The great thing about agricultural-related industries is that a bad day may yield good days.  Yes, it may take weeks, even months to realize that it WAS a good day.  Sometimes, it is hard to realize that a bay day was actually a good day.  Mark it down in your little books of important stuff.  1-9-16 was a good day in this old fart’s year.  

      Mother Nature dumped a couple inches of white stuff on paradise.  It was real slick.  There was a pig jackpot.  We went, but didn’t show. Actual story is short, but I can make it long.  No problems.  Not mad.  Just good.  The months of March and April may show that this was a good day.  We will see.  

      And to add to the suspense, less than 5 months from now, we will see the results of today’s goat matings that happened in the cold, white, wet, muddy environment that we call home.  It will either work or we willl wish that it would have worked.  

      No matter what the results, today was a way better day than it should have been.  

       It is a common question to ask in the livestock world–“What does so-and-so judge like?”  

The best answer to hear–“Without a doubt, you need a good one.”

Personally, as a judge, buyer, shower, teacher, etc., I feel that I have been very consistent over the past decades in liking good ones.  Although types and kinds have changed, animals always need to be balanced, sound structured, plenty of muscle and have that tick of eye appeal that makes you want to look at them.  Regardless of species.  I remember the good ones that I have seen.  I could still talk reasons on animals that I saw back in the 80s, 90s, 00s and yesterday.  Good ones stick in your mind.  Some were champions, some were not.  Some went on to sire/dam offspring like they looked.  Others didn’t.  

     When I die and people sort through all of my old movies–vcr tapes and dvds–I think that most will agree that I liked a wide variety.  Shawshank to Gump to John Wayne to Sandler to Ferrell to Blues Brothers to Tommy Boy to Robin Williams to Braveheart to Chirstmas movies to Die Hard and Armageddon.  We’ve previously mentioned other great movies on here that would be included.  

    And when they get into my musical library, they will have no explanantion–except that it was loaded with good ones.  Random good ones.  George to Van Halen to Waylon to Jerry Jeff to Tesla to AC/DC to Fergie to Mariah to Bing Crosby to LL Cool J to Adele to Whitney to the Three Tenors to Dropkick Murphy’s to Sinatra.  All good ones.

     Speaking of Sinatra.  My favorite recipe(s) that I like to occasionally read is Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra’s burger recipes.   I love the humour.  

I like stories that end with “That was a good one.”  Which is only topped by “That reminds me of this good one.”  Especially stories involving friends, employees, co-workers, acquaintances, rivals, accomplices.  If a story involves a given person and somebody says, “She/He was a good one.”  And this is followed by a general nodding of heads. Then, my friends, that person is/was a good one.  

     I hope, that as you read this crap, that you thought of show stock, pets, movies, songs and most of all some people that made you think, hhmm, good ones.  And if you did, then you are now in a good mood.  

I hope tomorrow is a—wait for it—-yep, I hope that tomorrow is a good one.  

        There are a lot of times that I just shake my head, mutter a foul word or two under my breath and wonder who exactly is the dumbest?  Is it me?  Can’t be.

Your president just announced his new world-changing gun control legislation.  What?  This is what those morons have been working on?  There is nothing about any gun control legislation that will stop any of the needless shootings that have happened.  NOTHING.  I can quote statistics from around the world, give you my opinions and none of it changes violent people.  I read this new legislation and think, “They are dumb.  This will not end, curtail or change any future violence that happened to inolve a gun.” 

     Then, I think to myself.  Dude, it ain’t about contolling guns.  It’s about getting a little bit of power here, then there and then a little bigger chunk over here.  It’s about people control.  Not gun control.  So, now who is the dumbest?  I can answer that.  It’s the people that elected him and his cronies.  And this is how I know that the dumbest is NOT me!  As I did not vote for your president or any of those other leaches on society.  I’m plenty capable of some retarded stuff–exhibit 1–I raise goats.  Those people that surround me have plenty of mental scars from having to deal with me.  But as dumb as I may be, I would never, ever,  vote for anything as mentally debilitating as these wasters-of-oxygen that currently reside in Washington D.C.  

      How do we fix our nation?  It isn’t simple.  But it is do-able.  

First, people need to quit watching/listening to our media.  This includes magazines, newspapers and internet sources.  They all have their own agendas, and it all revolves around the almighty dollar.  Fact not opinion.  You know it and I know it.  But, you still watch the crap.  I will watch the OKC news for the weather.  Why?  Because I am not smart.  I know that the weatherman is not going to be accurate.  But at least they are trying.  Fox news, CNN, etc all have their biases.  They don’t even try to hide them.  

