We always say we have 5 seasons, Winter, Mud, Spring, Summer, and Fall. It looks like the mud season has begun.

Monday was pretty much like Sunday, we gave the cows wheat straw and hay, since they cannot get to the stalks through the snow. It continued to snow, Toni kept telling me it will stop.  I kept waiting. We tagged the few calves we had had during the previous week. Toni, Coco, Anna and I went down and fed the mares to see if anyone looked heavy, we have some getting heavy, Toni told them to wait a week. We shall see if they listen. Our good friend Roberta went and picked up a puppy for Ben in Hermiston, Ben got it from his cousin Jake and Jake’s brother Luke brought up from SE Idaho.

Tuesday I had a stomach bug or something that did not agree with me, so I was home all day on Tuesday. I cannot tell you much of what went on. I know that Anna checked cows, and she stayed home from doing chores to help Ben and Kicker move animals around. Toni and the boys went and did chores. Chores are extra-long and strenuous in this kind of weather. Toni and Coco went and fed the mares and again gave them the pep talk to keep the foals in. Where we have the mares, if they do foal, there is plenty of straw, but they aren’t forced to have them on the straw so it is concerning. We didn’t feel like anything was imminent so we didn’t move them. We would rather they stayed out in big pastures than all be crowded in small pens.

Back to work on Wednesday. Anna checked cows and Toni checked mares, luckily nothing new on this cold morning. Anna stayed home again for chores to help Ben and Kicker lock the cows in, to sort on Thursday. Toni and the boys did chores, they went and fed the mares some hay. Roberta bought a couch in Kennewick, so I borrowed a 20 year old from our friend Shannon, who has her sons and some of their friends helping her and her husband Jordan move into their new house, to meet in in Kennewick so we could load Roberta’s couch, and get the new puppy, Murtaugh. Taylor was great help, him and the person Roberta was buying the couch from actually loaded it.  So we just wanted and played with the puppy.  Everyone was excited when I brought her home.  Toni got her mares in for the visit to the vet on Thursday. She was going to take Pepper and Stinger, but she couldn’t catch Pepper, so Payton and Stinger got brought in.

All the kids went to school on Thursday, so Toni and the dogs checked. Toni took two mares and two dogs into Sheena, Emma’s mare was supposed to go too, but Emma’s trailer got plowed in so she was late. Luckily Sheena was able to fit Emma’s late dog in too and the mare.  Toni also took the boys’ puppies in for shots. Toni and Emma went and got the three mares from Sagehill vet later after they were done getting their teeth floated. Sheena reminded us the Stinger doesn’t have many teeth, so we put her in with the yearling fillies when we got back, and she is still mad about it. The kids did chores and then Ben came down and go them to go and help him and Kicker sort cows. Toni went down after her and Coco fed the horses. They were all finished by the time I got home. I hear the cows sorted pretty easily.

It snowed a little again Thursday night, so we woke up to a light dusting on Friday. Ben, Ann, Kaine, Toni, Kade and Kicker put CIDRS in the cows Friday late afternoon. Coco and Marlo both showed up to help them at the end.  The cows all did really well. Toni told the boys, because she pushes the cows up, not to put their arm in the alley in a way to get it pinched when a cow backs up. Then she felt the need to demonstrate on one of the ex-show cows and got her arm pinched. Luckily it is just a bruise. Clearly she is good at giving them examples of what not to do. All the kids are really good help. Except Jaxsen wasn’t there. He stayed with Grandma and Grandpa to keep them company. Unclear how that is a job. I got Costco, so delivered on my way home. Jaxsen tipped me with a hug. Anna went up and baby-sat Ruby Jean and Wyatt Friday night.

Saturday Kicker brought Kade and Jaxsen down and him and Toni went to our aunt Merrilie’s funeral in Clarkston.  It was a small event with covid.  Kade, Anna, Ben and I went and checked cows. After that Anna, Kaine and Kade caught their Spokane steers, one MT steer, two TX steers and one CA steer (basically what they could walk out into the pen and catch). We let the cows with CIDRS out into circle 4 and sorted off the three heifers that had gotten in there. While the kids were catching their steers, I put Mattie and Pearl in with the Spokane steers and the black ballie heifer in with the heavy heifers. The Brangus heifer had a cute bull calf while we were working and Snow princess had a cute heifer calf, “Snow.” Ben worked on the feedbunk, the bar across the front was broken. At lunch time Skip came to see his new dog Rowdy and he had leftovers for lunch with us.

After lunch Anna and I sent out to check cows and Kaine, Kade and Jaxsen played in the snow. Anna and I then got a bale of hay and went out to feed the mares in circle 5 and the desert. Freida has really bagged up so we got her in and hauled her and Scrat back to mom and dads. We put Scrat in with Tank, which did not make either of them happy. The boys did chores while I turned Frieda out and led Scrat to the corral. Anna stayed and helped Ben feed the cows, since we did not know when Toni and Kicker would be home. They got back about the time we got done at mom and dads.

Sunday Skip came up for breakfast with his dog, he said he was going to head home around noon. Then we went out and tagged calves and checked all of the cows. By then it was lunch time. After lunch Anna and I went and checked the cows again and then loaded up some hay and went and fed the mares. Then Ben, Anna, Kaine and I fed the cows and heifers. Toni, Kade, Jaxsen and Coco had started chores, we got down there in time to help finish.

We are happy to report that we didn’t get any new foals, but soon. We also have a bunch of people that have called on the yearlings and have a couple of them scheduled to come out next week now that the weather is supposed to get better. The roads here are pretty good, just the fields that are a muddy mess. We always say we have 5 seasons, Winter, Mud, Spring, Summer, and Fall. It looks like the mud season has begun.