\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Oddly enough, this type of animal has popped up into my memory banks at least twice in the past couple of weeks.\u00a0 Recently, Greg Boyer sent me a text-LATE-one night, wanting me to re-tell the story.\u00a0 Then, last week I was judging the FFA creed speaking contest finals.\u00a0 I asked all four kids–“What does SAE stand for?\u00a0 and What is your SAE project?”\u00a0 \u00a0This one girl got emphatic about talking about her SAE project.\u00a0 Her excitement combined with all 3 judges being caught off guard led to a new line of questioning about pigeons.\u00a0 By the way, she did well at answering questions EXCEPT she didn’t know what you call pigeon meat.\u00a0 She raised racing pigeons and we asked what happens to the slow ones.\u00a0 I hoped that she would tell me that they got turned into “squab”.\u00a0 Anyways……<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Back in ’93 to ’96, I served a three year sentence teaching at Billings, OK.\u00a0 There was only a handful of jobs open that year and there was a bunch of graduates hunting jobs.\u00a0 Billings it was.\u00a0 Lucky to get a job. As it turned out, it was a great place for me to get thrown into the fire.\u00a0 (I could write a book about those three years).\u00a0 There was\/is some really great families in the greater Billings area.\u00a0 Lots of characters.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Probably everybody’s favorite Billings character was Sydney Yost.\u00a0 Big personality that loved OSU, loved farming, loved his daughters, loved showing cattle and loved competition.\u00a0 He succumbed to cancer in the late 90s.\u00a0 I still think about him often and fondly.\u00a0 His daughters are fun to keep up with on book-face.\u00a0 Great family!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Billings is located in Noble County.\u00a0 The ag teachers of Noble County got along real well.\u00a0 We formed the Noble County Ag Teachers Association.\u00a0 We all worked together and cooperated.\u00a0 Milligan and Mike Parrish became members at a later date.\u00a0 For instance, when it came to showing heifers, Randy Henderson at Morrison and I did almost all of the clipping and fitting.\u00a0 Jon Aaron Linn–dad from Frontier–Taylor Parrish’s grandpa–took care of the building beds and he served as the barn boss.\u00a0 Steve Houska–dad from Perry–took care of show management–who was up next, showmanship, etc.\u00a0 It worked well.\u00a0 We had lots of success as a county team.\u00a0 And we would travel and eat together.\u00a0 As a county group, we won and lost together.\u00a0 Lots of success, like several breed champion heifers at OKC.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Kurt Bolay was the ag teacher at Perry.\u00a0 Very good ag teacher, great work ethic and determined to help his students.\u00a0 Good dude.\u00a0 Cattle weren’t his thing but if I was fitting cattle, he made sure to help the Billings kids that were showing sheep or whatever.\u00a0 On a side note, all four schools in the county had a public speaker in the top 5 of their division at State.\u00a0 We all wanted to win, but we used each other to help.\u00a0 It worked and I miss a lot about those days.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Mr. Bolay’s kids always showed some bad-ass pigeons.\u00a0 His father-in-law was a pigeon jock.\u00a0 These pigeons were good.\u00a0 The Noble County Fair had lots of pens of pigeons.\u00a0 Lots of poultry as well.\u00a0 Anyways, Mr. Bolay, myself and Sydney Yost were yakking back and forth.\u00a0 Sydney was talking smack about showing a “real” animal, like a steer.\u00a0 At that point, Bolay and Sydney really got to jawing back and forth.\u00a0 Bolay allowed how “his daughters just might have a steer to whip some ass next year.”\u00a0 Sydney took it personal.\u00a0 Better be careful.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The next spring the two of them were still talking.\u00a0 Sydney’s daughter Ramee had a really good Tulsa steer that we had bought at Copus bid board sale.\u00a0 (that is another story)\u00a0 Bolay alluded that he might have a Tulsa steer as well.\u00a0 Sydney was like “bring it.\u00a0 We’ll whip your ass at the county fair”.\u00a0 I was like “Dude, we ain’t taking that steer to the Noble County Fair!\u00a0 Hell no!\u00a0 (and we didn’t)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And then I threw gas on the fire.\u00a0 I nominated a steer in the name of one of Kurt Bolay’s daughters.\u00a0 I waited till after wheat harvest and I showed Sydney the nomination report.\u00a0 OHHHH!!!! He was livid.\u00a0 “WE is getting us some pigeons!”\u00a0 Now, Sydney wasn’t much of a drinker.