I haven’t been to a doctor since pre-Y2K.  But, I’m starting to think about it.  This Friday brought no stock shows and no school.  Finally a day that I could just do my own stuff.  But this crud has me slown down.  So, I had a new schedule.  Work an hour or two, then lay down to rest till the oxygen came back. This went on all day.  I spent more time on the couch than working.  Duke liked this schedule.

We had a priority list and got some, but not all done.  Feeders are full.  Babies are tagged.  We even wormed and trimmed hooves on a pen of yearling bucks.  Not easy work on a good day.  Duke trimmed hooves on the last one.  I was out of oxygen and therefore, done.

This evening, I have had the joy of watching an all-time great movie–Lethal Weapon.  That flick holds up to the test of time.  Lethal Weapon 2 may even be better.  Now, I am watching The Hobbit:  Battle of the Five Armies.  I like it when the dwarf king and his men ride up the mountain on goats to battle.  Finally, something useful for a goat.  Of course, it is only make believe.  This is another dang good movie.

Speaking of movies, got a text at 8:09 am from my favorite daughter the other morning.  That means it was 6:09 am in LaLa Land.  That is early for that part of the world.  She was working with some people whose names I know.  One of which was a big part of SNL.  The whole part of working with somebody from Saturday Night Live was cool enough for me.  I don’t understand her line of work.  But as a parent, I’m real proud of any kid that can actually chase their dreams.

While trying to breathe and watch movies at the same time (it shouldn’t be a hard thing, but sometimes it is), the Dragon Lady walked into the living room to ask me if the Leedey boys won in the state basketball semi-finals.  I was like, “Lady, you could have a dude from Ethiopia and me sitting here and you would be better off asking the Ethiopian.”  She looked at me like, “Really?!”  I then replied, “There was a district goat show in Enid and I can’t even tell you who won that.”  She replied, “I know that answer.  Halie Schovanec.”

That makes Halie Schovanec the only person to win the NW District Jr. Livestock Show three times.  That goat show was started in 2006.  Kela was the first to win it twice (06 & 07) and the only one to do it consecutively.  Duke won it once (12).  Those three goats went on to OYE and were res. grand ’06, ch. div. 3 ’07 and bronze medallion ’12.

Not taking anything away from this years show as I was not there but I like to reminisce on those days of goat showing.  Fairview and Hennessey were loaded.  Bryan Kennedy and I were younger, cockier and learning this whole game.  Lots of great goats and even better showmen.  The show at Woodward District this year reminded me of those days, except I didn’t feel young, cocky or that I was learning anything new.  But the goats and showmen were really good.

I need to schedule a semen sale.  I need to schedule getting bucks clipped and photoed.  I then need to schedule a buck sale or two.  I need to schedule a yearling doe sale.  I have a lot of stuff that I need to do.  I need to take a deep breath or two.  I need to go close the kidding barn and the door to the Dragon Lady’s chickens. (Whoops!  Too late.  She’s already done it.)

Here’s to hoping that you can get all of your need2do stuff done in a timely fashion.

The livestock competition part of the Woodward District Jr. Livestock Show is now complete.  There is only the premium sale left.  And if you want to attend on Thursday night, I will buy you a steak dinner at the sale.

First, I want to thank the show management and the Woodward County Event Center staff for the outstanding work that they do to run the day to day of this show.   These facilities and the show itself are second to none for a district show.

Next, I had the pleasure of watching three judges line up four species.  These judges were fair, excellent on the mic, were efficient in their placings, gave every kid a good look and used outstanding livestock.  Ben Moyer–hogs, Brandin Callis-cattle and Stever Sturtz–sheep and goats all did a fantastic job of evaluating stock.  I loved it!  And yes, even when we got beat, which happened more often than I would have liked.

Which brings us back to the outstanding livestock part.  Jeeminy Christmas where did all of these outstanding hogs come from?  Even the sift hogs were good ones.  All were well presented and well fed.  Easily, one of the deepest set of hogs that I have seen at a district show.  Kaylee Holt carried the banner for Shattuck in this line up.  I’ll put that kid up against anyone.  I may have mentioned this before and I bet you keep hearing from me about this kid.

