Last Week of January

Monday was a teacher in service day, so the kids did not have school. The dogs like it when the kids are at home. We woke up to some snow on Monday, and it was still snowing. Anna and the dogs checked the cows, no new calves. We had left over desserts from Friday and Sunday, so no new desserts until Tuesday. Toni had a really busy day, since she was off the week before. Anna was supposed to have a drive, but it was canceled due to the snow. The snow was basically all melted by Monday night.

Tuesday morning the weather was nice, but the weatherwoman was calling for snow in the later part of the day. Toni has been driving her pick-up for a while now with the coolant going out way too fast, so she took it to the shop on Tuesday.  Anna checked cows, nothing new.  Steve texted Toni that he had replaced the fuel filter, thermostat, a belt, and put more coolant in, so her pu was good to go. He also pulled off some wire that was wrapped on the undercarriage. Steve is always amused by the condition of Toni’s vehicles. Last time he swept up the cheatgrass and showed her the pile. As this is a work pu, according to Toni it really is in pretty good shape. Mom made a chocolate peppermint cake, it was SO GOOD I made myself sick eating it. Ben texted that when him and Kicker fed there was a tagged calf in the feedline, and they could not find its mom, so they took it to the barn. Anna I went out looked and 804M was looking for a calf. So, we went back and got her and took her to her mom. 804M was not impressed that “we” as in humans, took her baby. Kaine is moving into the office we can replace the flooring in his room, he is currently working on demolishing the entertainment center he was using as a what? I don’t know, he is a hoarder. He had SO MUCH stuff.

Wednesday morning it was raining/snowing when I went to work, it was 35 degrees by the time I got to highway 17, so it was raining the rest of the way. By 9 the sun was out and shining. Anna and the dogs checked cows.  Luckily nothing new. We like it when the cows hold the calves in when the weather is crappy. Toni and the boys did chores, the two big boys are still doing roping practice if they have extra light when they are done feeding. It is getting lighter at night, so they have been getting some good practice in. We were running low on Senior feed so Toni ordered that from Basin Home and Hardware in Basin City. Anna still has drivers ed at night.

Thursday was a beautiful sunny day, but Ben’s work had a two-hour delay, so he got to check.  We had another calf on Thursday, one of Toni’s Angus cows had a heifer. All the kids had school, the dogs are not happy when the kids go to school, they have gotten used to them being at home. Chuck brought out our new grullo mare, Voo Doo, on Thursday and took his gelding, Sonny, home.  Mom wanted a grulla mare she could breed to Sagebug. Voo Doo is kind of one of those super tame pushy type horses, but she will adjust.

                Friday Anna, Kaine and I went and checked cows, one of the heavy heifers, “Zora” Jaxsen’s show heifer, was at the gate, so we put a horse halter on her and lead her into heavy pen. Then, we went and picked up one of the beeves at Bryans, we have lots of beef in the freezer if anyone wants some, both grain and grass fed. We barely got it all unpacked an, in the freezer, before we had to run to mom and dads because Chad and Andrew came out in the afternoon to trim more horses. We finished up doing most of the 2020 foals and did a few of the older mares as well. All of our young stuff did pretty well considering it was most of their first time. A couple of them didn’t get done, but they are on the list for next time. Because Ray is for sale, Toni and Whitney took some new pictures of him. But they basically look the same as the last pictures. Toni got down around 3 and Whitney came to get some stuff from mom. Then we hurried home to check the cows. 

Saturday Kaine went to Cyson’s birthday party at 11. Kade came down and Kade and Anna washed their steers. The weather was so nice it was hard to not. I caught the clubby heifers of Kameron’s for the first time, that we knew about. They seemed like they had been tied up before. They did not do bad at all. Then I worked on taking the carpet out of Kaine’s room. Kameron and Kutter came as we were turning the heifers loose, so Kutter could practice, he led Jaxsen’s heifer and put her away. He tried to lead her like a normal person would lead a heifer, so we had to explain that Jax leads the heifer at the end of the rope and lets her meander all over. She was much better after Kutter was told the “right” way to lead her.  Then we went and checked cows and then went down to do chores. Ben worked on cleaning out the area where we were going to put the walk in freezer, and Kicker cut down and sprayed Russian Olive trees.

Sunday the Meachams went to Kennewick to help Shammy and Jordie pull out flooring in their new house. Anna, Ben and I checked cows and then tagged the few calves we have had this week. Next, Kaine and Anna washed cattle, Anna her heifers and Kaine a steer and a heifer. Ben and I hauled the calved two-year-olds up to the corn field.  Then, I tied up the new heifers and Kutter’s steer and tied M010 (one of Jaxsen’s steers) to Tulip the donkey. Ben helped me tie him to her. Ben continued to work on the freezer area. Tulip drug M010 around for a few hrs, and then Anna and I untied them and Anna was able to lead the steer to the barn, second day with a halter, we were impressed. Tulip not so much. Then we went down and did chores, Marlo came to help on Sunday since she missed helping on Friday since she was working.  We took some new pictures of Shi just for fun. She is a Bishop filly that we have on the keep list. She is out of a really nice mare named Red Robin that we got from our friend John. Shi is a really big bodied bay roan. She is like a fine wine, she is getting better with age. Anna loves Shi, Toni is on the fence, and I think we need to keep a Bishop filly. Dad continues to call Shi a “colt” so we are unclear where he stands on keeping or selling her.