Second, we all need to take a step back from social media.  Facebook, etc. all have their place.  They are remarkable tools for connecting people.  And your government knows this.  Propaganda is spread rapidly via these mediums.  If you want to find something that agrees with you, just keep scrolling.  There will be a post that supports exactly your most twisted ideallogy.  It’s out there.

Third–Use history as a tool.  There is a reason that history used to be taught in school.  History is not an exact science, but it does show us where we have been, where we are and a general probability of where we are headed.  

Next–It probably isn’t possible to steer clear of our media or social media.  TV, radio, internet, phones, and on and on and on.  So, how do we handle it?  Simple, COMMON SENSE.  Somehow, somewhere, and I’m not smart enough to tell you when or where we lost common sense, but lose it we did.  We are surrounded by information.  Good and bad.  This blog is a prime example.  There are times that readers learn from it, there are times when it was simply a waste of time and there are times when one is actually dumber after reading it.  My point–do some research for yourself.  Just because it was on the internet/tv/facebook/chive/xm radio/whatever does NOT make it legit.  Look at the other side of the story.  

We need to stick to common things.  Things like the Constitution of the United States of America and the bill of rights that go with it.  We need to stick to the bible.  Don’t try to intrepret these items.  Just drive right down the middle.  Use common sense.  Some will argue that we do.  But that isn’t always the case.  There are governments and religions that are founded on “their” version of these documents.  

     I don’t undertstand how several religions can preach NOT to eat pork.  Personally, I feel a little closer to GOD when eating a smoked pork chop, or a sausage link or bacon, yes BACON, bacon on everything.  Christmas morning was a great morning here in paradise.  Tammy cooked a breakfast with applewood smoke bacon, sausage links and Canadian bacon with eggs and pancakes.  Yes, three pig items.  But, more importantly, all four of us sitting at the table at once.  No tv, internet or phones.  Just good food and family.  Life felt right.  Kind of like the mastercard commercials–PRICELESS!  But, because of common sense, I don’t want to even argue with anybody that does not believe in eating pork.  If it makes them a better person, then so be it.  Just as long as they let me eat pig, then I’m good.  And, you mean that some people don’t believe in eating beef.  Aw lawdy, this can’t be right.  I get the whole pig is a filthy beast, but I don’t want to live without my beef steaks.  But, I’m fine if somebody else feels that they shouldn’t.  That is their calI.  I find humour that almost every religion will eat goat.  There are a lot of times that I see a goat being associated with the darker side of life.  Especially a doe goat.  (Bet you all didn’t see that one coming?!  I apologize.)    

    This new gun legislation is nothing but “an intrepretation of the 2nd amendment”.  If you have a desire, then you can twist any words to mean something other than what it was intended to mean.  One can twist the words to meet their desires, but it doesn’t make it right.  Basically, there is one rule that we should all just stick to, and that would be the golden rule.  If every religion and government would adhere to the golden rule, we’d be just okie dokie.  

     Have a good day and a better tomorrow.  Two words–COMMON SENSE.

     It is not an unknown fact that I have been battling mice and rats this past year.  I’ve had my share of victories but have also taken numerous defeats.  For whatever reason, we have seen more pack-rat problems this year.  They are immune to the bait blocks.  They set the rat traps off, then eat the peanut butter.  I came face to face with one a couple of weeks ago.  If we would have had light sabers, it would have been an epic duel.  Although, I would have won.  

      A couple of weeks ago, a student showed me videos of numerous rat/mice traps.  I watched and learned.  I have since seen a bunch of facebook posts of the bucket trap.  I built my own version.  They work.  I’ve used Nutella, Peanut Butter and Honey as bait on the roller bottles.  I have caught mice in all three different barns.  And this weekend, I finally caught a rat.  Although, this was a somewhat disconcerting victory.  There was a drowned rat in the bucket–frozen.  But, the 1/4″ metal rod with the plastic bottle attached to it, had been removed from the bucket and was nowhere to be found.  What kind of critter dis-assembles the trap and then takes it to it’s lair?  I have made design improvements to that bucket trap and ordered Duke to set a box trap for the perpetrator.

      For those of you that are worried about inflicting pain on a living being, this trap lets the rodent commit suicide.  They have to make the decision to crawl out onto the revolving plastic bottle.  Once they do, they have the option of swimming, climbing or jumping to keep their life.  Not my fault if they don’t make it.  They made a choice and must live or die with that choice.  Of course, I wouldn’t have a problem stomping, shooting, smashing, poisoning or doing whatever it takes to make them leave the premises.  This bucket method is somewhat humane, but it is the end result that I am after.  

