You Haven't Lived...

until you have spent a whole day (and I mean 8+ hours) at a livestock auction. We did that on Saturday. I will admit I liked the atmosphere of country people. People who drive around with their dogs everywhere they go. And not since the last rodeo have I seen so many male Wrangler- covered behinds with skoal rings permanently in one of the back pockets. There were some interesting things, and I did see alot of families. That's another thing I liked, people had their children and their dogs with them.

I did not like the extreme heat, nor the flies and dust. I did not like to see thousands of animals in little pens without shade all day in the heat without water. I feel certain some of them died, and I know some of the day old calves there had to be put out of their misery by the end of that day. How hard would it be to provide water?!

I'll tell you what occurred to me, instead of complaining- because I realize this goes on all over all the time- BUY LOCAL! Support small businesses and farmers and they won't have to sell their animals for next to nothing at the auction yard. Hay prices are up. That doesn't help. People buy their food from big chain grocery stores. That is the thing that kills us. If you want to be responsible, don't point at another person. Go look into the mirror. Seriously, support local business. It makes a huge difference. There, another soap box. *U*

Doing my part, and supporting local, I braved the very dirty cafe that runs out of the livestock auction. Lunch time rolled around and passed by the time I worked up the courage. I took the kids into the cafe, stood in line, swatted flies, and unfortunately had lots of time to observe the cook:

Large, dirty man, with sweat running in his eyes back at the grill in a dirty, hot little room. No hair net. No gloves. Nope. I watched him with fainting heart as he swiped hot mayonaise on buns with the same grubby paws that he kept wiping on his stained pants leg. The same one that swatted the flies off the meat patty. One hand had a large bandage hanging loosely. I saw that it covered a scab and looked about ready to fall off any moment.

You have to understand- I may live on a dusty ranch, but I am a clean freak on some points. Seriously. I can't eat at someone's house if it's dirty. So, in order to not offend anyone at the auction yard, I bluffed. Pretended I hadn't been close to vomitting in my mouth while watching the cook. I'm sure I blanched visibly when the cook turned around to wipe the sweat off his brow and smiled at someone...and I saw his four top teeth in front were missing. I swayed a couple times I think at the counter, but a casual observer might have thought it was the heat.

Anyway, we survived. Nobody got poisoned, and despite some cold hard facts of life regarding animals coming to light, we had a very "cultural" day. I considered it a homeschool field trip.

I also decided to sell any extra animals right off the property and not at the auction yard.

I'm also recomitting to brown bag lunches for field trips.