For a little donkey that didn’t love people when she got here, she has become a great asset as well as a pet.

On Monday we finally got the Conley heifer Kade bought back in the middle of September. We were happy with how she looked and we got to meet a new shipper. Dean Libheart lives in Centralia and goes all over if anyone needs a shipper. Really nice guy. He had some longhorns in the trailer, so Toni tried to buy a heifer for Ben.  Kaine’s football games were postponed to Tuesday, so just practice for everyone after school. Anna, McCall and Ben packed their last few items before they were leaving early on Tuesday for the Nile. They are going to have a good time. I am sad I am not going with them. Anna has her Nile heifer, “Lacy,” 7, 166 and a char heifer. McCall is taking Mayhem, Kaine’s heifer. We are also getting ready for the Western Showcase the beginning of November. Toni and I continued to work on the two colt and two fillies.

Tuesday was a cluster of a day, but did not end up too bad. Ben, McCall and Anna headed out at 12:30 Am to the NILE show in Billings, MT. The got there at around 11:30 MT. They got the char heifer checked in, beds made, and went to the club calf sale with Morgan, who met them there. Toni and mom took Cappy and Absolute to the vet. Absolute had the lavage removed from her eye. She kept her eye and hopefully has some vision in it. Cappy was getting travel papers, he might move to Oregon. Absolute was tired of going to see Sheena, so was not the best to load. Kaine and Kade both had football games, so all of adults left at home divided and conquered. And we hustled to get it done. Mom, Jaxsen and I went to Kaine’s game, the rest went to Kade’s game. Both boys played like the super stars they are. Jaxsen, mom and I ran down and got pizza, per dad’s request, for dinner and then picked Kaine up and went home. During the night Dude got out at Toni’s and ran around the house.

On Wednesday Anna showed the char heifer and her and McCall fit her. She did a great job, the heifer looked awesome, and she showed really well. I would say she was the best behaving heifer in the ring. We were all able to watch on the livefeed. I thought she should have won hands down, however, the judge liked them a little bit more moderate framed. Mini Tank left on Wednesday and took his time loading. However, Kendra said he hauled like a rockstar, exited the trailer gracefully and started grazing. Toni and I worked on the foals, Toni went up and got the trailer and we practiced loading them, they all did great. Boys got home and did chores, the man and boys did the cattle chores.

Thursday early morning Dude started getting out again. So Dude and Leroy got to switch pens. When studs start going through hotwire, you just have to do something different with them. Dude is really easy to get in and seemed to be more interested in the grain he found than anything else.  At the Nile, the Jr show started at one, so Anna, McCall and Ben got up and got them ready. Anna and her team did great, Gamora was a division champion, Lacey won her class and 7 was 4^th in her class. Anna and Lacey showed well in showmanship. Anna had her Nile interview in between showing. I think they got done around 6 Montana time, then still had to wash and feed. McKenna flew in on Thursday. At home, Jaxsen had a BBQ for grid kids. We all pitched in and got chores done. We got a new mare on Thursday, Gracie. Gracie is a great mare and we are excited to get her. We have known Gracie for a few years now and she is one of the sweetest kindest mares out there. She also has a very nice pedigree out of a money earning cutting stud, Cats Stormin Oak.

Happy Birthday Jaxsen! Last year before you are a teenager, the big 1 2. Friday Anna and McCall showed open in the morning. They did not do as well with the open judge as with the Jr judge, however, they both did a great job showing and the heifers looked great. The Nile Merit heifer competition started at 1 with the progeny parade. We also shipped out Dun Bug to a long time buyer, Janice. He loaded amazing and they were loaded and gone quickly. Kaine had a varsity game at Ki Be, I forgot my camera, Kaine was supposed to take it down to moms with him, and he forgot it. So when Jade came out to get the camera we found it missing, so Toni ran to my house and got it.  The Nile Merit Heifer show started, Anna and Lacey won the black Angus class. They were 3rd overall in breeding. The other WA girl, Alyssa Williams, with a Hangin A heifer from Alan Alexander, was Grand champion. We are proud of both of the WA girls. Anna made it back for the final round in showmanship as well.  We are so proud of how well Anna and Lacey did. Thank you 3C on your generous donation. Jaxsen was student of the month, so Toni went to that assembly and picked-up Jax and Kade. Meachams did chores. It rained Friday, Diane and I went to Ki Be to watch Kaine. The weather has been so nice for the football games. It was a great game besides the rain and seasonal temps. Diane, Kaine and I went to Bob’s Burgers after the game. Toni made finger steaks for Jax’s bday so Marlo had dinner with the Meachams.

Jaxsen’s last Grid Kids game was Saturday. They had a good game and he rocked it like normal. After the game, Jaxsen’s two best friends came out for a small bday party. Because boys are boys they mostly ran around and fought each other with sticks.  Kaine and I went and picked up Jessie, Truffles and Nugget at Cecil and Debbies house, all of the minis are back home now. We had someone out looking at bulls on Saturday, so Kaine and I got the bulls in and sorted out the Herefords and older bulls, since they wanted a yearling Angus bull. They picked 204. Toni was then back from football and I took Kaine down to his second homecoming, to Camas’ school. Ben, Anna and McCall were on their way home from the Nile, they picked the Seldom Rest heifers up at Midland Bull Test. The also ran into some snow on the way home. But they made pretty good time.

Sunday Anna left again at 2:30 in the morning to head to FFA Nationals. Ben took her and Brandy to the airport. Our 11 oclock horse pickup got lost, so she was a little late. But Jethro loaded like a champ. We had Jaxsen birthday party at noon, pizza, it was great. Jaxsen got lots of great presents. Both of the afternoon people were also late, however, only one of them was lost. And the lost one we saw drive by, and they went clear around again. We wormed 6 foals while we waited and haltered three. We moved the Conley heifer up with the other show cattle. We quarantined her for the week just in case she got sick from the trip. She didn’t.  After everyone left we notice Molly was laying down, she was one of the six we gave Zimectrin Gold to. So we got some meds down her and we walked her for about an hr. She seemed better, so Toni and I went home. Mom texted at 10:30 she was down again. We went down to give her more meds and Toni told me she could walk her. Well, I found out the next morning that they had walked her all night.  I hear it got decently cold and windy. So Monday morning Molly was in at Sheenas at opening. That saga continues next week.

We are getting really into the halterbreaking. We are probably half done? Maybe less. Tulip has been nothing but exceptional. For a little donkey that didn’t love people when she got here, she has become a great asset as well as a pet. She still doesn’t let Kade catch her, maybe either big boy actually. Toni forgets Tulip doesn’t let him catch her, so sent him out to grab her the other day, Tulip ran off. We called Tulip over and she ran right to us and in the gate. Tulip is very amusing.

We are down to having 9 foals left for sale. We always find it interesting which foals don’t sell right away. Some that we think should sell quickly don’t. Others that we think might take longer to sell, don’t. We think all of the foals have been exceptional. I challenged Toni with telling me a foal she doesn’t like, she can’t. She has also wanted to keep all of them. It has been hard getting her to agree to sell anything. The colts are a little easier to sell since we don’t like riding geldings. The fillies have been like pulling teeth. And now that we are halterbreaking them, it has been extra hard because you get to see their personalities. These foals are just so nice. So if you see one you like and want to hear everything bad about it in an effort to get you not to buy, call Toni, she will tell you all bad things. Take them with a grain of salt.