Yesterday Spork and I went to Powell’s livestock and attended the cattle auction. We went for three reasons.
1. Spork needs to spend more time with me and less with the plethora of women that inhabit the rest of the house. Too much estrogen can make a boy (and the women he’s around) crazy.
2. Spork also needs to work with and learn from dad. It doesn’t seem like there is that much knowledge being passed when you are doing it but kids are sponges and they soak up whatever is around, good or bad. Hopefully I can be good for a day and impart some knowledge.
3. Lightning, Dottie’s calf, needed to go by by. She was getting old enough to start looking good to the bull and I didn’t want her bred. I also need Dottie not milking and putting some meat on her bones so she’s in better shape come the next calf. We only run one herd of cows so either you’re part of the herd, or you’re gone. Also, #31, a belted galloway (a ninja cow) was in the same state, plus being a ninja she was starting to act crazy. She needed to go away before she was bred and we had a new ninja on the ground.
Miguel did his pied piper thing and had all the cows in the sorting pen by himself before Spork and I could even finish breakfast. We loaded the two cows up and headed to Smithfield for a days adventure. We met some old friends, made some new ones, and stayed as long as we could but the auction didn’t end till 7:30 and we had dinner waiting for us at 6 so we high tailed it out of there, running some errands on the way home. We didn’t get to see our cows come through the auction ring.
And by “dinner waiting”, I mean SWMBO had two recipes on the counter and pushed us hard working cattlemen into the kitchen where we made sweet and sour pork from one of our pork shoulders (it was awesome!) I’d love to finish the story by saying we then cleaned the kitchen and did the rest of our chores but another of our new friends, Kara from Zin Yoga, had hooked us up with a great bottle of Chianti. I accidentally opened the bottle (these things are always happening to me, clumsy I guess) before we started cooking and post dinner I was swiftly face down on the bed asleep.
#31 brought 1.37 per pound and #49 brought $2.00 per pound. Pretty cheap by today’s standards but it allowed us to optimize our herd which is what we need to be doing. Plus with all the cash going out in pig and cow purchases, it’s nice to put some cash back in the bank every once in a while.