I have had better weekends in the goat industry than this past one.  But that is another subject for another day.  Headed to Stillwater on Saturday morning.  We picked up a wether at OSU vet med hospital.  Square, the goat, had become quite popular with the staff at OSU.  He was ready to come back to Shattuck.  After we loaded him, then we headed to a few tailgate events on campus.  Then Eskimo Joe’s, then to some place called the Copper Penny that my daughter talked us into going to. 

     I had a rather good time there.  Ended up discussing life with former students from all three schools that I taught.  The good thing about an 11 am kickoff means that I will shut down rather early.  The Dragon Lady drove us home.  She got pulled over, but no ticket. 

  So, I went to Taco Mayo to get me a #3 mexicali grilled burrito with tater locos.  I said, “I would like a #3, beef, please.”  The waitress looked at me and said, “Chicken or steak?”  I shook my head, stared at the ceiling, thinking to myself, “If I said  Beef, doesn’t that mean Steak?”  I answered, “Steak”.  She printed my ticket, handed it and my cup to me.

    They called my number, I picked up my order, sat down and bit into it.  Guess what?  Chicken.  The reciept said #3 Steak, I said Beef & Steak.  How did I end up with chicken?  I ate the crap as I was already pissed about my day as I had a flat on a header trailer, got it fixed, then blew out the same tire 12 miles later.  I got rained on the both times that I was changing tires on the side of the highway with trucks blowing by me.  At least it is raining. 

I’m not a very artistic person. Jessica, sister-in-law, is scary creative & artistic. The Dragon Lady has her moments, like when she said “I do”. But these two women have done lots of decorating in the house. Most of which has not cost me money, which I like. All of what they have done looks good. I’ve just been whittling away at getting stuff done. Cleaned parts of the barn. Cut down the final two cedar trees (for now) and drug them off. Now, I need to go buy a lottery ticket as it is my lucky day. I cut two trees, didn’t get wasp bit (saw them and ran like a spotted ass zebra. They’re so fast you’ve never seen one.). Trees are hauled to an ever growing burn pile, waiting for a non-burn ban day to be turned into smoke. I actually enjoyed getting texts this weekend. Got a pic of a Joe Dirt class winner @ KS state fair of Garrett Burden from Medicine Lodge. I would watch out for this young showmen in years to come. He’ll be tough. Got another happy text from a young lady that won her county show this past weekend. I didn’t recognize her # as she usually uses a different # to fire off 22 texts/minute. I was glad to see a pic of Tiffany winning with a Joe Dirt x Ketchup wether. I hope she does well at Tulsa. Thank goodness, Britt Taylor won her county fair, albeit, with a Helms wether. With that winning check & the other 100 fair entries she had,, she should have enough money for a trampoline. We’ve had lots of reports of Joe Dirt, Freak on a Leash, Rainman, Fade2Black and Pocket kids winning shows in numerous states. I like to hear how the kids & kids are doing. Oh, by the way, if you haven’t seen the cinematic classic “Caveman”, then you need to go buy it and watch it. You won’t be any smarter, but that is still a funny movie. I will warn you that Ringo Starr is the lead actor. It is fun seeing all the big names before they became famous.

     Busy weekend.  Had to take Duke to the Ellis County livestock judging contest.  Then I headed home and hauled crap out of the barn all afternoon.  Scrap metal and trash.  Big Bill had to take a wether to Stillwater.  Fighting a kidney stone that has got all the vets stumped.  We knew this was a good wether, but this calamity is proving us right. 

     Sunday was a busy day.  Had four sets of goats show up to get hoof work, evaluations, showmanship, etc.  I don’t normally have very many doe kids to look at, but there was two different sets on Sunday and both sets were way good.  There was some really interesting doe kids in those show strings.  Also saw some nice wethers. 

     With the weather finally cooling off, goats will start converting feed better.  If you are feeding hard and not exercising, they will start getting soft.  Now, that the temps have dropped, I’m trying to decide when to drill some grazing material.  I’m going to sow triticale, austrian winter peas and turnips.  Soil temps have been too high and the grasshoppers are thick.  I did have a guy tell me how to keep grasshoppers from eating the outside rounds of his young wheat.  He just isn’t going to drill any outside rounds.  That ought to stop ’em. 

     I loaded up a few kids that needed to find a new home.  I drove to the piece of paradise west of Fairview.  Two sundays ago, Duke and I loaded the majority of our doe herd.  I can tell you for a fact that 38 mature does will fit in a 6×16 stock trailer.  I left 9 does at Fairview.  Yesterday, I made it back to pick them up.  Of course, they were as far away as possible at 2:30 in the afternoon and it was hot.  No gator, no 4 wheeler.  Just my fat ass trekking across the cedar canyons to find them.  I got them sorted and loaded and then I headed to Perry. 

     This was my first visit to the Perry goat sale.  Got 4 does and 4 kids unloaded.  They told me that they would be in pen 44B.  I asked if that was the high dollar pen.  They laughed and said, “All of pens are high dollar pens.”  We’ll see about that.

     I hadn’t been to Perry in a year.  So, I called Milligan to look at his new additions.  Holy crap!  He has spent a pile on panels, carports, feeders, etc.  I feel his pain.  Very functional set of facilities.  Millligan and I agree that good facilities, fences, etc. are a MUST for raising goats in Oklahoma.  It just makes things better.

