Bull Sale and Upcoming Adventures

The ranch we work for had their bull sale yesterday and it went really well. The weather even cooperated nicely, unlike previous years.

If you've never been to a bull sale here's how it works. (You can skip this section if you don't care) The bulls enter the ring in a certain order. Everyone has a catalog of all the animals for sale, which is chock full of information about the bulls traits. This information is usually in an EPD format. EPD stands for expected progeny difference...basically these numbers tell you how the bull is expected to perform based on his genetics. Or in other words, how his progeny will turn out because of his particular traits. These numbers include information about his meat and carcass, calving ease, ability to gain weight efficiently, etc. When the bull enters the ring the auctioneer starts the bidding and the bull goes to to highest bidder. Obviously, every bulls has different EPDs so each bull sells for a different price. It's a pretty simple process.

I remember the first bull sale I ever went to. (You can skip this section too if you don't care.) Jonathan and I hadn't been dating for very long. I had a terrible day that day and Jonathan felt bad so he invited me along to make me feel better. He warned me beforehand though that while the bidding was going on I needed to be very careful with my movements so that I didn't accidentally bid on, or buy, a bull. Most people try to make their bidding as discreet and subtle as possible so the other bidders don't know who's bidding against them, so very small movements can be taken as a bid. We showed up at the sale and it was a warm fall day. I was completely paranoid I would accidentally buy a bull that I locked my hands at my side. This was fine, except for the fact that there were a gillion flies buzzing all over. Flies kept landing on me and tickling my face, but I didn't dare to shoo them away so I just let the flies tickle me through the whole sale. I always look back and laugh about that day now. I still get a little paranoid, but I'm pretty sure I know how to handle myself at a sale now. I still avoid eye contact with the ring men though, just to play it safe :)

Since Jonathan is the herdsman he/we will be delivering the vast majority of the bulls that were sold yesterday.

I love delivering bulls with him because
a) he rarely takes time off, so this is our time of year to spend a lot of time together
b) I love seeing other people's ranches and the countryside...especially when it's unfamiliar territory. Yesterday I realized just how many friends we made last year while we were delivering bulls. A lot of previous buyers were back and I had nice conversations with a lot of them.
c) I'm always up for an adventure

The bulls and some heifers were sold to ranches in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, California, Washington, Texas, and Indiana to name a few. We're not sure yet where we'll be delivering to, but I think we're going to have a lot of time on the road :)

So here's my dilemma: Maggie does great in her car seat, but let's face it, Indiana and Texas are a LONG way from Idaho. I'm scared after that long of a drive Maggie will come to hate riding in the car (or truck in this case). I think she will be fine, but part of me feels bad that she would just be sitting in her car seat all day. She's been great on previous trips, in fact she just sleeps most of the time, but there's always that "what if" in the back of my mind. I guess mostly because we haven't gone this far with her before. I don't want to stay home though because that would mean Jonathan would be on the road by himself (and I would be bored and lonely). So what do you think? Would it be unhealthy or cruel to bring Maggie along for all that driving, or do you think she'd like the adventure as much as me?

Here' she is in her sale day outfit. She stole everybody's heart. Her onesie says "Cute and adorable cowgirl in charge." That way everyone knew she was a helper :) Sometimes I guess I have too much fun dressing her up, but that's the best part of having a little girl right?