Optimism springs eternal.

On this Memorial Day, we will be taking a moment to honor those who served our nation and are no longer with us. Mom and dad went to the St John cemetery with Skip to put out flowers. Toni and Kicker loaded out Fly Guy first thing in the morning (5 am) up a funky, but cool, side load ramp trailer. Fly Guy has always been a wonderful colt and took it all in stride. It was sad to see him go as we all loved him, but he had the misfortune to be born a colt, so we really couldn’t keep him. Then Toni and Kicker took the boys to Sterlings for brunch. Anna washed her heifers and steer. Ben worked on circles and I finished up the pictures from Saturday. Then the kids and I went for a ride out to check cows. Ed Hayes brought his mare out to get bred, we put her in with King. King wasn’t supposed to get so many mares this year, but with Colonel passing, King has had to step up and pick up the slack. So far he seems to doing ok with the job.  

Tuesday everyone was back to work and school. Kade was supposed to have a baseball game, but it was canceled, but he still had practice so dad took him in. Marlo went in to watch it. We had people out to look at Shi on Tuesday.  Shi is a really sweet filly, but is a touch hotter than our normal foals so is going to need the right person. Hottie’s stitches came out of her neck and she got turned out in the pasture. For those that don’t know, Hottie has sarcoids that we have had removed in the traditional method now twice. In the removal process, if the roots aren’t taken out, the sarcoids come back worse. For the last several years we have been trying alternative methods on the sarcoids to try to reduce or get rid of them. Some methods have had some success, others, not so much. Luckily, we have Dr. Sorensen who is willing to work with us to see what works. This latest test was inserting part of the sarcoid into Hottie’s neck to try to stimulate an autoimmune response to attach the sarcoids on her leg. This process could take up to six months, but so far so good. The kids did chores, mom made rhubarb pie, Toni and I hand bred the paint mare D, dad and Toni both moved water. Kicker and Ben worked on circles and did cow chores. The kids fed their show animals and cleaned out the barn.

Wednesday was HOT HOT HOT, as I am SURE you are all aware. Blue had a cute colt by Colonel, this is our last Colonel baby. We were hoping for a chromey filly, but you get what you get and hope that it is healthy. Toni and I took some new pics of Tank, since he is out on green pasture. He was not really that interested in getting pictures, he wanted to eat.  Kade also had a Jr. High orientation at 6 pm that Toni took him to. Not many people showed up, but Kade is now oriented.

Thursday the heat continued. Shady had a cute filly by Double, she is a full sister to the yearling colt we are keeping, Cappy.  When Toni did chores she noticed a railroad tie was hit out of line, she tried to push it back, but the railroad tie was too heavy.  Isidro brought Abril’s mare out to breed to Dude, as Abril wants a really gentle easy foal to deal with. Water got moved, chores got done, everyone thought that the heat was too much too quickly. Kade had a baseball game, Toni and dad went. Kade says they won.

Friday I expanded Leroy’s pen, with it being so dry out they were already running short on grass. He is out on a dry pasture, some desert ground. I do not know that he has a lot more grass now, but at least it has not been grazed yet. The kids got home from school, we moved water, did chores, etc. Kade had his last baseball game, Kicker came down and got him and took him to it. Marlo came out and brought out strawberries. She helped the kids with their steers, specifically Jaxsen. We tried to hand breed Dee the paint again, but King has been with her and acted like he had already done it. King also has Eddie in his pen getting bred. We had people come out to get meat Friday night.

Saturday we had people come out to get meat. Britta came out to look at her foal, she brought a friend for the tour. We had people come and put a deposit down on Gunz. The kids worked on their steers and heifers. The shags and I chased the cows out of Gunner’s pen and moved Gunner’s pen into the irrigated grass. They were happy to be in there. We moved Blue in with Tank, and Blackie into the heavy pen. Mom made us strawberry shortcake with homemade whipped crème.

Sunday we went and checked the cows in the morning, saw we had some bad eyes. So Ben, Kaine, Anna and I got the cows in and doctored the few eyes. Toni, Kicker, Kade and Jaxsen went out to breakfast and went to an escape room on Sunday, no, they did not make it out. On their way home they saw that some jackwad had wrecked a car through three sections of our desert fence. This is the second time in 2 years that Franklin County Sheriff’s office has failed to notify us when our fence is completely down. Last year Toni talked to the Sheriff about it and said that when a livestock fence is down, it is imperative that deputies notify landowners so that livestock is not out on the road. Needless to say Toni was not very happy on Sunday, especially after she found out it was the exact same deputy as last year that was out at this wreck, on the exact same fenceline, and once again failed to notify us. It is pretty disappointing that a Sheriff in a rural community isn’t taking livestock safety more seriously. If we hadn’t moved Gunner’s pen the day before, it could have been a real wreck since the car went through the fence right where Gunner’s pen has been hanging out. No one wants to see a wreck with livestock. Toni and I put a big bale in with King’s pen, did chores . Mom made us strawberry pie. It was awesome.

It was nice to have a weekend home to work on all the ranch stuff that gets pushed to the wayside when we have cattle shows to go to.  It hasn’t been great to go from hot to windy, chased away by more wind, but luckily we have irrigation water. Our friends without irrigation water are really hurting in this drought.  Hopefully we get some rain, not that any is in the forecast. Optimism springs eternal.