Then the sheep show.  I’ve got the pleasure to work with some really good sheep showman. The “Aedyn” twins–Jaedyn & Raedyn Magness are stepping up their games and had success–numerous breed champs.  Sierra Washmon was the best sheep showman in the barn.  She easily won the ewe show and then took a Hamp wether and proved why she is the best.  However, she has a little brother named Clayton that will argue.  Numerous people have asked if we got a pic of his wether during the grand drive.  Why?  Because it needs to be made into a silhouette.  He did get that one propped up to near-perfection.

On a goat note with that sheep show.  Blake Foraker was going to see Preston Faris last summer.  I said, “Hit him up and see if he has any hair lambs that would work.”  Blake reported back and I called Preston and made a deal.  He took 2 hair lambs and 1 skinny goat to Ralph Shafer to bring to me.  Months later, Foraker’s had ch. div. 1 goat at Phoenix and those 2 hair lambs were ch. and res. hair sheep at WW District. (And yes, there were several classes of them–more than the Dorsets, Southdowns or Suffolks)  I’d say that Blake can read a skinny animal.

Then the goat show.  WOW!  Newt Sweet put a showmanship lesson on the rest of the competition.  He had grand doe.  And should have.  This was a Spongebob from Milligan and Thompson.  Carli Word had res. div. 1 with a doe from us.  She also had a class winner and a 2nd.  Newt also had ch. div. 1 doe with an Easy Decision back on Blood Pressure’s momma.

The #s were down in the wether show but the quality was stacked deep.  These classes were wicked good.  Showmanship was amped up.  Sure, we had hoped Duke could win.  But he ended up 3rd out in div. 2 and div. 3 and 6th overall.  Not complaining when you see the list of kids above him and below him in sale order.  Chance Gregg was not grand or res. grand.  But he showed like he was going to win it.  Duke sells him Vindicator is our involvement with his goats, but I would not have been at all upset if he had won it.  I like to see good ones go out on a high note.

And on a high goat note, Darcy Whitley was grand wether goat with an Easy Decision from Milligan.  Several people have commented that they should have kept bidding on this wether.  It wouldn’t have mattered.  I had that one covered.  I was prepared to bid whenever grandpa Mike Weber faltered, but he had the good eye pegged on owning that one.

I’ve also caught some hell over this goat.  Because I got in the grand pic.  I don’t get in many pics.  And I wasn’t exactly dressed to photo, but when a kid starts nearing the end to their career, sometimes you gotta take a pic.  Darcy has won with several goats from us and/or out of our stock.  I hope and am planning on taking more pics with her.  On a side note, it was just easier to get in the picture than it was to listen to Jeanie Weber bitch at me… again…for not being in the picture.  I will never understand how my dumbass helps a picture.

And if you can’t tell, Easy Decision is having a nice first year.  And yes, Milligan raised the grand doe and grand wether.

Then the cattle show.  The heifer show was way good.  But the grand heifer was EASILY grand.  Gatlin Goodson had this heifer.  And Gatlin showed this % Simmy like a champ.  Then he showed his steer to res. grand steer honors.  This kid tends to win at everything he does.  Why?  He’s good and wants to win.  His steer got beat by a good one.  Alyssa Friesen of Arnett showed the grand steer.  The Friesen family has a tendency to show really good cattle.  This steer may be a bit better than really good.  I know, they aren’t Shattuck, but they are life-long family friends and we here at Kelln Livestock love to see great kids with great animals…regardless.

My donkey is dragging.  I can’t breathe.  I haven’t seen my own livestock in the daylight since last Tuesday.  I know that I am going to take my own advice and have a good day and a better tomorrow.

I’ve got a lot to say, but not the the time. I could bitch and rant or just point out the other side. Dude!  I’ll just wait.  I’ve got a lot of built-up worthless crap to dispense.

Dude?!   Have a good one, and a better tomorrow.

