Monday was a little colder than it had been, I think it was around 9 in the AM according to weatherbug. Toni and dad went and got Cappy from Jason Hicks. Cappy was doing great and looks like he will be a great colt. Now we are deciding if we will breed anything to him in 2023 or wait another year. He still has some growing to do. Toni and Dad had a great and uneventful trip. Kaine had drivers ed after school and did two of his drives, they are down to their final weeks and final drives. It will be good when that is over. Anna did not get her virtual trail class filmed on Sunday, by the time we got done the phone was too dead to go up and do it at our house. So Toni came up to do hers, and instead they helped load a heifer and then Anna and Toni’s phone both had low battery. So the videoing of Anna and Gunnie saga continues. But Gunnie is doing great and will know the pattern by heart when they get to the videoing.
With the change in weather there were a few calves getting sick again. Ben and Anna doctored the list Toni sent when she checked in the morning. The calves are easier to doctor at night in the feed line. We are still cleaning up the desserts mom made for my birthday, my scale is happy they are almost gone. Toni and Anna finished the video of Anna and Gunnie, however, our internet was slow and it took her phone forever to upload it to youtube. So, the saga continued to the bitter end. The video needed to by uploaded by 10:30 pm and it got uploaded at like 10 pm. The good news is the video process was great, except Anna is so done with it she kind of forgot a couple things, Toni reminded her on the video, but whatever.
Wednesday Ben had meetings in Moses Lake, so Toni and Kade helped Anna with cow chores when the horse chores were done. Kaine had drivers ed on Wednesday as well. Pow was on her way up from S. CA where she has been with Rachael. Bruce, the shipper, was stuck in Bend for a few days due to the winter storm, but Wednesday was the day. Pow Pow showed up around 2. We blanketed her since she had been is S. Cal. Pow thought it was a lot of fun to chase the other horses, since they were scared of her blanket. But when it came time to eat, Pow settled right in and is just part of the herd.
Thursday two cows were out when Toni went to check, they both had tags showing they were cows we bought, not raised. I am guessing I know why they were for sale. They had broken the gate, so she got them back in and got the gate fixed. Ben had meetings in Moses Lake again, so was not home for chores. Toni, Anna and the boys did all of the chores. The weather had been so nice that doing chores wasn’t a chore.
Friday Toni and the dogs checked. Then Jeannie came out to look at bulls. They couldn’t find them so had to drive around for quite a long time before they found them. The bulls are all really gentle so they got out and walked through them. The bulls are in a 100 acre pasture and just stand there while you walk among them. Jeannie liked the coming 2 year old Hereford bull so that just leaves the coming yearling Hereford bulls and some Angus. Marlo came out and helped with chores. However, we will not have Marlo next Friday because she is going to a concert, sounds like a fun concert. Toni and Marlo worked on the foals.
Saturday Kade had a shooting competition, he did really well, he was a using a new gun from his grandpa Barry. Dad went and watched. Anna and Kaine caught their steers and Anna caught her heifers. Lane came out while she was washing her heifers and helped her finish. John came out to get his wedding present, mom made him a cool basket and Toni and mom filled it with good, and to get his miniature horse, Mini. He had not told his bride he has a miniature horse until that day, and she was pretty excited to get her home and for her to have a foal. The boys got to go hunting in the afternoon for the youth hunt, so Toni and I did their chores. Jaxsen helped us, but we got an ear full about how the boys should have to come back from hunting to do “their” chores, he should not have to do them. We moved Holly over with the other yearlings and brought The Joker over to work on. He was very similar to Jaxsen, he did not want to go over and it was a slow walk. I feel like if we understood “horse” he would have explained why someone else needed to go over. The Joker and Summer do not enjoy each other either. Once Summer goes to her new home, we will bring another colt over as well to work on. Mom wants the other colt to be Willie, he is her colt.
Sunday was a rainy day. We were supposed to build more fence around corn fields now that hunting season is over, but we elected to do more office type work and wait on the fence. I put out mineral as well. Toni worked on a case she had on Monday. Anna and the boys caught their steers, and Anna her heifers. Camas came out and assisted Kaine with his steers. We worked on The Joker and Summer. The Joker realized he was in so did really well on Sunday. When the rain paused Kade rode Stormy around.
This week we lost our mare Tessa. She was an older mare that had started to decline. She was a great mare for us and we loved her. While John was out he told us that he had counted the mares on our website and there are 20 mares over 20. Although we strive to take great care of these older mares, the clock is ticking. You can’t beat time. We try to be really transparent on our blog and facebook page so people can understand what real ranch life is like. It isn’t all fun and games. We also have to deal with sickness, death, the stuff that makes life difficult. Ranch life builds character. At this point we must be full of character.
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