The weather has been cold, foggy, dreary, hard to anticipate spring.

Happy Martin Luther King Day. Ben and the kids checked cows and worked at the ranch. I went to work. The Tonis came back from the class reunion. Our meat was done at Bryans, so Anna and dad ran down and got it, they brought me a coffee at work, it was very nice of them. Anna helped the men do chores, the boys helped Toni. Toni called me at work that Whiskey had a puncture on her knee and it is very swollen. Whiskey is an accident waiting to happen, if something can get injured in any way she does. We do not know what she was injured on, possibly a Russian Olive Tree? Kicked? Fell down? Toni and the boys doctored her. They let Lighting Bug out of the round pen, she has been locked in for a few months, she injured her right hind and was not supposed to move around a lot.  She has been in for months now, so is much improved. She didn’t get to go out with the big horses, but did get to go out with the weanlings- almost yearlings. Whiskey got put in her pen. Mom made us lemon bars, all of us, except Anna, love her lemon bars. Toni brought donuts back for us from the Cle Elum Bakery, they were SO good. Cousin Julie used to bring bear claws from the Cle Elum Bakery when she would come to visit, so it brought back some good memories.  We were not light on desserts Monday.

Tuesday morning we had thick fog, but it cleared out later in the day. Jaxsen and Kade had basketball practice, Isidro ran Jaxsen in and Dad ran Kade in. Toni ran Kaine home after chores, Anna was up helping do cow chores. We had some left-over lemon bars and mom made apricot cobbler on Tuesday. We were discussing Wednesday options and I told her I would like peppermint. Toni went and got Jaxsen and Toti from practice, then Kade, and they told her the rumor was the substitute bus driver ran over a stop sign.

Good thing Toni was out early to check the cows, they had knocked the fence down around the goosepit and there were calves in the goosepit. She said she was smart and strong enough to get them out on her own, but just barely. Murtaugh checked cows with her and sat on her lap when she got done to tell her what a good job she did. To continue with a great Wednesday, Whiskey’s leg did not look as good Wednesday as it did Monday. Toni gave her another exceed shot. The axle on the little flatbed trailer broke when the men were feeding, so they had to switch everything over to the big flat bed and Red. Wednesday was not the best day of the week.

Thursday was rainy. Emerald had a cute bull calf. The swelling in Whiskey’s knee had gone down and we could see that it was broken. Whiskey has been a great filly, so it was a pretty hard day overall.   Toni had been looking forward to riding her in the spring. Thursday was an emotional roller coaster, with birth and death.

Friday mom and I went in to get haircuts. The kids had a half day of school. Anna ran Eddie the cat in to get spayed, then she ran Kaine and Jaxsen down to get haircuts and her and Kade went and got Mei Lings for everyone for lunch. Friday afternoon we had a family from Prosser stop by and look at the two colts we have left for sale, they decided on Ole Son and were going to pick him up the next day. Toni had a bunch of calls so she didn’t show up until later, after chores. It was the first time I had seen Hottie’s sarcoid in a week, so I made Dad come out and look at it. I think the latest treatment is helping. Dad didn’t think so. I know Toni has been cautiously optimistic and thinks there is a bit of progress. Hottie is on an experimental feed supplement with a topical application every day. We are pretty excited to have her on a program that may have long term impacts.  AND we can’t say enough great things about StableFeed- Mary has been absolutely amazing to work with on this project.  Mary is great about shipping products, so don’t be afraid to check out their website- https://stablefeed.com/

Saturday first thing we checked, and then Frecked Son, aka Ol Son, went to his new home in Prosser. Ben and Kaine worked on the old valley fence, and then Anna and I went up and finished it. Next, we brought the heifers up from circle 7 to get yearling weights on and then move up to the old valley. The Meachams were at basketball all day in Tri Cities, Kade and Jaxsen both had AAU games for the Tri-Cites AAU season. I think Toni is wondering why they are doing AAU again. Both boys had a good game overall.

Sunday Toni came down and the kids, Toni and I got yearling weights and then ran them up to the old valley.  It was great to get another look at these coming yearlings. We only sorted out two for the feeder pen. We can’t say enough good things about this group of heifers other than wow. It has been really hard to select what we are keeping and what we are going to market as replacement females. Every time we look at them we start to second guess ourselves. These heifers are fancy.  We can’t keep them all, so we know we have to sell some, but it would be great if we could strike it rich, buy an additional ranch and just keep them! Ben made lunch for us all to celebrate my birthday, he made bacon wrapped shrimp, meat balls and Dutch oven potatoes. Mom made rolls and three different desserts. Then we hauled the heifers that had just calved up to the Old Valley and the 2 Oreos.  For those of you that don’t know, I got a belted Galloway for my birthday last year that is named Oreo. We kept her at mom and dad’s last year so she wouldn’t get bred with a summer Angus, so Mom started calling them Oreo and chocolate Oreo, now they are collectively referred to as the Oreos. They are also collectively a pain in the butt. They do not like to be herded by vehicles, people, horses, basically they are terrible. And then the other heifers follow them and things go badly, there is cussing. So to save everyone drama and so I don’t have to listen to everyone tell me how I have to sell Oreo, we just hauled her and chocolate oreo up to the new pen. Way easier. And the fat buggers probably liked it better.

I had a great birthday. Thanks for everyone for the well wishes. Of course, my family treated me great, lots of fun, presents, great food.  Probably too much food. Uncle Skip and Marlo came over. The best part about a birthday party is knowing you have lots of people that love you and want the best for you. 

The weather has been cold, foggy, dreary, hard to anticipate spring. I am unsure why we are getting so many calls on breedings but we are. Maybe because people don’t want to be outside, so they are in front of their computers looking at studs? We will be standing King and Tank to the public. Per our normal procedure, we do limit outside breedings to approximately 10 mares.  Pasture breed only. If you want to be on the 2022 list, please let us know soon. We are excited for breeding to start, but this weather needs to get better.

King and Tank are still with Jordan getting ridden.