The dreaded doe kid curse has returned to Kelln Livestock.  The plan was for buck kids–nope.  Hopefully, this blog will change the luck.  However, I doubt it.  I guess if they are good, it doesn’t really matter.  

I see saw lots of various posts regarding Mark Hamill.  If you don’t know, this was the dude that plays Luke Skywalker.  If you keep up with those-in-the-know, they had some trouble getting all of the original cast to committ to the latest Star Wars episode; The Force Awakens.  For some reason, I feel that Harrison Ford reluctantly agreed to play Han Solo one last time.  “Dude, I’ll do it so that the rest of you can cash some checks.  But, please kill me off in this episode.”  Nothing wrong with a big timer helping the rest to cash a check.  

The wind has returned.  

I’ve got a conversation to tend to.  So, I need to log off.  Headed south again this weekend.  Don’t know why.  There are piles of wicked good goats in Oklahoma.  Maybe better.  We’ll see. 

Summer finally made it to NW OK.  Combines are starting to roll and it will only be a couple of weeks until we are whining that it needs to rain.  So goes the vicious cycle of life here in paradise.  Babies are being born, got more due and need to burn some horns.  Got a few that need banding.  

Duke has been re-welding framed panels.  It is amazing the amount of damage that doe goats can do to fencing and equipment.  

I need to get some does CIDRed up and ready to clean some bucks out.  I might need to give the does a tetanus shot for the rusty load that they may get injected with. And so goes the cycle of life in the goat world.  Some are being born, some weaned and some are getting bred.  

Another weekend is over and I am home from another road trip.  Yes, Brownwood, TX was dealing with some flooding issues.  Yes, the donuts at Lampasas are way good.  Yes, the sausage and tortillas at the Lone Star Elite sale are worth the trip.  Yes, there was some wicked good goats.  Good ones sold high.  Gallagher sold a really good set.  Roy Sanders sold some cool kids.  Braden and I tried to own one of them, but we got out ran.  It happens.  We wanted to make a stop or two on the way north, but more rain storms sat in and we decided to roll north in a hurry.  I’ve seen lots of genetics the last month or two.  We’ve got the rest of June to go.  

Been getting lots of texts and calls about Helms online doe sale.  Duke and Braden told me that this set was wicked.  They are correct.  I don’t like buying doe kids, but if I did, this sale would be a must.  Donor prospects, show does, whavetever, it’s in there.  Oh and the doe kid that didn’t get all of her glamour shots taken…yeah, seen her.  I’m not buying any show does, but I will be bidding on her.  The 151E females will be cornerstone breeding females.  Bet me on it.  I like winning bets.  And yes, I might have looked at the buck prospects as well.  I don’t know which ones will be sold or be kept, but I do know that I will be paying attention.  

I’m done.  I’m tired.  There is stuff to do.  

GOD SPEED to the favorite daughter on her newest adventure.  Cheers!

Duke and I have been on the road…again.  We made a mile or two, dodged a storm or two and we only had one blow out on a trailer.  It was only kind of raining as we changed the tire out.  We did see the best buck prospect that I have seen this year.  Is he 4 sale?  I don’t think so.  It would take stupid money to own him.  

It is with reservations that I write that I am glad that I do not live in the Pacific Northwest.  I don’t think that I would do well with zero sunshine and rain everyday.  We haven’t had a big rain yet, but we have had lots of little rains.  I am thinking of the word “Quagmire”.  

The older I get, the more I actually listen to the songs on the stereo.  It is with “some” but not very many, reservations that I say that the single best musical artist may have been Waylon Jennings.  I’ll listen to an Elvis argument.  But he didn’t write or play.  The Beatles….sure.  Wicked talented group.  George Strait, Garth Brooks…sure.  There are others, but Waylon did it all.  Sang, played, wrote, produced, fought the establishment, whatver. That dude did it all.  And these songs are like the Dragon Lady and myself,  they just get better with age.  If you disagree with me, just spark up a round-robin play of Waylon (& friends) songs.  You can go for hours & hours with hit after hit after hit after hit.  

