, Sidney was one of several bright spots that made it fun.  His daughters hung lots of banners with some really good steers.  And a hog or two.  I have a story or two regarding pigeons. I miss Sidney, but I am happy that Kela kept a close relationship with his daughters.  Ramee and Randi are very cool kids.  Plus, they are easy to find.  Go to an OSU event and they will be there.  His wife, CIndy, is as cool as you they come.  

     One of these days, I need to do a Billings blog and tell SOME stories involving Short Shit, Meatchurch, Mitch, Struble, Hayton, Thralls, Yost, Sullins and Heinrich.  Oh, and Melvin.  There were some really good people in that not-so-good town.