I get a kick out of reading my friends from other states post on Facebook, especially when they start talking about traveling to go somewhere. They act like it’s a big thing to drive five miles to town to go shopping or buy feed or farm and ranch supplies. What I really love is when they pack up the goats and show supplies and have to drive a piece to go to a show. Just reading about their trips makes me think about the scene in the movie The Ten Commandments when the Tribes of Israel packed up their kit and caboodle and ran from the Pharaoh and his chariots. The Clampett family didn’t have nothing on them Hebrews when they were hauling asses and various other assorted barnyard animals through the desert! I think they even had the kitchen sink in that show box! We Texans have gotten used to traveling and doing it light. During the Run Away Scrape when the Texas Army and their fellow Anglo Colonist were running away from Santa Anna and his huge Mexican army they told the Women folk to just carry some groceries and a couple of skillets and get on up the trail or they very well could be shot dead. The Texas Rangers were expected to pack light with ammunition being the preferred saddle bag filler, and the Trail Drives kept everything, gun included, in the chuck wagon. If you have ever had the honor of seeing Gerald Peterson’s magnificently self contained show trailer you can understand how us Texans are used to traveling far reaches and doing it in style. Shoot, I’m not a goat and I would like to travel like that! Gwen and I love taking little day trips. Just a couple of weekends ago we left Dew at six a.m., drove to Weatherford to visit Brenda Larner and James Agnew and pick up ZZ Tuffy, our new Livestock Guardian Dog and Jamesa (I just had to name her after James!) a five month full blood Doe that Brenda wanted to sell me. Gwen never lets me around Brenda too much because she knows I’m gullible and am apt to buy something I fall in love with at first sight! We left Brenda and James’ place and drove to Perrin to see Tonya, Tom, and Mary Oleksyn. To make a long story short, they were up in Jacksboro at the Jack Co. Youth Show premium sale so we headed up there to see what we could see. After a visit and some beautiful goat sightings we decided to head to the house by a semi-direct route through Stephenville to visit the Erath County Youth Breeding Goat Show and managed to arrive in time to catch the Senior Showmanship at the tail end of the show. We visited Kelly Edwards and met her family, congratulated Braden on his Junior Showmanship win, and visited with Betty and Gerald Peterson. Then finally home again right after dark. 400+ miles in one day! This weekend I had a chance to go to the 2012 American Premier Boer Goat Show in Fort Worth, Texas. Some of the top Boer breeders in the US come to Fort Worth to mainly compete against each other and see how their goats stack up but the other reason they like to come is because they can visit and trade goat tales and renew and revitalize friendships with one another. I got to meet a lot of new folks and see a lot of friends that gather at these shows yearly and shoot lots of pictures. I think I set a personal record with the amount I took this year. Gwen and I had to be homebodies this last year due to the drought and the economic downturn that it caused so we couldn’t make as many road trips as we had previously made. Like many folks we can’t afford to take the day trips and goat viewing jaunts we had previously made. The cost of fuel and rise in the cost of living had caused many goat folks to reduce the amount of shows they attend and it has hurt that part of our industry. Even the most dedicated breeders have had to make a choice between feeding their herd and families and going goat showing and sustenance has won out. Here’s to hoping that 2012 is a better year and many more of ya’ll can hit that road and attend and compete in shows. The East Texas Goat Raisers Association will hold The Spring Open Sale on March 3rd, 2012 at the Ike Carden Arena in Fairfield, TX. Freestone County has a wonderful facility with covered pens, and a covered arena. This is an auction sale and is open to anyone who has goats for sale. Check-in begins at 7:30am and ends at noon. Sale starts at 1 p.m. Consignees pay $7 for each meat goat and $10 a head for breeding stock, registered or not registered. Animals will be checked for signs of illness and registered animals must be tattooed. Please read the sales rules posted on the Sale Information page at http://www.etgra.com/sales.htm. The Elkhart 4-H will be providing concessions and Jake Cooper will be working his magic with the smoker to provide the BBQ brisket! We welcome anyone who would like to vend their products. We are planning to schedule the East Texas Boer Goat Show on May 12th. I will nail down the info on Judges and such by next month if all goes as planned. Go to www.etgra.com for more information on events and about our association or friend us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/ETGRA/. The Northeast Texas Goat Raiser’s Association (NETGRA) is a non-profit organization established in 2003 through the Texas Cooperative Extension Service and is headed by a Board of Directors who is elected by the general membership. NETGRA’s mission is to help Northeast Texas goat producers be more successful in the goat industry. NETGRA members are involved in the production of registered & commercial dairy (Nubian, Saanen, etc.) and meat (Boer, Kiko, etc.) goats. Many members also sell wethers either as show prospects for youth 4-H, FFA and jackpot shows or for consumption (chevron/cabrito). Please visit our Members page for more specific classifications and contact information. Go to http://www.netgra.org/index.html for more info about this dynamic organization. The PIONEERS 4H will be hosting Central New Mexico Goat Days, April 21-22, 2012. What started out as a small pen sale has grown. In 2012 they will be hosting two ABGA sanctioned shows with Judges Terry Taylor and Jeremy Church. There will be 2 Nigerian Pygmy Goat Association shows sanctioned by the AGS and ADGA. Judges TBA. Also they are trying to get top breeders to bring market wethers and does for an auction. All this located at the Torrance County Fairgrounds, 20 miles off of I-40. The address is 604 Tenth St., Estancia, New Mexico. For more info you can e-mail nmgoats@hotmail.com or go to http://cnmgd.webs.com/. They are getting the forms ready now and can email them out soon; they hope to have them downloadable in the near future. The Piney Woods Boer Goat Classic will be April 28th at the Rusk County Expo Center in Henderson, Texas. Registration to begin Friday evening and all goats must be entered by 8:30 Saturday morning. 1st show judge will be Phil Stacey and the 2nd judge will be Lance Ward. This is an ABGA sanctioned show. Two shows in one day. For info contact Linda Teer or Peggy Taylor, Phone: (936) 635-9790 or e-mail rockintboergoat@consolidated.net Ms. Kelly Edwards (http://www.eggsboers.com/) and Ms. Amanda Smith (http://www.glennshowgoats.com/) invite everyone to the May Day Classic Boer Goat Show at the ECLA grounds in Stephenville, Texas. One JABGA and two Open ABGA shows Saturday and one Open ABGA show Sunday. For all of the information and registration forms go to http://maydayclassic.weebly.com/. The site has info on everything you need to know about the shows including available accommodations. All proceeds go to benefit the Brown County Youth Fair Breeding Goat Show and the Erath County Breeding Goat Show. That’s all I’ve got for now. I did see Mr. Cannon of Teague High School at the Ft. Worth show and he is going to send me all of the details on the Spring Jackpot show they have. We had a good visit and talk and both agree that it would be nice to see more of the Freestone Co. Youngsters in the show. When I get the details I’ll post them. All are the nannies have kidded and we feel fortunate that we have more boys than girls this time around. It looks like we will have some good ones for the Freestone County Youngsters to show in the market wether show at the Fair. Please continue to buy papers or magazines and support their advertisers by shopping for your wares at their stores. Thank ya’ll for your continued support. If your hear tell of any training stuff or any other events then let me know so I can spread the word. Please support your favorite local, area, or national goat breeders associations AND the 4-H and FFA. Call me at 903-388-8528 or e-mail clwyer@gmail.com if you have any goat gossip. Bye, for now