Monday everyone was tired form the long hot weekend. Of course, it was still hot at home too, so that didn’t help with any anticipated recovery. The kids worked on their steers and heifers for the show on Saturday. Toni had a lot of voicemails on her machine from while she was gone, so she was busy working and catching up. Dad was harvesting wheat in Kahlotus. Ben’s pickup broke down 2 miles from his work, so his coworker Pete picked him up and then he fixed it after work. It may be on its last leg though. Ben probably needs a newer one. Circle 8 had a flat time on Monday, so the men took it off so Ben could take it in Tuesday to get fixed. A pole was broken on Dude’s pen, so Toni and I took it off after chores and went and got a new pole to put up. Luckily for us Kade and Jaxsen showed up in time to help, we should have grabbed a few more poles. Toni also started receiving sale catalogs so she keeps sending me horses that she wants to buy, like we need anymore. I tell her how many we have. She tells me how old they are, it is the circle of ranching. We also went out to the circle and got pictures of Sting for a guy that wanted him, took pictures of some others, and tried not to get mauled. We have a bunch of spoiled brat babies.
On Tuesday Ben took the circle tire in to get fixed. The kids worked on their animals. Sagebug came back to my house, so Anna and Kaydence went down, fixed fence, and checked. Super puncher had hurt his leg pretty bad so they brought the herd back to the house, sorted, and got him and Shasta sorted out. Toni came down, saw the bad leg, went and got the white trailer and had the boys help her load. The tire on the white trailer shredded on her way to mom and dads with the horses. Mom helped her move Super Puncher and Shasta in with Blue and they left him alone. It is one of those injuries that is hard to tell what happened. It was too hot to change the tire, so the trailer got unhooked and left in the driveway as a constant reminder that it had a bad tire, but still made the trip. It was hot, so Toni and I did not put up any fence after chores, but we did grab mom and go out and check Gunner’s pen, and try to catch Bay Mare for Goodwins. They were way out there where they had found some green grass, so too far to lead in. Kade came down and worked on Stormy.
On Wednesday the kids got circle 4 in, there were a few sick calves, we need to preg check the sale heifers and one of the bulls had gotten back out and was in there. So they sorted them and then worked on their show animals. I think Kaydence might be getting worn out. After chores I told Toni it was still too hot to fence. So we moved water and talked to mom. Then I went home and packed some stuff out to the camper and noticed that a bottle of spaghetti sauce had spilled and no one told me. I was thrilled. Kade rode Stormy and Toni rode Gen bareback in the heat. Stormy is really coming along and Toni likes to ride with Kade so a win-win.
On Thursday Dad was off from harvest, so he took his pickup in to get serviced and Toni went and picked him up. Then him and mom ran Suzie, the dog, in to Othello to get clipped and then Toni ran him back into Connell to pickup his pickup. Dad found a good deal on water troughs at the Grange, so we have 2 new water troughs to pickup. The kids clipped and got ready to go. Then Toni went down to watch them practice showing. The kids are all taking different steers to the next show, Jax hasn’t been working on his big steer for very long so we all wanted to make sure he could handle him. Ben got propane for the camper and shavings. We got it hooked up and ready to go.
Friday, I took the camper to work with me, and then Luis came over and picked it up after he unhooked his, and him and Toni parked it. Toni and the kids headed to the fair ground around noon. Traci and the medium kids went over late morning to get started on the beds. When I got there everything was set up and ready to go. And I found out we had a 110 outlet to plug the camper in to, so no AC, we hooked it up to the generator for a while and at least got it so it was not hotter then outside. But it was a long hot night.
Saturday we showed after sheep were done, so around noon. The show was good, Ady made it back to the championship round in market. Anna, Natalie and Julian were on standby. Kaine and Kade showed some other kids steers on the championship round. Ady was in the top 5. They started with Sr Showmanship, Kaine was Grand, Anna was reserve, Pepper was third, Kade was fourth and Aram was fifth. In Intermediates, Ady was grand, Chloe was reserve, Julian was third and Jaxsen was fourth. Jax’s steer decide he had enough of showing in the championship round and really started throwing his weight around. Jax did a good job with it. Kaydence showed very well for her second show. In Jrs Natalee was grand and Savannah won novice and got her first buckle. For the round robin Natalee was grand champion in Jrs, Kaine was reserve champion senior, and Tesa (who showed a pig not a steer) was grand champion intermediate. For the heifer show Kade had grand champion overall heifer with Roxette, his fall heifer, Natalee was reserve champion with her heifer. Then we packed up and headed home. Ben had done chores for us, Toni went down and moved water and Ben and I got the camper backed in and set up. We had Lane with us all weekend, and he was a huge help. It was a good show but way too hot. We saw lots of friends and even with the heat, there was a good turnout for the jackpot. We also got Coco and Shea up from California, so we were all super excited about that. We haven’t seen little Shea in months and now she is walking and talking. She still has bright red hair. We were so busy on Saturday that Toni forgot to bid online at the Billings sale so she was pretty irritated when she realized that. She can’t figure out how to see what the horses she wanted sold for, so that is also irritating her. She hopes they sold high.
On Sunday most of us slept in to some extent. Ben was out killing weeds in the horse pen. The kids washed their steers and heifers. Toni did billing in the morning to try to catch up. Toni and I went out to get Gunner’s pen in since they were out of grass. Kade came out and helped us. Kaydence rested some more in the afternoon, Anna started cleaning out the trailer. Jaxsen was helping Coco with Shea. Toni and I hauled Gunner, Bay Mare and Bunny down to the house. We moved Lily with the other yearlings. Gunner got the pen with the shed in it since he is the oldest stud down there. King and Gunner aren’t too happy to be in the corral and done breeding, but it is time. We hauled Flint the Watusi bull home and Friday to mom and dads for Toni to ride with Kade and Stormy.
This week was the last jackpot show for the 2023 show season, next we are on the fairs starting the 4th week in August. Anna has her senior project this coming weekend, a show clinic. The next jackpot the kids will go to one in November, but we call that the beginning of the 2024 show season. Anna, McCall, Ben and maybe McKenna will go the Nile in October as well. Anna took her baby heifer that she is selling in the Evergreen Sale and she was a trooper. We are excited for a couple weeks off from showing before the fairs start, but looking at the schedule there is no down time. We have tons of activities to fill the rest of the summer up. Really what we need to schedule is some down time. Too bad we can’t fit it in!
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