It is the kids first full week of summer. Toni went to Richland on Monday to visit the gallbladder specialist, so brought the kids, mom and dad back Chinese food for lunch from their favorite Richland spot. And of course this is not a big surprise if you have been around Toni much, or my dad they both do this, she met random people at the restaurant while she waited for the food. One such guy needed to hire an Engineer so Toni is trying to get McKenna to call him. I was very jealous with my protein shake. After lunch dad and Anna took mini (the miniature horse) to Debbie’s to see Derringer (the mini stud). Then they went to Othello to get the Canyon from Deweys, I may or may not have hit a rock and broke the axle. But in my defense, I did not think there were any rocks along the fence line, I was stringing out wire and watching the wire wheel AND Murtaugh (Mur is a dog, FYI) was supposed to be watching for rocks. I hit the rock hard enough Murtaugh either jumped to the floor, because she was scared, and that is what I am going with, OR, option two that Ben likes, she was thrown to the floor by the impact. Whatever it is, Anna and dad picked up the fixed Canyon on Monday. Toni and dad and then Toni and I tried hand breeding Lucy, she seems to think she is in heat, but Leroy does not think she is in heat and she is a kicker.
Tuesday was a beautiful day. When I went to work Jackpot, Freida and the foals were in the alfalfa field, so I texted Anna and she ran down and got them in. They are walking through the circle gates, so we are looking at different options to change those out. Toni and the kids got circle 6 in Tuesday night. Then Toni and the boys started fixing the fence. I went down there after work, now only Jackpot and the two dry mares are down there, all of the mares and foals went home. The boys went up and finished the show cattle chores and then went fishing. Anna went to a basketball game in Connell with her friend Brandi. Toni and I moved the water and moved some horses around. Isidro finally got his hay up in circle 6, it finally dried out enough.
Wednesday was another beautiful day. The circle came back on at mom and dads. The horses like the water running, even when it is not that hot they stand under it. We moved Lucy, the Harder mare, to the corral. She is still kicking, but she seems to like Stetson, so maybe that will work? She is an old virgin mare so has some anxiety. We are really on the tail end of breeding, so there aren’t many mares in the corral for Stetson. Toni is still working on Sam to get her ready for Friday when she gets her first trim. Sam is really coming along. Sometimes foals just need some time to relax and be ready, mentally, to work and want to work. Sam is there. She is engaged and really wanting to be part of the team. Sam is for sale, she is the last yearling that we have marked to sell. She is very fancy, so not a hardship if she doesn’t sell.
Thursday was a busy day. Shadie finally foaled, fancy buckskin roan filly by King, looks a lot like Lendy’s filly. Dad, Anna and Kade took the heifers going to Jr Nationals to Soap Lake to get their feet trimmed. Dad drove up and Anna drove back. Kaine had another football scrimmage, Whitney brought him in for me. They played great. Toni finally had her gallbladder taken out, so she is going to take it easy for a couple of days. The surgery went well and hopefully she can eat good food again. I bought Toni present for finally getting her gallbladder out too.
Friday Chad came out and trimmed horses all day, with the kids. They all had a great time and they got a lot of horses trimmed. They got Sam done so now her hooves look beautiful. And she did really well so the work that was put into her paid off. John brought Butterfly back from getting a rebreed to PD. John is great about helping us to get everything done. When I got home Toni and I hand bred the Harder mare to Stetson, and tried to breed Abs, but she is not in heat. We moved water, etc. The normal stuff.
Saturday was another beautiful day. Kaine went to Camas’ house and they went to the river. Kade came down and Kade and Anna washed their heifers and steers. Dick and Ann from north of Pasco came out, and I took them on the tour so they could see all of the horses. I had forgotten how long the tour takes, it is a solid 2 ½ hours or more. In the afternoon Anna and I went and rolled up wire until chore time. Ben was out working on circles. The little wiper circle in the corn fields was having electrical issues and Eric from Lad had been out, they had been working on it for a few days. Trying to get it on before it got too hot. At chores Toni and I hand bred Lucy, the Harder mare again. Abs is still not in heat. We turned Sam back out with the other yearlings.
Sunday was hot. Kade and Jaxsen came down. Anna, Kaine and Kade washed their jackpotting steers and heifers. Jaxsen and I got the other ones in and Anna was done about then and helped us catch them. They we led them to the wash rack and Anna and Jaxsen washed theirs and then Kaine and Kade washed theirs. They all did really well for their first time to the wash rack. Ben cooked some food for us to take with us to Missouri, then went back out to work on circles. The three older kids cleaned out the trailer and cleaned out some of the tack to get ready to go to Missouri. We sent 2 outside mares home and talked about what other mares are done for the year. We are debating about breeding Shadie, so we will see. We are trying to keep water on in all of the pens so they animals, especially the older ones, can stay cool enough.
We went from winter to summer with no season in between, but I guess that is typical. Looking out at the pasture, seeing all of the foals and how much they are changing is really fun. Somehow, we ended up with a funny guy named Rich. Toni has new terminology for Rich every day: hog (horse/dog), fog (foal/dog), fuppy (foal/puppy)? He is just very entertaining. He has never really cared where his mom is. He will play with any animal or other foal, whether they want to or not. He knows no stranger. His sister, Peanut, was like this too, but not to this extent. Wild, Naughty, Willie and Stormin are also really tame, but Rich is in a category of his own. And Rich is one of the younger ones so his personality has really started to express itself more and more. We are just glad he is a colt so we won’t be tempted to keep him. If anyone wants to come meet him, let us know.
KT Ranch 
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