\u00a0 However, he was easily influenced by the younger cool crowd.\u00a0 One Saturday, Jay Paul Fagan and I might have goaded Sydney into getting REAL serious about this pigeon deal.\u00a0 Sydney was committed but he didn’t know where to look for pigeons.\u00a0 This was 1995–pre-internet.\u00a0 I told him that there was a sale south of Stillwater that sold everything.\u00a0 Mihura Country Store had an auction on Saturdays.\u00a0 I think that they still have an auction.\u00a0 Broken golf clubs, 8 track cassettes, Beagle puppies, dozen chicken eggs, hay and pigeons.\u00a0 Here we go.\u00a0 We make the 50 mile drive to go to the auction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0As luck would have it, there was a shit-load of pigeons being auctioned that day.\u00a0 We got a bidder number and went to buying and buying and buying.\u00a0 We bought trios for $2.50 like they were going out of style.\u00a0 Ten+ sets of trios.\u00a0 At that time, we weren’t drinking.\u00a0 And then…..oh….and then they brought out the special consignment.\u00a0 They unloaded a trio of pigeons out of the back of a station wagon.\u00a0 The auctioneer could hardly contain his excitement as he read off that these birds had been the grand trio at the Texhoma Fair, the Arkansas\/Oklahoma State Fair and every other show that they had been to.\u00a0 I normally consider myself a good judge of stock, but to be honest, they looked the same as the rest of the pigeons to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The auctioneer went to chanting and we blew right by that $2.50 price, $5, $10.\u00a0 There was a buzz in the crowd–much like a $20K wether goat being sold.\u00a0 The bidding escalated.\u00a0 Sydney had his free meshback seed company farmer’s cap cocked up and to one side.\u00a0 Both arms were exposed from the shoulders down as his guns were not inhibited by sleeves on his pearl snap farming shirt complete with a pen and a notepad in his shirt pocket.\u00a0 $15, $20–people we weren’t even bidding in nickle increments anymore.\u00a0 $22.50 now $23.\u00a0 \u00a0It was now just a bid off between two bidders.\u00a0 One caved….going once, twice…sold!\u00a0 $27.50.\u00a0 \u00a0Yeah that’s it.\u00a0 But, I am here to tell you that the crowd was buzzing.\u00a0 There were dudes in overalls looking at us like we were crazy.\u00a0 Was it a record?\u00a0 IDK.\u00a0 I just knew that we now had a whole bunch of birds to haul and we didn’t bring a trailer.\u00a0 So then we bought the actual cage that held the trio of badass pigeons.\u00a0 We had to.\u00a0 None of us could tell those 3 birds from the other 30+ birds that we had already bought.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We headed back to Billings, hooked onto a stock trailer and went back to pickup our pigeon purchases.\u00a0 100 mile round trip.\u00a0 We also stopped at Atwoods to buy chicken wire in order to line the trailer AND close in a lean-to barn to serve as a pigeon coop.\u00a0 Well, except for the HIGH dollar trio.\u00a0 They got their own pen.\u00a0 Ramee took over the upkeep of a bunch of pigeons.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Fast forward.\u00a0 Ramee did have the grand trio of pigeons at the Noble County Fair.\u00a0 I guess those birds were exceptional.\u00a0 Bolay was SO pissed that we all went together to eat lunch that day at the Noble County Fair.\u00a0 Sydney and Bolay argued as to who would buy.\u00a0 Sydney exclaimed “Haa!! Winners buy!”\u00a0 There is so much about those days that I miss.\u00a0 Pigeons–you gotta be shittin me?!?!?<\/p>\n
Ramee also went on to place 2nd in the State FFA Specialty Animal proficiency award with her pigeon project.\u00a0 None of the Bolay girls ever had nor did they ever show a steer.\u00a0 Oddly enough, Kela was a national Specialty Animal proficiency finalist with GOATS!!\u00a0 Seriously, goats were a specialty animal.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
People, have a good one.\u00a0 Find the fun in everything.\u00a0 It’s all around us….if you look for it.\u00a0 Have a good one and a better tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Oddly enough, this type of animal has popped up into my memory banks at least twice in the past couple of weeks.\u00a0 Recently, Greg Boyer sent me a text-LATE-one night, wanting me to re-tell the story.\u00a0 Then, last week I was judging the FFA creed speaking contest finals.\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\/4752"}],"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=4752"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4752\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kellnlivestock.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}