How Slapping My Husband Saved Him $75

Now don't get me wrong!

I am not in the habit of slapping my husband!

My goal is to honor and love and respect my husband 

and cherish him till death do us part.

And I do just that.

Except at auctions.

At auctions, like last Monday, there are occasional emergencies.

Actually, half the morning had been an emergency.

Jonathan and Sam were planning to go to auction to buy a new calf to raise, but despite their early departure to work in the morning, they could not get away from work in time to come home and hitch up the trailer and get to auction in time to bid on a calf.

So--

The girls and Timmy and I had the honors of getting our cattle trailer to auction.

That included finding a hitch for the van,

attaching it, 

jacking up the trailer,

backing up to the trailer and getting hitched up,

finding the magnetic lights in the garage since the trailer lights don't work,

untangling the long wires for the magnetic lights,

repairing broken wires,

and attaching the wire gismo to the thingamabob on the van so the lights would hopefully work.

(They didn't.)

Please don't blame me. 

At least the kids and I got the whole train ready to go--pat us all on the back.

I had planned to stay home and have a few quiet hours.

That turned into trying to do a man's work with my kids helping me.

(They did most of it, and were proud of themselves!)

However, we got to auction.

Sam didn't 

Jonathan arrived late with our check book.

And then we waited about an hour and a half while pig after pig,

sheep after sheep,

and goat after goat went through. 

We thought the goats would never end. 

Every new one brought fresh groans from this family waiting for a calf.

This tall guy standing right by the rail, buying up a lot of the animals, had the right idea.

Eat your plate of dessert right in front of everyone and have yourself a merry time!

But back to my story.

Finally a black calf came through, and Jonathan says, "There's our calf!" 

But before long the price is up to about $1.30 a pound and that steer calf weighs over 500 pounds, so go figure the price.
I tell Jonathan, "No, we need to wait for a smaller calf."

We could buy a lot of feed and hay for the amount of money that calf would cost.

So we let that calf go, and I was worried that maybe we would end up going home without a calf at all.

But before long, another smaller black calf came through, and we were on the edge of our seats.

The auctioneer was gradually coming down to $1 a pound because no one was bidding.

I could tell that he was keeping on coming down till someone bid, and I hoped he would go even lower, but Jonathan's hand shot up at $1 a pound, which would make the calf cost about $400

and that is when I slapped!

I just slapped his hand down fast before the auctioneer or any of his helpers would see it

because if the auctioneer kept going down, our calf would be cheaper!

The auctioneer kept droning his amounts, lower and lower, and before you know it, 

he had dropped the price to just 80 cents a pound!

We were the highest bidder at about 83 cents a pound,

so we got it for just $325!

And so that is the story of how a wife's slap saved her husband $75!

This beautiful planter was in front of the auction barn, 

and it is made of two tires painted white and light blue, with a curved section of rubber tire for the handle.

Isn't it cute?