The second Sunday in September my family hosts a Simmental production sale with other Simmental breeders in the state of Indiana. We sell roughly 80 to 100 head of open and bred females (breeding stock). The animals purchased in this sale go to other breeders to be......what my boys call them, good ole momma cows.
It takes a lot of work to put on this sale. In fact, it takes nearly an entire month to polish up this joint so it looks presentable. That usually entails hours of weeding eating, mowing the sale lots and ditches (not my yard, grass doesn't grow in a drought, but weeds sure do), spreading rock in the driveway, cleaning out the sale barn, leveling out lime in the barns, moving equipment, and halter breaking and rinsing the heifers. And that only accounts for the mens TO DO list.
As for the ladies on the Harker farm, we are making lists for the two meals we serve, ordering meat, buying supplies, baking cookies.....heavens no, we don't make all 1200 cookies from scratch.....we by the premade frozen cookies. My mother-in-law (MIL) and I don't have a lot of free time on our hands, so we cut a few corners where necessary. Hey....when you are preparing enough food to feed 400 to 500 people in three hours, you need to cut some corners!
Not to mention getting all the registration papers and health papers, feeding the work crew, keeping the kids in school and well fed and working our regular jobs and trying to get enough sleep to be good hosts and hostess.
Don't worry the storm will pass.......in a single day. Three months of work and preparation passes in a single day and we collapse from exhaustion!! But it so worth it!
Here are few of the before scenes pictures.......before the storm hits.
The empty sale barn and sale ring.
The bred heifer lots and equipment parked at the back of the field.
My yard has no cars in it.
The heifer barn is empty.
Good luck with your sale! I know how much work goes into putting one on...my parents are going to be having their 18th annual hog sale next year. Just a thought...our local swine club does all the food for the sale. They have pulled pork, pork burgers, hot dogs, they don't skimp on the meal! This way, my mom doesn't have to worry about getting food around, in addition to health papers, pedigrees, etc...
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