“You’re going to need a bigger boat.”

      It isn’t my favorite movie, but I won’t argue if you tell me that Jaws is the best movie of all time.  Obviously, this time-tested classic is on the tube tonight.

     I herded 60 plus does into the corrals by myself.  Then sorted them down to the one doe that I needed.  The doe was K9. Nine year old does don’t sort easy.  They have seen your tricks before.  I sorted down to her and ran her into the catch pen. No help, no cussing, no throwing nearby objects and no witnesses.  Perfection and nobody saw it.  I almost wanted to shed a tear.

      There is going to be a bit of a wether goat sale in OKC this Saturday.  If you show at OYE, I highly recommend that you attend.  These are the best odds to make the OYE premium sale.  Can’t miss sale.

     As usual, I have managed to cram too many things into a given calendar.  We just survived the Ellis county fair.  This isn’t a big livestock fall fair.  However, the FFA and 4H projects are pretty competive.  Lots of floriculture, ag mech, photo boards, grass boards and veggies.  Not all bad as lots of kid can compete.

      I got home from that fair in time to watch Braden & Duke clip and photo keeper bucks for several breeders.  Gary Cramblet brought a trailer load.  He brought 2 of his own and 3 of Helms.  Throw in one of mine and this might have been the best set of buck prospects gathered in one place this year.  Lots of look, power and balance assembled in one group.  This Cramblet has managed to put together an elite pair of bucks.  This pair was dang good.  The Helms bucks are good, but I had seen them and knew what to expect.  There is one that I have always really liked and he did not dissapoint.  

      My keeper is a Rumour x Harley that is bred just like the grand at Woodward in ’15.  I guess that this buck is a flush success story.  Last summer, Edwards got one embryo out of this doe.  In September, Crawford, with all of his wisdom and intellect managed to get 0 out of her.  She passed on in December.  Luckily, that one embryo stuck.  I like this goat.  

     On Sunday, I finally got to meet some razorbacks that I had dealt with on the phone.  It is good to meet in person.

     Speaking of wicked good– my Mom made some pear kuchen.  I grew up eating cherry kuchen but this pear deal was new and was actually just an attempt to get rid of a crap-load of pears.  Holy jeeminy this stuff was unreal good!

     How about that crappy Okie State football loss?  You can blame the refs but OSU earned that loss.  

     Rumour Has It was a buck that I enjoyed using to breed goats.  He made some good ones and some better than others.  The older he became, the more I disliked dealing with him.  He just became unpleasant to deal with.  He acted one of these spoiled athletes.  

Now, I am dealing with one of his sons that is a coming 3 year old.  Obviously, this unpleasant attitude is a genetic trait.  But, I will tolerate it as I want to make babies that look like this buck.  

The weekend is very near.  Have a good one!

If one was to start a Mount Rushmore for the four livestock show species, without a doubt, the person that I would put on there to represent the goats would be Mike Kelly.  He and his family were true pioneers in this goat game.  It is hard to find a good goat that doesn’t trace back directly to the Kelly line of genetics.  He understood genetics, showing, feeding and marketing.  It wasn’t always easy to get a lot of information out of him, but if you listened and watched, you could pick up a nugget of info.  And it was always fun to watch him perk up when you asked the right question.  Once he could tell that you had done some homework, he would talk just a bit more.  

In 2006, Fred Slater and I bought a cheap buck from the Kelly family.  They had already bred a couple to him.  They had him named Harley.  He was a double-bred Out Of Bounds son.  He wasn’t much to look at, but he assured me that I needed him.  I followed his advice–“Make sure that you keep those daughters.”  He was right. I’m still seeing the benefits of those Harley daughters.  

I always liked calling him and telling him that one of their wethers had won a show, a division or placed well.  He would always talk a bit, just a bit, about the genetics behind that goat.  And he always emphasized the female behind it.  

Maybe the best thing about Mike was and is the way that the family worked together.  A true livestock legend has been lost, but I guarantee that his lessons have been learned by Kathryn and Coltin.  Prayers to the Kelly family.

The Best of the West sale for 2016 is now in the books.  We had an excellent feast at the house on Sunday evening.  The temp was good but the wind was wicked.  The shrimp and mudbugs were good.  Tom & Kerensa Kester smoked some goat bologna as well as some deer/jalapeno bologna.  This stuff was good.  The crowd wiped it out.  Throw in a smoked pig butt from Brandon Bruce and we were well fed.  LOTS of protein.  

The sale was typical of this year.  The really good ones brought big money, then it dropped off.  We sold a pair of Law & Order wethers that went to really good homes.  We probably had too many goats at the sale, but 55 of them got new homes. 

Thanks to all that helped at the sale and to all those that bid and bought.  

Now, it’s time to start getting ready for the OYE sale on Sept. 17th.  This futurity sale should be intriguing.  

     There I was, lying on the couch, watching the sun come up while watching some Seinfeld.  I first heard a crick, like a door opening, but it wasn’t the same.  Then, the couch kind of moved.  Just a mild shake for a couple of seconds.  Then again.  I thought that was odd.  

      Then the Dragon Lady came in and asked if I felt it.  I said “Yes.  Was it an earthquake?”  She said that there was a quake about 60 miles away at Seiling.  This was the first time that I have felt an earthquake.  That was enough for me.  I don’t need a big one.  

     Time to go shear some goats and setup for a sale. Have a good one.  

I am not in San Angelo nor am I headed to San Angelo this weekend.  Why?  I haven’t heard of any wicked bucks being offered this weekend.  I don’t need any more does.  And I’ve got plenty to do around here.

