Well we survived Tulsa. I was real pleased with how Mr. Coburn lined wethers up. He was very consistent, his reasons fit the goats, he didn’t waste time and he was very good with the kids. Wether I agree with all of his placings or not doesn’t matter, as long as I can understand why he did what he did. The grand wether is a goat that I love in terms of structure, style, balance and overall completeness. In my opinion, he could be a little bit heavier muscled. But it is hard to make one that good on his feet and legs with a good hip, rib and shoulder while still having enough muscle and a whole lot of style. When we bought him, I thought that he could be a division winner. I guess that I was right. It wasn’t until about six weeks ago that I thought that he could do more than that. To be honest, I really couldn’t see the goat that well at that sale. As Poe said, “It was a 115 degrees in a tin roof building with a sprinker running on top of it with about fifteen people in the old wooden bleachers.” The heat waves coming from the floor of that barn may have caused me to be a little off in my evaluation of that animal.

I hated to see Duke’s div. 1 champ leave. That is one of the Kelln family’s favorite goats of all time. He was cheap to buy, had a story to him, never got sick, no fungus, easy to break and show, easy to shear, won a banner and had a great personality. Perfect goat for a 10 year old. When Duke and I would work wethers this past season, we would deal with the special ed department first and then get out Little Stevie Peaches to put us back into a good mood.

The past couple of years, we have had people question if the online sales were real. We have had good results. This Tulsa shows what kind of quality we have been offering in these sales. There were six wethers in our April online sale. Five of those wethers stayed in Oklahoma. All five were at Tulsa. Results–3 class winners, two seconds and two reserve division champs. Schoovy’s had the reserve division 6 wether, Chance Alexander had a class winner in div. 6 and Ally Riley had a 2nd in class. The Alread family bought two wethers sight unseen on that sale. One ended up as a class winner and the other was reserve division 5 behind the grand. Pretty good results.

I thought the show was very well ran. Very efficient. Classes were broke as good as they could be. Superintendents of the goat show understand goats and goat people. That is good. I was glad to hear that every effort was made to have the goat kids wearing FFA/4H jackets during the premium sale. I despise that lame ass shirt rule that they have allowed at OYE and Tulsa the past couple of years. That shirt deal has always looked wrong to me. It is a fungus that crept out of the sheep barn that I wish would go back. I could go off on this topic, but I will wait until a later date. Hats off to Mr. Staats for taking care of it for the premium sale.

Had a guy tell me that Tulsa was the end of the 900 genetics dominating the showring. Now that Tulsa is over with, I look at the list of division and reserve division champs and think “Hmmm. Don’t think that he was quite right”. All twelve wethers were sired by a son, grandson or great-grandson of 900. Tolson tells me that the reserve grand had 9 shots of 900 in his pedigree. Whether anybody likes it or not, the 900 genetics are going to continue to dominate. I do agree with the fact that whoever figures out an outcross to work on these genetics is going to get rich.

We got the wethers sheared and photoed yesterday. There will be three Joe Dirt kids, three kids sired by Freak On A Leash. There will also be 1 Ralph Shafer wether, 1 Ann Shafer wether, 1 Gallagher wether (which was the reserve grand at the State Fair) and one paint wether from Mike Kelly. We are offering some of these because we just have too many for a 10 year old to take care of properly. Plus, he wants pigs for Phoenix. The paint wether is sired by Blindside. He is way good. The Gallagher wether is sired by Monkey and is absolutely huge topped. Five hundred dollars won’t get those two bought. The wether from Ann Shafer is sired by 191 and is going to be shown at Tulsa. The sale will not be on the 10th like advertised, it will be later in the week, probably on the 13th.

I just got done doing chores and sat down to the computer to check emails and the info pages also known as “message boards”. I noticed the videos were up for Morriss’ doe sale. It is apparent that technology has trickled down to south Texas. I liked the write ups and music that Helms used. But it is enjoyable to listen to Steve and Ralph in the background. The sound of someone spitting, Ralph questioning whether it was working or not and a mild kick of dirt to make animals move. The doe kids also look good. If somebody had one of those tight wound 900 bred sons, they might want to invest in these doe kids. That could work.

