I need to give a should out to my photographer intern Julian, he is 11, but is on the fast track. He took all of the Benton Franklin Round Robin pics, as well as a number of the others, anytime he can get his hands on my camera. I have not gotten to the CBJLS pics, but him and Natalie both took pics at the CBJLS round robin, and Julian took show of the showmanship pics, until he had to go and fit his steer.
Now that Toni has had her gallbladder removed, she is back to her old self and her never ending energy level. Me, I was close to a walking zombie Monday after we drive for 19 1/2 hours the day before to get home and I slept until around 11. The kids, who all napped off and, on our trip, and Toni were up catching steers and she helped Jaxsen blow his. She had an emergency hearing on Monday and was back to work. I did not go back to work until Tuesday. The kids packed all of the bags into the house and started working on their heifers and steers for the Sagebrush show. I also forgot to put last week that we also lived on mom’s muffins and cookies. Anna’s Nile heifer, Lacey, was in heat again, so Teresa came out and bred Lacey for her. Not great that she is still coming in heat, lets hope this is the last time. The puppies also grew a bunch while we were gone. Abby can now jump in the backseat of Toni’s pick-up and doesn’t have to be picked up.
Tuesday the kids continued working on their animals. This will be Jaxsen’s first show with his steer Rockin. Rockin is a bred and owned Angus steer out of Jaxsen’s cow, Loud. Anna’s friend Brandi came out and helped work on the heifers and steers on Tuesday and spent the night. Toni had another emergency hearing on Tuesday. Our beloved Smoke passed away Tuesday night, after the boys did chores but before Toni and I got there. She was 36 years old. We can remember when she was born and how excited we were. Smoke was well loved by everyone in our family and just about everyone rode her at one time or another. Tuesday was a hard day. It was time but it is never easy.
On Wednesday we finally got the livestock judging and skillathon results from Angus Nationals. Anna placed 6th in the intermediate division in Livestock judging and Kade was 14th in the Jr Division in Skillathon. Anna was 29th in the skillathon and Kaine 34th. Kade and Kaine were 73 and 74 in livestock judging. Good job kids! We are very proud of how they all placed and their try. Our friend Jade came out and got Kaine and Kade and took them in work out with the football team. Anna and Brandi, who spent the night, cleaned out the red gooseneck, caught Ed and Eddie and loaded them. Dad and Mom took Ed and Eddie to Kathy for the rest of the year. Then they went to Liberty Lake to pick up Crystal from Allie’s. Toni was allowed to feed Molly and managed not to screw it up. Wednesday night some of the cousins came over (just random that it was Wed) so we had to catch Leroy for Kayla to ride, she also had to pet Molly and all of the yearlings that would let her. She pretty much loves animals. And she wanted a cookie. They all know Mom makes cookies everyday. Leslie brought over pizza for us all to munch on.
Thursday the kids packed up the trailer to go to the Sagebrush Classic over the weekend. Everything had to fit in the nose and in the back of Anna’s pickup, since we took 9 head there was no room for tack on the gooseneck floor. The kids also finished up clipping their cattle. Camas came out and worked on her heifer and helped chip her. Camas really is showing Kaine’s heifer, but now we are calling it hers. Lane came out Thursday night and had dinner with us. Kendel took her kids down and looked for tadpoles.
Friday Toni went down early to get a show halter on Jax’s steer. She had been asking him to have Anna help him, but he kept “forgetting.” Then she went to work for a few hours. After lunch, about 20 minutes later than they planned, Toni and the kids loaded up the cattle and headed to BB to move a few over to Leslie’s trailer and then the convoy headed to Colfax. Toni, Kaine and Camas in the Cajun, Anna and Kade in the imposter, Leslie and the medium sized kids (Jaxsen, Natalie, Ady and Julian) in the Mini Pete and Traci, Deb, and the little kids (Savannah and Kayla) in her pickup with her camper. I followed up after work in Butte and our camper. They had everything unloaded when I got there and dinner done. The cattle that hadn’t been anywhere before unloaded pretty good and got settled in.
