Thursday, December 5, 2013

Christmas Wish List

As little girls, our daughters used to dilligently go through the catalogs at Christmas dreaming of what might show up for them on Christmas morning.  It started with the Sears catalog along with the flyers that would show up in the mail.  But as time went on their catalogs of choice were the cattle sales that arrived through November and December, along with the Sullivans Supply catalog.

I remember one time about 16 years ago we were consigning to the Simmental Sale Checkers (we still consign).  The girls had gone down to help Rob a couple of days prior to the sale and I arrived sale morning.  As I arrived at the barn, they greeted me and asked  "are you done Christmas shopping?"  They had found a red baldy heifer calf in the barn and stated that I could take all of their gifts back if they could own her at the end of the day. The auctioneer of the day Col. Steve Dorran over heard this.

Our cattle sold earlier in the sale and we decided to let them try to buy her, on the condition that they did the bidding.  They were 8 & 6.  "Gloss came into the ring and the bidding began."  When it was all said and done, Crystal and Stacy owned a heifer, they had no idea how much they had spent, but knew it was under budget, because their dad didn't tell them to stop and Col. Dorran  commented that there would be some gifts to return.
These days the girls still await sale catalogs arriving in the mail, now they are Hereford and Simmental ones to look through, have show / grooming supplies on their Christmas list along with a few other items.  It was fun to see the same excitment on that sale day trying to own a heifer as it is on Christmas morning wondering what Santa brought them.  It's starting to look a lot like Christmas.


Sunday, December 1, 2013

The Count Down Is On

December 1st has arrived and for many children ( including our adult ones) the count down began this morning to Christmas Day.  Here at High Country the count down is on to a few things

  • The last sale of the year for us - Checkers on December 14th in Red Deer, AB.  We have 2 open heifers and 3 breds including the one from Double R Farms - Stacy and Dan Romanyk
  • Jon and Crystal will be home for Christmas in 19 Days. All of us will be together this year. 
 
  • Calving will be underway in 32 days, unless there is an early surprise.

Stacy and Crystal were among those that will open advent calenders this month.  It is a tradition that we started over 25 years ago.  Peek our Christmas Elf fills the calendars for them to open each day before Christmas.  When the girls left home for college, we thought that they would be packed away until they had children of their own to pass the tradition on to.  But we were soon informed that no matter where they lived they expected PEEK to follow through with the tradition and so it continues.

The next month looks to be exciting and lots of fun.