Here’s to the favorite daughter that is on another Amazing Race tour of the globe.  At this point, I just wait to find out where she has been.  I feel a bit dumb, when I say, “No shit!  You were there?  I watched a documentary about that place.”  How do I counter with, “I’m going to Texas for the 5th weekend in a row.  It’s like a whole other country.  Jason Spence auctioneered at every stop.”   It is an awesome feeling knowing that your kid is going to and seeing places and things that one would have thought impossible.  I’m just waiting for her to say, “Dad, I was in Antartica and they had grilled penguin on the menu.  It was even better than I thought it would be.”  If that actually  happens, I’ll probably cry just a bit.  Then I’ll hug her and ask her to shoot a warthog.  Beings how she has actually petted a koala, she could then just finish my list of cool stuff to do.  

One of these nights, I’ll write the story about how Kela headed to LA, got a job pouring coffee, got an internship with the video producer that made the “November Rain” music video, got an interview for a job that she actually wasn’t qualified for, got A job, then the job.  Wait?  What?  RUSM?  This can’t be true.  Somebody ought to make a movie.  

It is with reservations that I head south again.  I’ve got stuff to do here.  But I need some dry weather and we still need that goat. Cheers!  

I was on the road again. I know Memorial Day is normally for lakes and BBQs, but I had places to be.  I ventured into eastern Oklahoma.  It was an excellent trip.  I saw some good goats.  I enjoyed the scenery.  I’m way in on the smoked goat bologna.  I’ll go back. However, I did check for ticks.  

I know that this one is short, but I am road weary, sick of looking at a computer screen and I’ve got a 1st timer that is supposed to be kidding.  Oh, it rained here again.  Only a 1/2″, but with several feet of wind.  Nothing like cleaning out a couple hundred pounds of wet feed out of a feeder.  More to come later about this trip.  A lot more–I did see the best NO eared goat that I have ever seen.  Have a good one and a better tomorrow.  

I had a lot of windshield time this past weekend.  I wasn’t sure when I could get gone, so I made no plans for a co-pilot.  Duke wanted to stay at home to work.  I have no reasons to keep a 15 year old from working if that is his desire.  So, I left out Friday evening and went on a solo mission.  I had a great drive to Abilene on Friday night.  It wasn’t easy finding a hotel room, but the drive was great.  No wind, little traffic, smooth highway, great tunes, high speed.  It was awesome!!!

I rolled into Gallagher’s sale on Saturday morning.  Excellent set of goats, as alwasys.  There was a definite top end, but the next level was really good.  The Gallaghers always have things managed to a T.  Well run show with lots of good help.  The sale average was really good, but the top end wasn’t stupid high.  I got to bid a lot, although I only ended up owning one.  Very good set of goats.  

I then did the impossible.  I stopped in at Cooper’s in Llano, TX.  My bill was less than $20 and I didn’t founder myself.  It was pleasing to the taste buds. I don’t know if I could repeat this trick.  But, I feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that I did it once.  

The travels brought me to the Blue Team Wethers Sale.  This facility is worth the drive.  I didn’t touch the snow cones, but I was tempted.  BTW goats have a different type of hide, more bone and shag and a consistent wide, flat loin.  I don’t care what your standing is in the goat business, everyone should talk goats with Joe Raff.  It isn’t an accident that a lot of the main genetics are traced to him.  They didn’t offer many and the goats sold well.  Looking back, I wish that I would have nodded a time or two more. 

I then made it up the road to 7T7.  This set of goats was deep and consistent.  Throw in the fact that they won Austin, Dallas, Phoenix & reserve at San Antonio, add a cool set of David Garrett consigned goats and you had a recipe for an extremely high sale.  HUGE crowd.  The auctioneer couldn’t even manage to keep this sale from selling Willie HIGH!.  This deal was fun to watch.  I even did some bidding.  So far, my experiences with the Tucker family has been top notch.  