Saturday we did not show until 1, so we slept in until 6. We gave everything a good wash and then showed the steers in the afternoon. All of the steers showed really well. Kaine and Jimmy were second in their class and made it back to the championship round. Natalie and Anna had Charolais influenced steers so came back for that class. Kaine and Jimmy made it back to the feeder class. Rockin had a really good first day and so did Jaxsen. They make a good team. We got to see lots of family, all of our family that shows was there. And we got to see the majority of our good show friends. Our good friend Kimmy came out to see us as well as she doesn’t live too far away and brought some good laughs with her as she is always funny. Our friends Erina and Terry came with their grandson JR. For some reason JR really took to Jaxsen. Jaxsen loves it when little kids like him, he thinks he can help develop them into his image. He also asked Erina to email his Mom as his advocate to inform her he needs new boots. Just so everyone knows, he doesn’t need new boots, he just needs to go through the boot box and take out a pair that fit. He is the youngest boy, there are always hand-me-down boots. Always. Also on Saturday Ben got the cows in and pulled the bulls and doctored eyes. The men did the chores for us while we were gone and moved our water. Thank you.
Sunday we got up at 4:30 to start washing the 20 head of heifers and steers. We started with PeeWee showmanship, Kayla showed her heifer and Savannah showed Jimmy. Then the Jrs, Jaxsen, Natalie and Julian, Natalie made it back to the championship round. Next the Intermediates, Ady, Kade, Kaine and Camas, Kaine and Kade both made it back and Kaine was the reserve champion intermediate showman. And lastly our senior, Anna, and she made it back to the championship round. All of the kids showed very well and we are proud of all of them. Next was the heifer classes, Anna was in class 1 with her baby heifer from Jana Koller, she was second in her class so made it back to the championship round. Kade had Emma Frost, his fall heifer, in class 2. They looked really good, but were 3rd. Then Kaine and Camas were in Class 5, Camas was 3rd with Em, Kaine was maybe 5th with Orange Slice. This was Orange Slice’s first show, and she bucked and kicked and thought it was play time. Natalie and Ady were in class 7, I think they were 3rd and 4th. Julian was in class 8 and was first, and so made it back to the championship round. Anna and Kaine came back for the Charolais influenced class. Then we had the cow calf class and Kade and Anna showed Foxxy and Captain Marvel and were reserve champion. Pete brought his weiner dog Kevin to meet the kids so it was a fight who got to pack Kevin all over. Poor Kevin was exhausted by the time Pete finally left. The kids drug that poor puppy around for hours. We then packed it all up and headed home. We had lots of help packing, so that was really nice.
On our way home Dan called, he was coming back from Utah and wanted to stop and look at Sam, so we got there about the same time and he bought Sam. Sam was the last yearling we have on our for sure sale list. The others we have listed are just listed in case someone falls in love with them more than we love them. In fact, Toni and I fight all of the time about which one of us gets which yearling. We both think there are some really great ones in that pen.
Rocky, our old Hereford bull died while we were gone. He was 11 and again, really old for a Hereford bull. So this week has been a hard one. But again, a blessing for us to have him as long as we did. Many people have come to see Rocky over the years and get their picture taken with the big Hereford bull. He was always very patient, letting people pet him or kids sit on him if he was laying down. He can’t be replaced but we know it was time.
This has been a dig deep kind of a week. We were all still tired from the trip to Nationals and the everyday ranch life, but we could not miss the Sagebrush Classic as it was started by our good friends Alan and Leslie Alexander, continued in Leslie’s memory. Janna Koller has taken over the daily jackpot operations and is another good friend. It is always necessary to support friends, offer help where we can, and be part of a jackpot like the Sagebrush Classic. 124 head showed up for the weekend, so that just tells you how great everyone feels that this jackpot is.
Luckily Monday was a little overcast and breezy because the yearling colts had gotten a panel unchained, Shiner is actually pretty good at that, and were out in the haystack area. Toni had to run down and get them back in. Getting horses in is always strenuous, especially one person trying to move six colts back to the right area. Shiner was trying to unchain it again as she was getting a string to tie it shut. It is a good thing she thinks he is perfect and smart, otherwise he ability to be an escape artist and lead the other colts astray could be annoying. Kayla came out and brand inspected the heifers and steers going to Filer to the Jr Angus show and the Idaho Jr Beef Expo. We (read KIDS) are really excited to go to a real show. Except Jaxsen, he is happy to not go. The kids and Coco did chores, and Toni and I put up a railroad tie where we are going to start our continuous fence project. We could not get the post hole digger to go down far enough, so Ben and Kicker showed up to help. This was our first attempt to run the post hole digger on our own. We are excited to be working on this project. Once the new continuous fence is up, the colts will have a tougher time getting out. Anna, Kaine and Kade had gone home to feed the steers and heifers, and were done except Dring BeeBee by the time we got there.
