This was a pretty hit and miss kind of a week.

Monday was amazing and it felt like a spring day. We had purchased a little mare in Texas that is out of a Metallic Cat son, Hight Cost of Metal who stands at OSU and a Shiner Named Sioux bred mare. She was delivered Monday. She is a nice mare, we were really happy Toni found her. And we found a great deal on shipping from someone that was coming up anyway. We didn’t realize that the haulers trailer was too long to fit in the driveway so they ended up going to my house, Toni took her off that trailer, jumped her on one of our trailers that is hooked up and hauled her back to Mom’s. She isn’t very big so we put her out with the yearlings for the time being. We fed horses. Toni stayed with grandma. McCall was out and went with us to check horses.

On Tuesday Kaine came home from school around noon to take the show heifers in to Sheena to get their travel papers to go to Reno. Kade had an orthodontist appointment in the tri-cities, so Toni and Kade were gone in the afternoon. Dad was in charge of getting Jaxsen from school. No one is clear on why Jaxsen can’t ride the bus home? After everyone got done with their errands, we did normal chores. We went out to check the mares but none of them seemed too interested in giving us a foal. We are getting annoyed with them. We are still feeding them, but just one bale for all of them. It is just to get them to congregate so we can check them easier. Then if one is missing you get excited, thinking there is a foal, but it normally means they just forgot they needed to go to the check in spot.

On Wednesday I went to Quincy for a work meeting. We had lunch at the Quincy Market, it is a cute place, with some boutiques, win tasting, etc. No new foals so far this week, but some getting heavy. Brita brought Ivy out, she is out of Twist and by Colonel, we traded a foal credit to get her back. She was not happy living in a stall and we do not have that many Colonel daughters that we kept. She is a nice palomino mare. Toni got to hold Brita’s baby and cuddle her. Ivy was excited to run around and make friends. McCall was out again and went with us to check the mares.

Thursday the wind started back up.  Toni, Ben, Kaine and Kade got the cows out of circle 6 so they could semen test the bull down there on Friday. One of the older cows had taken her calf into the next field over then went down into the cattails. Toni went down with her dog to get her out and the cow got on the fight. That cow is now on Toni’s shortlist but the cow is hopefully AI bred so we aren’t going to sell her even if Toni wants to. I hear that moving the cows went ok, but Ben had the dogs and they kept jumping out of the pick-up to try to help chase so the only thing that happened was Ben had to chase the dogs around the pick-up. After sorting off the bull, they moved the cows down to circle 3 to graze down the wheat that is choking out the alfalfa. We did chores and then checked mares. There are no new foals. Eclipse would like to be turned out of his pen, but Opal was still on SMZs through Thursday.

On Friday Ben, Toni, Marlo and Evy semen tested bulls with Hank. Anna got home from school and took the show heifers in to see Sheena and get their travel papers to go to Reno. Ton and Marlo did horse chores and checked the horses when they got done semen checking so Toni could get back to work. It was raining really hard for part of the semen testing so everyone was cold and wet.  Ben and Anna sold a bull, then Marlo helped Anna and Kaine with the cow chores. Kade went and worked a bull sale Friday after school and Saturday. He took the roan gelding, who did great at the sale.

On Saturday morning Toni, Kaine, Jaxsen and I took the steers to weight in. McCall came and helped Anna clip her two heifers going to Reno. We got home and Jaxsen and Kaine washed their animals and Kaine clipped Baby Jewel, his heifer going to Reno. I took the dogs and Rob’s side by side and moved the cows up to the alfalfa field that was filled with volunteer wheat to graze it off. After lunch Toni, Jaxsen and I moved studs and mares around. Ben unloaded a load of hay we received, moved some pens around and then went and made sure all the cows and calves were paired up. I went and stayed with Grandma Saturday night.

                Sunday morning Ben, Dad and Skip took the bull Ben sold Friday to Wapato. They had a good trip. Mom, Toni, Jaxsen and I went to the Feb-May birthday party in Connell. Anna, Kaine and Kade clipped and dyed their heifers and started packing the trailer. Mom, Toni, Jaxsen and I got home and started putting mares out with the studs. Kade came and helped us when he was done with his heifer. Anan and Kaine took pics of the Shagoodles. Then Anna went to college and Ben and Kaine kept working on the trailer. Kade went to help pack the trailer when he got done helping Toni and I. We got Sagebug out with three mares. One with Gunner, because we did not get the rest of his in, 3 with MC and Cappy, and Tank has like 4 or 5 mares with him, but some are old and live there. I think he has three to actually breed right now. But Opal will be going in there soon.  Or as soon as Mom allows it.

This was a pretty hit and miss kind of a week. Lots of positive things and a few negative. Dude had some type of a stroke or episode, not really sure what to call it, but we were forced to put him down on Saturday. We also had a mare jump a fence and get out, but we were able to get her in without incident and somehow she didn’t get cut up. Other than those 2 things, everything else was positive or neutral. Everything that happened is just part of ranching. We really try to focus on the positives. We have mares in with all of the studs. We have healthy foals on the ground and more on the way.