Sale Week Rituals - part uno

It's almost here! The biggest day of the year, the be all to end all, the reason for our existence!  Well.. that may be a little much. But it is, most certainly, what we work for all year round.  I'll be taking you through a few of the presale rituals we have and what/who all it takes to get this thing rolling.  My posts will not be timely, they will not be daily, and I can't promise my grammar will be correct.  We are talking some pretty long days here folks but it ALWAYS pays off. 

Every second Saturday in February we have our annual production sale where our best yearling bull calves and our best heifers and a few pairs make their big debut in the ring and happily go home with the highest bidder.  It takes over a week to get ready for this big shenanigan and almost always, without fail, it always gets super muddy right before the big day. 

You saw last month how we trimmed, photographed and videoed all our cattle that would be in the sale.  Well since then, they've just been hanging out in what was a nice dry lot and what is now a big sloppy mess thanks to all the rain.  ( yes I said rain, yes it is February, yes we are all freaked out but this unseasonably warm weather but were moving on)  So, one big thing we have to do is get rid of all that mud!

So, time to rinse and repeat.. .literally.  We bring in all the bulls and get them all cozied into the pens.  Then, one by one, we run them through the wash rack where they get soaked, brushed, soaped, brushed and rinsed.  From there, they go across the aisle where they get their blow outs to make sure they are totally dry and clean.  The boys love the day at the spa!

From there, we will turn the bulls out into the horses beloved South Pasture where they will hopefully stay clean, dry and mud free for the next three days.  It's an all day thing to wash and dry 50 bulls.  Well, really, its a two day thing but we're all so stubborn that we decided one long long day was better than two just long days so were pulling a 14 hour shift to get it all done. 

Luckily the girls have better manners and they stay much cleaner so we don't have to mess with them. 

Today was the bulls, tomorrow is the barn, we're on the home stretch people, I can smell it!