I stared at Lona with no foal on Tuesday morning, and I am starting to agree with mom that she has a tumor. Morgan sent two bottle calves from Montana to WA for Anna to feed, Diane went and picked them up and dropped them off at our house Tuesday night. The trailer lights pulled out on her way home there, so she had to stop in Ritzville and get them fixed. We were busy on Tuesday trying to get everything ready to leave for Filer Wednesday morning. We aren’t as efficient at packing for shows as we haven’t been to any! Lets hope we don’t forget anything.
Wednesday morning Ben, Anna, Kaine, Kade and I woke up and Leslie came and picked us up and headed to Filer, Idaho for the Jr Angus show and the Jr Idaho Beef Expo. We stopped in Pasco and picked up Traci and Natalie, then made our way South. We stopped at Baker City to get fuel and Subway, and it took an hour to get sandwiches, I am not joking, I was not impressed, especially since I am not really a Subway fan anyway. It was a long trip, but a good one. The cattle hauled really well and came off the trailer well. Only one of the heifers hasn’t been hauled to a show, so they cattle were pretty much pros, even though they haven’t been to a show this year. We were all tired when we got to Filer, but excited to be at a show, and especially a big show!
Toni, Jaxsen and Kicker stayed home to do all of the chores, so 2 workers and Jaxsen doing chores that normally take 7 people to get them done. Toni and Dad ran Double Shot and Pow into Othello to the vet. Double Shot needed to be gelded and Pow is going to CA for training. Toni said that both were rockstars. Double Shot has not been hauled before and was very impressive. Dad then went to Moses Lake to get the Polaris that has been in the shop for a week to get it running again. Luckily Marlo decided to house sit at my house so she was there to help Toni with feeding the bottle calves (Toni refers to them as four legged Piranhas). The heifer that came from Montana to be a Washington bottle calf isn’t friendly, is a touch waspy, and isn’t a fan of our weather. I had already told Toni not to send me hate texts while we were in Filer regarding the chores at my house. Luckily she took me seriously.
Thursday we did not have to do anything until around noon in Filer, so Leslie and I told the kids they could sleep in and we would feed and could wash when they woke up. But they woke up early, so Traci and I relaxed while Leslie and the kids went and fed. Ben’s sister Candice, and her kids, came up and stayed with us, they camped in a tent. Then after Ben made us breakfast we went and washed, had lunch and then just had to check in and weigh the steers on Thursday. We had an exhibitor meeting after everyone was checked in. There were 270 head that came into Filer for the show. That is a good turnout for this show and we are excited to be at a show this big with the level of competition.
Thursday Toni, Jaxsen, Kicker and Marlo did all the chores. Toni had Jaxsen helping her put posts in for the continuous fence. She has told me that Jax did a tiny bit better with chores on Thursday. Wednesday hadn’t gone well. Toni and Dad went to Othello early and got Double Shot. They took him to the barn at my house where he will reside until he goes to his new home. Again, Double Shot loaded like a champ and was great to handle, especially with the limited handling he has had. Thursday afternoon Shelby and her mom Pam came out to look at the foals. It was especially hot on Thursday. The two new bottle calves from Montana did not eat well on Thursday night because of the heat.
Friday morning we just got everything ready, and then there was an exhibitor BBQ and auction. 30 minutes after the auction we had no fit showmanship. Chandra and her husband Miles showed up on Friday to watch the kids show. There was not enough food at the BBQ for everyone, so some of us went back to the camper to eat. After lunch we got ready, Natalie showed first, since it is by age, she did really great, Kade was called back, but his heifer did not show well in the championship round, and Kaine also showed great but was not called back. Anna showed in the Jackpot showmanship, so that was at around 7:30 that night. Her and Freddy were Reserve Champion Intermediate. She then went back in for overall showman, at around 8:06, Traci had said she would show at 8 so she said she called it. So it was a long day when we got done.
