Goats are all picked up. All the hair is pulled and goats are to their new homes. Tulsa nominations are done. One deadline down, time to take a deep breath. My feed bill just got smaller yesterday. Had quite a bit of traffic here at our little piece of paradise yesterday evening. Got several plates of cookies, got a jar of sand plum jelly and a jar of sand plum wine. I was warned that the alcohol content might be a little high, so I’m going to hold off a day or three before I sample that.

I bought a Book wether online the other day. Got him picked up Saturday. Really good wether. I had bought him sight unseen, but had talked to several about him. They didn’t steer me wrong. I cut a finger trying to open Cecil’s homemade popper guillotene gate latch. Then that evening, while trying to catch him in the trailer, the wether jumped and hit me in the face, bent my glasses and bruised my right eye socket. On Sunday, I cut my other hand while cutting an ear tag out on this same damn goat. Then, while carrying him to the pickup, he blew up and kicked the shit out of me and his hoof cut me on my fat roll. It’s a good thing the goat is good, or I might have lost my temper.

It is Friday morning. Finally. This has been a long week and it isn’t over yet. Work has been hectic, not necesarily productive, but busy. Today, will be miserable as it is cattle sale day in Woodward, which makes Friday’s our busiest day. Have one parts person on vacation, a salesman on vacation and another salesman having to take a personal day to deal with some family stuff. Which means we will be shorthanded, no lunch, and I won’t get to leave the store till late, but we will get through it. At least we have water at the house this morning. It is amazing how a good shower can change one’s attitude.

I’m ready to get the rest of these wethers dispersed by Sunday. With nominations due on Monday for Tulsa, I have to be done by then. I’ve still got wethers scattered in different locations in OK and several to pick up in Texas. Sometimes, I realize that I might be a dumb bastard. Lots of time invested and miles covered to get all this done. Anytime, somebody wants to complain about how I get their goats for them, they can kiss my ass and get somebody else to help. I’m already pretty picky about who I help, so I don’t have to listen to any complaining. Which is good.

Most people wouldn’t understand how I sort goats. But it is pretty simple. I buy every goat that I like that fits inside a budget. Then I decide if it is going in Duke’s pen or not. Duke’s pen will have as many as 30 goats in it for awhile. Then I go to sorting down to 4 to 6 for him. It isn’t necessarily the top 4 or 6, but the one’s that fit us best. Some structure problem that most can’t fix, some little green dude that my imagination talks me into thinking that it might be a great one, etc. Then I get to sorting at the last minute before nominations. Then I do like last night and realize that the three wethers I sold on Tuesday are better than anything in Duke’s pen. Which makes me think, that next year, I’ll just stay home and feed what we raise and everybody can go buy their own goats.

Since I now realize, that I once again kept the wrong ones for Duke, I guess we will just have to out work, out feed and out show everybody. Have a good day everybody.

also known as H2O or water. We don’t have any right now. We are on rural water and occasionally have a problem here and there, but this week has not been fun. Monday morning, I did chores, filled buckets, etc. I came inside and Tammy was taking a shower. I got my glass of orange juice and headed to the computer. By the time I went to shave, no water. So I took a towel bath with bottled water. Not a good way to start the week. Especially, since I am a two shower a day kind of guy.

Tuesday night, no water. Went to the in-laws to bathe. Wednesday night–no water. Thursday morning–no water. So far, i’ve had tanks full when the water quits. But if they don’t get it going today. I’m going to have a water supply issue. If you haven’t noticed, it is a little bit warm outside. Water is an issue.

Thanks to all of the buyers and bidders on the Champion’s Choice Online Sale. This was a good set of goats.

I bought a goat on there. Haven’t seen him. Did talk to the breeder and others about him. We’ll find out this weekend how good he is.

There is now only one doe left to kid at this place. The great thing is, I don’t know when she is due. She never got marked, but she is making a bag. It will be one of two bucks that could be the sire. I’ll be able to tell by the birth date–who done it.

There are 21 does nursing babies that were born from late May to now. We normally only have 5-10 nursing at any one time. This is half our her.

Online auction closes tonight.

Sales continue to be very hot. Large crowd this weekend in Norman. Wethers and doe kids all sold very well. The pics are up for the champion’s choice online sale. This is a nice set of goats. Well worth your time.

