Family Farm Friday # 71: Sheep Sale Weekend 2012

"Hard work is the key to success, so work diligently on any project you undertake. If you truly want to be successful, be prepared to give up your leisure time and work past 5 PM and on weekends."  ~Charles Lazarus

Sheep sale weekend is always an adventure. This year was no exception. We were really excited about the lambs this year as we had our first set of lambs out of our two new rams, Forrest and Gambler.  These two guys really made a difference in the quality of our lambs, and it was nice that people noticed.  We had our best sale to date, which is always a weight off of everyone's shoulders!

Here were a few of my favorite quotes/moments of the weekend....

• I had been out at the barn all day in like hurricane force winds, so I walked in the house sweaty, covered in dirt and smelling like a sheep.  I asked Little Cowboy if he wanted to go over to Mr. Franklin's with me for their sale.  He looked at me, cocked his head, and said, "Well...only if you take a shower.  You don't smell good."

• We bought one of the new rams, Gambler, from a guy in California who happened to be in town for the sales.  He came over to the house to look at the ram and see our lambs.  He walked up to the pen where the rams are, looked at Gambler and just said, "My God."  His friend with him said, "Well, looks like you really screwed that one up!"  Nice feeling knowing that your purchase ended up working out well!

• I've known the man who works for the Franklins taking care of their lambs for a long time.  He's probably in his 50's and is completely hilarious, so we tend to harass each other.  He came over to me at the sale, put his arm around me, and said, "Stephanie (he's never gotten my actual name right....I tell people that it's Tiffany in Spanish), you're so beautiful."  I asked him what he wanted.  He said, "Nothing, I'm just saying.  But I'd take a coke."  About 10 minutes later we were all in line for dinner and he walked up to Mrs. Franklin's mom, took her hand, and said, "Mrs. Joy, you're so beautiful."  She said, "You're a liar, you don't tell the truth."  Apparently his line wasn't working out all that well that night!

• When Flan showed up at the house to look at lambs, Little Cowboy came over to the barn with us.  We were in one pen looking and Little Cowboy looked at Flan and said, "So...you gonna buy one?"  Flan said, "Well maybe."  Little Cowboy said, "I'll price them for ya."  Flan said, "How much?"  Little Cowboys said, "One dollar.  No, one coin."  I said, "Little Cowboy, that's not very much!"  Little Cowboy said, "Well Tiff, look at him, he doesn't have any money!"  Later Little Cowboy explained thta he based this on the fact that Flan does not take very good care of his clothes because they had holes in them and were dirty.  I almost died laughing.

• It was about 9:30 or so on Saturday night when a truck of people from Oklahoma showed up to look at lambs.  Mind you, we'd been showing sheep since about 7:30 that morning, so I was not super excited about this.  Fortunately for me, we met our new friends Dirty Creek and North Carolina and the next two hours flew by.  See, Dirty Creek is what you'd think of as a steryotypical red-neck from Eastern Oklahoma.  He wore a dirty old straw hat, had a mullet, constantly had a dip in his mouth, and talked with a serious accent.  And I'm here to tell you, that dude was a riot.  Most of his funny jokes are not blog-appropriate (I know some Grandmas who read this blog, y'all!), but I'm here to tell you, he was a riot.  And of course, as usually happens with the life of the party guy, we hit it right off.  Apparently the next day he talked to my dad and told him, "She's a fiesty one, that lawyer.  You've gotta watch her."  Ha!  He also said that he liked my taste in sheep and that he'd trust me to pick out a lamb for him and he'd buy it sight unseen.  Pretty good compliment for an ag girl if you ask me!

• After the sale was over, my mom and Moomoos were getting all of the paperwork and money taken care of.  Well Little Cowboy figured out that they were getting paid and had a fit.  I mean screaming, crying, meltdown.  In order to prevent him from getting a spanking, Aunt Tiff came to the rescue and took him for a walk.  I used my legal interrogation skills (or maybe a bribe of chocolate) to get to the bottom of the problem.  Someone told him that people were paying my mom and his Moomoos.  But we told  him the day before that he got to be the pricer for the lambs and he just did not understand why they had taken his darn job!

• At one point on Saturday we were looking at lambs....I don't even remember now who was there...but Little Cowboy yelled at me from the feedroom clear across the barn, "Tiff, are you married?"  I said, "Nope, I'm not.  Why are you asking that?"  He said, "Well I figured you weren't."  Um.....what the heck?  I get this enough from the adults in my life, I don't need pressure from a 5 year old!