After that sale, I headed north.  I had to dodge a storm or two.  I made it to Altus in good shape.  But then, the road-tired syndrome began to set in.  I limped into the truck stop at Sayre and crashed for 30 minutes.  Upon awaking, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, spit that nasty sleep spit into my sunflower seed cup and then studied the socio-economic lesson that is a truck stop at 2:30 am on a Sunday morning.  Foxworthy would have had needed a fresh pad and pen to write all of these jokes down.  I then rolled the last 90 miles home and then hit the couch.  

I stumbled through the day, reflecting on the trip.  It was good.  Real good.  I enjoyed the miles traveled.  I petted several sets of really good goats.  I made genetic notes in my mind.  There were several methods of fitting and presentation.  I thoroughly enjoyed dealing with all of the people.  Most importantly, I am thankful for the opportunity to load up and make a trip like this.  I liked that all 3 sales stopped and honored GOD.  Many people have given some, or even all, to give all Americans the opportunity to do whatever it is, that we so choose.  Thank you to all veterans or currently serving military people.  THANK YOU!

We hadn’t been as wet as some goat herders, but we haven’t been dry.  Now, we are bonafide wet.  It has rained here 4 of the last 5 days.  Not a lot of rain, but enough.  Yesterday brought a pile of wind, some hail, rain and tornado warnings.  We had a basement full of kids as there was some on their way home from Woodward and this was a close shelter through the storm.  It is a little weird watching the weather news and recognizing the scenes on the screen.  Fortunately, no damage.  

But, with all of the rain, here comes the shits.  There has to be a scientific reason why a goat shits all over the place when it rains.  It starts to rain and some doe goes splunhkz all over the place.  I watch the weather forecast and when it shows rain is coming, I think to myself “Better check the spectam supply and the sulfa boluses.”         Now, lets think about this.  Old Noah had two of all of those animals on board that ark.  That included two goats.  And it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.  I guarantee you that every passenger on that floating zoo was ready to chunk those two goats overboard.  

Every time it rains, it pours out the ass of some goat.  

Back in the day, KATT radio out of OKC used to do a Two 4 Tuesday–two songs, back 2 back from the same artist.  This was pre-XM, Pandora or all of the other neat stuff that the kids have now.  In the early 90s, while working at the OSU meat lab, we used to love Two 4 Tuesday.  Otie might be pining for some Lynyrd Skynyrd and when it hit, it was liking winning the lottery. Two for the price of one–Gimme 3 Steps followed by Free Bird meant that the next 15 minutes was great tunes.  If you wanted Van Halen, oh yes…you’re getting two Van Halen ditties back to back. Might be an old school Diamond Dave followed by a Van Hagar.  I loved it.  

 I literally did a Two 4 Tuesday this afternoon.  Two does, laid down Butt2Butt and decided to kid.  One hit it hard and fast.  Like a rockstar, she spit out a doe and buck.  Like a true rockstar, she forgot that there was business to take care of after the songs were played.  She is now taking on the responsibilities of raising her kids.  If she doesn’t, she will be playing a final concert at the Perry sale barn.  The other doe decided to play a longer song.  It took a bit, but this doe hatched the biggest doe kid that I have ever had.  I just knew that it was the single buck syndrome.  NOPE.  Just a big healthy doe kid.  

Speaking of Two 4 Tuesday, the Dragon Lady grilled some filets.  Either of these steaks were big enough for the 3 of us. But, Duke is gone.  So, that leaves 2 big steaks for 2 of us.  Oh heck.  I can now see the future when Duke doesn’t live here.  We will have to change our cooking habits or I am going to get fatter.  I’m glad that he is on somebody elses feed bill for a day or 2.  

Earlier this day, while listening to the iTunes on the phone, AC/DC kicked in.  This is what stirred up the Two 4 Tuesday thoughts. AC/DC is still touring.  Albeit, without their lead singer. Axl Rose is filling in.  According to Donnie Baker, AC/DC now stands for Axl Constantly Destroys Concerts.  

I think that I need to re-think my top rock songs of all time.  I have always liked AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”.  I saw them play it live in ’91.  This song is now playing on the Xm Classic Rock channel.  That means it is at least 25 years old.  The song has aged well.  And in Oklahoma, it may be the premier stock show song.  

