Back to the daily grind after fair week. Kade and Jaxsen started school Monday. Kaine and Anna got to rest a little and then caught the CBJLS and Othello steers to get them back onto their schedule. Anna found out she won a Nile Merit Heifer, she is very excited, we get to go to Stephenson, MT late October to pick her up. Thank you 3C Cattle Company for your donation. Anna and Kaine met Jaxsen and Kade at mom and dads at the bus stop for a picture. Then they did chores really early. Toni and I doctored Doll’s eye and moved water. Then Toni had to take Kade to the doctor for some school stuff that should have been done before he started school. I guess time just got away from them.
Tuesday Anna and Kaine started school. Dad and Toni took the steers, Big Boy Brad and Ike to Connell to go on a trip. Because they were going over, they also unloaded Leslie’s tack with Leslie and Joe. I hear Dad and Joe weren’t the best help unloading heavy tack. There was some grumbling about how Dad and Joe were too old to want to unload crap. I don’t think Toni and Leslie cared. Toni bought Dad a burger from the Burger Factory on the way home, so I am pretty sure Dad’s good spirits were restored. Mom invented some new muffin recipe on Tuesday. She is really getting into making us breakfast stuff for the fairs. We get to be her guinea pigs for the new recipes. It is a real hardship to taste three new muffins every day. Kade and Kaine started football practice. Anna and Jaxsen did chores, and Jaxsen wanted to know why Toni did not sign him up for Grid Kids so he could get out of chores too. We got Hottie’s feed and tried feeding that to her. This is our latest experiment to try and get Hottie’s sarcoid removed. We are in consultation with our awesome vet, Sheena, along with the inventor of this great new product that is supposed to get rid of sarcoids. When we can release the info, we will. Anyway, Hottie is a no go on the feed, so we are going to try applesauce tomorrow.
Wednesday Toni has a deposition on Zoom, and she found out she is supposed to be going back to court in person. She is the opposite of happy about having to go back to court. Jaxsen started Grid Kids Wednesday because he wants out of chores so badly, he is willing to play sports. Dad ended up helping Anna with chores and then took Jax to practice. Kaine and Kade had practice after school. When they got home they worked on their steers, Anna had already worked on hers. Toni and I doctored Doll’s eye and got Hottie to eat her medicine, with a cup cull of sugar (a spoon full was not enough for her). Ben and Kicker are still working on circles at night.
Thursday Kade and Jaxsen went in and got their physicals and Kaine went to practice, so now all the boys can really play sports. Anna started chores, and Kade and Jaxsen got home in time to help. Toni and I tried sugar and apple sauce to get Hottie to eat her medicine, she is still a no. So we put it in water and helped her take it. Kicker and Ben were still working on circles. It is a never-ending chore.
Friday Toni had meetings, but she got to go and help dad load up mom’s embroidery machine to take in and get fixed. She will be without it for a week or so. Jaxsen did not have Grid Kids practice, so he got to help Anna do chores. However, Kaine and Kade still had Jr High Practice. Marlo went to Kansas and Oklahoma for her birthday, so we did not have our Friday chore helper. We discovered Dale Brisby has a show on Netflix called “how to be a cowboy.” Normally we don’t like those type of shows because they aren’t realistic or are dumb. This one had enough sarcasm and real stuff that it is actually decent. So if you want a laugh and have Netflix, it is worth watching.
Saturday the kids clipped their steers and heifers going to Connell and Othello. Toni ran to Othello and got the Othello fair tags for the 4-H group, we get to tag our own steers before we go this year. Toni, Ben and I got the bull calves in and worked and weighed them and then the show calves. We banded a few of the calves that we had on our list to make steers and just hadn’t gotten around to it. Kicker was down knocking down the beaver dam and smoothing out some of our ranch roads. When we got done working calves Toni and I went out and got circle 5 in and hauled those mares home, except Rosie B who is dry, we left her down there. We took the mares from Toni’s and moved Tank into the back pasture. Next we hauled some of the other dry mares down with Rosie B and began our fall protocol, which is just a dose of Ivomec that says it tastes like apples on the box. The horses do not believe it.
Sunday Ben, Toni and I finished working the calves. The calves were pretty sticky and didn’t want to go up the alley, so it took a little longer than we planned. Kendel came down and helped a bit. We also worked the bulls. It is always interesting to see how the horned bulls maneuver up the chute. I also get to listen to Toni talk about how we need to keep every single one of the heifers, or listen to her try to convince Ben to sell her the ones she really likes that are mine. The kids finished clipping and then worked on their steers with show halters. Kicker continued with his projects and fixed the end gun on Dad’s circle. Ben, Kicker, Kaine and Kade built a new pen for Sagebug, Toni, Kendel, Anna and I got in Sagebug’s pen and pulled him out and hauled the mares and foals that are getting weaned home. Sagebug was not happy about being pulled. We weaned the 5 foals we had in to wean, getting to a total of 9 foals that we weaned. This is our first group.
I am not sure working calves all weekend after the fair then the start of school was the best plan, however it had to be done. We are all pretty tired. Next week we head to CBJLS where all four kids will have steers for sale, after which we head straight to Othello. No rest of the wicked.
KT Ranch 
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