\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I don’t watch any nfl games.\u00a0 I do, however, keep track of who is winning and will watch highlights.\u00a0 I just refuse to spend any $s with that organization and I don’t want to be counted in any Nielsen ratings for watching the stuff.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Now, back in the day, I did watch nfl games.\u00a0 Growing up, I was a Houston Oilers fan.\u00a0 Earl Campbell was such a wicked badass!\u00a0 \u00a0I still think that the Houston Oilers’ uniforms and logos are possibly the best that the nfl has ever had.\u00a0 I’ve been to a Cowboys game in Texas Stadium.\u00a0 While in college, I enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills.\u00a0 For one, they had Thurman Thomas.\u00a0 But they also had a hard-hitting, fast paced offense.\u00a0 Their defense also had some big time dudes with Bruce Smith, Shane Conlan and Cornelius Bennett.\u00a0 They also had the best special teams player of all-time–Steve Tasker.\u00a0 If you tell me that those early 90s Bills teams weren’t one of the best of all time, you would be wrong.\u00a0 Sure. They were reserve grand 4 straight times.\u00a0 \u00a0But dang dude, it’s hard to get there.\u00a0 The ’91 super bowl is still the best ever.\u00a0 The game was wicked and Whitney singing the National Anthem is still the example of how-to-do-it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 If you were to walk down the stairs into our basement, you could take a look at a collection of several reserve grand banners from several different species of animals.\u00a0 It is what it is.\u00a0 We’ve made it to the top a time or two but it was WAY more common for us to find ourselves in that reserve grand spot.\u00a0 OYE–1 reserve & 1 bronze.\u00a0 \u00a0Phoenix–2 grands & 3 reserves.\u00a0 State Fair of OK–1 grand & 3 reserves.\u00a0 \u00a0And it continued with goats that we raised–OYE–1 reserve grand, 2-bronzes,\u00a0 State Fair of OK–1 reserve grand, Tulsa State Fair–1 reserve grand.\u00a0 And then you throw in kids we helped and well, the ol’ reserve grand list gets real long.\u00a0 It’s fine.\u00a0 There were times that I thought we should have won.\u00a0 Others that I agreed with the outcome, one where the right showman beat us, but with the wrong goat.\u00a0 And\u00a0 even a time at Phoenix where Duke was reserve grand as a lightweight cross behind a littermate that was grand.\u00a0 We had the better pig but not the “right” pig.\u00a0 And I still agree.\u00a0 And I still like buying runts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 It continues into other areas of competition.\u00a0 Take the OK state FFA public speaking finals–four different times, we have had a student that ended up as the reserve overall public speaker in Oklahoma.\u00a0 (3 prepared & 1 extemp) Now, two of those kids did get to go on to nationals.\u00a0 One prepared because the overall winner went religious and disappeared and the extemp because he was 2nd behind Chelsea Clifton, who also won prepared.\u00a0 \u00a0And ALL of us were happy to be 2nd behind that girl.\u00a0 She still has maybe, definitely,\u00a0 the greatest FFA resume of all time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And what got me to thinking about all of these reserve grands was an ag mech project.\u00a0 A dump trailer that I now own.\u00a0 I didn’t plan on owning it but I was pushing the bids online and well, I won.\u00a0 Now, I’m glad that I have it.\u00a0 It gets used but it stays parked in the machine shed.\u00a0 This trailer was shown 4 times and was reserve grand 4 times.\u00a0 What?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
–2020 Woodward District reserve grand–behind a 3 pt wire roller.\u00a0 Okay, this trailer was yet to be painted.\u00a0 Fine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
–2020 OYE reserve grand–Okay.\u00a0 There were 2 trailers that were in the hunt to be grand.\u00a0 We got the short straw.\u00a0 I’m not mad but still don’t agree.\u00a0 Both high quality projects.\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
–2021 State Fair of OK reserve grand–What?\u00a0 Once again, got beat by a good project but we had more electrical plus hydraulics plus WOW factor.\u00a0 Not the same levels of difficulty to build.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
–2021 Tulsa State Fair reserve grand–RUSM?\u00a0 \u00a0A skid steer grapple beat it.\u00a0 So many more features and a much more complicated build.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Okay.\u00a0 Fine.\u00a0 But in my barn, parked next to this dump trailer is the grand from the State Fair of OK in ’16.\u00a0 The grand ag mech project from Tulsa AND State Fair of OK in ’19, the grand at the State Fair of OK in ’18 & grand at Woodward District in ’19, as well as the grand at Woodward in ’21 are all parked very close by.\u00a0 \u00a0There is NO comparison with this dump trailer and any of these others—NONE!\u00a0 \u00a0Yet, it is what it is.\u00a0 That badass, wicked dump trailer, as much as I like it, is still a 4 time reserve grand project.\u00a0 I can’t explain how it never won a grand banner.\u00a0 It didn’t and that’s it.\u00a0 Doesn’t matter what I think.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Duke had a goat named “Spasm”.\u00a0 He was a stiff necked, dumb ass wether from Gallagher’s.\u00a0 Spasm was an actual Freaky offspring–complete with HUGE back, tight hide and screwed up, tweaky back legs.\u00a0 Spasm’s show record included being Reserve grand at the State Fair of OK, grand at a $500 jackpot (remember when that was a lot), grand at the Major County Stock Show, Grand at the Northwest District show and Bronze overall at OYE.\u00a0 He was also shown at the Fairview local stock show.\u00a0 He placed 7th out of 8 in that contest.\u00a0 \u00a0 What?\u00a0 \u00a0Who judged?\u00a0 Doesn’t matter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you don’t want ’em beat…..don’t show ’em.\u00a0 I learned this back in the 90s and it still holds true.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, as an old(er) dude, I’m learning that those reserve grands aren’t\/weren’t all bad.\u00a0 \u00a0Heck!\u00a0 Now, I might be like Dave Chappelle’s character Tyrone Biggums–“Ya’ll got any more of them lavender colored banners?”<\/p>\n
People, have a good one today.\u00a0 Please have a better tomorrow.\u00a0 Pray—today and tomorrow.\u00a0 Because we all need help.\u00a0 And if the worse thing that you have to bitch about is a reserve grand banner—well, at least you were in the hunt.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0I don’t watch any nfl games.\u00a0 I do, however, keep track of who is winning and will watch highlights.\u00a0 I just refuse to spend any $s with that organization and I don’t want to be counted in any Nielsen ratings for watching the stuff.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4601"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4606,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4601\/revisions\/4606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}