It was a beautiful Spring week. We had some ups and downs but overall the week was net positive.

Revel foaled Monday, nice red dun roan colt by Cappy. Ashley and Sandy came and got Spark Monday morning and looked at Izzy’s colt, KT Captain Starlight, that is by Midnight Kat DR. Nice brown colt. Izzy would like to be turned out, so she was super great. They looked at most of the foals because Ashley and Sandy are still shopping. The boys worked on their Spokane steers and Kade worked on his Nile heifer and his Simmental heifer.

Tuesday Ellie had a nice blue roan filly by Gunner. When Toni went to look at it, she did not notice her dogs had followed her out of the pickup, and Rosie B, who gets dogs, about ran her over chasing the dogs. So then Ellie and the filly took off, so she did not get any good pics. The weather was super nice and it felt like spring. Kade made a cool bridle rack in welding with the plasma cutter. We lost Huckleberry’s filly on Tuesday. She was fine and then she wasn’t. We assume she didn’t get colostrum. Mom noticed the filly was down, called Toni and they started trying to get her saved. Kade was a big help but in the end it wasn’t enough. When things like that happen with a mare on her first foal, especially when the foal goes down around day 3, we give the next foal colostrum just to be safe. The reality is that we can’t control everything, but we try to manage the things we can control. There could have been any number of things wrong with the filly, things we can’t diagnose or see. We just have to do our best, and many times our best isn’t good enough. Everyone in the livestock industry will tell you the same thing, it isn’t for the faint of heart.

Wednesday was Toni and Kicker’s 20 year anniversary, so they went on a short vacation for a few days. Ben took our last Hereford bull to Wilbur to Wagners. We only have a handful of Angus bulls left for sale. Marlo came and stayed with the boys. Marlo and Kade did most of the horse chores, I just had to feed the old mares when I got there and go check. So I helped Ben move the skidsteer to the next circle to chop more Russian Olive Trees and we put the bulls back in their pen. They got the hot fence down and went on a walk about.

Zoey foaled on Thursday, a nice palomino Filly and Twiggy had a fancy chestnut filly, both by Dude. Kaine took the puppies to Sagehill Vet to get their first shots. Puppies were tired after a long day. Anna and Lane came down for the weekend.

Kade went to Wenatchee for state trap, good luck kids. Toni and Kicker were meeting them there from their anniversary vacation. Anna and Lane worked around the ranch, fixing fence, etc on Friday. We had an outside mare get dropped off on Friday, I went to grandmas so Anna showed them around and showed them the studs. The mare has a cute colt at her side by John Grey’s son of Gunner. They picked Cappy to put her with, and Huckleberry must have known she was his aunt, she followed them around.

Saturday was the 2nd day of trap shooting state. We had some rain first thing in the morning, then the wind came up later. Jaxsen and Kaine worked on their steers. Anna and Lane continued fixing fence. Ben was running around getting the circles running. I checked the horses and cows, then moved the yearling colts, MC’s pen and Cappy’s pen. After lunch Jaxsen helped me get the mares in and we ran the 3 going with Gunner across the top of circle 5, Lane and Anna helped us with them, then we hauled Zoey out with Sagebug and Twiggy down to Tank.

Happy Easter. Meachams went to Moses Lake. Hammers came to Connell. Mom, Erina and I went out and checked foals between dinner and dessert. Anna and Lane headed back to college. We all did chores. Irish was waxed up all day but never did give us an Easter foal. This is one of the first years we haven’t had an easter foal in a long time. Last year we had Peeps and Copper on Easter, Marlo gets to name the Easter foals since her birthday is in September, so we are not foaling in September. It is probably for the best we didn’t get an Easter foal. The Easter names are pretty used up. One year I think we just named the foal Easter. But with Marlo naming them, maybe they will be freshened up.

It was a beautiful Spring week. We had some ups and downs but overall the week was net positive. Easter is a great reminder of sacrifice along with forgiveness, so a perfect end to the week. We were able to spend Easter with our family, and that in itself is a blessing.