We started out the week with a busy Monday. Dad and the three older kids headed to Soap Lake at 6:20 am to get their heifers going to Jr Nationals worked on. When I headed to work, I texted Toni the cows were invading Gunners pen again. So her and Jaxsen went down and fixed the fence and locked them in if they were not going to stay out. Dad and the kids got home fairly early, and that included stopping on their way home for breakfast in Moses Lake. When they got back Anna and Toni went out to catch the Appaloosa and bring her to the house since she would not stay in with Gunner. They called Mr Yutzy and he said to breed her to something that was in. We call her the appy, but she is a black driftwood bred mare with one appy parent. She had some cuts and contusions from running through the fence, so we moved her to the corral to doctor her. The kids all went to Toni’s house for Taco Bell for lunch. After that Anna washed her steers and heifer when she got home, Kaine and Kade rested and enjoyed their first real day of no school for the summer for a few hrs. Dad brought Anna down to Pasco so I could take her to a Dr appt. Our friend Roberta came out with a mare to breed to Sagebug. The mare has a stunning little black filly at side that Toni is trying to claim. Toni and the boys did chores. Anna and I got home in time for her to assist with the steer chores and cleaning the barn. It rained Monday night, we definitely needed it. Ben and I made lunch burritos for the show and the kids packed up the pulled pork and pulled beef and took it out to the camper.
Tuesday was still a little stormy in the morning. Toni was busy working on her case that she was going to trial for on Wednesday. Ruby came down and worked on heifers and steers with the kids. They washed, packed tack, etc. Also, Anna worked on the riding horse fence, the bottom wire was broke. We got our herbicide to spray the broadleaf in the fields finally. It has been interesting to find something affordable, with no withdrawal for the animals. Toni and the kids did chores, and the kids worked on their two year olds. Anna has Jojo, who is huge, Kade has Stormy who is small, and Kaine has Peanut who looks like a 4 year old. After working their horses, the kids went to my house to feed their show animals and clean out the barn. It rained again Tuesday night.
On Wednesday dad and Steve went to NezPerce to get some Cottonseed hulls to feed the show heifers that are going to Jr Nationals. The kids clipped their steers and heifers that we were taking to the Regional and Jackpot show in Ellensburg. Toni had a trial in Benton County and left at around 11:30, we both got home around 5:45, just in time to see Blackie foal and give us a really nice little colt. This will be the last foal out of Double for the year. When the cattle show starts during the week and doesn’t end until late Sunday, it pretty much screws up our weekend work.
Thursday we were headed to Ellensburg for the Jr Angus Preview. But first, Toni had a phone meeting that was supposed to start at 9 but some people were out of pocket. So they did not start on time, so we were waiting for her. But, we only left a little late, and were still there in plenty of time. We had a convoy, as Kaine and Kade said, Leslie in Mar’s pickup and the Wilson, Toni in the Ragin Cajun and the Titian, Traci in the Yukon and her three horse trailer with tack and feed, I was in Butte with the camper and the twins were in Anna’s pickup with chairs and pop up tents and an extra generator. We got there and got everything set up, got checked in and then went to the meeting and out to Ellensburg Pasta for dinner. One of our highlights of going to E-burg is to go to Ellensburg Pasta, we just love it. The food is always exceptional. We had a party of 13, then Stacy, Adrian and Emmet showed up, so we had 16 people that went and enjoyed the good quality food. Ben and Kicker did chores at home.
Friday morning we washed all 21 head of cattle. Then Toni, Leslie, Traci and some of the kids went to Old Mill, Whitney, McCall and I, and some of the kids went to the BBQ and auction. McKenna had worked late the night before, before they came, and needed to rest in the camper for a little while. After that the kids had Team Sales and Team Fitting they participated in. The boys had a Jr team with Jaxsen, Kade, Kaine, and their friend Emmett (who is kind of like another cousin). The boys were 1st in Team Sales, they were all very excited, Jaxsen commented that he pulled the rest of the team, but no one really believes that since it took all of them. The two team fitting teams did really well too. Following the contests we had showmanship. We started with PeeWees and Savannah and Kayla showed. There was only one class of Seniors, the twins showed really well. Anna was grand champion Intermediate showman. Kaine made it back to the champion round in Jr, Natalie, Jaxsen and Kade all showed really well. We had tacos for dinner, then Leslie and Traci took the kids to the hotel to go swimming. Whitney, Toni and I hung out at the camper. Ben and Kicker did chores at home.
Saturday we had confirmation, steers were first, we only had one Angus steer, Jaxsen’s steer, Dagger. He made it back to the champion round. Kaine’s bred and owned heifer won her class and made it back. Natalie heifer made it back to the champion round, Savannah heifer was barely out, in 3rd place. Kade and McCalls April heifers showed great (I was leading heifers up and did not see them place). Kaine’s March heifer was 4th and I think McKenna was 5th. Anna’s heifer was second in her class, so she made it back in. And Kade’s December heifer was a division winner. Dad and mom came up and watched the kids show. We told Dad that Goldie was heavy, so if he saw her in could he move her, so he got home and moved her into the heavy horse pen. Dad also showed Sammie the grade gelding to some friends of his. Ben and Kicker did chores at home and worked at the ranch all day. Kicker fixed the desert fence that the car had crashed through a few weeks ago. Because nothing was in the desert we decided to wait to see if anyone voluntarily came to fix the fence that they broke- nope, didn’t happen. So thanks Kicker for getting that done.
Sunday, happy Father’s Day. Kicker came up and watch the kids show at the Jackpot. We started with PeeWees, Kasen came up and showed his heifer, in addition to Savannah and Kayla. The twins did really good, they were 3rd and 4th overall for Seniors, this was their heifers first show, and they were making dramatic improvements each time they went in. Anna was 3rd overall in Intermediates. There were two classes of Jrs, Kaine, Kade and Addy were in the first one and Kaine was brought back, Kade was 3rd and Addy was 4th, the judge really worked them and Kade almost made it back. When the judge released the first group of kids out of the ring Addy’s heifer wanted to go with them, so she did really good the first half and then she was acted up for her the second half. But Addy handled her really well and did a great job. Jaxsen, Julian and Natalie were in the second class of Jrs. Natalie made it back and Jaxsen and Julie did not, but they all showed really well.
Next was confirmation, we started with heifers. Natalie little heifer, Anna’s heifer and Kade’s December heifer all made it back to the championship round. Then we showed steers, Natalie won her class with her shorthorn steer, and made it back, Kade’s steer was second and made it back, Anna’s steers both got second and made it back. Kaine’s steer was 3rd, I think Addy and Julian were both 4th and Jaxsen was 5th. Anna won Reserve Champion overall with Pumpkin steer. In the championship steer class, we had 4 of the 8 steers in the round, so that was really fun. Afterwards the Judge really complimented the kids on their showing and talked to Kade and Anna at length. Then we packed up all our stuff and headed home in our convoy, with an extra vehicle of Kicker. Dad texted on our way home that Goldie foaled and that his friends were going to take Sammie the gelding and try him out. No other info on the foal. Colt? Filly? Red? White? Blue? Anything? Dad likes to keep us in suspense. Toni and I rushed down for the horse chores to discover that Goldie had a super fancy, prancey, grulla filly. The kids fed their show animals and Ben and Kicker did the cow chores.
A big thank you to everyone that made the weekend possible. To have the angus show followed by the jackpot in one location made everything really run smoothly. As always, we made new friends, had a great time, and are completely exhausted now that we are home.
KT Ranch 
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