From This Side of Thirty: Signs It's Sale Week at Neches River Ranch

10. I don’t know if anyone has checked out the weather forecast for this weekend in East Texas, but I’m pretty certain it resembles that of northern Alaska. The sale has been scheduled in December for 10 years. They bumped up the date for this one so that the weather may be a little prettier. Looks like we can’t avoid the glacial rain and below freezing temperatures for this event no matter the date. The wind has begun to blow and temps are starting to drop, and that’s only the beginning. Sale day will be the peak of the bitter cold and nasty weather.

9. When we first talked with the kids about homeschooling Zane’s first question was, “Can I take off sale week to work with dad?” We decided that this week would be our “fall break”. And yes, we will be honoring the Thanksgiving holiday by taking off that whole week as well.

8. Justin has an office at the barn. I use his desk occasionally to write, use the wifi, and copier or printer. It is usually covered with mail, papers, business cards, all kinds of notes with cattle numbers on them, but twice a year he cleans it off. It is immaculate. If Ole Jus cleans off his desk, it must be sale week.

7. I don’t know about you, but if you have ever hosted a big event in your home you may have experienced a few days of preparation like no other time in the year. The base boards get cleaned, the ceiling fans wiped down, you hang all of the frames on the wall that you have been meaning to do for months. You work your butt off to make it appear to guests that you live at this level of tidiness year-round. It happens here at the ranch as well. Trailers get parked altogether perfectly in line, old hay gets cleaned out of pens, fence rows along the roads get cleared, signs get repaired or replaced. It’s all happening now.

6. Justin’s alarm goes off every morning at 5:30am. Or so he says. I don’t actually witness the 5:30am happenings. It took a good solid 3 days married to that man to learn to tune out his alarm clock (which I consider to be in the middle of the blessed night). Even with his early hours he usually goes to bed after 10, but when the sale is approaching I can usually catch him dozing closer to 9 (sometimes on the front side of 9). It’s simply a sign that he has been working weeks straight preparing the cattle and the ranch for the event.

5. People are everywhere. There are always people in and out of the ranch. Guests of the Cavender’s, friends that hunt here, the people who work here, deliveries, but none of them compare to the traffic leading up to the sale. There is so much that goes into prepping for this event that it takes a whole team to get it right. I especially love seeing some very special friends who like and know a lot more about cattle than myself. I have made some lifelong friends in the cattle business and their arrival during this week is probably my favorite part.

4. Justin's phone is ringing off the hook! Its crazy throughout the work day (as if he isn't busy enough already), but one of the downfalls of his occupation is having hours that don't end. He gets calls during meals, at family events, when he is in the shower and sometimes after we are in bed for the night. Fortunately, he's pretty good about selecting appropriate times to answer and times when it's best to return the call later.

3. The laundry. Bless my heart. Leading up to the sale means a lot of things to prepare the cattle for auction. The bulls need to be fertility tested, they have to tag each head and record the numbers, give shots, palpate the heifers, various other tests and I'm sure much more that I don't even care to know about. Anytime Justin spends his days on his horse and standing near the chute his cowboy getup tells the story. The smell can be terrible, but the worst is when a combination of mud, feces, blood and other bovine fluids are caked on his jeans and flaking off onto my laundry room floor. Told ya!...bless my heart...and laundry room floor.

2. The barn is spotless. Not sure what kind of picture pops up in your mind when I use the term "barn", but I'm betting you didn't imagine "clean" to be a synonymous term. I visited the barn to take care of some business earlier today and there were people on ladders wiping down the ceiling fans. Let me just tell you that if I someday have a barn on my property adorned with ceiling fans, you mustn't expect me to clean them with more than a water hose and no more than once every decade. Every stall has fresh shavings, the tack for the horses is neat and tidy and there is no poop anywhere...in the "barn". I use the term for lack of a better one...alert me if you know of a term describing a place where they keep animals, the animal food, saddles and other cowboy paraphernalia without an ounce of poop on the premises.

1. I am at a loss of what I will wear. I use sale weekend as a chance to get dressed up and have a good time with great friends. Each year there are photos taken and looking back it seems that I have set the bar high for my personal fashion standards. To be honest I am probably the only one who cares about my wardrobe, but with the surprise weather blowing in it may be best to go with a parka and Ugg boots. I can't be expected to keep up this level of extraordinary fashion as I'm ageing...or can I?...FROM THIS SIDE OF THIRTY.