Monday I was home sick, so as Toni called Monday, she got to do Donkey Monday on her own. And June decided she was done halter breaking since she had the week before off. Skippy and Hitman were super easy she said, Fancy Gun and Dancing Queen were more typical foals. Skippy is super easy as long as you are moving, he has no patience, so he is a lot like his mom. Hitman is just a great colt. Kids were home Monday, so they worked on their show animals and prepared for the Western Showcase. Kaine started to feel sick around midday on Monday.
Tuesday Kaine and I were both home sick, but I started feeling better late afternoon, so went down to help Toni with the foals. Kids were all back at school, except Kaine because he was sick. Kade took Jaxsen down to clip his steer, Bugs, on Tuesday. Toni stayed with grandma Tuesday night, she is still not sleeping great. We bought a shorter gooseneck and a dump trailer on Musser Bros on Tuesday. Super excited about the dump trailer, Kade is super excited about the shorter trailer, he wanted a shorter one to take hoping. And a shorter one will be nice when dad only has one or two bulls to haul. Also, when we take both long trailer to shows, there will still be a trailer home for emergencies. OR the kids will think this means they are taking more to the shows…
If you follow Toni on TikTok, you will see her nephew saga with Kaine, and how her Wednesday morning was. As she was driving home from Grandmas she found Kaine with a flat tire on Hendricks Rd. And it was not just flat, it was toast. But don’t worry, he called me first so I could call him in late to school, then called his dad since he did not have a spare tire. The spare tire was also shady, so he drove the Imposter home and took Butte to school. Kaine’s pickup has been broke down for a while. He replaced the transmission, and the housing was cracked, on the new one. So he has been waiting for the fix on that. I do know if they send a new housing, transmission?? We worked on the foals, Kade cleaned out the gooseneck, Kaine hooked up Butte for dad to take to Palouse to get pellets for the show calves.
Dad has now fallen ill, so he is not going to Palouse to get pellets. I paid for the trailers on Thursday so we can pick them up. I talked with Scott Musser for a bit and held Hank the dog. Scott has a really cool bronze sculpture in his office, the kid is closing a wire gate off his horse with his dog watching. Scott says that looks just like him as a kid. I told him that I was impressed, that means he opened the gate off his horse, got through the wire gate without getting caught up in it, sometimes it is hard enough to not get caught up in those things on foot, and was now closing it. I said most of the time I cannot even close them on foot. That was quite a feat. Toni and Leslie went to the cattlemen’s convention.
On Friday we hauled into Western Showcase for our last show of 2024. For most of the cattle it is their first show. I went early to help set up. Leslie, Traci, Toni, McCall, McKenna, Marlo and the kids all came later. We went to Rock Top for dinner. Kaine had a football game on Friday night, so he did not come up until Saturday morning. I hear he played well. Coco and Shea made it up from CA on Friday and went and watched the game.
Saturday morning was the heifer show and showmanship. It was a long day of showing. Kade and Anna both had their big fall Angus heifers and Anna had the two char heifers that mom, dad and her own. Kade had his Simmental heifer and Kaine had Baby Jewel. All of the heifers did really well and placed well. Savannah and Kayla showed peewee. Jaxsen showed his steer Bugs Bunny in showmanship, and Natalie and Julian were also juniors, they did well. Kaine, Kade and Ady are all intermediates, they all showed great. Anna was our lone senior, and she was Reserve Champion Senior. Good job everyone. Kade was headed to Elko, Nevada on Sunday morning for Rangeland competition, so him and Toni took the heifers home. They got home a bit after 9 pm. Saturday was a crazy long day.
On Sunday was the steer show, we only had two steers, Sylvester, Kaines, and Bug Bunny. Both steers did great, but did not get called back. So we packed up and headed home to do chores. Julian and Natalie both had steers that made it back to the final drive. We got home and got our next group of foals in to halter break. Since Toni was basically on her own, we got some easy ones in and Sackett, who also ended up being easy.
On Monday in Nevada Toni got proof of life from Pooty Dagnon. Kade was looking like he was having a good time. Toni said the foals were all great. Kaine had football practice still, but Jaxsen was home to help do chores, since basketball had not started yet. Monday was the only day I was home.
Tuesday I left at 2:30 to get on a plane and fly to New Mexico. In Nevada Kade was judging rangeland. Toni was working and working on foals at home. Kaine was practicing football and Jaxsen was helping with chores. Kade placed the highest on the Connell FFA Team, we are very proud of him.
Wednesday I was at conferences in New Mexico, except Wednesday morning Thea and I went down to Old Town which was pretty cool. Kade and the Connell FFA team was headed home. Chores went the same as Tuesday. Toni went and stayed with Grandma who did not sleep. She fell down on Tuesday night but luckily didn’t break anything, but it made Wednesday night a real humdinger.
On Thursday Ben and Toni bangs vaccinated heifers with Dr Hank Wisse. Toni and Ben made a list of 16 heifers to sell. It was a hard list to make as we think we have an exceptional set of heifers. However, we kept 70 and we don’t need 70 replacement heifers. We had people come out and look at foals as soon as the Bangs was done. They had too many that they liked. That is a common problem. Then Toni worked on foals.
On Friday Toni had Marlo to help her with chores, so she had her work on the foals to check for stranger danger, they all did great. I flew home then Ben and I raced to Omak to watch Kaine play football. Connell did not beat Omak, but Kaine played great. Kat came and watched Kaine play. And Kaine had a great season. He made the 1st team in the league for Offensive Line and 2nd Team for Defensive Line. We are happy Kaine is done with football as we have way too much work at home. We need everyone to start chipping in. However, Jaxsen is playing basketball now, so he is not chipping in much.
On Saturday we had breakfast with Kat and Todd then drove home. Kade went to work a Red Angus Sale. Toni loaded out Whiskey, the horse, then when I got down there we got some pics, turned out the rest and got new victims in. Ben and Kaine brought down grass hay bales and put them out.
Sunday we started working the calves. It was good to get another look at the calves. We still have way too many good ones but were able to pick out a few more to market. We have Cowy, Whitty, and Stoker in. All super nice foals. So far we have been in love with all the foals. That is a real problem with trying to sell foals and calves. Because we are done with the 2024 cattle show season, many of the calves got to be turned out. None of them are very happy. Especially Queen who doesn’t necessarily want to be in general population.
With cattle shows on hiatus, maybe we can get some stuff done around the place. Except we are going to start calving soon, so that takes up a lot of time too.
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