Trip To Missouri and a Plan For the Future

Saturday was a very long day. I got up at 6:15am, along with Jim and the kids, to take care of our critters before we all left for the day. Jim took Krys with him, so that she could go to gymnastics camp, and Alex went with me.

Alex and I arrived at Mom's, in the truck, with what had been 10 bales of alfalfa hay, but was actually only 9 now. Sir Lunchalot and Sir Loin really enjoyed that other bale! Lesson learned. Do not leave truck in the pasture if it has hay on it. Dairy steers don't need to climb on the back, they just reach over and grab it mouthful by mouthful.

Mom wasn't doing so well, so Alex and I finished up her chores, while she sat down and caught her breath. Her doctor has her so messed up, it's NOT funny. Mom got all cleaned up, and off to Missouri we went. We made two stops, one in Choteau for some breakfast and one in Pryor for a bag of chick feed. We traveled up through Joplin and Kansas City without incident.

Mom and I took the travel time to discuss plans, ideas and goals. We are moving slowly toward having all of our meat home raised, and to a time where our income from the sale of animals will cover the feed for the rest of the crew. Then with the gardens, we plan to produce most of our produce needs. Add in fruit trees/brambles, and we hope to reduce the need for "grocery" shopping by about 95%. Our only purchases will be things that we can't produce here or at Mom's.

We got to Gladhour Farm, and proceeded to spend the next three hours looking at Dexters. We saw mommas and babies, and daddies too. We had a very informative tour guide, and she was perfectly willing to answer all our questions. And we had many. But being able to actually see so many different animals was a blessing, in that we now have a better picture in our heads as to what we are looking for. And then we looked at the four bulls we had gone up to see. Two were fairly easy to eliminate from our list. One because his rear assembly was off, and the other because he just didn't seem right for us. That left the choice between Squire and Tobylite. If we needed two bulls, or could afford them, or had the room for them, I think we would have taken them both. But, we had to choose. After about 30 to 45 minutes of discussion, we settled on Squire. He is the older of the two, and does carry the color genetics we are looking for. Jim and I will go pick him up on August 2nd, and bring him home.

It's a relief to know that we have things rolling for the future. I'm excited, and know that I have a lot of work to do, to get things going in the right direction. Mentally, I know I'm up for the challenge. I only hope that I can get the physical part to cooperate.