The Best of the West sale is shaping up to be very good.  There are several elite wethers that will be offered as well as a bunch of well-bred goats that have the right parts and just need a good showman.  We will be selling about 50 head of wethers and doe kids.  Tyke is smoking brisket for lunch on Monday.   This sale has consistently produced top end wethers at OYE as well as a pile of district premium sale goats without the prices getting stupid high.  

It wasn’t the Chinese this time.  It was some perverts.  Kellnlivestock.com got hacked and they made their own email from suzanne_banks@kellnlivestock.com email account.  Whoever did it, sent out some pretty serious requests.  (You know it’s pretty graphic if I think that it was bad!) I would at least like to know if the recips of these hacked emails were hot chicks or not.  But now, thanks to Julie Milligan, we are like Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN2–We are back and better than ever!

It has been wicked busy around here in paradise.  We have managed to miss most of the rains that have passed through.  We have caught .5 inches in the past week. Ten miles to the west, north and east have recieved from 3-5 inches.  Go south and they have gotten really wet.  We no-tilled a few acres of triticale and are now waiting to drill the rest.  On that note, if you ever hook up to a gooseneck seed-tender, make DANG sure that you lock the hitch.  It is a quick motion that knocks the back glass out of a pickup.  I don’t even have anybody to blame it on.  

Duke’s cattle operation has been expanding.  But, not without a setback or two.  Sunday morning found Duke and I with a set of pulling chains.  I realized that I wasn’t going to get this one out, even though their was room.  The calf was backward and twisted.  So, we loaded the heifer up and headed over to the local experts.  When John and Johnny said that it was a problem, we got on the phone and went to calling vets.  Now, getting a vet on a Sunday around Noon is not an easy deal anymore.  A semi-retired vet buddy of mine came and said what we were thinking, “C section”.  We then loaded up and headed to Shattuck.  Dr. Prather is one of the best cattle reprod vets in this part of the world.  We didn’t save the calf, but the cow is fine.  The calf was not that big, there was room to work, but it just wasn’t coming out.  Oh well.  Duke is living part of the FFA creed–the joys and discomforts part.  Of course, I am not looking forward to the bill.  But, that is part of it. And the joy part is looking at the calves that he has on the ground.  Another part of the joys is having good help.  Duke has some serious backers watching over this cattle operation.  John and Johnny are wicked good neighbors.  

I did not enjoy seeing the news that Gene Wilder passed away.  Young Frankestein, Willy Wonka and of course, the Waco Kid.   Oh my!  This dude played a role in some of the funniest movies of all time.  I know that Richard Pryor is considered one of the funniest dudes of all time, but I don’t think of him without thinking of Gene Wilder.  Stir Crazy, Silver Streak and See No Evil, Hear No Evil.  That pair made some funny cinematography.  We lost a great one.  I don’t need a reason to watch Blazing Saddles, but I am feeling the urge.  

Speaking of out there.  Our favorite daughter just returned from some travels.  Not a “race” trip.  Just a Kela trip to South Africa.  This chick is off the hook.  She walked with penguins.  Took a pic of a restaurant window that asked the question, “How do penguins taste?”.  And she went scuba diving in a shark cage with great whites swimming around it.  Her mother and I are glad that we hear about it AFTER the fact.  The term–Living the Dream–comes to mind.  

Oh, and Tammy changed jobs this week.  She took a job with High Plains Career Tech in Woodward.  They gained a wicked good employee.  Several oilfield companies gained an opportunity to pick up some business now that they don’t have to compete with her.  

And in the goat world, we had some travelers here from up north this weekend.  I sold a really good set of proven does to Wyoming.  And I mis-priced a brick-handling doe kid to Nebraska.  They were smart enough to take advantage of my head up my donkey moment.  I wish them all luck.  I don’t want to just cash a check.  I want them to improve their herd(s) and I like it when they come back.

Labor Day is rapidly approaching.  There will be a few wethers that will play some serious ball.  This sale has produced some good ones for a fair price.  This year should not be any different.  As long as this page doesn’t get hacked again, I will have plenty of info to spew about the upcoming sale and the goats that will be there.  Check out the banner on oklahomashowgoats.com for the Best of the West sale.  All of the breeders involved are bringing a good one.  Well, I haven’t seen Schneberger’s.  He might bring a great one?

Have a good day and a better tomorrow!

     Duke and I were talking to some guys.  A ladies name came up.  I asked the question, “Is she a good cook?”  Immediately, one of them replied, “She can’t even spell the word cook.”

I took some boys to help load some boxes of food at a church and then took these boxes to the county food pantry.  While we were unloading, the dude that oversees the food pantry came out carrying a bag of chips.  They looked like doritos.  He was happily offering chips.  One of the local pastors took one first.  It didn’t take long to realize that these chips weren’t your normal doritos.  These were ghost pepper tortilla chips.  Each of the boys tried one.  I ate several.  It was going to take a glass of tea to be able to eat very many of them.  I took a bag of these “spicy” chips back to the classroom.  And yes, we did have some fun with them the rest of the day.  Take a look at a scoville chart and see where the ghost pepper (aka bhut jolokia) ranks. This was a weird brand of chips and they had several bags of these.  If I was selling drinks of some sort, I would have a bowl of these sitting out for patrons.  Drink consumption would definitely go up.  

My question, who donates ghost pepper spiced chips to a food pantry?

The weather has been unreal here in paradise for the past couple of weeks.  Highs in the 80s, evenings in the 60s with a mild breeze.  Hard to believe that it is August in western Oklahoma.

The does are weaned and the babies are pounding feed.  We’ll sell a few on Labor Day at the Best of the West.  There will be a couple at the OYE sale in September and the rest will be at the Banners & Backdrops sale in October.  There are a pile of doe kids that are for sale at any time.

Have a good one.