Today, as in Thursday, was a day for honors and awards. The NW District show was at Enid. Troy B’s niece was reserve grand wether. I called and asked him what feed it was on. Yep, the Special K dealer actually feeds Special K. That’s good for business. Schoovy won a class with a Rumour Has It wether and was 5th overall. Good day.
The doe show at Enid was won by one of my all-time favorite doe showers–Miss Tori Sessions. She’s been close before, but she finally won it. Congrats to Tori and her family on a big win. From all reports, this was a really good doe show. Since, I couldn’t be there, I did make Tori take pics of banners and trophies to confirm the win. Of course, she could have borrowed them and took the pics. But, Schoovy confirms the win. I mean, if Schoovy says it’s true, then it has to be true. Right?
On a different, yet same note, I do miss the days when I was at Fairview and Bryan Kennedy was teaching at Hennessey. For a couple of years, the Enid goat show consisted of our 2 krews kicking the crap out of each other. That was fun. I like good competition.
The Woodward Show gave out an outstanding service award to Mike Robison for all of his help over the years. Mike retired from the State Ag-Ed office this past summer. I was glad to see Mike get honored. This dude was one of the absolute best ag teachers of ALL TIME. It didn’t matter what part of AgEd or FFA it was, his kids were competitive. Numerous state officers, speech winners, good steers, etc., this guy got it done. Personally, I would rank him as one of the top 3 ag teachers that have ever taught. He’s the kind that you wanted your kid to have as an ag teacher. And even though he is now retired, he’s helping kids with speeches and training 4-H livestock judging teams. This guy could get it done with the best of them. The scary part is that he was only the 2nd best teacher in his own house. His wife is one of the all time great Home Ec teachers. Plus, she knew more than most ag teachers. Absolute great pair of educators and even better people. Cheers to Mike for this award.
My favorite part of the night, was attending the WW premium sale dinner and awards. Every year, the Woodward show gives a black jacket to an outstanding supporter. Think green master’s jacket for the winner. Cool honor. This year’s recipient was David Litzenberger. King David is a true great American. I could write a book with all of my David stories. This dude is a great one. And his family is even better. David didn’t know about the award. He was there to support Duke and other kids. David ALWAYS wears his jeans on top of his boots, not tucked in, just sitting on top–hap-hazard. Guess what? When he went to the middle of the sale ring to accept his honor and put on his jacket, the jeans were still on top of the boots. So, when Duke went into the premium sale ring, yep, he had his boots and jeans, David style. Duke and David have always been buddies. They are their own people and don’t give a rat’s behind what others think. Yet, they take care of business, have fun and help others. Not a bad a thing.
A lot of you Okie goat showers remember Danielle Litzenberger. She did a pile of winning. Dani and Kela were the two clowns that got me started in this goat game. Dani thinks that I owe her a commission. We decided to agree that when she has kids, I will hook her up with a good goat. I’m pretty sure that she cut the same deal with Poe Cat. To me, it’s just good business. Heck yeah, I’ll give Dani a good goat. She’ll win with it.
As a teacher, you aren’t supposed to have favorites. But I will promise you that anybody that has dealt with the Litzenberger family has them at the top of their favorites list. The family just knows how to work and to help others. I love those boys, Dani has a special place in Kelln family lore and David and Susan are and will always be friends. Great people and I was happy to see David get this honor.
One of my all-time favorite stock show stories involved Duke’s first OYE wether show. This also happened to be Dani’s final OYE show. They both had wethers in the same class. I told Duke that if he showed Slick real well, he might be able to stand 2nd behind Dani. The class was sifted. Then the judge started to place the goats. Dani was sitting at the front end of the class while Duke was towards the end. As each wether was placed, Duke had to pull forward and re-set. He was focused. He was showing the heck out of Slick. The judge kept placing and Duke kept pulling forward. Right up until the final three goats were left. Dani on one end and Duke on the other. The judge pulled the middle goat into 3rd. Duke pulled forward, reset Slick and looked to see how many was left. He realized that it was just he and Dani. He looked at her, looked ringside at me and grinned great big and then went back to showing. Dani ended up 1st, Duke 2nd. He was ecstatic to be 2nd next to Dani. She hugged him on the way out of the ring. Tammy and I were happy, sad and proud all at the same time. But we all knew that it was moments like this that make us want to show livestock. It wasn’t about the animals, it was all about the kids.
Here’s to the Litzenberger family! Cheers.
