We got yearling weights on the heifers on Monday. It snowed lightly on us. Just a reminder that this winter will continue to do the unexpected. I ran around the outside to check for stragglers and saw a porcupine, it did not let me get a good picture of its face. The heifers look really good down on the alfalfa field. We went thought them to decide which ones to sell, and it was hard. I am already rethinking that. We used one of our older, smaller corrals, so had a few little glitches, but we were pretty efficient. Kaine did not help us with weights because he went to Camas’ house, they were supposed to be building fence, however, they moved hay around instead, I guess. The men put out big grass bales with the horses and mom lost her phone, so Toni, dad, Jaxsen, mom, Leo and I were looking for it while the boys went and opened the gates for the men. We looked everywhere and didn’t find it. And it didn’t ring. We finally gave up and decided to start fresh on Tuesday.
Tuesday the kids were still out of school, so Anna checked in the morning, but starting Wednesday Toni started checking. Ben had to go back to work Tuesday after his winter off. It sucks. Anna took the dogs and checked cows and tied up her steers. She cleaned the office and the new pup Leo assisted. I am not completely sure what the boys did Tuesday, I know they did chores but in addition to that. Mom found her phone on Tuesday. Leo went down to help do chores again on Tuesday, so got to snoop around mom and dad’s house. Kaine finally noticed that a pole was down between Jackpot and Double. Toni said it had been down a while, so she put it back up and used three lag bolts in hopes that it will stay up.
Wednesday Toni got to check because the kids were back in school. Murtaugh was pretty happy to see her, she felt abandoned after having Ben home so long. So Toni and the dogs checked cows, petted the new calves, etc. Kaine started Driver’s Ed on Wednesday, his first drive was Wednesday after school. I went in Wednesday night to pick him up and attend the parent meeting. So watch out everyone, he is on the road. Everyone else did chores.
Thursday morning Cross headed to his new home in CA early in the morning. Toni and Stephen loaded him up and Stephen headed south. He will be standing at Fireside Ranch in Valley Center, CA. This is in the San Diego area. We are very excited to have a stud servicing Southern CA! Introductory fee of $750! Contact Steve: 509-845-6249 or Carly: 858-291-3080 for more info. We got the results back from the trail class Toni and the kids did. They all did really well for the first time, and three out of the five horses being young. Kaine placed the best, but he had the most broke horse, he showed Gracie. And because Kaine is Kaine, Toni actually took Gracie through the pattern for him before his turn so he could see exactly what to do. Toni showed Shadie which was a very bad decision. Shadie is awesome but is more focused on the reward than the moment. For instance, in the middle of the sidepass someone may touched a bucket, bam, Shadie was ready to eat. We all thought Anna did exceptional with her weanling. Dan came out and installed our hallway flooring on Thursday, we were excited about that. Mike came out and harvested our last 2022 fat steer. We will start having 2023 fat steers in May.
Friday Toni checked after court. Chester, the border collie, for some reason was clear down in circle 5. Dan was back out to finish the flooring. Billy from TLC came out to harvest Tennelle and Caleb’s steer. So we really do just have the feeder steers now. We put a halter on Summer. It is time for Summer to be halterbroke now that the ice is melted and it is mostly just mud everywhere. Marlo came and helped do chores then had dinner with us. Kaine and dad went to Richland to watch Camas’ basketball game. They all went out to Bob’s Burgers after and had dinner.
Saturday we tagged calves in the heavy pen and turned them out, checked cows, doctored calves. Kade had trap shooting practice. Anna and Kaine both caught their steers. Toni and I haltered Summer and Holly (Holly is already halter broke) and worked on them and worked Summer. Then we went to Connell for the November-December birthday party and played games. We had Lane with us so he got exposed to the family again. The kid keeps coming back so he must really like Anna.
On Sunday Kaine and Ben went to Othello and got parts for Kaine’s 1982 GMC. Anna caught her steers then we went out and checked, hauled two minis down with the AQHA mares because they kept getting out, check the mares in the desert and the bulls. Kade came down after lunch and Kade and Kaine caught their steers and then did some welding with Ben. Toni and I worked with Holly and Summer at chore time. Toni wants to show Hollly in the next in-hand trail course. We will see if it happens.
I can’t believe we already have a full week of January down. You know what this means right? It is breeding buying time. We are really excited to get a couple of outside breedings and the pairings we get to put together here at home. We are going to mix it up again this year a bit. Last year we took the non-creme mares that foaled first and put them with Gunner, then scattered the other mares out. Because Gunner goes on 500 acres, it is best to just get all of his mares out in one group. The other limiting factor is age. When a mare was born in 2001 or 2002, she is old. She probably needs to stay close to the house unless in really great shape. We have a list of what we plan to do and continue to tinker with it. There is no right or wrong, just good, good, and good. We have a core group of mares that we think are exceptional with studs we think are the same, so there is no bad pairing. We are excited to spend too much time over analyzing. If anyone has questions about the studs, let us know. We are going to limit outside mares, so if you want in, let us know.