There is a good chance that there will be a date change for the Duke’s Up Online Sale. Too many headaches at work, coupled with trying to help Duke get his retards ready to show next week, isn’t leaving me any time to shear and photo. I will know by this weekend what the plan is going to be. I appreciate those that have been calling trying to setup viewing times. I just haven’t been home much. Yes, we are going to offer some or all of Duke’s show string. Once again, haven’t had time to make up my mind which ones. The sale will have any where from 6-13 head in it. All wethers. The only does that I have left, I am keeping.

Well, I’m going to do my part to help the economy. We got home from the state fair and the air conditioner had quit. The A/C unit has issues that are being repaired. Now, we are waiting on parts to get it fixed. I would imagine that it was just flat wore out from April to September being 110. The roof is going to have to be replaced after the hail storm a week ago. The dryer quit on Sunday. I love spending money on unexpected stuff like that.

If you have ever been to our little piece of paradise, then you aware that our county district doesn’t believe in using gyp rock, but instead uses 4 1/2″ jagged edge boulders. As a result of this, I buy a lot of tires. K&S tire is going to like me this week. I took a tire off the power ranger this morning which probably can’t be fixed. I am also going to have to replace two tires on one of my trailers.

Anybody that wants a job in this part of the world, has a job. I had to replace a parts guy this past month. I could write a book about the parts guy that we don’t have anymore. I don’t know where he is now, but I hope he didn’t get scalped. Got lucky and found a new one with a strong ag background. I need to hire several service techs, but with the oilfield being very active, that is hard to do. We have lost 4 mechanics this summer to the oilfield. I have been running ads in various newspapers in 3 different states for the past three weeks. I have even resorted to calling mechanics at other dealers, oilfield and auto mechanics. All that I have accomplished is gotten those guys raises and better benefits at their current jobs. We are a better economic stimulus package than what your president came up with.

Time to get out of the house. Got an auction to attend and parts to deliver. Then end up back home tonight and try to get goats ready for the Duke’s Up sale, which will generate some cash for Milligan Web Designs.

When you start a day by shooting a hole in your own barn door and catching a chunk of ricochet shrapnel in your left shin, and that is the highlight of your day, then you have had a crappy day. Welcome to my world! Those of you that know me are well aware of the fact that there is very little filter in between my brain and my mouth. This serves me well at times, but it also can get me into trouble. Some of you are also aware that I don’t normally respond to many text messages. I will read them but I don’t like to type them out.

I can dish crap out when I don’t like something. But I am also very capable of admitting when I was wrong and will apologize when I need to. I spent most of my afternoon apologizing for stuff that I screwed up on. Trust me, from now on, I will always double check who I am sending a text or e-mail to before I hit SEND. I caused problems without even trying to cause problems. Worse, I wasn’t even upset with the person I caused the problems with. It was 100% my fault. It is actually a dang funny story considering timing, things I said the night before about how I hate texting, irony and etc, etc. My wife is enjoying the fact that I am admitting fault and apologizing to some, and would to another, but she is justifiably not answering my calls. Nonetheless, it was my fault. My intentions actually were good, but I screwed things up worse than the government’s spending methods. The difference is, I am not blaming a republican or a democrat. My mistakes. My chance to apologize and try to fix it.

The moral of the story is first and foremost, when wrong–admit it, apologize, fix it and don’t do it again. I have always been a proponent of stepping back and realizing where the problem is. If you are the problem, fix it. Obviously, it is time for ol’ Kelln to take a dose of his own medicine. Several deals have gone sour and I am the common ingredient. Secondly, technology has changed the way people communicate. Texting, email, facebook, etc have removed face to face discussions. Several of the deals that I have apologized for involved texting and I am only guilty of actually sending one, but another caused my mouth to run when it should have been shut. That is not good. This blog deal is scary how many people read it and don’t actually know me. To be honest, I probably need to be more responsible with the stuff that I post on here. In closing, if you have personally been offended by me, my actions or words lately, I apologize. Also, you might want to double check yourself after reading this. We are all guilty.

Tomorrow, the iPod is going to be playing a song by Don Williams…”Lord, I hope this day is good.”

