It feels like a slow foaling year but I think every year feels slow when you are in a hurry to see what you get.

know everyone complains about losing an hr of sleep, but I would do it every day if it meant I had an extra hr of daylight when I got home from work. At school it was drive your tractor to school day, since none of us are taking the tractors in for the kids to drive, Kaine and Kade found friends they could ride with. Kaine rode with Maxx and Kade rode with Cyson. And Cyson’s mom Jarra sent us pictures. Thank you Jarra. Anna was in the golf cart in the front since she is the FFA president. Dad went to Tri Cities and picked up Anna’s glasses. Hank texted and set up the bull semen test day for Wednesday afternoon. It was rainy Monday night when we did chores and fed the mares.

Tuesday was a pretty normal day. Toni was trying to get to the FCC meeting, but needed to try to load Summer to get ready to leave.  She took the trailer down and took Libby out to the field to try and mother up to the heifer that is still out in the cattails with a hurt leg. Then she tried to load Summer, but the trailer floor in the red trailer is so slick.  So Summer tried, and progress was made, but no actual loading.  After everything, Toni gave up on the meeting.  We did have helpers checking the mares. Our boy Coffee let everyone pet him. Toni was still calling him Black Rifle, but the three kids we picked up on the road and I convinced her he should definitely be called Coffee. Their mom has a mobile coffee van, 509 Coffee if you need a coffee at your event, and she is magnificent.

Wednesday Shiney foaled and had a beautiful red dun colt, named KT Foreal Sage Shines. Anna calls him For Real, I call him Four, I think Toni said she was calling him Reals. He is a sweet boy like Coffee. Hank came out and semen tested bulls with Toni and Ben. Leo laid on the pickup dash in the sun. Jordan sent a pic of cappy and how much he likes him. Our good friend Joss came out and brought her mare, Gin, and traded her for Summer. So we got Summer loaded up. Then Joss drove around with us and looked at mares and of course, had to pet Coffee.

Thursday dad took old Red to Reardan and got a couple totes of feed. The men unloaded it with the White when he got home. Chores were pretty normal. We still have the Judge in and working on him, inclusive on trying to remove all of his winter hair. He was doing really well being alone in the working pen.

Friday was a hectic day. Kaine and Anna went to Pullman for a FFA Meats judging class all day, they were home late. Kade went to Moses Lake for an FFA competition, his team got second. Jaxsen had to go into school at normal time, but he was the only one, everyone else had to be there early. Dad and Steve went to Moxee to deliver a bull. Toni had court all day in Yakima. Marlo came out and helped with Kade with chores. Her and Toni worked with the Judge then I got there and we went out and checked the mares and foals and Marlo got to pet Coffee. So Coffee had three days in a row of getting petted by random people. And he loved it!

Saturday morning Kade had shooting. Ben and Anna rolled up fence and pulled out posts. I got the Angus cows out from with the Hereford cows. Toni went and took care of stuff at mom and dad’s so they could leave for Pendleton. Then Toni, the kids and I went to Connell for the birthday party, while the men continued to roll up fence. It was the Feb – May birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun. Then we got home and started moving horses around. We took The Judge’s blanket off and got pics and video of him, and pics of Wild and King 2. Toni and Kade rode out to see if they could find the heifer. Toni rode in her new saddle and Kade rode the new horse. I moved some horses around while they were gone. Rudy across the road, Shadie in with King. Toni and Kade got back and we put Blue and Bell in with Annie, Dally in with Tank, Lightening in with Jackpot. Then we did chores and checked the mares. Mom and Dad went to see Little Texas in Pendleton, so we took care of the dogs as well.

Sunday morning when Toni went down to do the dog chores, she saw that Lona was having issues foaling. So she called and Ben and I raced down and we helped her pull Lona foal. Then Toni and Ben went down to look at Double, he did something to his tongue we think. I took Sammy for a walk while they did this. Then we went home and sorted the bulls since we had someone coming to look at them. She bought M118. Then we started moving horses again while the men rolled up fence and the kids washed their steers and heifers. We put Mocha in with Leroy, so that we could have Coffee by the house.  We got all of the desert mares in and sorted and worked all the open mares and the mares with foals. We had a long Sunday. We got mares put out with all of the studs except Double and Dude. So we are officially started the 2023 breeding season.

It feels like a slow foaling year but I think every year feels slow when you are in a hurry to see what you get. So far we only have 1 filly and 4 colts, but that is good because we don’t normally keep colts so that keeps the squabbling on who to keep at a minimum.