It is hard to get rid of a 200 to 280 pound pig this time of year.  The market is flooded.  The butcher dates are full till late May.  We called a buyer 3 hours away.  He would take some on Thursday for $.30  a pound.  On Friday, they weren’t buying anymore.  Frank Powell managed to get a truck to WW.  This truck would take some pigs to Wisconsin on a back-haul.  Great.  We needed rid of some of these beasts.  I would butcher another one, but…but…the Dragon Lady has laid down the law.  THREE freezers full of stuff is enough.  I agreed.

We loaded NINE FINE SWINE to get on this truck.  (that was fun to write and say)  I met the truck at the Woodward Livestock Auction.  This sale barn is designed for cattle and lots of them.  But not hogs.  We needed to load these hogs in the belly of this trailer.  So, I backed up to the side pot door.  This left about an 14″ elevation challenge for these pigs.  No problem.  Pigs don’t jump.  Especially these structurally challenged porcine perfections that are currently winning in the show ring.  So, just give us a plastic hog herding panel, a driver in the belly of this pot and my dumb ass in the trailer.  I drove the hogs to the edge and then pushed them onto the plastic ramp.  The driver grabbed ears and I pushed.  I have a shoulder that hasn’t worked right for years.  Now, it hurts like holy, yeah it hurts.

The adrenaline was flowing and I did NOT want to deal with anymore pigs at this time.  So I did what needed to be done.  No hogs were hurt. But I can tell you that I am saying OWWW!!

A lot of people don’t realize the behind-the-scenes work that is done to buy/take care of/ get rid of show animals.  Yes, the backdrop pictures are great.  But there is way more to it.  The great thing about a steer is that everyone wants a well-fed beef.  A lamb or goat….well, just kick them out in the pasture until the next trailer is headed to the sale barn.  They don’t cost you any feed bill.  Pigs on the other hand.  You can’t turn them out.  They are now going through a pile of feed.  It is cheaper to give them away then it is to feed them for another couple of weeks.  So, you get what we had here.  Just an old, fat ag teacher trying to help get rid rid of nine fine swine for some kids.  Mission accomplished!  And every time I move that shoulder…owww!!  It will be alright and tomorrow will be better.  Jay Bogdahn told me it would be good.

Some things are scarier than others.  The fact that I am allowed near a keyboard can be scary.  Anything that has to do with a doe goat (no matter the age) can be scary.  Hog shows–scary.

But then, when the baby of the family finally passes his drivers test (although he has been a daily driver for years), it can get scary.  Duke has had to deal with not properly parallel parking and failure to come to full and complete stops.  But he is finally legal.  His driving really isn’t scary.  He doesn’t speed.  Heck, this kid has never done anything fast.  I will bet that if he does get a speeding ticket, it will be on the way to the nearest pond to go fishing.

It was almost 90 degrees here on Thursday.  Today, below freezing.   The wind had been absent for awhile but it showed up with a vengeance on Thursday.  Brutal.

The first day of the WW pig show is in the books. Day 2 tomorrow.  We are real proud of Kaylee Holt and her hog showing abilities.  Her hard work is paying off as she showed the champion Duroc barrow, res. champion Berk barrow, a class winning cross gilt and a 2nd place Berk gilt.  This kid is wicked good on the end of a hog stick.  She is also a very accomplished public speaker and livestock evaluator.  And in the spirit of FFA week, it needs to be noted that her dad was an ag teacher, an uncle used to teach ag and mom’s dad was a career ag teacher.  The Holt family does this pig deal 100% as a family. It’s pretty cool.

It has been a couple of days since I have seen Duke’s wethers.  I hope to see them before Sunday, but who knows.  One thing about the Kelln kids and their show projects.  They are in charge of feeding and exercising because if the day2day relied on me, it wouldn’t get done right.

Have a good one and a better tomorrow.

I haven’t clipped that many hogs in one evening in a lot of years.  I will be sore tomorrow.  I think back to when I taught at Waynoka.  We normally had a 100+ hogs on feed.  I don’t want to go back to those kind of days.  Shattuck feeds a lot of animals now, but nothing like that crew at Waynoka fed.  Lots of hogs and calves, a few sheep and later on several goats then throw in some really big pens of chickens.  And most of the hogs and cattle were home-raised and were really good.

