Black Friday

It's 9:00 AM on Black Friday. You're late. Time to pull on those Ugg boots, stop by Starbucks, and head out to a big box store to score deals on items the recipient of won't be using 12 months from now.

Full disclosure: I went out at 5:00 am once to buy a console TV at Best Buy. It was fun. One other time, I went toy shopping for my kids, then bailed out and had a Cracker Barrel breakfast with my sister. Also not too shabby.

But, twice in the last 10 years, I've gone "oxen shopping" on Black Friday.  

In 2012, I took the trailer over to Tillers, then helped John Sarge and Dulcy try to herd a pair of unhandled, 6-month-old Shorthorn calves into the barn so we could load them. Sight unseen. I had asked her to pick me out a pair that she thought would work for me. 10 years later, Brutus and Cassius are still a nice choice, although we didn't get them loaded until the next day. The wind on that Black Friday had everybody agitated, so we waited until Small Business Saturday to bring them home.

Last year, after stopping at an outdoor pottery show in town to pick up a "Well behaved women rarely
make history" flask for my daughter, I drove to look at a pair of Brown Swiss calves. The following week, Hamilton and Burr came home with me and started their training. Now they are at Tillers as a "staff team."

No lines, no fuss, no fistfights over Cabbage Patch dolls. Go shop for your next team today.