I can’t believe that summer is already coming to an end.

Monday proved to be an interesting August day. We woke up to the rain pouring so hard on the way to work that you could barely see through it and thunder and lighting storms. Power outages, pumps going off, fires around from the lighting strikes. But it made for a cooler evening for the 4H meeting that night. Anna took her little bull over that she is going to show at the NILE. The rest of the kids took their “bad” steers.  Meaning Jaxsen took his Angus Loki, and Kade and Kaine took their char steers. At this point all of the kids steers have been to a show and are ready to roll. There were some FFA kids there that had not been to a show. McCall ran the meeting and Whitney and Toni assisted. The meeting went long so that everyone had a chance to get their steers out and moving. Some of the steers need more work, some need more weight, some just need more everything, but the fair is coming up and these kids have all worked hard and will have a good time. All the adults enjoyed the get together.

Tuesday morning I took Kaine to Moses Lake to get his Ag Permit. We were in and out pretty fast. Toni to Kade to Tri Cities, to get brackets put on his teeth, then teeth pulled then braces. Poor kid. But don’t worry, he still practiced roping. You won’t be a good roper if you can’t rope through the pain. Mom went and stayed with grandma on Tuesday. Dad did not harvest Monday or Tuesday due to the rain. So Jax went with Dad to the tri-cities where dad bought him brunch. Jax proceeded to try to eat an entire chicken fried steak with all the sides. Unclear what Dad got because everyone was amazed that Jax thought he could eat that much. He did not get it eaten. He was so full the rest of the day he couldn’t do much and maybe was a bit sick. The men fixed circles Tuesday evening. Anna found some dogs on the road, cute little ones, a mom dog and her puppy. So Toni and I spent most of Tuesday night driving around trying to find their owners. The general consensus was from the people that we talked to that the dogs had been dropped off and people had seen them around. We found out that some friends had to put their old dog down that day, so we took the little found dogs to them for their kids. Good deed of the day done. The parents maybe weren’t too happy with us, but friends are friends.

On Wednesday morning Toni and Kicker ran two loads of cows to Moses Lake. They made it back in record time. We haven’t taken cattle to Moses Lake’s sale yard before, but the people there unloading were nice and it is way closer than Toppenish. Lets just hope the prices are similar. Anna went to Tri Cities to get the meat at Bryans. She took her friend Josie with her and they got milkshakes for lunch.  I had a skin appt midday. Toni stayed at grandmas that night.  Toni did most of chores, so I just moved the water and played with the foals. The kids are working on their show animals, and have started halter breaking some for next year.

On Thursday after washing steers and heifers, Kade convinced Jaxsen to pull the roping dummy for him. There was way too much negotiation considering all that Kade does for Jaxsen and finally Toni had to tell Jaxsen to get his butt outside and drive the 4-wheeler around. Jaxsen would only agree to 30 minutes and set his timer. Kade wasn’t too impressed with his horse and Slick is pretty unimpressed with Kade. Slick doesn’t want to be a roping horse at 18 years old. Kade decided he needed a new horse between his old horse and his young horse. Our hay got swathed on Thursday. And we had people come out to look at the horses on their way to the Okanagan stampede. They had come to look at a few foals but Toni gave them a tour and they looked at all the foals and the yearlings.

On Friday the kids, mom and I all got haircuts. I went out and fixed fence after and got some pics of the calves. The kids washed steers and then I got pics of Kade and Anna to upload for the show. I used show pics if we had a good side shot. I went and stayed with grandma Friday night and Toni and Kade rode. Kade was still not eating due to the braces and the pulled teeth, but he needed to get his riding time in.

Saturday Anna and Kade went to WSU meats judging. They left at 4:30 am.  Ben and Kaine started tattooing the bull calves. I helped when I got home. At chore time mom’s cow Libby was down by the gate and dad has been wanting us to put her in the alley to eat down the weeds. Well we just let her out the gate thinking she would stop in the alley to eat weeds while we shut the gates. Nope, she took off to find friends. We ended up clear down by circle 5 and had to lead her all the way back home. It was not the best laid plan. She ran over people, ran into the 4-wheeler, hid in the corn, overall proved that having a pet cow isn’t ideal.

Lane came down on Sunday. Anna and Ben got up early and finished tattooing the calves that were weaned. Kade and Jaxsen came down early to wash their steers, Kade and Toni were headed to Dayton to get Electra, she is Jag’s full sister by Double and out of Tuffy, she has been roped off of, but not ridden in a year, so Kade was getting her to try roping off of. They also picked up Nugget from Jeannie. Marlo came down and we went out and got some pics of the heifer calves and then went down to do chores. Toni had some Sr pic plans, she was not home by 5:30, the planned start time, so we were instructed to start. She got there after the first costume change. She had some great ideas and they turned out really well.  Anna also needed pictures for the final AQHA Youth project, so the pictures killed 2 birds with 1 stone. Anna has put in a ton of time with her yearling, Gunnie, so we are hopeful that she does well in the program. The program deadline is coming up for anyone that wants to apply. We know of one great kid applying this year, but anyone can apply.

This was our last full weekend home of summer vacation. Next weekend we go into the BF Fair for setup. I can’t believe that summer is already coming to an end. On a positive note, for anyone that wants to support the kids, they will be selling steers at BF Fair on Aug 25, CBJLS on Sept 9, and Othello on Sept 16. OR if someone wants to support local kids but doesn’t want to buy an animal you can donate to the North Franklin Livestock Booster- they are all set up and ready to support kids at the fair this year. Checks go to NFLB c/o Christine Jenks, 2543 Rangeview Rd, Othello, WA 99344.