Monday some of the kids went back to school, and Ben had to go back to work after his long break. But, it is never long enough. We had a very reasonable list of things we thought Ben could get done while he was off of work and even though he worked his butt off, the list is not done. Mike Chubb came out and butchered the last of our fat steers, Toni and Channie went down to point out the right ones. Then they went out and checked cows. No new calves in the AM. Anna started Drivers Ed Monday, so after school she had to run home and get on her zoom meeting. Toni and the boys did chores. Anna was still on her zoom class when I got home. Ben and Kicker texted that Kade’s cow he had bred to the Char bull calved, he had a cute bull calf, soon to be a steer. Kade was really hoping for a heifer, but we weren’t going to let him keep it, so not sure what his plan was if it was a heifer. 803T also calved, she had a fancy Hereford heifer. Ben said when he got in one more Hereford cow was calving, so Anna, Kaine and I went and checked her after dinner. Another cute heifer calf. I was hoping one would have twins, 806T lost her calf Sunday night and she would really like one. But, no twins. Toni is still really busy with court cases. AND, she is on the cover of the Ruralite this month, and there is a really nice article about her in it.
Tuesday morning Anna and Channie went and checked, 802M had an Angus heifer calf. Anna had her first drive on Tuesday, so after she logged onto school Channie rode with her in for her drive. Mary brought her home, or Anna drove Mary’s car to our house, for part of her drive. Toni, Channie and the boys did chores, Anna had Drivers Ed Tuesday night again. Toni and Channie tried getting anything salvageable out of the old saddle shed at mom and dads, the roof started leaking and some of the saddles got wet, and a lot of the stuff in it. It is pretty nasty so not sure we are going to get much out of it. The other big decision is the commercial freezer. We decided we need more freezer space so trying to decide what to get and where to put it. We are looking at all options available.
Wednesday Anna spent a few hours checking the cows and talking to the calves. No new ones. Anna had Drivers Ed again in the evening. Toni, Channie and the boys did chores. Kaine and Kade had to climb to the top of the stack to get hay off. Toni asked them if they did not plan appropriately and knock some off earlier. They said they use this as exercise to climb to the top of the stack. So they got another safety talk, they get them frequently. Boys can be scary. After chores the three boys and Channie practiced their roping, it sounded to me like the two boys practiced roping Jaxsen, and Channie spent her time getting the ropes coiled back up. Toni is trying to organize the front saddle shed now that she has given up on the old saddle shed. Jaxsen spills lots of grain doing his one chore, which is to feed the old horses.
Toni got to check on Thursday, but there were no new calves. And it was foggy. We ordered an outdoor walk in freezer for all of the beefs that are in at Bryans, the two from last week are getting cut up, so are available for out of the freezer price. But, there is still one grass and two grain fed for next week if you want to give your own cutting instructions. We sold another bull on Thursday to a great repeat customer. Channie and Toni made a bosal from the pieces they found in the shed for Anna to use on Jag, Jag was not thrilled. Toni tried it on Shady first and she was good with it for a little grain. Rocky broke part of the KT Ranch sign and the end of the driveway digging to fight with the bulls across the road. Toni is blaming the other bulls, LOL. Rocky is never to blame. Scrat had also gotten the blue gate off the hinges, but we are wise to that game and also tie the gates, so the gates don’t go down if they get knocked off of their hinges. The boys are continuing to practice roping. Jaxsen worked out a cease fire with them. Things were getting a bit rough. One boy would try to head the other to heal, so then Jax would arm himself with sticks, a crowbar, things of that nature. Luckily they are under constant supervision because of this type of behavior so no children were hurt in their shenanigans. Anna was there on Thursday for chores so got exposed to the boys’ roping. She was not amused. The family also said goodbye to Chanie as she was heading home on Friday. It was nice to have her for this short visit.
Friday was nice in the morning and then rained. Toni was going to take the bull 922 and Slider, the colt, in for a semen check (on bull) and health and coggins on colt to go to Canada, but Sheena’s battery died in her semen checker, so only Slider went in. Slider had not been loaded in a while, and he did not think he should go by himself. So it took a while for dad, Toni and Kade to load him, but they got him. Luckily we still have Sonny, the old gelding, so he got to go to the vet too. Slider did really well at the vet’s office, especially since he hasn’t been anywhere. He is a really fun colt. Toni practiced loading him when they came back and he did much better. We had three calves on Friday, 717T had a Hereford bull, 533 had an Angus heifer and 639 had an Angus bull. Channie went back home to Pocatello on Friday.
Saturday morning we checked cows and then Anna and I went to Grandmas, Anna drove, and took Grandma her calendars and Kaine and Ben went to Othello to get Kaine’s hunting license and some parts for Kaine’s bike. Ben and Kaine brought home Checos for lunch. 717T’s calf was not nursing very good, so after lunch Anna and I went and go them in and put them in the barn so we could watch them. Ben and Kaine worked on Kaine’s bike. Kicker went down to mom and dads and put out grass bales and cleaned up some more out back with the tractor. Kicker also cut off the poles we had used to fix some fence that were sticking out on the road side of the fence. It is much easier for those poles to be cut with a chain saw vs Toni’s reciprocating saw. Toni had some law work to do. Before chores Anna, Kaine, Kade and Toni rode Jitter, Jag and Friday around for a while. The weather was really nice. Muddy, but nice.; We also moved Whinney over to the old horse pen and put Payton back over in the pasture. She needed to gain a little weight back after raising the “Twins.” We also bought a mare at the Eugene sale on Friday night, and she showed up a Saturday night. Her registered name is Miss Hollowpont and dad renamed her barn name to “Shorty” from Missy. She is short but stout. She is also used to a herd setting because she came out of the corral ready to rumble and establish that she is not the lowhorse on the pecking order.
Sunday we had two groups of people come out to look at foals. Toni and Kicker took the boys to Richland to get their new puppy that Shannon got for them. It is a cute lab female. So she helped me sort out the sold foals before she left and then they headed out. Ben and Anna tagged calves and got in heavy heifers. Then Anna and Kaine went and checked the cows and Ben cleaned out the heavy heifer pen and the pen that Pocket and Tulip the donkey is in. John stopped by and he went with us to check cows and then to do chores and look at Shorty and the other horses. Marlo came down and helped with chores and brought brownies. Mom also made us Lemon Curd cheesecake.
Another week in the books. Dare we say that the weather has been awesome for January? Or is that jinxing it? Good weather makes us want to show off those foals we have left for sale. Come out and take a look if you are still in the market for a foal.
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