Happy birthday Ben, Monday was Ben’s birthday. And he is in the middle of corn harvest, so it was a great one. We actually saw him on his birthday, and there have been harvests we haven’t, so it probably was good. Started on our second group of foals Monday. Mirage and Woody were really good. Shiney Guy could have been better. We are also still working on the four from last week, Playin, Rip, Bee Bug, and South. They are now on the other side of the driveway but easy to get to. We took them each individually on walks in the driveway. They are all really good. Playin is just super big. Jaxsen had football pictures and called his mom from school to tell her, at least he let her know so we can get some.
Tuesday morning Toni and I ran Bee A Bug into Sheena with Baby Rip as a ride-along for company. Both of them did great. Bee A Bug needed a hernia clamp, so a relatively simple process, but a nice ride for the foals. Then Toni helped me load the Nile heifers and bull to go in and get their travel papers with Sheena. Then Toni went to meet Janice Gemma and load up South and get Fooler. We sold Fooler as a foal, Janice found her for sale again and got her for us, and she has been with Janice until Janice picked up South and we exchanged. When we were halter breaking Fooler last fall Kade had really wished we had not sold her, he thought she would make a great roping horse. So I guess we will find out. Janice took really great care of her and she looks amazing. South loaded like the champ that he is. We are sad he is a colt. I would say he was a favorite but pretty much all the foals are favorites the week we are working on them. He was our first foal to leave for 2024! And he went to his new home in his Old Mill halter that Old Mill generously donated for our first 12 foals to leave in 2024. Janice has been a long time buyer and friend so this was a fun goodbye for South. To say that we fall in love with our foals is an understatement. Toni went and picked Bee A Bug and Baby Rip back up from Sheena. Marlo came out and worked on the Evergreen Steers. Woody, Shiney Buy and Mirage did so great they were only on the donkey one day, Toni and I led them on Tuesday. Kade had a rangeland competition on Tuesday and left early and got back late. Toni stayed with grandma Tuesday night.
Julie came out and looked at foals on Wednesday, so Julie and Toni worked on all of them. Jaxsen had a football game so I just did Toni and my feeding when I got there. Jaxsen had a great game. He is on the offensive and defensive line and really loves football. He is the tallest on the 8th grade team and although isn’t “big” he does have some muscle from doing chores and packing 5 gallon buckets full of grain. I do not know what buckets he’s packing, but that is what he tells me his muscles are for. Most of his chores are water related. McCall and Kade worked on the Nile stuff. Kaine got in Kevin for someone to look at on Thursday. Kade’s Simmental heifer got here Wednesday. She is super cute. I got pics of the Evergreen steers Wednesday to post, Ben helped me.
On Thursday we had a super nice little boy come look at Kevin, but it wasn’t quite the fit we are looking for. Ol Kevin needs a pretty confident rider, he isn’t mean he just pulls old horse moves, like, you can’t make me go so I am not going. We met some new people out of the deal, so it was all good. Toni brought the little trailer down and practiced loading Playin since she was leaving on Friday. She was a great loader. Mom went out and helped her and got to meet Playin which is good for Playin. Marlo finished loading all of the tack to take to Ellensburg. Ben got home early and helped her finish up. I went and stayed with grandma, and Jaxsen helped Toni with chores. He was really excited to lead the foals, Mirage is his favorite. He led all of them except Playin and really did a good job. Horses may not be his favorite thing but he was a pretty good sport about it.
On Friday Marlo, Scarlet and I headed to Ellensburg with the three steers that morning. We got up there and got all set up with cousin Bobette. Toni had a big meeting in the morning, then she loaded out Playin to Michelle. We are excited to see what Michelle and her family do with Playin. Toni, Kade and Anna headed up after school and after they did chores. Anna was home before Kade, so she helped Toni lead the foals. Anna hasn’t been around this group of foals that much so Toni had her lead them all so that the foals are exposed to another stranger. Stranger danger is alive and well if you don’t nip it in the bud. Kade volunteered to drive them all to Ellensburg. I heard later that they were debating about who of the three of them has the worst eye sight so I am not sure who should have been driving. That night we had the banquet and Anna was awarded the Williard Wolf scholarship. Willard and Patty Wolf were always a big part of the Hereford industry in the Pacific Northwest, so we knew Willard our entire lives. He was a great guy that helped to establish certified Hereford Beef, bring that product into the Yokes grocery stores, helped get the CaPow Co-Op going, and was a friend to our family and the livestock industry. Having Anna get that scholarship was neat. Kaine had a football game so he did not come. Connell beat Ki-Be 56-6. Jade brought Kaine home for us.
Saturday was the sale, we had lots of people come by and look at the steers. Dad and Aram got up there in the morning so Aram could livestock judge. Toni and I went with Bobbette and Ryan to breakfast while the kids went and got the steers ready for the day. Then Toni and I ran over to Old Mill to look around for a few minutes. While we were there, I found some brightly colored roping reins for our friend Todd who had asked his wife to go buy him new reins. Buying those reins was worth the $14.99 to see the look on his face when I handed them to him. He is pretty easy to get riled up. Totally a great buy. Kade got 2nd in livestock judging so won a sale credit. That, of course, meant that he had to buy a heifer. Anna and Kade had both fallen in love with a couple of the heifers that were being offered. Luckily Kade got a nice heifer from Cole Page that he is super excited about. She is a big fall heifer that is going to be an easy keeper, if you know what I mean. The little girls that bought the steer out of Kade’s show heifer were super excited. They are our cousin’s cousins and are fighting over him. He was Marlos favorite. 425 went to a pig showman that is showing steers for the first time and he was really excited to get him. 402 stayed in Ellensburg, a local girl bought him. Anna and Marlo had done a great job getting the steers ready and they looked great and did great at the sale. Kade and Aram helped some friends of ours a little bit at the sale and we are proud of them for stepping up. Then we packed up and headed home. We had requested that Kaine and Jax do the chores since they weren’t required to come to the sale and they did. It was nice to get home and be able to just take a minute to relax.
On Sunday we moved stallions around so we could wean a pile of foals. We locked MC up in the corral and moved they yearling fillies into his pen, we left 2 old mares over there, Miss Gen and Crystal with her colt Santana. We caught the yearlings and led them over, with all of them doing great except Robin. Robin is a little harder to work with, but we are hoping with a little age and maturity she will come around. The rest of the lot did great. Once we had all the horses moved appropriately, we were able to wean directly into the weaning pen. Sunday was long. We had Jaxsen as our helper. Overall it went really well. While we were weaning Shiney decided to colic so we grabbed her and gave her Immediate Response and Zestera, which are our go tos for early colic. The boys showed up with big bales so those also went out. Once we had all the horses situated, we put halters on Bailey Bug and our orphan filly Chick. They both did great. Our CA steers showed up on Sunday, we were SUPER excited about that. And Keith and his dad came and got their heifers and two of the show steers Anna halter broke left.
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