On Monday Toni was finally back to checking the cows. We had two new calves on Monday. Toni got out and petted the black ballie out of one of our Hereford cows. Kade’s calf out of his old show cow Akie was stalking her. Toni said she was going to claim it, but Kade probably will not let her. Toni got June in on Monday and tied Peep up to June. It was not worthwhile, Peep followed her around. Peep is just really big. She may be the biggest foal we have, but North may be bigger. I told Toni she could not keep all her “pets” she was going to have to pick some to sell. So I think she is agreeing to sell Gold Bug, or maybe it depends on the day. All 3 bottle calves are nursing Goldie, the Jersey/Char, and then Ben supplements whoever is still hungry with a bottle.
Dad and Skip went to Pullman with dad’s car to get it serviced. Toni checked cows, we had two new calves, Toni only got out to pet the one out of the Hereford cow. She tied Gold Bug to June Bug. The heifers, or something, went through the cornfield fence on Tuesday, none of the heifers were out, so maybe it was not them? Ben got the perimeter fence hot Tuesday night, so the heifers could get into the duck pond, but they were still in the corn field. Toni practiced loading Alme so he could go to the vet on Wed. He loaded like it was no big deal even though he had never been loaded before. The sunset was great on Tuesday.
On Wednesday Toni and Skip checked cows. Anna’s cow 041 calved and had a bull calf. Toni got out and petted him. She may try to claim that one too. The pen of bulls had gotten in with the bred heifers so Toni had to run out and get them out. Murtaugh and Miranda were out, so she had Abby, Mur and Ran helping her. Marly and Tipsy were “helping” if you count trying to trip everyone. Then they took Alme to the vet after lunch to get his travel papers to go to Idaho. They loaded June the donkey to travel with Alme, and Alme loaded better than June. Toni worked on Gold Bug and Peeps, both are doing great.
Thursday Toni checked, another new calf. When she checked the heavy heifer, Lord Farquaad decided he was a dog and went with her. Lord Farquaad is the mini colt in with the heavy heifers. Chores were done, foals were worked on. We got an update from the CA contingent on the three we sent down there. Santana is their favorite, but he was our favorite too. Mom would have kept him if we would have let her.
On Friday Toni had to file an emergency motion. When she checked cows one of our old show cows, Sonny, had calved. Another one of the Hereford cows was calving, but hadn’t progressed so she was just on a watch list. The boys all stayed home from school because it was a ½ day so Kaine went with Dad to get meat. Kade tied up the show calves. Jaxsen amused himself. When Kaine got home and checked, the Hereford cow had still not progressed. Kade came home from riding his horse and Kaine and Kade went to get the calving cow in. They got the wrong cow in. Anna came home from college and called Toni to ask why Sonny was in but without her calf. They all went back out, got the right cow in. Ben was home so Anna and Ben pulled the breach calf. The calf was still alive and doing well. Marlo came to help with chores. Marlo and Kade fed while Toni worked on the foals. I stayed with grandma on Friday.
Saturday morning Natalee and Brad came and took Alme to Idaho. He is such a good colt. Ben, Anna and I checked cows, then we took Ben home to help Kaine work on the pickup and Anna and I went out and fixed the corn field fence. Ben and Kaine came out to help right when we were almost done. A bunch of the heifers jumped in with the cows while we were fixing the fence. After Natalee and Brad Toni had people out to look at Ink. Kade and Kaine tied up their Spokane steers and Kade’s Nile heifer. We hauled Dancing Bug to my house, since she was leaving after dark. Toni, Kade and I got pics of Gold Bug and Peeps, even thought they were muddy, and turned them out. We left Alotta, our last foal to halter break, in with June Bug. We also hauled some grass bales down and put them out. Eric showed up about 7:30 and we loaded Dancing Bug. She had to go up a ramp but after some initial concerns about it, she loaded really well. We had Tulip there to keep her company, so we unloaded Tulip before Eric left because no one is getting our Tulip.
Sunday morning we tagged calves first thing. Then Kade hauled Friday and Benelli down and we got the cows and heifers in, to sort the heifers off. Anna, Ben, Kaine, and Kade got all the cows in, sorted the heifers back off and got everyone put back out where they needed to be. The boys pushed the cattle, Anna and Ben had bales and led the cows to the corral. This was the first time Kade sorted cattle on Benelli and she did great. Kade and Benelli are really coming along as a team. Kaine rode Friday that is the Toni/Me horse and he should feel lucky we let him ride her. Toni and I worked on Alotta.
We are really excited to be halter breaking the last of the 2024 foals! It is a great feeling to know we are going to get done before the 2025 foals show up. We will continue to work on them for a few more months, circling back to those that needed more work or are going to ship out. The only way to make a good horse is to breed a good horse then put in time and effort.
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