I always ask kids the question, “What is your goal?”  Anymore, it is a common answer.  They will answer, “I want to ride in the limo and walk out to “Thunderstruck”.  Some even answer, “I want to ride in the limo and walk out to “Thunderstruck”…again.  That is awesome that the OYE crew has developed a tradition such as the OYE Grand Drive.  And in turn, it has made the song “Thunderstruck” synonymous with achieving stock show goals.  If you haven’t witnessed the OYE Grand Drive, you need to do so.  It is wicked cool.  For lack of a better label, it is what dreams are made of.  

I get happy thoughts every time that I hear this song.  It doesn’t just work on kids.  It still gets the old farts as well. Then again, the way money gets spent in the stock show world trying to win, maybe the theme song should be AC/DCs “Money Talks”.  That is a Two 4 Tuesday line up of songs that I can crank.  

Here’s to good days and better tomorrows and nothing but horseshoes and shamrocks for all of us.  

p.s.–I’m getting ready to go all Bill Murray as Carl Spackler on a gopher that has entered the garden.  This varmint-cong has already hit 2 tater plants.  Appropriate and in-appropriate actions will follow in order to rid the garden of this brown furry rodent.  I leave you with these 2 great lines from Caddyshack.

Carl Spackler: Licensed to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. A man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit – ever. They’re like the Viet Cong – Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior intelligence and superior firepower. And that’s all she wrote.

Been on the road for several days.  My co-pilot and I headed out early Friday morning.  We met at Schneberger’s, looked at goats and then headed south.  We made it to Jacksboro for lunch.  I hadn’t been to Dairyland in years.  I’m glad that we made the stop there.  They serve up some good stuff there.  One of the waitresses took a look at  Milligan’s hair and remembered that she needed to make a hair appointment.  She likes her hair short on the sides and spiky on top.  

We made a tour at 7T7.  Excellent set of goats.  Zach and the Tucker family took the time to show us every wether.  Good stop.  With the set of goats that they have and the success that they had this past year, this goats will sell well.

Just down the road is the the home of Kelly Hair Sheep.  Tommy and I piled out of the pickup and looked at the best set of hair lambs that I have ever seen.  Wicked good.  It was good to see Mike Kelly.  Coltin and Kathryn are pushing this type of lamb to the forefront.  These things aren’t good for hair sheep.  They are good livestock.

We then made our way to the Goat Capitol–aka San Angelo. I was looking forward to Doug Frey’s wether sale.  This set of goats did not dissappoint.  Ultra thin hides, cool fronts and lots of topside shape.  There was a bad ass solid red goat.  I bid way past my comfort zone, but I didn’t get him.  Really good set of wethers.  The sale went well.

After leaving Angelo, we headed towards Brownwood.  David Garrett took time to show us around.  We analyzed the online offering.  Looked at lots of babies and studied a wild looking buck kid or two.  There will be some high dollar goats sold out of there.  We also looked at a lawn mower or two.  Without a doubt, the most comfortable lawn mower seat that I have ever sat on.  Lots of good goats.

It was right on way north to stop at Mark and Leslie Walker’s place.  I had wanted to see their Black Rhino son that they call Easy Money.  This prospect will be heard from.  Wild bone and shaggy leg hair.  Round rib and wide based.  Cool goat.  There were lots of little babies, but I could see future in a bunch of Smooch kids as well as Rhino babies.  I had never seen Smooch before.  He is an impressive mature buck and he stamps those babies.   Just like every other goat ranch, they too have had enough rain to last for awhile.  

We also had to take the house tour as Milligan is way into studying interior design.  The impressive part was all of the major show banners.  Very few families have generated the kind of success that they have had.  Good stop.

We made it back to Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon.  I went right back to work around here.  I moved expectant mothers to the kidding barn.  Duke left and headed out with Braden and Taylor to go wash, clip & photo does in paradise.  Getting online sales are a young person’s job.  I hope Helms gets quality work out of those meatheads.  