Good luck and happy hunting.  

     The end of 2015 is here.  Dec. 31, 2015.  It’s been a good year, but I look forward to next year.  

2015 was good for Rumour Has It and his sons.  Rumour sired the grand wether as well as the grand and reserve grand doe at Woodward.  The bronze wether at OYE was a Rumour.  The grand wether at Ark/Ok State Fair was a Rumour.  There was a division winning doe at Georgia National.  Numerous other premium sale goats sired by Rumour Has It.  Good year.  Blood Pressure sired several banner hangers for Barnthouse.  Simonson & Dereu had lots of success with Big Rumour.  Ron continued his big 2015 by raising the reserve grand wether at Phoenix.  This wether was a Big Rumour X Rainman doe bought here.  I like those genetics.  Congrats. 

Joe Dirt contiued to do what Dirt does–sire really good goats.  Dirt sired the grand wether at the Kansas Jr. Livestock Show.  Dirt also sired several premium sale wethers.  And lots of good goats came from Dirt sired mommas.  The Dirt females are among the best.  

It wasn’t a good year for breeding goats around here.  The flush business has not treated us well in 2015.  I can remedy that problem.

Like every year, I find new things about goats that weren’t expected.  Dealing with does is a frustrating business.  There is a reason that wethers cost  a lot–good ones are hard to raise.  

Wether prices were high in 2015.  Doe kids sold very well in places, but seemed softer overall.  Good bucks brought a pile.  It also seemed like there wasn’t as many good bucks offered this year.  

Okie State football was better than expected, but still kind of disappointing.  

The weather has been extreme.  Lots of rain, lots of wind, several beautiful days, some snow and did I mention lots of wind.  Luckily, we only lost power for one night, right after Thanksgiving.  It could have been worse.

    I find myself, like the rest of you, another year older.  I’m not in any better physical shape than I was last year, maybe worse.  I’m sure that there will be changes around here in the new year.  Some planned, some that weren’t expected.  

Happy new year.  Stay safe and out of trouble.  

     The first day of winter for 2015 was actually December 21.  Only 6 days ago.  In other words, winter has only just begun.  And it came in with a vengeance.  It moved in Saturday right after lunch.  We actually got lucky here, as we were east of the rain and sleet.  That frozen stuff is what really causes problems.  But, the wind did hit here and then it got windier and it hasn’t let up.  

     Duke and I made the wise decision to abandon our Phoenix trip.  Although, I am quite confident that we could have made the journey with little problem, it was becoming apparent that there was a storm brewing INSIDE the house.  I feel that this storm would have become quite violent if we had left the women in charge of the livestock during a blizzard and we were in Phoenix.  For Duke’s sake (and mine), I let Tammy have the joy of cancelling the hotel reservations.  I hope everyone traveled safely that decided to go.  Good luck and have fun.

     Anytime that I have thoughts of increasing the size of the doe herd here in paradise, I only need a disturbance in the weather to remind why I need fewer, rather than greater numbers.  Rain, sleet or snow reminds me how bad I hate doe goats and how valuable it is to be able to keep every hoof inside.  Even though we have lots of barns and enclosed sheds, it is amazing how the wind, at 40 plus mph, can force snow inside any possible crack and can whip around, drift and get inside the wether barn from the south.  Thus, the reason that Duke moved his wethers inside the big barn.  Part of the wood fence on the west side of the house was about lost.  As Duke and I were working wethers in the big barn, he pointed out the window and said, “We’re getting ready to lose Mom’s fence.”  A ratchet strap and a driven T post later, the fence is still standing.  Duke and I already have a summer project.  

     Although all of the animals have shelter, fresh water, feed and hay, this job ain’t easy.  I knew it was coming.  But I couldn’t prevent it.  We lost a doe last night.  I know, I know.  You would think that I could care less about losing a female goat, but there are a few that I monitor closely.  K11 was one of these.  I knew that we were nearing the end this summer.  She was flushed in June and didn’t have many eggs.  Then, we flushed her again in September with no luck.  She has been living on a full feeder, with fresh grass and an alfalfa bale within reach.  She didn’t have much for teeth and I couldn’t get her to gain any weight.  I made sure she was wormed properly and didn’t lack for much.  Earlier this week, I told Tammy that I feared that K11 wasn’t going to make it much longer.  Unfortunately, I was right.  

