Large purchases, cattle sales, travel

I happened to stumble across a stock trailer yesterday when I got a brief chance to look at Craig’s List. It is only an hour south of us. I showed the pictures to Grandpa and Mama last night when I got home so Mama called on it. Grandpa was interested enough to make the trip to look it over and since good deals do not last very long, I started trying to figure out a way to get the cash in hand. The asking price is $2000.


Our main bank is Happy State Bank. The nearest branch right now is in Amarillo. That was not going to work. Happy State is connected with the ATM’s in Wal-Mart so Mama and I went there to see how much we could get out. It only allowed us to get $300 per transaction – and we were charged $1.50 for that transaction. So we took that. When we tried to run another transaction, we got denied. So, we went and got the few items we had come to get and rang them up one at a time, getting $100 in cash with every purchase.

The cashier was very helpful. She and Mama made a game out of it. Since we made a total of fourteen separate purchases, it was helpful that both of them thought it was fun. The good part is that she had fourteen one hundred dollar bills in her drawer. The remaining $300 we will either get out of the Wal-Mart ATM this morning or I will get it from our account at Wells Fargo. The good news is that they will go prepared to buy – if it works out that way. If they do by the trailer, we will be able to haul our ten head to the sale on Wednesday next week in our own trailer. That will make Grandpa feel better.

Mama and I really like doing business with Happy State Bank and I am very reluctant to move to another bank in the area. They are opening a branch in Dallas next week, so we will have one an hour away. It is still a long haul to get to a bank but it beats five hours. In situations other than needing a large cash withdrawal, it will continue to work well for us. If I had planned ahead, I could have transferred the money to a local account and withdrawn it this morning, but my timing was off for that. I will eventually learn how to get prepared for this type of need.

Jerry Brooks, a friend of ours from church is supposed to come to the farm on Saturday and buy a couple of our three hundred pound steers. I think Mama told me that he was getting two for himself and two for his brother Phillip. Phillip came to the farm earlier this week to look over what we had to offer and he was very impressed but the little steers. That money will reimburse me for the trailer and it will not affect the ten head we will haul to the market next week.

All we will have to care for at that point will be the two bottle calves, the remainder of the smaller lot of calves, I think there will be six, and the ones we are keeping for butchering and breeding. I think there are four in that group. So we will still have ten head on the farm; pending the purchase of any more bottle calves. This year’s taxes ought to be great fun to calculate.

Mama and Victoria head for Pace, Florida Sunday morning. They are feeling a mixture of excitement and dread. Probably a lot like Maggie at this point.