KM Ranch auction

Last Wednesday I attended the KM Ranch auction along with my uncles and aunts. Normally I wouldn't drag my guests to an auction, but this auction was conducted by a company from the Billings area, Musser Brothers, from whom my father must have bought farm equipment (as he is still on their mailing list years after his death). As they almost never conduct an auction in NW Montana, this was my first opportunity to attend an auction by this company. I also wanted them to update their mailing list to change from dad's name to mine.

Other than watching the auctioneers in action, I also was interested in the livestock gates listed for auction.

We arrived 45 minutes after the auction started. I wasn't interested in the small stuff they had so there was no hurry to be at the auction from the beginning. It was still another 45 minutes before they got to the gates.

The auction was held at the KM Ranch. This turned out to be our governor's former ranch, which he sold last year. That would explain why I saw the highway patrol car among the cars in the parking lot. His security and his ride. The special session of the Montana legislature was to start the next day (Thursday) so the governor was a busy man right now.

The ranch used to grow mint so that explained the odd blue trailers. They must be used to harvest mint. How this was done, I don't know.

The auction was held on a weekday, and not a weekend like most all auctions, so there were not many people attending.

The 16 or so gates were stacked in various piles, sorted by gate type, gate size, if the gate was damaged, or if they were actually livestock panels. The auctioneer sold the gates by choice and the winner bidder paid $110 each. He bought the six best gates. The next go around got $70 each for the gates by the same bidder. And so on.

As I would like some gates, but didn't need the gates, I didn't want to pay much. Also, since I had company I was only going to bid for the gates in they went really cheap. If I had bought any gates I would have to return home to get my pickup so I could haul the gates home. This was my relatives' vacation and I was reluctant to drag them around on this type of chore. I later realized they would have preferred doing this than taking a chance I would have them go on a hike. After the auction I got teased - justifiably - for being a reluctant bidder.

Once they got near the end, several times they bunched three similar gates together for one price, with the final bunch three slightly damaged gates. I bid each time. Each time I dropped out and let the other bidder get the gates. They still went cheap, but not super cheap that I could not pass up buying them.

After the first bidder bought the gates for $110, a man came over and asked my uncle Curt what the gates sold for. As he told him I noticed this man was our governor, Brian Schwitzer. He is taller in person than what he appears on TV. Later when a winning bidder would take some but not all gates from from a pile, Schwitzer would help move the gates aside. The auctioneer joked for Schwitzer to be careful not to hurt his back unless he had a good health insurance plan.

After the gates sold we left.

Back at Hwy 93 we had to wait as road construction was in progress to widen the highway to four lanes. While waiting Larry told the woman holding the stop sign that I was single and had a ranch, and was she looking for any one? She told him she was already taken.

In the first photo, the weed thrimmer, scoop shovel, and all the pickforks sold for $10.

The blue trailer are mint trailers - I believe.

In the last photo our governor is the man in the middle who is wearing the dark blue vest.