April showers bring May grass. Yes the saying is April showers bring May flowers but ranchers care way more about grass than flowers.

Monday was an interesting day to say the least. Blackie had a beautiful filly that had some mystery punctures on her right leg. They look like a dog bit her, but no one can figure out how that could have happened. Toni had court then went down and mom and Toni got her moved into the shed. Dad went to fertilize the pasture, his old tractor broke down, so dad and Toni went up and got the Case, and he used that. But then the fertilizer spreader broke down. Toni felt like she was down there most of the day and was not productive getting her work done.  Coco and Shea made it up from CA on Monday to see everyone and Coco could finish packing up her house. Shea had a great time doing chores with us. Coco jinxed us and said we had not had any red colts yet, we got out to the desert and guess what, Lola had a red colt. He is a bright red flashy red colt. When we got back from checking the mares in the desert there was a pole down on the driveway, so we popped that up. All 4 kids worked on their steers, and Anna worked on her heifers as well.  Anna is headed to Reno next week to show her heifer and compete for the Western Angus Queen title. We know she will do a great job, but all four states will be sending really great girls for the coveted title.

Tuesday morning Rosie B had a cute bay roan filly. As it was the Twins’ b-day, they got to name the filly. When Toni was checking cows she saw a pair of eagles nesting across the ditch on some USBR ground. Toni went and got Shea from Kendel when she got back and Jaxsen got to watch her when he got home. Coco, Shea, Toni and I went out to check horses. Toni is teaching her horse colors so she can go to preschool knowing her colors. You know, red is sorrel- no such thing as white, only gray. Good thing Shea isn’t old enough to really be corrupted yet.

Wednesday the kids had a half day of school and we had parent teacher conferences. Toni went out to see grandma in-between conferences and grandma wants to see Leo. Mom and dad went to Wilbur to take bulls to Dan, Rusanne and Seth Wagner. Toni and mom fed the mares since I was at conferences. Toni also put in another post on the hill.

                Thursday we got a skidsteer on tracks to help us with the Russian Olive Tree battle. The boys are really excited about it. Toni, Anna, Kaine, Kade and Jaxsen went to farm fair to help set up the Cattlemens booth, then went and got groceries for the cattle shows and then went to lunch. Then they went back to Farm Fair and picked up Shea from Coco. Jaxsen watched her for a while and then Anna watched her. She did not nap, so Coco and Shea did not check horses with us since Coco was trying to get her to nap. Bailey had a cute colt on Thursday, his name is Bailey Bug after Toni and Kicker’s niece who shares the same birthday. Toni and I turned Lightening Bug and Freida out of Jackpot’s pen and put Cinder in.

Friday dad used the Case and harrowed the pastures again. Toni helped him get in through the gates. While she was waiting, she worked on the hill fence for a bit. She was supposed to have a trial Friday but it got moved again. This trial has been moved 4 times I think? Toni is pretty annoyed about it. Marlo came to do chores and her and Toni went and checked, BB had a cute buckskin, possibly buckskin roan filly by King.

Saturday we got up early to get to work on fencing. It was April Fools day and Shorty foaled and had a cute little fooler. We got the bulls in and sorted Vern’s bull out so he could pick him up. Kade went to shooting practice then they went and got the skidsteer and got it running and out moving trees. Ben worked on fence and went and picked up the 5th wheel. The rest of the kids worked on their steers and heifers. Kade worked on his as well when he got home. Toni, Kaine, Jaxsen and I, and later Anna, Kade and Shea, worked on the fence on the bottom of circle 5 and 6. We had way too much fence work to do. We had to rebuild braces, restring wire, really almost a compete redo. We think we made it better. Kaine and Jax were really good help. We also cleaned up all of the old fence and boards that were down there and buried the jump wire part way across. The area that we were really having to do the most work in was very very rocky, so there were some real challenges. We also encountered wind, rain, hail, sun, then repeat the cycle. We decided to bring all of the mares in out of the desert once the fence was fixed so we would have less to do on Sunday. For some reason they missed their normal gate. Luckily Ben was down checking out our work and was able to get the gates open and let the mares in through the new gates. I drove over a rock trying to get the mares to go the right way and ruined my tire so had to walk back to the desert. Then we worked on the fence at the bottom of circle 6. Same weather- hail, rain, wind, sun, repeat. Once we got those fencing projects done we went back to get chores done.

Sunday the kids continued to work on heifers and steers and Kade had shooting in the afternoon. We got the Hereford cows and riding horses in off of the corn field. Ben and Anna rolled up the wire and the men and Anna picked up posts. Toni and I went to circle 5 and got all of the mares in. There were only 20, so they fit pretty good in the corral. Then we sorted and took the 4 red pairs down to the desert, the 2 crème pairs to Sagebug, and Shorty pair to Tank.  Toni and I moved Gunner and his mares to the desert, then went and got Rosie B and Revel from Mom’s and hauled them out as well. So Gunner has 10 mares.  It hailed on us, rained on us, the wind blew. Camas came over and asked Kaine to Sadies. Spoiler- he said yes.

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