You won't hate me when I tell you I spent the last weekend in January suffering through high-60s temperatures, will you? How about if I throw in some cow manure -- will that even the score?

Every year my parents take my daughters and me to the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale in Red Bluff, about half an hour north of us. We make a day of it, eating fair food, browsing the many vendor booths, and buying salt water taffy to take home. But mostly it's about the bulls: watching the fast-paced auction or just wandering among the barns to look at the bulls and sometimes chat with the breeders. These beautiful animals -- and that includes the stock dogs and geldings that we miss every year because they show before the weekend -- are trailered to Red Bluff from many different states, because this sale is one of the more important annual sales in the western United States. This year my brother Rob and our sister Beth joined us, which added to the fun.

Here are some photos from Saturday, most of which were taken by my two daughters.

This Charolais was the first bull I saw go through the auction, and he sold in the high $6000 range, I believe.

The highest grade possible: a "one minus." The next lowest score is "two plus." Hard to understand.

My new favorite sign in the world. Big Jim sounds like a straight-shooter.

What, you've never seen someone blow-dry a bull before? This fella loved it, too -- look at those half-closed eyelids.

Exactly who I DON'T want to be: a guy on crutches with a Hereford bull behind him.

Sniffing each other out. No scrapping, boys.

Hard for a dairy girl to get used to huge bulls on halters around tiny children, but this is THEIR world, not mine.

This bad boy, a Charolais, was actually very sweet. Very large, and very sweet.

Two Herefords, fat as butter.

A couple of Black Angus loafing around. I look more and more like this every week.

Nose jewelry.

Finally, I told my sister, "Only real cowgirls take their beer with them to try on boots," to which she responded, "Real cowgirls don't wear glitzy boots!" I think we're both right.

Notice the relative lack of cow manure on those boots. It was a successful day.