Next week is Christmas. Where did the time go?

Monday started really early for Ben and Toni, at around 12:53, Frank and Firecracker’s buyers were turning onto Hendricks Rd, finally after a terrible trip up, of breakdowns, snow, car wrecks, etc. So Ben and Toni went out and loaded them, they loaded great, and they turned and burned for CA. Most of the details are on last week’s post. Anna and Kaine had Dr appts in the morning, so Ben took them to that, since he is off for December. They checked cows first, and 947 and 847 had both calved. 947 had actually calved when Ben checked them and 12:53, and it was already up, dry and nursing. The cows that did not take in the first round of AIing are calving now to the bulls, and the 2^nd round of AI cows are calving. So lots of calves Monday.  After Ben and the kids got back they got in the heifers from circle 7 to bangs vaccinate on Tuesday. Hank texted while they were at the dr that he could come out Tuesday afternoon and bang the heifers. So the kids did not go back to school but helped get heifers in, sort and haul them. Mom made a REALLY good éclair cake, it was so good. Toni wants to call it white salad or something so it can go in the salad category and be eaten with every meal. Kade had a bb game after school. So Toni and Dad went to that.

More calves on Tuesday. Toni canceled her afternoon meeting to help bangs vaccinate heifers. Toni had a morning meeting so took off for that then was a tad late for bangs vaccinating, but she did get there.  They did them in record time and then Kendel helped them push them back down the road. Then Toni worked on Memphis, she tied her to Tulip, and the kids did chores.  Memphis is really tame and nice, but has some fire to her. It took Toni and Tulip quite a long time to get Memphis across the road. Memphis wasn’t into leading. But we know by the time she leaves to move to Alvina’s house, she will be good.

Wednesday Anna went to Josie’s house after school to make cookies for FFA, she brought Kaine and Jaxsen home first so they could do chores. Toni had a big hearing in the afternoon, but did get her chores done and worked on Memphis before Dad and Toni went to watch Kade play bb. Mom only had to crack the whip a little bit to make Jaxsen help with ALL the chores. Anna finished the family calendar for grandma Wednesday night, so I got them ordered for Grandma, and everyone that wants one.  The weather has been pretty cold, but still good weather for calving vs February which is historically our worst month of weather. 

                We woke up to snow on Thursday, but it was not too cold, just barely freezing. Of course we had a handful of calves in the snow. Ben tied up a bull we are halter breaking and Anna’s clubby steer on Thursday.  By Thursday Memphis was leading, tying up, and acting like a pro. That is the great thing about the Leroy foals, they are super smart and they want to be people pleasers. Memphis just needed to know she wasn’t the alpha, once she got it, she got it. We decided to see if Alvina would trade Memphis out of Kit Kat, but it was a no go, so Kit Kat is still here. Memphis and Kit Kat are ¾ sisters, so Kit Kat will be great for us. Memphis just has a really cool color and markings on top of all the other good stuff. Kade had his last bb game on Thursday (finally) in Warden. His best game yet, he had the first 4 points of the game, and Connell beat Warden. Kade was a rebounding machine.  It helps that he is pretty tall.

Friday Ben, Anna and I got up and checked cows. Then the kids went to school for their last day before Christmas, except Kaine, because they were only watching movies all day so he wanted to stay home and help Ben. Then I ran Ben and Kaine into Othello to get Ben’s pickup from the mechanic. Kaine learned out to catch calves to tag, which is a skill if you have ever jumped out of a moving pickup to run after a calf to catch it and then have their mom right behind you. Ben is really good at it and is freaky fast. Kaine said he caught the slow ones with tame moms. I went and had a hair appt in the morning and then Mom, Toni and I went and got mani and pedis in the afternoon. Dad went with us, then we got Applebeees to go and ran by Tation and Cami house to get dad’s Christmas present and coffees and came home. Mom and Dad had never had mani/pedis before and they seemed to really enjoy themselves. It was really nice to have an afternoon and just do something fun. The kids had done chores, since they are such wonderful children. Mom left them fresh cookies and apple sauce for after school. Marlo was there to help do chores.  

                Saturday more checking. Then we got the calved heifers in, tagged their calves and hauled them down to circle 7. Alvina came and got her new horse, Memphis, and took her back to Pullman. In the afternoon Anna and Kaine went to Richland to watch a basketball game. We continued to work around the house until chore time. Anna’s retired show heifer Amora calved while Anna was gone. It was backwards so we had to get her in and pull it. Now that we have a good freeze, Toni is getting serious about deworming everything so Kade and Toni got Leroy, who Kade is calling LaRoy (Dale Brisby reference) and Dude done. Kade held LaRoy by hugging his neck, so a super wild stud, but they had to catch the wild man Dude with a piece of string. Dude isn’t as good about the dewormer, maybe because it is gross? Chores were fine. We decided to wait to get a new foal or two in for halter breaking, so things are relatively easy. Just normal stuff with some extra due to the weather.

Sunday was snowy, we had to get some of the heifers that calved in the barn on Sunday, they don’t get up fast enough and get them licked off to keep them warm like the cows. Then we go the herd in and sorted off a new batch of heavy heifers. And put them in the heavy heifer pen. We decided to get the old mares all blanketed, because it is cold. Most of them did pretty good. Smoke, our old trusty dusty pony that we have had her entire long life, was the worst. She didn’t kick us, but she didn’t want a blanket.  The kids helped. Then we put up the lighted letters, let the kids pick their horses and got our annual KT Ranch Christmas pic. The snow wasn’t quite a thick, but it was good. They all picked their 2 year olds that they are working on. Jax elected to hold the letters. Haha. We put straw out for the horses to have some extra protection against the elements.

Next week is Christmas. Where did the time go? With Christmas around the corner a person can get caught up in the commercialization of the holiday, but that isn’t what it is about. The kids have done a great job in the last few weeks volunteering to help where needed. They helped the FFA wrap presents, donated their own funds to the fund raisers, donated their own things or helped pick things out for others that needed them. And by things I mean coats, hats, mittens, things that are needed. November is the thankful month and December is the mindful month. We need to be mindful of what we have, how we can help others, our impact on other people, and overall to be good stewards of the land and of our society.  

We are looking forward to a great holiday with family and friends. We are blessed to be able to spend time with our Grandma who is 91. (Those are Christmas pics from last year) Merry Christmas to all!