Joy of Dry Spring

Here is what I was driving through to get to church yesterday. Not everything was this bad, but it is safe to say, we need some moisture.

You know you live in western Kansas when.....during the preacher's children sermon on Palm Sunday, he asks the kids what we could have waved instead of palms that we have plenty of out here, and their very quick response was "tumbleweeds!"

Lots of Bull

I'll confess. Today I played hookey. Well, I was actually honest about my whereabouts to my employer, but I skipped school and went to a bull sale. I've wanted to go with my dad and husband for the past few years, but I have never gotten the chance.

This year it worked out. I've been to cattle auctions before, but nothing like this. Here's how I will explain it. Imagine making a decision that is worth thousands of dollars and will affect your cattle operation for the next several years. If you are like me, you like to take your time when making decisions involving that much money. Now, imagine having less than 50 seconds to do it.

That's it. You make the decision, and the money is pretty much out of your pocket in less than 50 seconds. In this world of high-tech and efficiency, they don't waste anyone's time at a bull auction. Today 125 bull sold in 102 minutes. Do the math. That is around 49 seconds to see each bull. Phew!

The pictures I got aren't the best, but it is a bit hard to get good pictures when all you have are a not-so-hi-tech cellphone and a husband that gets annoyed if you take a picture of anything at all.

As you can see from the top picture, this auction didn't have a show ring. Well, not in your traditional sense anyway. They had three 55-inch televisions set up and a DVD player that showed video of each bull as it was selling. Along with all of that technology, they also had two men taking phone and online bids through two different auction sites.

In the above picture, it is hard to see, but the men on the left side wearing the black vests and tan hats are the men taking the bids. There were three of them keeping track of who was bidding in probably around 100 people at the sale...including the men who were taking bids on the phones. I have absolutely no idea how the auctioneer kept track of anything with all of that going on and at such a fast pace. I happily sat there and took it all in while making sure to never nod my head or scratch my nose while making eye contact with the men taking bids ;-)

Above is one of the men taking online and phone bids. He had another screen in front of him that kept track of the current price and if someone put in an online bid. I have no idea how he watched all of that, ran the DVD player and also listened to the auctioneer.

These are my favorite observations from the day:

#1: Watching an auction is a bit like watching a tennis match. Everyone's eyes follow where the current bid is. The funniest part was watching almost every single head in the place simultaneously bow down after the bull was sold so they could write the price in their bull-sale catalog.

#2: If you take too long to bid, then you are out. And the definition of "too long" at this sale was about 3 seconds.

#3: It is hilarious to listen to people in the industry talk about things such as calving ease and the way they describe them. For instance, one bull for sale today was supposed to be an extremely nice bull for heifers. That means the calves are fairly low birthweight so they can be born easily but then gain weight quickly once they are on the ground. This is how the auctioneer described the calving ease of this bull. "He will spit 'em out like watermelon seeds now." Lovely image of how a cow gives birth ;-)

#4: Men don't own this industry. The best bull of the sale sold for $15,000...and it sold to an elderly lady sitting on the front row that had traveled clear from Montana or Wyoming. Now, tell me a woman can't be successful in the cattle industry. I dare you.

#5: The type of hat you wear shows your personality. You should see some of those hats that men had on. Some were really sharp looking and had been professionally shaped to look juuuuuusssttt right. Others looked like they had been run over by a bull several times and then slapped back on their head. Another hat looked like mice had eaten off part of the back of it. The best part is knowing that each man (or woman for that matter) has a story behind the shape of their hat. And that story probably fits right in line with how they live their day-to-day life.

Beautiful Blogging Day

Since the temperature outside was warmer than inside our house, I decided it was a great day for a blog. It was a gorgeous western Kansas day!

 I walked over to the heifer pasture to get some pics of our new additions to the herd.

It was about lunch time, so this little one was getting a snack. I always love watching their tails switch back and forth out of pure happiness while they eat.

After a day or so, they all like to have a little fun running around as well.

You can't help but love them...they are so tiny and cute!

A tell-tale sign of a good snack from mom is a shiny face. This little one must have just been getting a snack before I got there.

We have purchased some heifers from outside our herd to add to our numbers. It's always interesting since you don't know their history and temperament, so I kept my distance while they gave in to their curiosity about this lady, her camera, and two dogs.

My dad, ever the farmer/rancher, just had shoulder surgery last week. But he is still out checking on the well-being of the calves. He especially keeps a close eye on the heifers since it is their first time being a mom. My husband has been doing a great job of doing the late-night calving checks so my dad can get some rest for probably the first time in 40-50 years during calving season.

Your wife might be a teacher....

Your wife might be a teacher when...this is the pen you find to write down information in your book during calving season. I had to laugh when I saw this in my husband's coveralls tonight.

Snowy, farmy day

Today is a snow day. It was originally a day off for school kids anyway, but the teachers were supposed to have in-service. Thanks to our winter storm, we got a snow day, too!

I actually made good use of the day to enjoy being home and on the farm. This morning, I braved baking and actually made some banana bread. I had to call my mom half a dozen times, but they didn't turn out terrible and my husband said they were good...so that is a success for me!

Above: This is the moment I was pretty worried I put in too much of the batter into each loaf pan. Thankfully, they just domed over and never spilled out. Phew!

Above: Maybe not pretty, but they are functional. Story of how I live me life!

The rest are just some photos I took while out with the dogs. One of them was wearing the GoPro so I might edit that down and post it somewhere later. Beautiful snow though! Praise God.

Above: Dog photo bomb 1.

Above: Dog photo bomb 2.

Above: Dog photo bomb 3.

My Inventive Farmer

This won't be the most exciting video I have ever done. But I am just too stinkin' proud of my farmer's ingenuity.

His background as a welder makes a perfect combination with farming. I have no idea how he can come up with this type of stuff and it actually works!

He took bits and pieces of some things he found around the farm and combined them with a few new pieces, and made a fully functioning hydraulic log splitter. This will save his back a LOT of work since he no longer has to split it manually.

I hadn't seen it in action until today. It was way cooler than what I had expected!

He created a whole attachment for the tractor forks. They simply slip into it like a glove and then he can pick the whole contraption up, hook it to the tractor hydraulics and away he goes with splitting wood!

Now, if only we could do all of this somewhere besides on the back lawn ;-)

Speeding things up

I put the Camaro work on hold for a few weeks, but started it back up this week. I now have the front and one side completely finished. I worked on the grill of the car yesterday, but just wasn't satisfied with it. So I did it again. I think the second time looks better.

 

I thought the angle of the silver lines was just too severe the first time after I finished it.

 

So I started over and I'm more satisfied with it now.

 

Sorry about the bad quality of framing this photo. I was struggling a bit this morning.

Hoping to get this all finished in the next few weeks.