The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

Hello,

In the fall I attend several livestock auctions. Sometimes I am selling. Sometimes I am buying. Usually I am just watching. This helps when I have to do my year end balance sheet for my bankers. Note the term. Bankers. I have more than one. But by attending the sales, you can kind of get an idea what your net worth is. And how much you will be lying as you fill that sheet out.

Much of the time, I take one of my grandsons along. It’s been that way since I had grandkids around. At first, they think it is a neat deal. They sit and watch the cattle with great interest. After a few sales and thousands of cattle, they get so they are more interested in the candy the office girls give them. Or the pop that the other cattle buyers give them money for.

Slate, my youngest grandkid, likes pop. He really likes pop. His Mom and Dad don’t think he should have pop. They are funny that way. So I am pretty strict with him. I usually tell him he can’t have any pop until he finishes his dinner. Usually. Not always. Because oftentimes Leo gives him a dollar and he goes and buys his own soft drink.

A while ago we were having lunch at the sales ring and I left him alone for a bit. When I came back he was pretty proud. He calls me Baboo. “Baboo,” he says. “Did you know if you put sugar in water it turns into pop?”

I tell you, the kid is a genius.

When his oldest brother was less than a year old, I had him at the sale. He is and always will be a cow man. He likes to watch them through the gate, on the truck, or just riding through them.

The first time I took him to the sale, he was just learning to walk. His mother dressed him up with a hat and western vest, boots, spurs, and wrangler jeans. A fine looking cowboy.

I had marching orders on how to feed him.

When I got him home later that day, he was asleep in his car seat. His mother came out to get Evan and was unstrapping his harness.

“What did he have for dinner?”

“I gave him part of a hamburger patty, some salad, and green vegetables.”

“That is wonderful,” Jen exclaimed.

Then, as she was taking his vest off, a few French fries fell out of his clothes. Not good.

But dang, he is turning out pretty good! They all are. And I think being around cow people is one of the reasons why.

Later, Dean