     K11 was one of the original Harley daughters.  She was a 2007 model sired by Harley and out of a Charles Turner doe.  GREAT mother.  I do not remember ever having an altercation with K11.  She bred on cycle and always raised her kids.  Plus, she almost always had buck kids.  She only had one doe kid in her career.  But, those buck kids.  I won’t say that she was the best doe in Oklahoma.  But, she belongs on the short list.  K11 raised a division champion at the Kansas State Fair, a division champion at Kansas City, a class winner at Tulsa, two premium sale wethers at OYE and the grand wether at Woodward this spring.  Plus, she was never bred to the same buck twice.  That, my friends, is a producer.

     I never flushed her until this year.  I guess I should have started earlier.  Luckily, John Edwards made something to stick back in June.  My favorite line about K11 involves her being flushed in September.  The dipshit Zealander performing the flush asked me her age.  I told him that she was 8.  He then asked me with a very condescending tone “Why would anyone ever waste the time to flush an older doe?  Especially one past the age of 5.”  K11 was EXACTLY the kind of doe that should be flushed.  I don’t want to waste the work and $s on some unproven virgin doe.  But instead, I was trying to garnish the last bit of genetic power that she possessed.  

     Tip of the cap to those good ones.  I bet some goats in the kidding barn get a bit more attention than others.   Stay warm, keep the critters fed and make sure everything gets a good drink. 

    Christmas Eve is here.  I hope that everyone was able to air their grievances on Festivus.  Merry Christmas to all.  SCROOGED is on right now.  The marathon will begin in a short time.  Yes, that marathon–The Christmas Story movie 24 hour marathon.  I hope everyone has an excellent Christmas and vacation.  Remember that bumble’s bounce.  And here’s to hoping that your RV crapper isn’t full and that you don’t shoot your eye out.  Mele Kalikimaka!  GOD Bless!

     Happy Festivus!!  Today, the 23rd, is the holiday Festivus.  The Seinfeld episode that introduced us to this alternative Holiday will be on at 6:30 pm CST on TBS.  Plop down and watch it or set the DVR (which I can’t do.  But Duke can.)

       It will be late this night, actually earling Tuesday morning, when Tammy and Kela will get back here to paradise.  I guess it is a parental feeling.   The feeling that Tammy is bringing home a special delivery.  A feeling like she went to cali to pick up our favorite daughter and is bringing her home for the holidays.  But, in all actuality, the package, Kela, has WAY more travel miles logged in her short life, than Tammy and I combined.  I’ve traveled a lot of miles, but mostly in a several state radius.  Tammy and I have been to Mexico a time or two.  Costa Rica once (but need to go again).  I’ve been to THREE (count them 3) different countries.  Kela–has been to more CONTINENTS–North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia–than I have been countries.

     Now, I sit here, waiting on travel updates from the Dragon Lady.  I am watching Diners, Drive Ins & Dives.  Great program.  I watch and listen to the recipes.  I can handle most of the ingredients, but I flinch, cringe and get a bad taste in my mouth, every time that they mention a bell pepper.  I love hot peppers, but I just can’t imagine anything tasting decent if it has a hint of bell pepper anywhere near the food.  That deal just infects everything.  I think that there is an old proverb that involves “Lick a baboon’s butt or eat a bell pepper?”   I ain’t ever licked a baboon’s butt, but I have NEVER had even a decent tasting bell pepper.  Either way is a bad decision, but I would hope that whosoever chose poorly, that the baboon hadn’t wiped with a bell pepper.

      A week ago, the two week forecast showed that NW OK was going to get about 22 inches of snow on the 27th of December.  Some were in a panic.  Now, we are due to get either an inch of rain or 2 inches of frozen rain or it may go north of us or it may be unseasonably sunny.  No matter what, thanks for the forecast that keeps people watching.  I think that I am going to become a weather forecaster when I grow up.  At least, it would be entertaining.  Actually, I think that I will just start watching Yanet Garcia deliver the weather on telemundo or univision, whatever, who cares.  I like the Aussie narrative on Yanet Garcia delivering the weather.  I think that if I watch that weather delivery, I can go into the next kidding season with a can-do attitude.  

    And now for our kidding update–there are No does left to kid in December in the area 3 miles south of Fargo, OK.  Snip kicked out twin doe kids early this morning.  It is nice for a goat to have them on their own, like GOD intended.  Looking towards the future, I would recommend all does to deliver live kids and actually raise them.  Next due dates in the forecast involve recips.  I can’t wait for that bit of rough weather. 

Uva Uvam Vivendo Varia Fit