Monthly Archives: April 2024

The kids had one more day of spring break on Monday(for Teacher in-service day). Jaxsen informed me Sunday he would like this to be his day, and he does not want to waste it working. I told him I did not want him wasting it doing nothing. So…a little bit of both happened. Maybe more in his favor since I had to go to work. The air strike happened on the Russian Olive trees at little past 8. Toni and the kids barely had the cows out in time.  The cows were overall cooperative, so that was good. Toni stayed and watched the helicopter for most of the time he sprayed to make sure the cattle stayed in. Anna and Kaine took his pickup into Deweys to get the leaf springs fixed. Anna continued to get ready for Reno. Kat brought Kady’s heifer down for Anna to clip, and spent the night, so we left from our house on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning before the sun, Kat, Anna and I headed to Reno for the Western Regional Angus show. We left at around 5:30 and got there around 4:30. Dad took Glo to Jordans to get a good start on her.  Toni had her stolen child again to check cows, etc. Toni had court on Tuesday as well. Also on Tuesday we bought a fall heifer from Seldom Rest, we are super excited to get her. Kade put some rides on Holly and Gucci, which are two of his favorite of the two year olds. He pretty much likes them all but Wild because Wild is too big. She is big. Toni had meetings Tuesday night so Kade didn’t get to ride as much as he wanted.

Wednesday in Reno we slept in to 6, since we do not show on Wednesday. Anna and Kat washed heifers, I made the bed and got everything set up. Then Kat went and got Kady from the airport. There was livestock judging on Wednesday, Kady got 10^th, good job Kady. Toni was super busy at home. Benelli foaled and Abs took it, so Toni got them in. She went out to check in the pasture and Yo had foaled and the foal looked like she had fallen in a circle track, but had gotten out, so she brought them in. Then she had to hurry home for court. That night when the boys were feeding Bailiey had foaled, Toni also had to get them in, Bailey had not cleaned. In situations were the foals have had some trauma, we go ahead and give those foals a colostrum supplement just to be on the safe side. We use Nursemate ASAP the majority of the time. Toni also used Right Start Plus on one of them because we had it. All three foals were out of buckskin mares so Toni is anti buckskin mares.

On Thursday we only got up a little earlier since the girls did not show until 1. Both did great in showmanship, Kady got a call back. Toni had more foals on Thursday, Butterfly had a beautiful palomino filly by Tank. Toni and dad moved Yo and Bailey over to the heavy pen. Woody, the Leroy colt out of Kandy Kane, was helping her, or being in the way, however you want to put it.  Revel was acting off and had wax so Toni went and checked her a couple of times. She was way down in the corner. When Toni and Kade went out at chore time to bring Revel in, Revel had a big dunskin colt that was just getting up so they left the pair out in the pasture. Toni went to Grandma’s Thursday night.

On Friday we got up early in Reno since Kady was in class 1 with her PGS heifer. They did great and won their division. Blondie was in Bred and owned, and she was reserve champion in her division. Devo (Anna heifer) and Missy (Kady heifer) were in the same April class, and they stood well in their class and showed great. Allison Trimble Paparoa lost Cue Bars Laddie on Friday, he is the sire to Gunner. He was 28 years old. Gunner must have heard the news, because he came through the dessert to the house on Friday and dad and Toni had to push him back down. Marlo came to help with chores. Kade worked on the two year olds on Friday. Toni, Kade, and Marlo ran over to the Central Washington Livestock sale to look at horses but not much was there on Friday night. Kaine’s class went to Mr St Helens on Friday, they left at 4:30 in the morning and did not get home until midnight. It looks like Kaine had a lot of fun.

Another early morning in Reno on Saturday for the ROV (open show). Kady had to fly back to South Dakota Saturday morning, so she helped wash the heifers and then Kat took Kady to the airport. I got Missy ready for Kat, and Kat showed her in the ROV show. Kat has never shown before, just watched her kids show for 20 + years, so this was her first time. Her and Missy did great. Anna showed Devo in the same class, and Blondie was later in the December class. Leslie took Kaine, Julian and Ady to the Davenport show on Saturday. They all did great, especially Ady. Ady was 5^th overall in market and Ady was 6^th overall intermediate showman. Kaine made it back to the final round in showmanship. Toni and Jaxsen moved horses on Saturday and built fence. They had about 30 head to move around. Ben worked around the house with the rental equipment. Kade had a trap shoot in the morning then him and dad went to the Moses Lake horse sale, we sent one, Voodoo, and dad and Kade came back with two…

On Sunday we got up at 4:30 again in Reno and headed home. We had snow, rain, sun, wind all on the drive home. Erina and Terry came out to see Katana’s filly, and the rest of them and pet Almond. They also got to see Piper D’s brand new red dun colt, that I named Hit the Jackpot and Toni wants to call Hitman. Piper D wasn’t happy with all the extra people so Toni gave that colt some Nursemate ASAP as well. We really go through the stuff.   Kaine and Ben worked with the big equipment moving dirt. Then they brought big bales down to put out. Toni and the boys continued building fence in circle 6 to turn Tank out.  It was a good, productive weekend.

This week was our first truly spring like weather and we got a taste of leaving our coats on the fence posts. We have all the studs out now except Tank. Gunner has his final group of mares for this year. The other studs we can move mares in and out. We have quite a few in with MC to see what he is going to do. We are really excited about the foals we have on the ground. So much absolute quality. It is hard to make decisions on which ones to keep. We really want to keep them all.