     The welcoming committee was there in full force.  Big I was in a great mood.  Elliott was moving sticks around.  I didn’t have time to stay and they had appointments, so all parties were on good behavior. 

     I made it back to the Kompound at Fargo in time to look at a wether fighting kidney stones.  My question is “How come it is always a good one that has stones?”  Its never a common one that has problems.  Oh well. 

     The Best of the West sale was yesterday.  This was an outstanding set of wethers.  The best set of wethers sold in Oklahoma this year.  All six breeders brought quality.  The good ones brought good money, $3-6K.  There were some bargains.  There will be premium sale wethers from this sale.

     We had a very good crowd and the facilities at Woodward are very good.  We had lots of help running the sale.

     Saturday was an eventful day.  I was at the store until noon. Then headed home to shear goats.  The only problem was that my arms were blistered up, so I was basically resigned to pointing, talking crap and self-medicating.  I had a pile of help that bailed me out.  Kela, Braden, Schoovy, Big Bill, Tyke, Nip and Madison were sweating, but all the wethers were sheared, does clipped and goats sorted.  A big thank you to all of our helpers.

     Sunday was fun day.  We made sure everything was set up at the fairgrounds and then headed to Fargo for supper.  Rusty and Marla Thomas came to the house for a cajun shrimp/crawdad boil.  Lots of friends were there.  Rusty put on a show for everybody.  It was fun. 

     Let me have a whole swarm of wasps, cause this poison oak is BRUTAL!!  I’ve had it before and it was more widespread than this time, but this stuff isn’t fun.  If you haven’t had it, feel blessed.  It isn’t the same as poison ivy.  This is way worse.  I’m past the itching part, now its the oozing blisters.  And you can’t let the ooze touch anything else or it spreads.  It affects your nerves and the pain can be outstanding.  Heat, sweat, movement, etc will irritate it.  In other words, I’m border line worthless until this stuff heals. 

     Taking a shower is an adventure.  When the running water hits my arms, it is an INTENSE, bright white blindling light kind of pain, then an extremely good feeling.  Almost like some kind of wierd S&M kind of deal.  Oh my goodness that hurts but it feels so good.  Speaking of adventure, wiping while trying to avoid all contact is kind of difficult.  Dang sure don’t want any of it on those body parts.  I had a guy tell me to have my wife help me wipe.  I was like, “you’ve got to be kidding me?”  He said, “No.  I had two broken arms at the same time and my wife took care of me.  You’ll find out how much she loves you.”  I didn’t even ask the Dragon Lady for help.  She would just buy me a diaper and a chisel. 

     I watched the Hunger Games movie with Duke and Kela last night.  Pretty good flick.  I can see why those books are so popular.  I doubt that the trilogy is as good as the Lord of the Rings or Star Wars.  But I will watch the next two movies.  I probably ought to read the books, but that takes time and that’s something I don’t have much of.

     I’ve kind of been experiencing some hunger games of my own.  Tammy has been busy with painting, unpacking and all of the other BS involved with moving.  Therefore, grocery shopping, meal planning and cooking has NOT been on her radar.  I’ve been fairly creative as to some of the stuff that I have put into the microwave and then into my gut. 

     Another Friday is here.  I am dragging ass but it will be okay.  I can’t seem to get everything done, but one of these days, I will finally be caught up.  After dark last night, I decided to climb on the tractor and start working some ground.  We actually have good soil moisture.  I didn’t get many acres covered, but it is a start. 

     I am looking forward to this weekend.  This will be a good sale, with good goats and more importanty good people.  This means that I will have an excuse to have fun. 

      I have piles of good wood and good metal.  I also have piles of scrap metal.  I am rid of most of the trash & junk except for an ass-load of used tires.  If anybody needs a used tire, I probably have the size you need. 

     I have cut down cedar trees, hackberry trees and dead trees out of the fenceline in order to build the fence around the new Kelln Kompound.  I have been bit by wasps and several occasions during this ordeal.  Now, I am fighting a bout of poison oak that came from putting up electric fence.  I’m not allergic to many things, but this fence project is about to cover them all.  Wasp bites & poison oak are two of the three known things that I am allergic to.  I guess I just need to go grind some milo, then my eyes will swell shut and I will have them all covered this month.

     I’ve got plenty of them.  I can’t stand to turn the news on right now because I don’t care about a hurricane heading towards New Orleans.  If they were stupid enough to stay after Katrina, then that is their problem.  That isn’t news.  I don’t wish anyone harm or loss of property, but Come on!. 

     Between an upcoming presidential “election”, a hurricane and a horrible drought, I don’t really want to watch the morning news. 

     I enjoy seeing good livestock.  I enjoy helping kids and I enjoy helping other breeders.  I am amazed at how people will try to take advantage of you.  Adults, always adults.  Especially other breeders looking for some low rent way to get help or abusing your help.  Amazing.  Sometimes, I seem “kind of’ callous and brutally honest.  There is a reason.  I have been fortunate that we have a crew in our show circle that is fun to be around.  They all understand teamwork, work ethic and how to have fun.  The kids enjoy being around each other.  

      I see a lot of goats.  In my opinion, the Best of the West sale will be one of the best sets of goats sold this year. 

     In my opinion, the prices for good goats is going to stay high.  There is a limited supply of bonafide good ones.  That is what will drive the prices up.  Common ones will be hard to sell.  It won’t matter if it is private, online or public auction, a good one will sell high and a common will take up feed.