I haven’t shaved in several days.  I don’t want to shave, but I can’t stand it any longer.  I have the facial hair of a purebred Berkshire hog.  It isn’t pretty and it is coarse. I will brush hog it with the electric razor and then put the dollar shave club blade to work.  Wish me luck.   

This blog is supposed to be about random Kelln thoughts.  Let’s do it, to it.  

First, I don’t plan on writing about hard pulls on goats for a while.  Why?  The next doe due after I wrote that post,  I pulled a kid.  Alive, albeit a doe kid.  The next one.  I had to pull the first one.  Lost him.  But, upon pulling that one, the next one presented itself.  I helped him out.  Then thought that I would check to make sure she was done.  NOPE!  I pulled the third one.  Three does, three uses of chains.  The first one was the worst.  I hope that the rest of the kidding season–May-August doesn’t continue like this.  

I have rolled that first pull around in my head, trying to figure out what caused that train wreck.  I keep coming back to how level hipped that doe is.  The kid was big, but I have seen bigger.  Regardless of species, we do not have to make that hook to pin set level.  There is nothing wrong with a bit of slope from front to back.  When you get to thinking, “How in the heck did these things survive on their own?”, just take a look at wild or common goats.  They are not level hipped.  As breeders and evaluators, we need to be mindful of hip set.  It does not need to be level.  Kind of like a game of horseshoes or hand grenades–close is good enough.  

I did not realize that chickens were cheap entertainment.  Tammy has wanted guineas for years.  I have steadfastly said “HAIL NO!!”  So, I bought her some chickens instead.  I got her a mix of Rhode Island Reds, Barred Plymouth Rocks and Buff Orpingtons.  They are good looking chickens.  And no, they haven’t started laying yet.  The value in these chicks is that the Dragon Lady is entertained by these birds.  I think that these birds understand her when she talks to them.  

Speaking of random, I have a job that I didn’t want or plan on doing for very long once I agreed to do it.  But, I have the honor to work with some outstanding kids.  I know that I brag about kids on here fairly regular.  But, it is my blog.  If you don’t like it, then go read somebody elses worthless crap and by the way, I have a donkey for you to kiss.  I am a firm believer in kids and I get to work with great ones.  The Shattuck FFA banquet was last night and it was good (that is me being modest).  We are graduating some great ones.  But like an automatic gun, fire one and another moves into place.  Shattuck is bottom heavy as the younger grades are loaded.  And I don’t mean just in FFA—sports, music, etc.  Basically, I am saying that I get to deal with a bunch of shamrocks. 

The American way of life is supposed to be that the next generation has it better than the previous.  As a whole, this has proven true.  Except for two areas–Government and Cell Phones.  Our current government is not worth 2 squirts of owl crap.  When our choices are Trump and that other recycled, stained toilet wipe…well, it ain’t good.  Cell phones, specifically texting and social media are causing more problems with our youth.  This whole deal of asking for naked pics or sending nudes has me baffled.  Don’t do it.  Kids, if somebody asks or sends pics.  Screen shot it and show an adult.  Do NOT participate. It is that simple.  

Duke is getting to serve some ISS.  That would be In School Suspension.  Rightfully so.  He was warned.  But genetics kicked in.  He didn’t do wrong. It just wasn’t the time or the place to act.  He did not participate in any cell phone antics.  Heck, he only occasionally answers his.  He just didn’t like how somebody else was using theirs.  I am afraid that he is kind of proud of his black eye.  I don’t have a problem with a young person having the nuts to stick up for somebody else.  Our country needs more of it.  I am pleased that he has accepted his punishment and has been forth-right about why he acted like he did.  Tammy is pissed at him.  I’m mad that he didn’t listen.  However, I am glad that he has convictions and is not afraid stick up for others.  It’s actually a good story. On a positive note, Duke has had lots of time to study for upcoming semester tests while he is serving time.   He better take advantage of it.  

It is green, wet and pretty nice here in paradise.  I’ve already tied the horseshoes and shamrocks into this blog.  I hope you had a great one today and a better one tomorrow.  (I just noticed that the word count was 801.  For some reason, that made me hungry for some lobster corndogs.)