Frustration the auction way

I went to another farm auction Saturday. It was a few miles down the road. The auction started at 10 am and I got there at noon. They were just finishing the little stuff and were starting on the guns and ammo. This guy had a lot of guns - at least 40.

Also being auctioned were 47 excellent corral panels, a half dozen gates, fence posts and some wire fencing. The gates, posts and fencing I was interested in, not the panels.

I decided to go home and come back later when I thought the stuff I wanted would be auctioned (near the end). The auctioneer was the same guy (Carpenter) who did the last auction I attended where the auction ran long.

I came back a quarter to three thinking it would be close to the stuff I wanted, and fearing they were already past it like what happened to me earlier this year at another auction. They were just finishing up the ammo. 2 and 1/2 hours on the guns and ammo!

I thought they would quickly go through the stuff before the stuff I wanted but I was wrong. I should have gone home again for a while as it took another four hours until they got to what I wanted.

I saw the guy who out bid me at the last auction for gates so I expected to not get the gates this time. The corral panels were auctioned first and a woman from Missoula bought all 47 at $170 each. That is $7990 total! Yikes!

When they got to the gates it didn't go well for me. There were five gates: two 143 ft, one 12 ft, and two 1o ft gates. Highest bidder gets choice. What I wanted was a 16 ft gate. No one was bidding until the starting bid got to $25. Then no one bid so I bid $35. The other bidder bid $45. I had to bid $50 and wavered. Had I missed some defect on the gates? After the high bids on the corral panels why weren't people bidding more? And since there was no 16 ft gate, what size do I want? The bidding went on and I think the winning bid was $60. The guy took the one 12 ft gate. What? Why not the two 14 ft gates? When people win the bid they almost always take the longest gate.

The auctioneer offered to let people choose other gates at the $50 bid and a guy took the two 10 ft gates. What? What is wrong with the 14 ft gates? As I pondered that another bidder took them.

In hindsight I should have taken the 14 ft gates. It would be nice, but not essential to have a 16 ft gate. I'm sure I could have used the gates eventually.

On the other hand I have some gates right now for the past two to three years sitting here not installed as I haven't gotten to that part of the corral and fence rebuild. If I bought those 14 ft gates I could be sitting on them for another three years.

So if I bought the gates, or did not buy the gates, I would be frustrated.

The fence posts were wooden and an assortment of thicknesses. It was getting late and both a bidder and the auctioneer were getting confused. It turns out the bidder only wanted one post and not all twenty plus posts. So the auctioneer let the bidder buy one post for $5. Then I wasn't sure what the bid was or who the bidder was until he sold all the posts for $20.

There were two 10 ft gates left and they sold for $30 each.

I need to get my fences rebuilt and figure out what I exactly want and need for gates.

At the auction I spoke with a guy - Vic - who raises and sells cattle. He takes his cattle to the auction in Butte - 250 miles away. He prefers the auction in Butte to the Missoula auction as Butte gets a higher price. But he has a pickup and big enough stock trailer to haul his own cattle. Paying someone to haul my cattle mostly like wouldn't pay.

Vic has a few old gates for sale but his asking price was higher than what the gates sold for at the auction.

I noticed a number of men at the auction who looked like ranchers. Cowboy hat, cowboy boots, jeans, large belt buckle and a large beer belly that hungover part of the buckle. In no way do I resemble one of these guys. It makes me question if I can really call myself a rancher.

When I got home I had a message from Gary. Once again something came up to conflict with our planned hike up Mt Henkel. I kept moving the hiking date and now ran out of days next week. So who knows if I'll get up Henkel this year. Time is running out.

I did eventually see my cattle once I got home. For much of the day when I was home they were out of sight. Probably taking a siesta down by the river. They have been in this pasture a number of days now. That combined with a hot, sunny and breezy day makes me think of other years when cattle tried to roam at this time. Even though we had over an inch of rain a week ago, and earlier this week the soil was moist many feet down when I dug up a tree stump, today when I dug for a gopher trap the ground was dry and dusty.

I also watered my garden as it needed it. Of course that gets me looking at my garden and realizing I have to seriously weed it once again. And I see the damage the deer have done to my good crops. And I see the crops that on their own aren't doing well. When I weed the garden I will go through and pull a number of plants that just won't have time to produce this year. No sense putting off the inevitable or hoping for the best.

Since I was at the auction so long I was only able to spray one tank of herbicide Saturday evening. At this rate it will take "forever" to spray the weeds.

It gets dark well before 10 pm now and that greatly reminds me Winter is coming. And I have so much to do before then. I need another year of Summer.