Welcome to the Drench Line: Two Show Dads, A Lot of Mistakes, and One Very Deep Hole in Eden, Texas

Welcome to the Drench Line. I'm Sam Silvers. And I'm Logan Newsom. And this is our first ever podcast episode to talk about all the things sheep and goat related in the stock show industry. We're going to

talk about all the things, all the things, all the things. Okay.

I was born and raised in Salado, Texas or Bell County. Showed cheap growing up. Used to spend a lot of summers out in Eden, Texas at at Rex Stoltz's. Working for him in the summers, that's where Logan and I first met. I don't even know how old I was because I'm a year older than you or two.

How old? No. You're significantly older than Nah. I am. How old

are you? 38. Oh, I'm 42. Something like that.

I think I was nine, 10, 11.

No, you were older than that. I don't know. You just always been overgrown so maybe

We're a little bigger than the same size if that mattered.

We were never the same size. Yeah, born and raised in Toledo, Texas. Spent a lot time in Eden. Showed a lot. Went to school at junior college at South Plains, judge at South Plains Junior College, and then moved over to tech and graduated from tech.

Then started in the extension route for a while, found out that was not for me, but obtained my master's degree there while I was a county agent in Rock Springs. And now I am a technical support representative for BioZyme Incorporated. I did a short stint in the Border Patrol for a while. I went to Artesia and went to the academy out there and then went to my duty station in Comstock, Texas. I was in the Border Patrol right at two years.

That was pretty exciting. Some people don't know that about me.

I remember that. Border Patrol agent. I guess a little bit of a similar, you know, lineage. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle outside of outside of Lubbock until I guess I was in sixth grade. My dad was an ag teacher.

My parents were both in public education. And then we moved to the San Angelo area. Grew up showing sheep, sheep and hogs and you know a show steer here and there. Never really at that time the goat thing was probably you know still I guess really in its infancy. Had some brothers that got you know bigger into it as that was kind of materializing but predominantly showed sheep, grew up showing against Sam and like he said spent some summers there at Rex's in Eden and learned learned a ton probably, you know, probably some things that maybe I shouldn't have at that point in my life because again, I was, you know, three or four years younger than than some of the guys that were out there with us but no, after that, I guess after I graduated, I went to Angelo State, played football there for a little while.

So, kind of took a little bit of a I guess a different approach than some whenever I first graduated and then decided to jump on the livestock judging team. That's probably another story for another day, two days before they left for Denver and ended up doing that. And then again, kind of similar to Sam got into extension service, did that for a couple of years that took us back to the Panhandle. And then I am currently full time sheet producer and we're trying to make our run at doing that. Yeah,

I forgot that you played football.

I don't know if there was necessarily any funny story with how we met and really and truly we may have, you know, Sam Gribb, Central Texas at that point in time, my family, we were in the Panhandle and you know, obviously, it's different now than it than it was back then with all sorts of publications and social media and just really, I mean, just kind of how much networking happens, it shows and I guess it just, you know, has a little bit of a different feel but even back then, you know, they might go to jackpots on that side of the state. Maybe we went to jackpots. So, I don't know if there was really early on necessarily like you know, an acquaintance with, you know, hitting like summer shows or whatnot. So, really, I would say probably the the first time maybe that we met was whenever I got sent down to Rex Stoltz's and Sam had been going there. I think for at least a year prior to that and I was I was pretty green behind the ears.

I mean, I grew up in you know, row crop farming and you know, the the Texas Panhandle and the sand blowing and I was not used to gathering sheep on a three wheeler, Ramboule sheep by the hundreds but I guess the funny story that I guess I would have to relate to and and we actually talked about this the other day whenever we were on the phone is one time Rex decided that it was a good idea for us to dig I would say roughly a 16 inches 16 to 20 inches wide by eight foot deep hole and I believe at the time maybe he told us that was going to put his satellite dish there

or So

we did, know, dig it down. You know, they probably used me as like the measuring stick. I feel like at that point in time, you know, I'd have to climb down in there, climb

back out. Clarify for the audience that digging in Eden, Texas is a lot different than digging in the pan.

Digging in Eden, Texas is significantly different than digging in the pan hole. I did not know what a rock bar was. You know, we could get most things done with a spade and we dug the hole, felt good about it and then he covered it up. He made us? Made us covered up.

We actually had to cover it up.

Yeah, he came out there and said that looks really good, cover it up.

Yeah, so that would probably be I guess what I would consider you know some of the first formal shenanigans that we were involved in together.

And I think that you know we might have you know young boys we after Rex went to bed we might have watched some late nights films. There was there's no telling what that was cable TV back then.

Yeah there's no telling what prompted Rex to make us do that because I don't think I had flipped the three wheeler yet so I don't think that it was because of that.

Now we're both show dads trying to navigate this right and be successful at it and know Logan has his way of doing things. I have my way of doing things And honestly, two totally different camps, but it's kind of neat to see that we still, I would say, maybe me more so, but I still lean on Logan. And I think Logan leans on me sometimes too. We'll still ask each other questions and stuff and like, hey, what are you doing? How's this working?

