The cows are....gone.

Sale day was sunny, cooler and windy but nothing to complain about.  All the heifers and steers came over from my uncle's place one trailer load at a time.  Each specific group went into a specific pen and then had to wait to be sold. Noah went to school and Levi went to daycare.  We knew that having them around could prove challenging for all of us and they had already had their fun the day before.

Lowell, one of the farms' dedicated part-time milkers and Roger, the farms' full-time milker were around on the day of the sale.  At first they were around to check things out and see if there was anything they could help with.  Later on, they milked the cows after the cows were sold.

Friends and family showed up pre-sale to start getting familiar with the set-up and start figuring out what their "jobs" for the day would be.

My great uncle, who used to be a dairy farmer, came out to watch the sale for a while. I often see my grandpa in my great uncle and it was good to have him here for the auction.

Dallas, the man in the center-left in the photo below was in charge of the auction.  He spent time explaining to the group of volunteers what their jobs would be and how it was all going to go.

All morning, people showed up, looked at cows, talked on their cell phones, looked at cows, talked on their cell phones, looked at cows....you get the idea.

Mr. Axle was on his very, very best behavior.  I thought he might bark and bark at all the strange people but he didn't.  He faithfully stayed with either Ben or I most of the day and was a perfect dog.

And then the auction started!  The guy in the red coat is the auctioneer.  They actually started the auction inside the milk barn but there were way too many men crowded in there for me to get a decent photo.  After they sold the big milk tank and floor mats, they went outside to sell a few items.

And then we went under the big top for the big circus show!

It actually wasn't a circus at all.  The volunteers in the barn who worked their tails off to get the right cows to go to the right spots in the right order all morning made what happened under the tent look like a piece of cake.  The men would open a gate, a cow would appear in the ring, the man in the ring would nudge the cow just enough to make her turn a circle and then they'd open the other gate and she'd walk out.  Repeat.

Little Miss Delaney came to the auction.  She won the award for cutest human at the cow auction.

Most of the cows behaved in the ring.  I heard the guy inside the ring did get one good kick to the leg but otherwise the cows behaved better then I thought they would.

There were trucks and trailers lined up on the road,

and trucks parked all over the yard, too.

Once all the milk cows and dry cows were sold, the auction moved out from under the tent.

All the younger cows that had been moved over my uncle's place were sold pen by pen.

And just like that, the auction ended.

And then the real work began.  Loading up all the animals with their new owners.

It was a huge task to sort the cows out to their right people,

but load by load it got easier.

Noah was around all afternoon and enjoyed roaming around and being a part of the action.  He even helped pull out the tent stakes.

And then,

the action of the cow auction

was over.  Sixteen cows had to be milked on Tuesday morning and that day those cows were picked up.  And now, the only animals on the farm are a dog, a couple cats and a bunch of critters that I'd rather not see.

The farm feels quiet now.  So far the boys have enjoyed riding their bikes through the cow pens and opened and closed each gate over and over.  It feels different here now, something we'll just need to get used to.