Yeehah!!!

11-13 Feb 2010-Went to the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo on Friday. Friday's are military day, so we got in free...and to top that off Cathy asked the guy at the parking lot if we got a parking discount, so he let us in free there, too!!! I said before, I am really starting to like this military discount thing!

Is this picture of the little boy and girl I took just adorable?!

We actually went to the Stock Show...the rodeo and the country singers are at night, so we just went to the day stuff. For those of you who don't know, at a stock show a lot of animals are shown, win prizes, and then are auctioned off to the highest bidder for either breeding purposes or for food. A lot of the people showing these animals are kids, in the FFA club (that's Future Farmers of America), and they raise these animals from babies and show them here. I guess it can be pretty hard on them when, for the first time, they have to turn over their animal to a stranger at the end of the process.

Here are some kids exercising and preparing their goats for showing. When you walk into one of the big barns on the property, there are a lot of people sitting around waiting, or sleeping, until their turn comes to show their animal.

Here are some kids in the ring trying to get the best poses for the judges. Notice the little girl in pink...she is trying to get her goat to cooperate, but she is practically strangling him in the process. A lot of the kids were doing the same thing...it is to show the judges how long the goat's back is, but it looked painful to me, the city kid!

Back outside to get to another barn, you see all kinds of farm equipment for sale, along with lots of food, and of course cowboy hats!

There are animals walking all over the place, getting to and from the wash barn, the show ring, or just back to the holding pen. They actually wash all the animals, and even blow dry them, before showing them...there is way more work here than meets the eye! In the last picture, that kid has a hose in his hand blowing air to fluff up the hair on the cow.

I asked a couple people if I could take a picture with their cows. This 1st one is a Brahma cow, and I am stand with the poles between us because the owner said she might kick me! The 2nd photo is with "Betsey" (that was really her name), who was walking by after having just won 2nd place in her field. The boy who raised her is actually standing to my right.

After seeing Betsey we headed to the Cattle barn and found more cows being shown. Check out the size of the cows in relation to the kids...some of these weigh over 1000 lbs but these kids aren't afraid of them for a second. I took a picture of the baby for 2 reasons...he was just born the day before, and the people told me they had to have him in the ring or they couldn't show the mother. Mother cows will not leave their babies until they are a certain age, even for a show.

We went into an Exhibition Barn and saw a bunch of little things. Here is info on cattle...from the different breeds, to production increases (think steroids?), and a list of the biggest beef producing states.

Then here is a cow from LBJs ranch...notice on her horn are the LBJ initials.

And here are some pigs for the kiddies to pet...I was hoping to get some pictures of the big hogs that will be shown here, but they haven't come in yet. For that matter there were no bulls yet either. The 1st time I went to the Stock Show I was shocked at how big the hogs were...actually one chased me and scared the hell out of me!

It is sad to think these cute little chicks will one day just be "layers" or "Broilers".

This is telling us that goats are smarter than sheep...who woulda thunk it!?

And this is telling us about how much mohair they get off these type of goats.

In another couple barns, vendors are selling everything you can possibly imagine. From hot tubs to Australian garb, from jewelry to cow hides, and from lamps with rifles to cutsie signs, nothing is left out. I took the picture of the sign about the shoes with Julie in mind. And how do you like that wall art of the little girl...is that cute!? or what!?

In one of the barns we ran into our friend Marcela, who is from Mexico, but is now an American citizen. She has 3 beautiful boys, 2 of which are actively persuing acting and photo gigs. She used to be with Amir, the guy from Israel who bought my sunglasses, but now has a job making little spy devices in cameras, etc., and sells t-shirts on the side.

Notice the t-shirts I took pictures of here...these religious ones are big sellers here...I find them scary! I put the last one to break up the horror!

Off we went to the horse barn...these guys are performing in front of the judges with "silent" commands.

And these guys and women were warming up for their shows.

After seeing the guy on the horse with the rope, I got in line behind thelittle kids to learn to rope a fake calf. I didn't get it the 1st time, but with a little extra copaching, I nailed it!!!!!

These are just a couple pictures of the carnival that is part of the rodeo.

And some snakes from Texas on display. They were quite active too...not just laying around.

Cathy and I have been going to these things for years, but this was the 1st time we saw an auction of deer. They had booklets handed out to all these people who were bidding on these deer...notice here the three on the screen for auction are called variations of Bambi!!!

Those 3 went for $6500...but a guy we were talking to said 10 minutes before this happened, someone bought a female and a half-interest in a male and paid $57,000 for them!!! He said they buy them to breed them or to place them on a hunting ranch where people pay big bucks to get deer with lots of big antlers.

I took this picture of an empty barn just to show you how big the barns are...I am sure they hold a couple thousand hogs, and at least a thousand cows in each.

And finally, as we were leaving the show, we saw this big truck and heard a lot of racket from it. As we looked closer we saw goats sticking their little heads out. They are stacked in the tiers, God knows how many were in there. We asked a guy where they we being taken and he said to a "feed lot"! I am guessing that they are being fattened up for food, not for breeding purposes!!! Look at their little heads.

Today we finally gave Fluffy and Jabba long-overdue haircuts. Here are some before and after pictures.

Before

During...Fluffy is getting cut while Jabba awaits her fate! (And she is not liking it!)

Here they are at the end of the day. We actually finished Jabba, but ran out of daylight on Fluffy...tomorrow is another day.

Almost forgot that we went to dinner Thursday night with friends Barb (you met her before)and Laura. Laura was also in the Air Force with us and now works government contracting. Is it any wonder that I gained all that weight...all I ever seem to do is go out to eat.