It got a little dangerous this morning. Duke and I thought we had rid the place of racoons. We quit setting traps because we kept catching Duke’s cats and Sasha the corgi. Tammy informed us that she had seen one Saturday morning while feeding for us. So, I took the coon hunting special gun to the barn this morning and sure enough, there was one. He ran right under me as I tried to shoot him the first time. This shot led to a pissed off wounded coon and a ricochet hole in the barn door. I then chased him out of the barn and missed my next shot. But finished the job with the third shot.

We survived the great State Fair of OK. Spent a fortune on lemonades and corn dogs. Our crew had a pretty good day with Braden winning grand and Duke reserve grand. Braden also had the champ heavy division which was 4th overall. This wether came out of our online sale in April. Duke was pretty excited that he got a Happy Gilmore check. However, he wasn’t happy when he got home and realized that Kela’s Happy Gilmore check from the state fair was bigger. Not in terms of money, but physical size. Most people aren’t overly impressed with the medallions that the state fair has always given out. However, Duke thought his was cool because it had a corn dog on the medallion. It must be great to be 10 years old.

Internet was down again this morning. However, we did get almost an inch of rain.

It is coming up on the fungus time of year for goats. How do you prevent it or cure it? It is way easier to prevent than it is to cure it.

1–Disinfect and wash all blankets, tubes, socks, etc. from last year. Or just buy new ones.

2–Disinfect all clippers, blades, etc. between goats. You can buy anti-fungal clipper dip.

3–We feed STOP! from oxygen 10 days before show date and 2 weeks after. If you feed any longer, it loses effectiveness. It won’t stop everything, but it does help and it is fairly cheap.

4–Washing and shearing removes the natural oils from the skin of an animal. The oil is the natural barrier against invaders such as fungus, ringworm, staph, etc. There MUST be some type of oil applied bag to the skin and hair. We use recondition from Jobe’s or Recharge from Supreme Show Supply.

5–On show day, I like to brush baby powder into the hair. This provides a barrier betwen the judge’s hand and the slick shorn skin of a wether. It also freshens the handle of a goat. A judge is the #1 agent of contamination as they handle every goat.

6–We keep hand sanitizer at our stalls. Before anybody is allowed to handle a goat, they better clean their hands.

7–Never stall with or near sheep. Or in stalls that have been used by sheep.

8–Always use clean bedding at shows. Don’t move into a pre-used stall.

9–If your animal has fungus, ringworm or staph infection, STAY HOME! That is how it gets spread.

10–If you are going to a non-terminal show, and have room within withdrawal time–give an anti-biotic shot before shearing.

11-As soon as we are done showing at a show, we spray each wether with a chlorhexaderm mix. This disinfects the goat. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Then rinse, dry and spray with Recharge.

Have had several calls regarding the dumb asses section a couple of weeks ago. There are a lot of people, very experienced showmen, having problems with their goats being retarded as well. The only common connection, is that they all have a lot of 900 genetics, the goats, not the people. It seems as there is now more 900 influenced goats out there, and more retarded goats. Mikey and I have dealt with this for several years, as he and I have fed several wethers bred this way. But as they are more inbred and more of them out there, the more mental midgets we have to deal with. Of course, they are real good goats or we wouldn’t be messing with them. That is they trade off–big tops, butts and bone sometimes equals little brain cavity. Its just going to take time and patience.

Well, I got a taste of my own medicine last night with the Helms online doe sale. I am still a big fan of online auctions, but it can get hard to keep up with. I was trying to bid on lots 1 through 10. Let me tell you, that is kind of hard to manage and not lose track of time. Especially, when the prairie dogs spinning the internet wheel for our outdated service couldn’t keep up with the refresh button. Whoever, got lots 2 & 7 bought, you are welcome. I was bidding on both and hit submit, and somehow, I was too late. It really gets hard to keep up with when there are so many others bidding so fast. Oh well, I guess it saved me some cash.

I thought the goats looked good on video. The write ups gave a solid description and the genetics were in demand. That makes for a good online sale. I did like the music touch to it as well. Doing an online sale takes some work, but good pictures/video, good info and good genetics makes for a successful sale. It is a lot of work to get the pics. Animals don’t always cooperate. I like the video better on the does. I like mutiple pics of wethers.