Road Trip to Paxton, FL

We went on a little trip yesterday to Paxton, FL. Paxton has one of the largest auctions in the Florida Panhandle area. I've heard a lot about it, and have always wanted to attend just to see what they have. So, we loaded up the car and headed out.

Paxton is very small town (around 753 people) located just over the Alabama/Florida state line, and I really do mean just over it. I completely missed where the city limits of Florala, AL ended and Paxton began.

The auction facilities.

The auction is located on US HWY 331 and begins at 9 AM on the first Saturday of every month. I've heard of it lasting into the wee hours of the next morning. They auctioned off miscellaneous items first (such as furniture and tools), then moved onto cages and poultry supplies (like brooders, auto waterers, fencing materials, etc), and lastly the animals and hatching eggs.

We got there a couple of hours late, but they were still on the miscellaneous items. So, we had plenty of time to walk through the sale barn and see all of the livestock and poultry. Lots of chickens, of course, as well as, goats (even some Myotonic goats), sheep, potbelly piglets, call ducks, pheasants, guineas, quail, turkeys, and an African goose. There were also lots of treats like divinity, fudge, peanut butter fudge, blackberry preserves, peach preserves, and whoopie pies that were auctioned off.

There was a gorgeous trio of Polish chickens (one of the hens was an especially stunning black crested) and a trio of call ducks that I was absolutely drooling over, but we were outbid. Oh well, we had a good time anyways. We saw a few familiar faces and it was very relaxing to get away for part of the day. The auctioneers kept everything moving at a steady pace and cracked a few jokes to keep everybody entertained. I really liked their facilities, too. The main part of the auction was held inside with ceiling fans circulating, which is a huge improvement over most of the ones I've gone to.

Here are a few pictures I took on my cell:

There were three of these girls together.
They were so friendly, and reminded me a lot of our ewe, Petunia.

Another picture of the ewes.

You can't tell it from the picture, but this buck was huge.
Our tallest Weimaraner is 29" at the withers, and this guy was easily much bigger.
He seemed to have a very sweet and chilled out personality, though.