Sunday night Anna, Ben and I switched off and on getting up all night checking the cows. We had 3 cows calve and two didn’t get up and nurse right away, the cold wind will just suck the spirit right out of them, so we gave them colostrum. Ben is off until January, he has to use up his vacation days, so he gets to check them all day. It snowed through the night, so the kids had a two-hour delay. Anna used that time to check cows with Ben, Kade to practice roping, Kaine to sleep and Jaxsen to catch up on his shows. The main roads were not bad, so I came to work on time. The kids got home and did their chores, Toni worked on The Joker and T, and Joss is getting an additional week to wean her and her sister, and she was mad her sister went out and she did not. I got up and checked Monday night, Anna checked around midnight and Ben checked in the early morning, due to the cold we are checking the calving cows at night. The weather is actually pretty good for calving, there have just been a few days that have been less than ideal.
Tuesday I did not go to work, we were going to a funeral. In the morning Ben and Anna went and checked early, after all night of checking cows due to the cold. We had a number of new calves Monday night/Tuesday morning. Anna went to school and Ben and I ran 338 in the chute and helped her graft calf, he is a char/jersey and could not figure out how to nurse. Then we ran the cows in the smaller calving pen in and tagged the ones that had calved and turned them out. 241 had lost her calf and 541 had twins, so 241 got a new calf on Tuesday. Then it was time for me to get ready, Toni stopped by and picked me up around 11:30, she had picked Kendel up on the way. Kendel and Leslie made a bunch of jello for us to take at the request of the deceased’s family. Glad those two stepped up. We picked up Grandma and Diane at Grandma’s house. Then we all caravaned over. The funeral was really well attended and a lot of great memories were shared. On our way home we stopped and chatted with grandma for about an hr then came home to do chores. I worked on The Joker and Joss and Toni worked on T. Joss was not mad at me, so she must think Toni turned out her sister. Jaxsen started basketball practice. He is the only one playing bb.
Wednesday morning, we had a few more calves during the night. When Ben went out and 3:30 there was a big coyote in with the cows. And the cows are literally right next to our house, we walk out and checked them. We have lots of calves being born, but luckily he spooked the coyote off. Toni worked on the foals, she has to tie Absolute up or she “helps” her with T. That means Absolute nips at Toni, nips at T, and gets in the way. Absolute can be an absolute pain in the butt. She was in getting her eye doctored for months so she has no concept of personal space. And for some reason most of our grulla fillies have had lots of personality. Both Joker and T are doing awesome. Joss is pretty much at a standstill. She is very brainy, but she isn’t ready to realize that she isn’t the boss. Turning her sister out didn’t help. We will win her over, it is just going to take a bit. Sometimes that best thing you can do for foals like this is to turn them out and let them mature. The basics are there- she leads, ties, catches, etc. She just needs to accept that she is not the alpha. Time can work wonders.
It snowed on Thursday, and with weather change new babies seem to be born. Dad hauled the youngest Hereford bull to Connell, Uncle Joe is going to take him, we are unsure about the terms right now, trade for a heifer, money, we take him back, etc. He just needs to be out of here. For those that don’t know, Kicker and Ben do not appreciate the Herefords. As in they don’t like them. They want Angus. This bull happened to also be younger than our other bulls so he was already on their list. We are waiting to see how he looks in the spring. He is a pretty dark red bull. Really a perfect specimen, but we kept a bunch of sisters to him, so we could only use him for one year. Toni, Kaine and Kade wormed the yearling fillies, except for Doll who got by the boys, and the old horses. We had a water leak under a cement pad in the heavy cow pen, so Ben went to Othello and rented a jack hammer and fixed the pipe. It is always interesting to realize that we see Kade and Kaine as kids, but the horses don’t. The yearling fillies did not like the boys trying to help catch them.
Friday the kids had no school, due to all of the snow. So both Toni and I got lots of new pics with our new lens. Ben and Anna went to the Medonca dairy to get a jersey/char heifer for Anna and mom, mom is paying but Anna is doing the labor from what I hear?? While Ben and Anna were gone Kaine and I got the couple of calves in from the heavy pen and tagged the calves and tuned them out. Then we moved all of the heavy cows together, so we could lock the new group in a separate pen. Marlo came to do chores, and Marlo, Kade, Toni and I got pics of T and Absolute. Kaine went to spend the night with his friend Cyson, who was taking him hunting the next day. We got Doll in and got the wormer down her. So we are done at Mom’s getting everything done. We also got some new pictures of the studs at the corral. Hey, they had halters on, might as well get pictures.
Saturday we got the cows in the sorted the new heavy group out. Then they all really started calving, I think we had 15 calves on Saturday. Ben and Anna had to pull one during the night, I seen her on my night check, so when Anna went out at midnight the feet were out and they could see it was backwards. We got some more tagged and turned out. Basically, most of Saturday was making sure the cows were with their own calves. When the red clubby bull was born everyone wanted him, I guess because he was different, so MC01 and her calf got moved. He is a very pretty little red clubby bull. Kaine always gets the first shot at claiming the red clubbies so we will see. We had bought this red cow to breed to a clubby bull so we are excited to see how this goes. We actually have 3 red composite cows to breed to the clubby bull. 710 took her calf up the hill into the snow, that was where she was born in 2017 in a snow drift and I guess she wanted her calf in the same spot. A heifer calved in a mud hole. You know, normally calving stuff. At chores on Saturday Toni, Kade, Kaine and I got new pics of The Joker and Joss. Then we turned them out. We are done halter breaking for a while. Foxxy had a bull calf Saturday night, so Anna was pretty excited about that. Really there are a bunch of exciting calves and these cows are doing a great job
Sunday we had Kaine’s birthday party, Uncle Skip could not come down due to the roads, and he did not have his snow tires on yet. Marlo came out to party with us. MC02 was calving during the party and had a big ol club calf, so we had to go and pull him mid party. We brought Foxxy and her calf in to hang out with her so she was not in by herself. Another big red clubby bull calf, so now Kaine has 2 to chose from. Anna, Kaine, Kade and Camas went out and checked the cows, Kade wanted to see Vixen’s calf. He is a cute one too. Also a clubby, but more Angus than clubby. We did the Christmas pictures Sunday, Camas got to be in them since she was out.
KT Ranch 
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