Monday January 3, 2022, back to work and school in the middle of a wintery mix, rain, snow, rain, snow. Kaine told me I should do a calendar of just our stallions, that is something to think about?? I am putting it in the middle here to see who reads this. LOL Ben is home one more day before going back to work, so he checked the cows and sent us lots of snow babies pics. I realize we were in a drought and need the moisture, that does not make doing chores in the snow any easier. I guess the cows decided they could not hold the calves in any longer. One of Kaine’s Angus heifers calved, we saw she was calving and got her in the barn, and one of the Hereford cows calved. Murtaugh, Andee and Chester (all dogs) all went out with me on my checks, at 10 and Midnight. I gave the Hereford calf a half bottle of colostrum at 10, I could not tell if it had nursed, it was up, and it was better to be safe than sorry.
Anna got up and did the 3AM check, she left Ben a message that Jacky was calving so to wake her if he needed help. At Ben’s check she had calved, so he went and got her a bale of straw, since she did not have it on the straw, but she is a heifer. Jaxsen’s heifer in fact which is why she has such a creative name. The kids had a 2 hr delay, so since Ben went back to work after his month-long Christmas break, Anna got to check while it was still light out. Toni went down and checked a little later in the day. 636 and 339 both calved on Tuesday. Anna put some straw bales in the Colorado when she got home and parked it back in the heavy pen, in case we needed it during the night. Murtaugh, Andee, Chester and I did the 10 check and Anna did the midnight check, Ben did the early morning. It was snowing when I checked, blowing when Anna checked, and clear when Ben checked. Ben and Anna said the dogs do not go with them, so I guess I am the only one they love. LOL
Wednesday the roads were not much different than Tuesday, but school was canceled, so the kids got to stay home. We had a winter weather advisory, so it was good anyway that way we did not have to worry about them getting home. It snowed off and on in Pasco all day, but did not start up at our house until late afternoon. No new babies on Wednesday. It was our baby cousin Whitney’s birthday. She is the youngest Bennett cousin. Every year that she ages really makes us feel our age. We can all remember when she was born. We didn’t do anything with her on Wednesday because of the weather.
Thursday more snow and rain, kids and Ben were off from school. Getting out of our house I just had to make a run through the snow drifts, but as I got towards Pasco there had been rain, so the highway was slick. The weather warmed up during the day, so the roads were fine going home. Kade went to my house, and the three older kids went sledding. The kids and Toni got chores done and got home before dark. It is still way to icy for them to build fence or return to halter breaking foals. We still have 5 or 6 that aren’t halter broke, so that is going go be fun the bigger they get.
The kids had another snow day on Friday, so they checked cows, broke water and fed grain. The weather was really warming up, but out on the rural roads where it melted over the snow it was really slick still. We will have a few cows calving, we had three Friday night. Marlo came down and helped with chores on Friday and brought us some really good cupcakes for dessert.
Saturday we tagged all of the calves in the heavy pen and turned them out in the corn field. Then we got a new batch of heavy cows in and the bred heifers that were for sale. Kaine only fell on the ice 6 or 7 times getting the calved cows in. Ben had to literally pull him off of the ice by his hood at one point. Don’t worry, at 14 that does not stop you from running on the ice and jumping on it again the next time you see a frozen puddle. I told him we could have made a Tick Tok video. Since the weather was much warmer the cows did not follow the hay as well as normal, so we had to push a few in. Some neighbors found some old horse blankets in their basement they were no longer using and a garbage bag of regular horse halters, so we put a blanket on Abs, replaced Double’s blanket that he destroyed, and put the others away. Mom made us éclair cake for dessert on Saturday, she used chocolate pudding instead of vanilla, it was still REALLY good. Toni still wants to call it a salad so we can eat it all the time.
Sunday Camas came over to help, Anna went and picked her up. We got yearling weights on the bulls and show heifers. Kaine fell down a few more times. It was slick on Sunday, since it was so warm on Saturday, we had a lot more snow melt and refreeze. Kam came and got the bred heifers on Sunday, so they went to their new home. We had 5 in the heavy pen, so it was not too soon for me. One actually calved Sunday night. We have 34 head left to calve now with the heifers gone. We went and checked all of the cattle. Did chores.
Kade and Jaxsen start playing basketball again next week, so we are going to be short handed. But we always make it work. If anyone is looking for any broodmares, Dal Dagnon passed away and his family is selling the majority of his broodmare herd. They are asking $800 per mare, they may or may not be bred for 2022. Dal had a good, strong breeding program for many years. There are some older mares in the group, but really well bred. I know at least one has Poco Bueno on her papers, and that is hard to find. We can get you Ray’s number if you want to go look at the mares, they are in Tonasket. If we get any pictures of the mares we will post them, but that probably will not happen.
2022 came in with an explosion of snow. If you are a pessimist, I guess you wouldn’t see this as a good start to the year, but as a realist, this is a great start. Hopefully all of the bad weather is just getting out of the way right off the get go and we can settle in for a nice mild rest of winter. And we really needed the moisture. Snow now means grass later, I have to keep telling myself that.
Also, dad has a friend, we all have a friend but they were dads friends first, with some longhorns for sale. If you want a longhorn hit up dad and he will get you their number. Those are the actual longhorns in the pictures.
KT Ranch 
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