a quick month

 I can not believe the last month has sort of passed right by me!  Last I posted we were in a bit of a mess.  The state of Texas had a major . . . like once in a lifetime . . . winter storm that caused severe issues for the entire state.  Our temperature did not get above freezing . . . mainly stayed in the teens and even dropped below zero one night . . . for an entire week!  Let me tell you it was not fun but we were lucky and very thankful that we had power and water the entire time.  If you remember we had 75 two week old baby chicks for the Houston Livestock Show so to say we were a bit stressed was an understatement.  Plus we had 6 left over big chickens from the county show too.  My poor parents lost power for seven days . . . thankfully they had propane heating and their neighbors loaned then a generator on day four . . . I know it was tough for them.  The roads were so bad they could not get out of their driveway so it wasn't like they could just come stay with us.  My mom didn't want to leave in fear of a pipe busting too; it did!  In the upstairs bathroom above the living room.  They are tough . . . way tougher than we would have been.  We did not leave our house for the entire week . . . I went outside a lot for fresh air and to shovel snow.  So the month passed by and I have had good sleep.  Of course that can only mean one thing . . . NO MORE CHICKENS!  I tell you we managed to survive another 42 days with those stinking birds but the day of the show was a bit of a circus!  BUT we did it!  I really don't know if I can write about the magnitude or seriousness of this chicken show but there were 467 entries of chickens . . . yes almost 500 pens!  A pen is three birds so in the building there were a lot of chickens!  And that doesn't include the turkeys.  We of course had no clue if we should show the girls (pullets) or boys (cockerels).  So we took both . . . we hauled 6 boys and 6 girls from our house to Houston which is about 3 hours by car.  See we are totally crazy.  All week Colin told me he had a gut feeling he should show the boys but my heart said to play it safe and show the girls because usually the competition is not as many with the girls.  Statistically there are less girl birds entered which increased your odd of making the sale and top 100.  Did I mention we left our house at 11:45pm the day before the show and sat in our car in the line for hours before we were released to the NRG show grounds?  Oh yes we did.  We had not slept in almost two days . . . nerves and stress and excitement.  So by the time we walked into the show barn the birds had been in a plastic container (with no lid but a lot of air holes) for about 7 hours.  You can imagine how active they were when we got them out and they had feed and water!  Of course by now it is barely 7am.  I won't even mention the drama that I caused between me and Colin as we were driving to get to the show barn . . . I got lost . . . Colin could not read the map to help me . . . we were both already exhausted and our best side was not shining.  I said some very mean things and of course I felt horrible after the fact.  We readjusted our attitudes (mainly me) and set out to do our best and hope for the best.  Colin was optimistic while I was not.  So I know you have heard me talk about his amazing chicken teacher but she left to another school . . . we still miss her a lot!  She was there with her current students and we were all a group for the show helping each other when needed.  Colin trust her like no one else and she is still a very valuable part of our team.  (He is still not sure about his current teacher as she just doesn't have the knowledge and experience but he is trying.)   Colin and the former teacher discussed what he should do . . . she felt he should play it safer and show the girls, but Colin kept telling her he was curious how the boys would do too.   It was  hours of trying to decide what to do.  I pulled Colin aside and we had a discussion about the what ifs.  I told him that it had to be his decision and we would all support it no matter what.  But he had to be willing to accept the outcome if it was not the top 100.  The goal was to make the top 100 pens so he could be a part of the auction; that is a big deal.  At that point we had no idea just how many boys and girls were entered so it was a total guess on what to do.  So after many hours of pondering, many walks with the teacher and Colin trying to decide . . . Colin just could not shake off his gut feeling to show the boys.  So we took the boys to the sift.  The sift is where you get a base score of your birds and they use that to place you for the show.  It is not a final placing just a starting point.  You can still move up in the placings.  Since the show was a private event, they did broadcast the show on the internet so our family and friends were watching as we went to the sift.  I was deflated with our scores and at that point just knew we were done.  The score was 7-9-8-8 . . . ten being the highest.  The 7 pretty much sealed the deal that we were done but my ever so optimistic son would not give up hope.  My friend was watching and said she could see my disappointment even though my face was covered by a mask.  I texted my parents and told them we were pretty much done that there was no need to log on later.  By this point it is maybe 11am.  It was just a sit and wait day until your turn to go into the actual show ring to get your final placing.  You are then assigned a group to go back . . . the later your group the better as the judge starts placing the pens from bottom to top.  The key was to keep your birds alive until show time which can always be a challenge.  So there were 292 pens of boy birds in the show and you want to be in the top 100 to make the sale.  We eventually found out we were in callback group 4.  There was a bit of confusion on how many groups there were and at this point we thought we were in the top 100 but they had not posted all the groups.  I told Colin what I thought and we were excited and then I had to go tell him the bad news.  The math teacher in me came out and starting running numbers.  I felt just awful that we thought we were good and then we were not!  He took the news pretty good and we just decided to make the best of it.  He stayed with the birds and gave them water . . . one was starting to look not so good and we were not sure he would live for his call back group.  If your bird dies you are then placed at the bottom of your callback group.  I again started thinking about the odds and what we needed to do to be in the top 100 . . . I told him we needed to beat 25 people in our call back group.  There were about 45 in our group and we need to be near the top to be top 100.  I think that motivated him a little bit.  It was a bit of a glimmer of hope that it wasn't all over yet.  I called my parents and told them to log on that we were still alive.  So finally around 2pm we enter and man my nerves were a mess!  It is hot, I stink, the birds are stressed, we are so tired and hungry.  So call back group 4 went well . . . we were in the top 5 of the group so we moved up to call back group 5.  AWESOME or a miracle?  I don't know but we were so thrilled.   At that point we knew we were at least in 75th place so we met our goal.  We stood for hours . . . the birds did not drink for those hours and were so stressed!  So long story short (I know it is not short), we ended up moving ahead of 25 people in callback group 5 and placed 51st!  51st out of 292!   WOW, there were no words at that point.  I was so happy for him and he reminded me that he just knew his gut feeling was right!  All I could think was how did our birds get such low sift scores and move ahead of so many that had better scores?  I don't know how I ended up with a confident kid, a kid that is so laid back (just like Sean), and one that just knows when to follow his gut; but I am sure glad he did. 

On May 14, we return to Houston for the Poultry Auction . . . we are so excited . . . winning a bit of prize money is always nice but the experience was so much more . . .