Had a great ending of 2023 and amazing entry into 2024.

Merry Christmas Monday, we had two new calves in the morning before we went to mom and dads. Then we opened presents and stockings and ate a great breakfast mom made.  She made caramel rolls, blueberry french toast casserole, and an egg, sausage, and cheese casserole. We all did our best to show our appreciation of her magnificent cooking skills by overeating to the point of the food sweats. We went home and Ben and mom made us lunch, Erina and Terry came down and it was great. We played some games before Terry and Erina went home. Then Kaine and I moved Midnight Cat up to Toni’s house and picked up her dogs and went and did horse chores, Ben and Anna started cow chores. Kaine went up and helped them finish. I helped dad sync his fit bit to his phone. We all had a great Christmas. We are always so thankful for the things that don’t have a price- our family, our loyalty, our ranch. The things that really matter. And we all got some really great gifts on top of that.

On Tuesday Kaine and Ben put big bales out. Anna and Ben checked cows, they tagged calves, cleaned up mud, etc. Dad said Kaine almost took out the fence it was so muddy. We had a group stop on their way to Northern Idaho to look at a couple of colts, Anna got to show them since she was the one that was home. Lucky her. Toni went shopping with her in-laws. She found a cute second-hand store that had lots of designer jeans in Lewiston. She got some Miss Mes for $30.00. I hear she got me some birthday stuff too.

On Wednesday Kaine went hunting with Cyson, they had a really good day, the group got 13 birds. Anna and Ben checked and tagged, there were 6 new calves on Wednesday including two clubbies. They also cleaned the calved heifers out of the heavy heifer pen and tagged those calves. So lots of tagging. And they took Tiny Cat and her 4 kittens in to get fixed. Turns out Ol Son got spayed and not neutered. 

On Thursday dad, Toni and Kade took King down to Jordan for a fresher before we put in the Billings Sale. Toni also got a used roping dummy from Musser Bros for cheap and they picked it up. Mom and dad’s banter back and forth about throwing “him” in the trailer, Kade roped and drug it, etc, I did not know if they were talking about the roping dummy?? King walked in the trailer like an adult. So now mom might be off of selling him. The roping dummy needed some new wiring, but Kade is excited. Kaine went to Othello to get gluten free box from Cow Path Bakery for the Annual Block 11 Christmas Party with the Nists. Kaine’s show heifer Mayhem calved, Ben had told everyone all year she was calving in November and was bred to a Hereford, but she had an Angus bull calf in December. Toni and Kade haltered Ink and Bellini. Bellini had cut her eye, so they had to catch them to start doctoring her. Kade also decided to ride Midnight Cat. We are still trying out barn names for him. Midnight, Cat, MC?  We had a great time at our annual party and got to see all the babies, Havi, Harlow and Ford.

Friday was foggy on the drive to work. Anna’s show heifer Gamora calved and had a heifer. Kaine was working on his pickup and texting me about things he wanted to buy.  Kade rode MC again and he did pretty good. The Nists all came down to ride Gracie and pet Libby. The horses all loved the babies and all of the fresh humans that they could bully to pet them. Breezy was especially aggressive about making sure she got the most attention.  Toni and Kade have also been riding Stormy and Electra out and about to get Stormy more miles.  Mom went and stayed with grandma on Friday. Toni went Friday night. Marlo came out and helped the boys with chores.

On Saturday we got yearling weights on the bulls, checked cows, etc. We worked on Ink and Queenie Bellini. We caught Tulip and made her wear some bells, a bow, and some big red decorative bells for a picture. She was not impressed. Very angry in fact. After the humiliating picture, then she got to drag Bellini around a bit. Both Bellini and Ink are doing really well. Especially for how muddy it is. Ben had put a big straw bale in the round pen, so it is much better in there, but only there. Everywhere else is still a muddy mess.  I went and stayed with grandma on Saturday.

Happy New Years Eve. We were going to get heifer yearling weights, but they are out on the alfalfa and the fog was so thick we did not know if we would find them all. Kaine and Ben went down and worked on mom and dad’s dryer vent, they thought it was plugged, but it turns out the roofers covered it up. So now it is working. It ended up being a most of the day project instead of a couple of hours project. Lane came over to spend the day with the family. We went over to BB for New Years Eve like we do most years. We played games, ate lots of food, saw the fam. Overall had a great ending of 2023 and amazing entry into 2024.

We are really excited about the changes we are implementing to our breeding program. Nothing super extreme, just bringing a new stud in. We are still committed to good using horses and hope that MC will help us continue to breed the quality and kind that we can stand behind. Selling King and Jackpot has been bittersweet as we think they are both amazing horses. But when you have as many related horses as we do, sometimes hard decisions have to be made. We are excited to see how King does in the Billings Online Only sale Jan 16-18. Please help us spread the word that he is available. Here is the link: https://www.billingslivestock.com/horse-sale/january-timed-online-kt-king-of-blue/