This set of hogs is not what I thought/hoped that they would be.  And most of these kids only feed one or two hogs, so there isn’t much room for error.  Between growing too fast, not growing, getting crippled or just turning out crap-sorry, a person needs a fleet to make that they got a good one.  And that fleet takes a lot of cash for feed, wood chips and additives.  All of a sudden, a $2,500 wether goat looks cheap.  If you are buying the right kind and working them properly.

Speaking of sore, send a prayer or two Rick Barnthouse’s way.  He’s run into a medical deal and needs some help for a speedy recovery.

And I have figured out WTH happened to a blog post or two.  I haven’t been clicking the right buttons when I sit down to unleash some more worthless knowledge.  There is a proper format and I was not following it.  I like to call this screw up “operator error”.

Woodward District show starts Friday.  By the time we have the premium sale next Thursday night, I will be real sore.  I’m too old for this crap.

Have a good one and a better tomorrow.

I got an obscure text this morning that said “Welcome?”  I didn’t know what it meant and I didn’t have time to worry about it.  Later, I got a call asking what happened to last night’s blog.  I do not know as it was there. But, as I got home tonight, I realize why Ron asked “welcome?”  Nothing but the title was there.

I don’t know WTH happened to it.  I’m sure it was operator error on my part as I am still learning to navigate this new site.  It wasn’t controversial.  Just some random crap about saying Thanks and noticing when Thanks wasn’t offered.  I got enough calls and texts today to realize that obviously several people were bored last night and read it.

Kind of like yesterday’s wrestling match.  Penn State kicked the crap out of Okie State and nobody really knows WTH happened.  It was just a beating.  My brother bought Duke and I tickets but we had too many irons in the fire to go.  It was a record crowd but sometimes a kid needs to finish a science fair project for extra credit.    Priorities.

I distinctly remember writing a blog last fall stating that I was done handing out free advice on these goats.  After the past two weekends of numerous trailer loads of goats showing up, I am now remembering why I wrote that post.  WTH happened?  I’m still a dumb donkey.  It isn’t that I can’t say NO.  I’m not as good at it as the Dragon Lady, but I can dang sure say NO.  But, I don’t want to see kids not succeed if I can help.  Of course, I do get a bit (just a bit, maybe quite a bit) more serious on these deals if it is a goat from us or out of one of our bucks.  I may have told a family, I’ll help on that one from Tyke, that breeder will remember and yeah I’ll take care of that one.  Those two–I’m out.  At times, I want to send the breeders a bill for the feeding advice/hoof trimming/WhateverTH?  I can tell that I am getting ready to head down the same path that I did last night.  Time to quit.

J&J is offering some Dirty Rain semen online tomorrow.  That would be some good stuff to get a hold of.  I doubt that the market will get flooded with his semen.  Use it, hope for buck kids but keep the doe kids.  They are good.

Over and out.

The use of Beautiful English…

I called an old school friend and asked what was he doing.

He replied that he was working on “Aqua-thermal treatment of ceramics, aluminum and steel under a constrained environment”.

I was really impressed….

On further inquiry I learned that he was washing dishes with hot water… under his wife’s supervision.

I just overheard Duke tell his mother that our family just missed a national holiday.  She said, “Kelln males don’t care about Valentine’s Day.”  He replied, “Not that holiday.  Today was the last day of quail season and Dad and I were too busy to go.”    I guess both sides of that conversation were right.

Speaking of big days.  Okie State wrestles Penn State on Sunday–1 vs. 2.  I don’t care if you like the sport or not, that’s cool when the big dogs can square off in a place like Gallagher-Iba.  Although it isn’t fun to watch, Gundy’s little video of him urging students to go to the match is cool.

Got some pics from the Schovanec family.  TravASS and the two younger ones have been fishing.  Schoovy texted pics of caught fish and said “Tell Duke he needs to fish over east here”.  I was like WTH?!  To heck with Duke, I’m on my way if the fish are biting.

