Monday we were all still tired but back to work and school. Toni had meetings and calls all day since she was at the fair half of the week before. She took the morning off to run Kade to the chiropractor to get his shoulder popped back in. Kade said it was instant relief. He was a new man and ready to roll. Kaine and Kade had a football game, we found out Kaine was playing at 4:30, so I was not prepared to go in. Kicker went down and did chores and Ben and Anna brought my camera down. The boys played a good game, against a much bigger school, and were tied and lost in overtime. One poor boy on our team broke his leg. Kade re-injured his shoulder, seems like the chiropractor isn’t going to fix it this time.
Tuesday Toni had some big meetings. I had regular work. After school Toni, Kaine, Kade and Anna hauled the steers into the Othello Fair, and met Leslie, Traci, Juju, Natalie and Ady in there. Jaxsen and I did chores and then I met them in there. All our steers weighed in great and were settled in when I got there. The heifers did great as well. Most are old pros at this fair deal, but Anna had Blondie, her show heifer for next year. It was Blondie’s first fair and first real exposure to tiny humans. Vanna and Kayla know no fear so we stuck Blondie in between a couple of pretty steady heifers so she could just be calm. Othello is always an interesting fair, lots of steers that didn’t get worked on or were too light for other fairs. There were some pretty good quality steers as well. Numbers were exceptionally high. 57 steers so the barns were way too crowded. Normally we have our tack in the barn, but not this year, so we had to commandeer the benches outside the barn for our sitting area. We talked to lots of people. The 4-H club (along with our open cattle) had 16 head I think. The benefits of Othello fair: $2.00 soft serve ice cream right outside of our barn; pig ears with honey butter, which far exceed the plain elephant ear; camping within walking distance. Is the last fair the best fair? Strong opinions on it. Always a topic of debate.
Wednesday we had market, all the steers showed great. Everyone was 1nd to 3rd in their class, so Kaine, Aram, Natalie and Anna made it to the championship round. All the steers acted great. We had breeding class immediately after, Kade’s fall heifer was the supreme champion 4H heifer. Mayhem was the supreme champion FFA heifer and Kasen heifer was the supreme champion open heifer. Then we had an impromptu pee wee class that afternoon with Logan Kniveton. We used Kade’s heifer for Logan, she is just way too sweet and kind. Maybe not the greatest show heifer of all time, but great for beginners. Roxette is a kind and soft heifer. Kelten took the boys to football practice, and that night we had football alley between the campers. Lots of different kids playing lots of different football games, it was amazing no one was tackled. Kade was still injured and not having any luck with the shoulder. Lots of pain. He couldn’t lift his arm up very much. The men did chores for us so we did not have to go home.
On Thursday we had showmanship. FFA was first, Kaine showed Mayhem and Aram had his steer Tank. Kaine was Grand Champion FFA I and Aram was Reserve Champion FFA I. Anna was reserve champion 4H Sr, Kade made it back, but his heifer quit on him and his arm was an issue, Anna’s basically did to at the end, but she made it to the final round before she got pushy. Ady and Julian all made it back to the Intermediate championship round. And lastly, Natalie was grand champion 4H junior. So we had two kids coming back to the round robin on Friday, and Lane, Anna’s boyfriend was coming back in FFA II division. We claim Lane was one of our kids. Another development at Othello was we added a kid to our clan. Miguel, a friend of a friend, was showing for his first time and was in the goat barn. This required Toni, Anna, and Marlo to learn about goats but they did. We had Miguel with us much of the week. He fit right in, is a great kid and we are happy to have him. I went home that night and Jaxsen and I did chores. Kelten took Kaine to football practice. Kade did not go because she shoulder was hurting him too badly.
Friday was the round robin, I was at work. Also livestock judging, which the kids all are required to participate in and Connell 1 was second- that is our kids. The kids all did great in the round robin, except Kaine let his lamb go once and he maybe should work on his horse showing skills. But Toni says Kaine did the best of everyone on horse showing and she did watch him, so maybe she knows. Lane, Natalie and Kaine were all in the round robin. Lane won FFA I. Jim Shattuck then took the football boys, Kaine, Hardy and Kelten, to Bonners Ferry to play football. Connell beat Bonners 54-0. Kade, Aram and Adrian took the medium kids and Savannah to the rodeo. Aram brought them back and the bigs stayed up there. They had a great time, one of the bulls jumped into the beer gardens. Us 4 adults took Kayla to get mini donuts and play with legos in the 4H barn. The medium kids and Vanna came back about 10. The big kids came back about 11:30, and Kaine got back from Bonners about 1:30. We had to wake up and Toni had to get the door open 3 times that night, so our rest was not restful.
Saturday was the sale, but steers were last, so they sold at around 5. So we got up and washed, fed and got ready for the day. The steer sale was good. Thank you to our 2023 Othello Fair Buyers, K&L Spraying, Barry Automotive and Simplot. We also watched Miguel sell his goat, which was amazing. Miguel was the sole survivor of a fishing accident which took his dad and two brothers. When the auctioneer (Thank you Booker Auction) told Miguel’s story, our community outpouring was truly breathtaking. We are so lucky to be in this community and at times like the sale, the support, just the overall kindness and caring, it really brings it home.
Sunday morning we loaded up steers and then packed up our stuff and heifers and headed home. Chad came out at noon to trim horses and shoe Kade’s roping horse Electra. Anna’s Nile heifers got out while Ben was in helping us pack up. We noticed when we were getting them in we had a couple of cows with foot rot. So we got them all in and just weaned the calves and doctored the cows and turned the cows back out, and the 5 late calves. Bunny’s feet were trimmed so I ran her over to the neighbors until they get tired of her. We also moved Gen up to Toni’s for Kade to rope on and Slick down to my house. We ended Sunday pretty late, but very productive. Especially on fair fumes.
We leave for the fair season in the summer and come home in the fall. With Othello that is especially true, it is really fall when we come home. Early sundown, cooler, sweatshirts, and weaning. With this week, we have the majority of the calves weaned and next week we start on the foals. Fall is always a heavy workload season, but it is also fun to start working these foals.
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