Na don't be sorry I love what I do and wouldn't do anything else. The long days are just part of Spring, summer and fall, what makes this year different is I did not anticipate the business end growing as fast as it has. We got enough now and ice here that I could call off the class I am teaching today, do the feeding and Declare this to be a MIKE"S DAY OFF and after 2 weeks of 18-19 hour days I need a day off. Last thing I have to do before turning off the phone and logging into UO is call a guy about 200 Berkshire feeder pigs and try to negotiate a price for them that we can both live with He thinks $10,000 is fair and I think $7000 is fair for 6 week od feeder pigs but I have a feeling we will close the deal for $8500 (Which is what I really think is fair and most likely what he thinks is fair but for what ever reason you have to play the whole idiotic game of offer and counter offer to get what both of ys want anyway.
The funny thing is Zeke the bull is a big baby, he tosses his head around because he ges excited and thinks he is going to get a good scratch between the clown stabbers (horns) but if you don't know that he is a 2000 pound bull with a 4 1/2 foot spread of horns that makes you feel kind of tiny. But once you start scratching the horn ridge e starts making little squeaky sounds that no self respecting bull should ever make! He only chases folks because he wants scratched LOL if he didn't want them to they would not make it out of the pen, the biggest danger from Zeke is him stepping on the feet when he starts doing the happy scratch shuffle. But I am not going to tell the folks that come for pre employment testing that
Otis and Buford the main two boars are two of the nicest boars you will ever meet but like Zeke they look kind of scary since I don't cut teeth and they are sporting some impressive tusk. Psycho sow can be dangerous she has managed to get a chunk of my hand and left an impressive scar on my shoulder after she bowled me over and clamped down if she didn't make such large litters and raise her offspring so well she would have been sausage long ago. But all three test actually have a purpose other than giving me amusment. Zeke challenges fear, The boars test ingenuity, and Psycho Sow test patients, because like clock work almost 1 hour exactly after opening a trailer door she will just walk in on her own. (I am out there BTW to make sure she doesn't give a applicant a scar to remember) But these are 3 traits a person just has to have in abundance when working with free ranging livestock and sometimes you get bumped, bit, stepped on, horned, and feel like a bowling pin when all 450 pounds of psycho sow goes straight under your legs instead doing what a normal pig would do and going around you. And the pig deal is done, got them all for $8000 better than I expected and the phone is going off and I am going into game!