Do you see any good sheep here? Know, we talk quite often about that and utilize it to our own benefit. And it's funny to see that all the things that we've been through and now our two boys are, I would say they're probably best friends or at least they are at the stock shows running around and they're getting to the age now where they're starting to get into a little trouble themselves.

I think the benefit of you know sheep and goat projects and how they can be you know ideal for those first timers is there's a lot of variation with the each one of the species right? You know like you get into a deal of you know, if a kid wanted to start off showing goats or or sheep for that matter like either one of them and let's say he's, you know, a third grader that's never necessarily maybe been around livestock or you know, sheep and goats specifically and he weighs sixty five pounds soaking wet like you can usually find an animal that can fit him what that he's comfortable with that animals comfortable with him you know like they can make a good team and you know I think that probably can be you know if we're thinking about the other species right you know sometimes people might consider showing hogs the easiest because you know, you wanted to theoretically you could kind of just follow them around. You know in the sheep world and the goat world that obviously doesn't work the same because we do have to lead them where we're going and we have to have some control over them.

But I think with young kids it's such a good project that they can start off with, they can handle them and there's a lot of variation. They can get them a 65 pound lightweight goat to go to San Antonio. They can have them a lightweight South Down. They can run around jackpotting and show and feel like they're getting better. You know, know that with some of the other species maybe they can't do that as much.

Maybe they can't go to a summer show if you know whenever the timing allows if they're you know a big show because they'll get those projects maybe till a little later. So I think it's just a good way of introducing them, whether they want to stick to the sheep and goat deal or whether they want to, you know, move on to other things. It's a good first tool to allow them to be involved with some sort of livestock project.

I think I want this podcast to bridge the gap just You know I wanted to have some honesty and rawness to it right? But at the same time I definitely don't want to discourage anybody from getting into the sheep and goat show world. Right? My hope is that our honesty and rawness can you know help them navigate this from a standpoint of maybe whoever they're with right now they're looking into it's not going to give them those answers and sometimes you know the honest raw answer is the best answer, right?

I would say that you know I think you kind of hit on it a little bit earlier you know me asking you questions, you asking me questions like when I go to a stock show, if you're in class with me and vice versa, like, we want to beat each other. Like, the competitive nature and drive to be successful with both of us, our children, our families, our wives. It's it's real and that's not just you specifically like we want to be successful like we are trying to be successful. That is that is our goal. There's a lot of other things that we're trying to achieve also with the kids but like at the end of the day, like we want to be successful like we want them to find success and so, I think sometimes, families either don't feel like maybe people that have been fortunate enough to have success will share some of their tidbits and info or like what I like to tell people is I've made as many of the mistakes as maybe a person can make.

Feeding, breeding, showing, all of it. So, I can help you as much as anything, not because I'm smarter, just because I've made more mistakes.

Been down that path.

I've been down that road. And so I think that's probably where I guess I envision an opportunity like this podcast to go is, hey, we watched that deal. Sam said that he did this whenever he sees this. Logan said that he did this when he ran into this. Maybe that can help those people bridge that gap if they're not getting it for whatever reason or if they're a first time family and they're just learning and they don't know when to vaccinate, when to worm, what it's supposed to look like whenever they go to a jackpot, what to expect, you know, what, how to navigate the Texas major show scene, all of the things that sometimes for us, maybe we think about a little bit secondhand.

And I've tried to do this with a lot of our families is I call it my coffee thoughts. And I just send out random thoughts whenever I'm drinking my coffee in the morning of things that I'm doing at the barn. I know that there's a ton of those families that see that and they think, why is he telling us something that we all know? But there's probably some of those families that are just getting started that look at it and like, dang,

I forgot about that. That's a great idea. So I didn't, I didn't even, I don't do that.

Do you want me to add you to my coffee thoughts?

No, I think you did one time and it was like, you know, be sure to wash your sheep good. I think it was before a show and you were like, shear them, make sure your blades are sharp.

Shear them, it was probably shear them, like you mean it. This is their last show.

Yeah, but really like when I got that text from you, I could tell that it wasn't like a helpful deal. That was you just being a smart ass. Can I say ass on the podcast?

I think so. Okay. We're raw and real. I'm new to the podcast game, but I think as we navigate through what this is going to look like, I think without question, we're probably going to reach out to some of the folks maybe that have helped us.

Sure.

Some of the guys that we lean on, some of the guys that we call and discuss things with. And I think similar to what you said before, some of the guys that might have a completely different opinion on how to get from point A to point B than we do just because there's going be families that are probably listening and learning that maybe what we do, it doesn't exactly work in their barn or their environment or whatever. I think if we can have an opportunity to reach out and tap into some of that knowledge that's probably going to help everyone.

Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow us and tune in for next episode, which is gonna be over picking out your animal. Oh. Do you think we're gonna agree on that? Not at all.

Not a chance.

Be sure to like, follow, subscribe, everything that is social media.