Summer is finally here. It is almost as hot as a goat sale. It could be worse. It could be like last year when it had been 100+ for dang near a month by now. Make sure your show goats have plenty of fresh, clean water. Don’t forget to prevent kidney stones. Keep salt available and apple cider vinegar in your water.

Got to try to juggle some goats around today and tonight. Then make it to Norman for the Circle of Champions sale. I am expecting a really good sale. It was just a year ago that I bought Little Stevie Peaches for $600 dollars at this sale. He was div. 1 champ at Tulsa. I like those kind.

I still need to buy a pile of goats for a lot of really good feeders. I hope to get done in the next few days. I don’t buy or sell very many doe kids, but I’ve sure had a lot of requests this year.

Over the years, I have fed a lot of goats from Ralph, Morris and Helms. I’ve only fed a couple from Ann Shafer. We’ve had a lot of goats in premium sales from these breeders. There will be a lot of quality at this sale. Sometimes, you have to have an imagination to figure out which ones are the good ones as they aren’t always the bloomiest goats, but the genetics are there.

Once, I get done with that sale, I’ve got babies to work. They needs horns burned. Not fun. But its time.

I’ve sent pics to Milligan for the Champion’s Choice online sale that will be on June 26. Hopefully the pics are up before this weekend. We are selling 3 wethers on this sale. I’m real pleased with the 3 that we are offering. They are out of proven matings that have constantly put wethers in premium sales. Seelke’s are selling two wethers and Tyke is selling two doe kids and a wether. All seven are good goats. They are well worth your time to go look at.

Tyke’s are in Shattuck, Seelke’s at Cleo Springs and mine are here at the little piece of paradise. I will be home Sunday afternoon and Monday evening if you want to look in person. Call the others to make arrangements. Or call me and I can discuss my thoughts on all seven goats.

I’ve seen a pic of the prospect that Schneberger is selling also. Looks like a good one that you need to check out. Their stuff has been doing well in the show ring.

These online sales are becoming rather popular. It was only 2010 that people were questioning Milligan and I if these sales were real. Now, those breeders are holding mutliple sales a year. Hell yeah they are real. Milligan is charging commission so why would we want the prices inflated if they aren’t real.

The things that amaze me about every online sale is the fact that there are buyers that never see the animal or talk to somebody that has seen the animal. They buy just off the pics/video, genetics and write up. I have bought without seeing them in person, but I talked to the breeder and people that I trust first.

The second thing, is the Online Surge. It kills me that at 3 o clock somebody will be calling about how cheap one is. It won’t be. Don’t think they are cheap until about 30 minutes before the close of the auction. Thats when the surge hits and the bidding really begins.

Rumour Has It….that I bought a buck a month ago. Yes, some of the rumours have been true. Tag 2174 is at my house. Seelke’s and I partnered on him. Lots of questions have been following this goat.

Is he as good as his facebook pictures? Yes. He is massive ribbed, huge loined, shapely racked, square hipped, deep twisted, wide based, big boned, long enough, big enough, cocky fronted, crank tailed, long strided and COMPLETE. He’s way good.

Did I band him? NO!! Even though I did band tag 667 last year, which worked out well for the Schovanec’s, this one was to stay intact. I did offer Kenneth $5,000 for him as a wether and I would let him keep the nuts as that was the expensive part. He didn’t go for that offer. I did leave Quitiquae with an empty trailer that Friday. Why? Because I was leaving there and didn’t want to haul that little dude to Mason and then back to Oklahoma. Tyke went and picked him up the next morning. I would imagine that Tyke was a little nervous driving back to Shattuck that next morning.

What would he have brought as a wether? I don’t have a clue as I haven’t seen one look like that.

Are we going to sell semen or live covers? Not this year.

Is he the best one that I’ve seen? Yes.

Was I nervous writing the check? No. Was Bob shaking as he wrote the check for his half? Just a little bit.

What did he cost? None of your damn business.

Do you wish that you had him? Yes.

What’s his name? RUMOUR HAS IT

Congrats to the entire Helms crew on a super successful sale. Lots of bucks changed hands last night.

Thanks to the crew for helping with pictures. If you ever want to learn how to setup for an online sale, come watch our staff at work. Thanks to Tyke, Tammy, Duke, Bill, Bob and Jodi. Huge thank you to Brooke Taylor for taking pictures.

We will have wethers and doe kids in the Champions Choice online sale. Pictures should be up in a day or so.