Monday, back to work and school, and Toni has a LOT of work to do, since on her answering machine she left a message saying not to call her until Monday, I am SURE her phone was ringing off of the hook. I got almost all the way done with CBJLS pics last night, and they are uploading now. Now on to the Othello pictures. Kaine and Kade had Jr High practice and Grid Kids practice, I told them I did not know if professional football players had that many hrs of practice a day. Jaxsen just had Grid Kids practice. Toni, Anna and Kade worked on halter breaking Peach, Pine and Peter Pan. We are gearing up to start shipping foals to their new homes. We have been updating our foals dos and don’ts and it has its own tab on the website so people can access it whenever they want.
Tuesday was a regular day, normal practice, normal chores, nothing too exciting. Then in the afternoon Anna called and said that the school notified her she had been exposed to covid so she needed a ride home. Toni went in and got her. On their way out of town, the school called Toni’s phone and Kade was also kicked out of school due to a covid exposure. So Toni gets two of the kids home for 10 days. I am sure by the end of it they will want to go back to school. Toni, Anna and Kade worked on halter breaking Peach, Pine and Peter Pan. Peach and Peter Pan are out of Jackpot. This is our first foal crop with Jackpot, so we are getting a good feel for his foals. We had quite a few out of him. So far they have been level headed and very pressure sensitive.
Wednesday was mom and dad’s anniversary, happy anniversary mom and dad. Mom had a Dr appt in Spokane, so that was a fun anniversary. Kaine had a football game in Othello, so I went to that. They got stomped by Othello. However, half of our team is out on quarantine, so we had 7/8 grade team playing an 8th grade and had 2 kids for subs, so most of the kids played the entire game. But we had fun. Kaine and I stopped at the Pizza Factory and brought pizza home. Toni, Anna and Kade had begun working on some fence upgrades. Toni doesn’t count that as “new” fence, it is just upgrading fence that is already in. They put in enough work that they ran out of lagbolts. Then after the fencing project they worked on halter breaking Peach, Pine and Peter Pan. Kade and Anna had also started halter breaking the steers we have in for 2022 since they are home.
Thursday Kade became a teenager, Happy birthday Kade. Toni, Kade, Anna, Mom, Whitney, and Marlo went to lunch at the Brunswick because Kade wanted a burger for his birthday. Whitney also brought him balloons and candy, two of his favorite things. Anna got to drive around Othello for more driving practice. Then in the afternoon Kade and Anna saddled up their project horses and messed around with them. The other two boys had an extra-long practice again with both Grid Kids and Jr High. They were exhausted after. Kade and Anna have been busy all week halter breaking the steers for the November 6th show in Moses Lake. Ryan Rash will be the judge and we are very excited. Toni, Anna and Kade worked on halter breaking Peach, Pine and Peter Pan.
Friday there was not any practice, the boys were all exhausted. Marlo came to help with chores, so Toni made her come in and help with the foals so they could get used to someone else. Peter Pan has a little bit of stranger danger so we are working to get him over that. Peach has no danger. Nothing upsets her or spooks her, unless you want her to do something she doesn’t want to do. She is kind of spoiled. Pine is in between. The other 4 kids did chores. Then Anna went out on her first “real” date. Everyone was at my house to meet poor Logan when he came to pick her up. But he was a good sport.
Saturday Anna and Kaine worked on the heifers and steers. Toni, Kade, Jaxsen and I went down and let Peter Pan back out. We let Hottie out with the old horses, she is still eating the experimental meds for her sarcoids. We fixed the gate on the pen Hottie was in so that it swings both ways again. We put Peach and Pine in her pen and got the next 4 in to halter break, No Foolin, Gunz, Chic and Sage. We haltered them and then Toni, Kade and Jaxsen went into Jaxsen’s game. I went home and the kids and I had lunch. Then I went out and checked the cows while they continued working. Kaine and I went into his game and I picked up mom and Skip on the way. Leslie, Whitney, Traci, Marlo, Savannah and Kayla all came in and watched him. Kayla and Savannah cheered Kaino on. Toni, Kade, and Anna did chores and worked on the foals.
Sunday we tattooed and branded the heifers. We sorted out the keep heifers and the feeder heifers, which is hard. The heifers all look really really good. At lunch we had Kade and dad’s birthday party, and had papa murphy’s pizza and apple cobbler (thanks Mom). Then we had someone out to look at Shi and the foals we have left. Next we caught a couple of mares and hauled them out and brought Tulip the donkey down to help with halter breaking. Tulip was scary to some of the foals, but the Gunner foals (except Dual) all wanted to chase her. The sign of a great cow horse is the need to chase things. Gen also wanted to chase Tulip. We are hopeful that Tulip is going to be helpful with the halter breaking. We have already been using her on the calves and she is pretty cool to watch.
Fall time means cattle sales. We have quite a few cattle sales that we are going to in order to try and get the three older kids some really competitive show heifers and jackpot steers. So between weaning, halter breaking, football, training, and regular ranch work we are also trying to make sure we don’t let a good buy slip by us. The kids are also showing heifers and steers that we have raised, so there are lots of cattle in the show pen.
If anyone needs a replacement heifer, we have a few for sale, and some bred heifers.
KT Ranch 
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