Monday was a nice day, a little breezy, but according to Toni that is just AC for when you are building fence. Jaxsen, who was our only fence building helper Monday, said it was AC for running. I guess running away from the fencing?? Let’s rewind to Monday morning, no foals, huge disappointment. Toni got out and scratched the newest Hereford calf when she checked, he is a cute little guy. Anna and Kade had a FFA competition after school (hence why we only had Jaxsen to build fence). Interesting side story, when Toni asked Kade and Kaine Sunday night if we should skip building fence Sunday because we were all so tired, and double our fence building Monday, Kade was like yeah we should. When they got home, then he was like, hey I have an FFA competition tomorrow so I won’t be there to help you build fence. Hmmmmmm. Anna was going to bring Kaine and Jaxsen home before they left, however, there was road construction on the way to Connell, so she did not think she would make it. So Toni gathered Anna’s and Kade’s items, and took them in. During chores dad needed Kaine to help with work on the old AC tractor, so it was mainly Toni and Jaxsen doing chores. Toni worked on Sam, who is our newest halter breaking victim. Kaine went up to do the cattle chores, I got home, and Toni, Jaxsen and I went out to plant a few posts. Fast-forward to the AC comment, I said to Jaxsen, I am glad you finally made it out here to help, he said HEY. I said, what is this your 4th time? Toni said he has been out lots, and Jaxsen said YEA, like FIVE times. Yes, I had to pick myself up off the ground from laughing. Anna and Kade did great at the FFA competition. Kade’s CDE team placed 6th, because they ran out of time. Anna placed 1st in overall presentation in Ag Sales, and 6th individually overall, and her team placed 1st in Ag Sales. Both made it to State. Good job Anna and Kade, we are proud of you.
Tuesday we woke up to a little rain, we really need the rain so I am not complaining. However, no new foals. Toni gave the bull calf some more pets. She thinks Noisy, one of Jaxsen’s cows, might be calving. Noisy did calve on Tuesday, she had a cute heifer calf by 811. Toni and the boys built fence and then Kaine and Kade went and helped Anna finish up the show cattle chores. Work continued on Sam who is pretty hot for a Mocha foal. She will be fine for someone that has lots of time to devote to her, but she may go on the for sale page.
Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day. Toni, Ben and Marlo semen checked bulls with Hank. Hank got out of the pick-up with a limp, he had hurt his knee. During the semen checking process, Ben turned around, his knee made a popping sound, and he also hurt his knee. He says it was not out of sympathy for Hank. The bulls all acted pretty good except for the black braford bull. After he tried to run over Toni six times he got banded and is no longer a bull. She is calling him Wreck It Ralph because he was a butthead. When semen checking was done, Toni went to head to Mom and Dad’s and saw that Mocha had foaled. A huge bay with three white socks. That was our first Sagebug colt. We just love Mocha and this colt came out friendly, correct, just right. Ben, Toni, and Anna all went down and saw him and petted on him. Then off to chores, same as everyday.
Thursday Toni had a big hearing to get ready for, so after checking and finding no new babies, she dealt with her real job. Thursday the fencing continued. The digging wasn’t going so well, so they made some decisions on how deep some of the posts were going in based upon how much arm strength they had to get through the Caliche. Sam continues to improve, but is still pretty hot. She is a really stunning filly, so it is disappointing that she isn’t a typical Mocha foal.
Friday Shasta had an awesome dun colt. I was sad he was a colt. He is the color that I love, a black pointed dun. Also a Sagebug foal. So Sagebug is winning on getting his mares bred back the quickest so far. We were 2 people short for chores so Toni had Marlo and Jaxsen, Ben had Anna and Kaine. Marlo got to pet Sam and ride while Jaxsen drove the Polaris to allow her to throw hay off the back. There was lots of yelling. Marlo and Jaxsen bicker, a lot. Toni, Jaxsen, and Marlo got 5 wood posts put in. That left only 2 to go. Wood posts that is. Jaxsen had to pack the wood posts and was really proud of himself.
Saturday was really busy. We shipped out Pistol Pete to his new home. Thanks Ella and Joseph for selecting such a wonderful colt. Next we went and got the cows in, sorted the 2 off that haven’t calved and put them in circle 4. Got some bulls moved around. Got some cows moved around. Tagged a calf. Pulled a calf off of an old cow, so now Anna has a project. Anna and Dad took Apache down to one very happy little girl who needed a pony, Kayla is pretty stoked. The rest of us built fence in the corn field so we could move the big bunch of cows. Then we went and put the last 2 wood posts in. A long day of doing ranch stuff.
Sunday we got our first, and maybe only, Double foal. And our first foal out of Yo. She had a super cute sorrel filly. Dad said it was a keeper as soon as he heard it was a filly. Sunday was crazy busy. We have been working on the fence between 7 and 8 for quite a while, through snow, bad weather, etc. Sunday we got the first two sections of wire up. Putting up the no-climb horse fence is pretty labor intense. We also put up four wood posts per brace section. While we were working, Mom and Dad were heating lunch and their power went out, so we had lukewarm food. Uncle Skip was there so we could have a big family lunch, which included four types of pies. Yes four. All Mom made. Lunch was good then back to work. We got the second section almost done but the post was about a foot too far, so we had to move the one post. Once the second section was up, we all called the fence building done for the weekend. The 2 older kids went with Ben, Jax helped us with horse chores. He was very tired so wasn’t much help. He meandered back in the house. We got some good pictures of Sam, turned her out, then got in the next victim in. Our last raised foal to be halter broke is Fabby. We got her hooked to Tulip and they made it across the driveway great. I was actually able to lead Fabby on day one. She is a pretty cool filly.
With the great weather I am anxious to start breeding. Toni isn’t quite as ready. We are hoping to maybe get a mare or two out this next weekend, but not too many right now.
KT Ranch 
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