Toni, Jaxsen, Kicker and Marlo continued to keep things running at home. Toni had court on Friday, so she took Jax with her to Pasco. You still can’t go to a restaurant in Pasco, so they grabbed some food at Vinnie’s Bakery and ate lunch in the park. Friday night Kicker came down to look at the posts that Toni and Jax had been putting in and ended up pulling some out because with continuous fence, everything has to be perfect. I think this is going to be a frustrating fence. But we are getting lots of practice digging with the post hole digger.
Saturday was the breeding and market shows. The show started at 9 with bred and owned Angus, we only brought owned Angus, so we started around 10:30. Christy and Kelly Korrel showed up to watch the kids since they now live down there. Natalie had the youngest heifer, so she was in the first class, she got second, so got to go back for the championship drive in that division, she won a nice can of adhesive. Anna was next with Tilly, Anna did a great job showing her and Tilly looked good. Kaine and Kade were next with their March heifers, there were so many March heifers they split the class, Kaine was in class 30 and Kade in class 31. Both of them showed really well. After that we went back to the barn to wait for the jackpot steer show. We went back to the camper and had lunch. After lunch we washed the heifers and started doing some preclipping on the steers. Then they were down to 17 classes, so we started fitting. Smithers and Kaine were in class 3, they got third in their class. Anna and Freddy and Kade and Gogol were in class 4 (there was a division championship round in between the two classes) Anna was second in the class and Kade was 5th. All three of the steers showed really well. Freddy and Anna went back into the division championship round. These are pictures from Friday, I have not gotten to Saturday pictures yet. So Saturday pictures are coming soon.
After that we cleaned up our spot, loaded the trailer to leave the next morning and then Ben went and got us all pizza. While Ben and Candice were getting pizza, the kids got their second wind, which would have been nice when we were cleaning our area, and played with the neighbor kids. The neighbor kids’ dad was in charge of the fireworks that night. After pizza the kids all played some more and then we put chair in the back on Candice’s pickup and watch the fireworks. The kids finished off the pizza. Ben went and checked the heifers and steers afterward and everyone was wide eyed but ok.
Toni, Jaxsen, Kicker went over to Clarkston for the day to spend some time with Sherri and Barry for an early Father’s Day. It is a long trip, but worth it. They were able to sit down in a restaurant and eat lunch over there, so that was a treat! Dad and Mom had gone to Ellensburg to see the Akehurst family for a party to celebrate Button’s and Don’s birthdays as well as their anniversary. We have been friends with the Akehurst family for many years and are thankful for their friendship. Marlo had a dinner obligation Saturday night, so Toni, Kicker, and Jaxsen did chores when they got back from Clarkston.
I asked Ben to wake me when they loaded Sunday morning, since Leslie and Traci wanted to get on the road early so Traci and Natalie could get back for Father’s Day. But he said they had enough people so he didn’t. It was nice to sleep in until 7:30. But, it was father’s day, so Ben should have slept in. We had breakfast with Candice and the kids, Candice was up early and helped load. Then we all got our stuff packed back up and headed home. Kaine and Kade were hungry by the time we hit Boise, so we stopped to eat at Applebee’s, which, took less time than the subway headed down. We hit the road again and got home around 6.
Toni had made lunch for Dad and Kicker for father’s day. Kicker had gone out and chopped thistles for three hours on his own, not sure why he wanted to spend father’s day doing that, but still glad he did! After lunch Kicker went over to Connell and got the livestock and tack and brought them home. He was excited because he got to see baby Reese for the first time as Jolene and Nick were over there. Toni went down to Mom and Dads and moved water and got ready to show horses. Toni was still showing horses we we got home, so we went down and did chores.
What a fun week to have an actual show and allow the kids to do what they love. We are all exhausted, but allowing these kids to pursue their dreams is what we as parents feel we should do. Life on a ranch can be so time consuming that there is little time for anything else, but finding time to let the kids explore and develop their dreams is always a priority.
AND happy Father’s Day to all of those fathers out there.
KT Ranch 
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