randiliana
Well-known member
Quite a time we had this past weekend. Of course the temps were coooold, and had a watering bowl freeze up, Friday morning when we planned to leave for the weekend. Had the Nephew out to do chores for the weekend, and my mom to watch the kids. We decided to heck with it, poured hot water over the bowl, and told the nephew to watch it and maybe pour some more hot water over it once in a while if it didn't let go. Cows weren't too interested in moving around with the -30 temps and high winds so they hadn't drank the day before.
So we left it in his hands and left for a bull sale. The trip is about 6 hours if you have no trouble and don't stop for anything. It was supposed to be a holiday sort of thing, and we planned to pick up a bull or two. Well, we didn't even quite make Swift Current, about 2 hours from home, when the truck gave out on us. We sat waiting for help (called hubby's sister) for 2 hours, since the guy she called didn't see us sitting just off the road in a yard and he went about 1/2 hour south before he figured maybe he sould have looked IN the yards on the way by. Anyway, he finally showed up, and got us into town. Got the truck towed in to a garage, and figured that we might as well get on with the trip. We borrowed the sisters truck, and we were off again.
Finally got to Lloydminster at 7:30 pm, 3 hours later than we planned, but at least we got there. Called home when we got there to tell them we made it, and that we had had trouble with the truck, and to find out if the waterer had thawed, and how chores went. Good news, the waterer was working, and he had had no trouble doing chores.
Saturday, we went out to the farm for the sale. The crowd was smaller than in past years, but then again it was cooold, and they have a lot of snow up there. The Hereford bulls really impressed us. On the whole they were a great bunch of bulls, the Black Angus 2 year olds were pretty darn good too. The sale moved along quite quickly, and we bought a Hereford bull, turned out to be one of our top picks which AMAZINGLY we were able to afford!! The rest of our picks went out of our price range, some by quite a bit. Bu that is normal, I guess we have a good eye or something. We also picked up a decent yearling Black Angus bull for a decent price. Didn't really need him, but he had decent numbers, and a good enough BW to use on the heifers, and we figured we could use him. Then came the bred heifers, and of course we had to pick some of them up too. Got 10 pretty nice Hereford heifers due to calve mid March. Now we just have to wait for them to get here.
After the sale, we spent the night and had breakfast with some great people we had met the day before, and then headed back fairly soon afterwards. Got to Swift Current, and called the garage hoping to get the truck back. Things went downhill from there. Turned out that the head gasket had gone and there was no chance of getting the truck for at least a week, and that was only if the head gasket was the ONLY problem. We've talked to a few people, and they all say that the motor is probably done too. So, I guess we are in the market for a new (to us) truck again. This one has been pretty good, but it has 400 000 kms on it, and it is just as much to replace the motor as buy a different one.... Ah well, such is the life ;-)
So we left it in his hands and left for a bull sale. The trip is about 6 hours if you have no trouble and don't stop for anything. It was supposed to be a holiday sort of thing, and we planned to pick up a bull or two. Well, we didn't even quite make Swift Current, about 2 hours from home, when the truck gave out on us. We sat waiting for help (called hubby's sister) for 2 hours, since the guy she called didn't see us sitting just off the road in a yard and he went about 1/2 hour south before he figured maybe he sould have looked IN the yards on the way by. Anyway, he finally showed up, and got us into town. Got the truck towed in to a garage, and figured that we might as well get on with the trip. We borrowed the sisters truck, and we were off again.
Finally got to Lloydminster at 7:30 pm, 3 hours later than we planned, but at least we got there. Called home when we got there to tell them we made it, and that we had had trouble with the truck, and to find out if the waterer had thawed, and how chores went. Good news, the waterer was working, and he had had no trouble doing chores.
Saturday, we went out to the farm for the sale. The crowd was smaller than in past years, but then again it was cooold, and they have a lot of snow up there. The Hereford bulls really impressed us. On the whole they were a great bunch of bulls, the Black Angus 2 year olds were pretty darn good too. The sale moved along quite quickly, and we bought a Hereford bull, turned out to be one of our top picks which AMAZINGLY we were able to afford!! The rest of our picks went out of our price range, some by quite a bit. Bu that is normal, I guess we have a good eye or something. We also picked up a decent yearling Black Angus bull for a decent price. Didn't really need him, but he had decent numbers, and a good enough BW to use on the heifers, and we figured we could use him. Then came the bred heifers, and of course we had to pick some of them up too. Got 10 pretty nice Hereford heifers due to calve mid March. Now we just have to wait for them to get here.
After the sale, we spent the night and had breakfast with some great people we had met the day before, and then headed back fairly soon afterwards. Got to Swift Current, and called the garage hoping to get the truck back. Things went downhill from there. Turned out that the head gasket had gone and there was no chance of getting the truck for at least a week, and that was only if the head gasket was the ONLY problem. We've talked to a few people, and they all say that the motor is probably done too. So, I guess we are in the market for a new (to us) truck again. This one has been pretty good, but it has 400 000 kms on it, and it is just as much to replace the motor as buy a different one.... Ah well, such is the life ;-)
