The sale itself went great. We have A LOT of family that graciously pitches in to help us get it all done. Joe's folks come up a couple days ahead of time and help us clean, set up bleachers and chairs, run errands and wrangle kids. They keep swearing that it's not too bad of a load. The kids painted both bleacher sets with a little help from me and Mary Ann Kniebel. I swear, that aluminum paint shows up in the weirdest places, like in hair, eyebrows, on sunglasses, on skin you swear was not exposed, etc. On sale day, the mothers (mine, Joe's and Mary Ann Kniebel's) along with assorted kids take care of the sale meal. We always serve slow-cooked briskets, sides and a choice of home-made apple cakes with brown sugar frosting (made by Mary Ann) or no-bake cow pie cookies (made by me). The out back crew is great too. Joe's brother-in-law is the Ag instructor at Dodge City Community College and he always comes up along with a couple of students to help sort and load the alley during the sale. My brother-in-law and nephew keep things moving in the holding pens while a very good friend and her husband and/or kids take care of bringing the sale animals out of their display pens. It's weird to have no idea what goes on back there during the sale since I'm always on the block and Joe is always in the ring. We're probably better off not knowing however!
The sale itself went well with the exception of the "2nd Annual Chicken Pen Incident." For those of you who don't know, the chicken pen is a panel right up against the sale block wide enough for people to get in and away from the animals in the event that it becomes a good idea. Well, last year, a bull decided that the very narrow opening might be the way out of the sale pen. He wasn't upset mind you, but he was going to go through there no matter what Joe thought about it. So this year, we rebuilt the chicken pen with a very substantial oil field pipe foundation running under the whole ring. Well, this year another bull decided to go through there again. Only this time, the reinforcing made it a little more difficult. Not being one to back away from a challenge, the bull pushed (no doubt in my mind how bulldozers got their name) until he'd made it through. Unfortunately, the reinforcing job was good enough that the panel ended up in front of the out gate. The bull circled through the chicken pen 7x (I know it was 7 because the auctioneer was keeping a loud and amusing count for the crowd's sake, as if the whole thing weren't already amusing enough), each time closing the real out gate. Finally, we got him turned and circling the other way so he could go through the out gate instead of just pushing it shut. No one was hurt but things got a little dicey when Kevin Kniebel yanked the former chicken pen off it's supporting posts and attempted to use it like a hog panel. The bull apparently found this little maneuver offensive and thus the untimely end of our very nicely painted sign attached to the front. I believe the bull put his foot through the KCC logo 2x. Click here for before and after photos. Next year, we're going to call our sale the "Dinner and a Show" Joint Production Sale. After all, I think there's folks that come for a little brisket and then hang around to see what exciting event will occur during the sale. Also next year, no more borrowed ring. We're buying a stout new ring with what we hope is a bull-proof chicken pen!
Sale day itself was beautiful and the tailgating that was occurring before the sale continued for quite awhile afterwards. Hey, when it's 72 with blazing sunshine and no wind on a Friday afternoon, what do you expect? Load out went off without a hitch, probably to the great disappointment of the dinner and a show crowd. We had all the bulls that needed delivery gone within a week with the exception of the KY bull and OH heifers that went home with DRI herdsman Mike Hall (a KY native) for Thanksgiving.
The rest of November was spent playing catch up; doing all those things that were put off for the sale. There were a lot! I think we're mostly done now and hopefully December won't be too bad. The big thing on the plate will be selecting replacement heifers and pregging the commercial cows. December will be here before we know it.