We got some sunshine today and the late (Thanksgiving) planted wheat looks like it jumped out of the ground.  Ironically, the stuff planted the last weekend of August also looks like it jumped out of the ground (maybe not as high though).  There is enough triticale for the does to keep grazing for a bit.  We might even be able to make a bale or 3 come the month of May.  We’ll see.  At worst, Duke can turn some cows out onto it.  This agriculture business sure works better with a bit of moisture.  Sure, this paragraph about rain and sunshine fit right into the previous and following paragraphs.  (somebody teach this clown how to cut & paste and edit).

If you can’t tell, there are things like fishing, hunting, fishing, watching Okie State sports, fishing, etc.  that I really like to do, but it is hard to make time.  Livestock, other people’s crap, my own crap, etc. get in the way.  My fault.  Nobody else’s.  But I thoroughly enjoy my time when I make time to do those kind of things.

Hunting vs. fishing?   Fishing.  Why?  You don’t know what is down there until you see it.  HUGE added bonus–You can release a fish back and not have a mess to clean up.  Hunting–once you shoot it, you got a job to clean it.  It’s all good and I love the hunt more than the rest.

Kind of reminds me of showing livestock.  I love the hunt of looking for good stock.  I love trying to read genetics.  Trying to see/feel what is there.  I love the work of trying to get them right, managing feed, etc.  But I do not enjoy the mess that some people can create at stock show time.  I really just want to find em, work em, look at em and turn them back out and say “Yeah, that one looks good.”  Or, “That deal didn’t feed out so well.”  I just enjoy looking at good stock–regardless of species.  I don’t enjoy all the extra-curricular activities that can cloud the real reason we do this.  Which, in case you forgot–is to improve livestock and more importantly use livestock to raise our kids.

Huge CONGRATS to Addie Schneberger with her res. grand wether at the SW district show today.  No, I didn’t raise the goat.   I’ve never ever seen the goat.  I hope the goat is good.  But the Kelln Klan are really big fans of Addie Schneberger.  This kid is way cool, works hard and is going to be really successful.  She is like her mom.  Thank GOD!  I consider her dad a friend and enjoy talking the business with him.  But, I really like the whole family unit.  Good people.

Ironically, the song JukeBox Hero by Foreigner just came on.  Dude!  I like that song.  I like it a lot!  Ask Tyke.  He’s had to listen to that song at ear-splitting level numerous times.  I remember it being a big dang deal to plug a quarter in the jukebox and pick some songs.  Dang, you had to study the song list in order to make sure that you picked all great ones.  That last selection was of paramount importance as you did not want to pick a sub-par song.

Hunh?!   Kind of like dealing with livestock.

This is the end of these very random ramblings from this dude that is remembering why he likes to kid in the months of May, June and July.

I ate spaghetti for supper.

I’m done.

Have

a

good

one

and

a

better

tomorrow!

Looks like Dirty Rain is siring some sellable kids for J&J.  I have some Dirty Rain daughters that will kid later in the spring.  I’m looking forward to that.  I didn’t get many wether/buck kids out of him his first year but I loved the doe kids.  I never took a pic of Dirty Rain when he was younger as had an injury.  I sold 1/2 to J&J because I knew that they would get him mated right, have those kids presented excellent and then hopefully the  offspring will hit a lick.  So far, it looks like I was right.

Oh, yeah.  They also sold a Joe Dirt kid or two.  They can sell some goats.  Dirt got to do some traveling this past summer and fall.  He may be old but he is getting the chance to go out in style.  Several herds will be keeping Joe Dirt daughters.

Best in Show—the champion at the Westminster Dog Show was a German Shepard named Rumour.  He was named after the Rumour Has It song by Adele.  I like that name.  Just wish I still had the buck.  If you don’t want to lose a great one then don’t own livestock because it is going to happen.

County show is over.  Proficiency awards are headed to Stillwater today.  Plants come in for the greenhouse.  Shop projects getting done.  OYE online entries due this week.  Welding Rodeo on Friday.  Speeches getting memorized.  Some still need written.  Waiting on a couple of does to finally kid.  And we got 1/2 inch of rain.  Might have to drill some oats.  Hopefully the lights are working on the tractor.  Just a day in the life.

Good day!