Halter breaking continues on Felix and Dynamight; only because Dynamight scratched her eye lid and is now being doctored. We probably could have switched Felix out for another colt, but we didn’t. However, both are doing great, and Dynamight’s eye is already greatly improved. They are both super fun. They remind us of each other, but they aren’t related. Once these two go out we are down to 4 left. Stunner, Whim, Little Blackie, and Charlie. We are not counting the 4 little babies that aren’t weaned yet.
The Angus cows are calving and we now have two heavy heifers, Dark Knight and Cutie Pie. They are in the same pen with Gunner, and he was not thrilled with I backed the trailer up and two heifers got out, instead of two mares. I went and moved some panels around, in case we have to get the two heifers in for some reason, and Gunner continued to stand and stare at the trailer waiting for mares to come out. Gunner’s miniature companion, Tee, did not know what his deal was so she ran around crazy bucking, tried to chase the heifers, which were not scared of her, and then ran back to Gunner.
Tuesday was Kaine’s birthday, and one of his cows, Big Girl, gave him the best gift a cow can give. She calved on his birthday and he has a nice bull calf by SITZ Longevity 556Z, who is named “12,” since it was the 12th. Kade’s cow also calved this week, and he also has a nice bull calf. His is by A&B Spotlight 3065. Healthy bull calves pay the bills, but the boys both wanted heifers that they could show.
We had people out Sunday looking at Major, Dynamight and Whim. They were repeat buyers, but had not been out for a few years, so Toni enjoyed talking with them. They loved Whim because he is a fancy guy. The problem is that he will go gray so we can’t guarantee that he will stay grulla. Everyone loves the grulla color. And how big he is. These people were telling us the same thing as everyone else, most Azteca colts don’t sell until they are two. We will see. This has been a new experience for us, and we have really loved having Whim around. It is fun to hear people’s comments about him. Some people don’t realize he is an Azteca and want to know where we got the huge quarter horse colt.
Kicker and Toni put out hay for the two studs at their house on Sunday, with the freezing rain, snow, sleet and hail we had on Friday, the bales were stuck to the trailer, so they had a lot of fun getting them off.
Jewels, one of my mastiffs, opened an Amazon box with cat food in it and proceeded to eat the entire bag of cat food. So when I got home from work I had a great surprise in the laundry room, and all over Trinity, my other mastiff.
We had a cow lose her calf on Friday, through no part of her own; Ben pulled the calf head first. So we went to a friend’s dairy and got a Jersey calf (Norman Lee). The next day we had twin bulls, so now we have a Jersey bottle calf. And it not fair for one kid to have a bottle calf and not the rest. So we are now waiting to hear from Luis so we can get two more bottle calves. Because, you know, everyone needs three pet Jerseys. I tried to explain to the kids that the milk replacer costs more than the calves are worth, they heard me, but didn’t care. We have had bottle calves, and a bottle foal, before, so they know it is hard work, but I guess if the kids want to work hard, we are going to let them. Jax has no interest in having a bottle calf.
On Saturday Ben, the kids and I went to Lowes to get more rebar to make fence posts, because building fence is a huge part of our daily activities in the winter. We have another part of the corn field we can utilize, and we are deciding if we are moving the heifers or the fall cows up there. And of course while you are at Lowes, you get tires for your wagon that won’t go flat, more heaters, and a new utility sink since the old one broke. A $300 trip quickly escalates in to a “how did that happen” trip.
On Saturday the kids, Anna, Kaine, Kade and Jaxsen, also painted ornaments and made gingerbread houses with Coco. All five of them, counting Coco, got to skip chores on Saturday for their craft day. So Toni and I felt it was a huge gift to them.
On Sunday Toni took the kids to the Franklin county Cattlemen’s Christmas party, where they got to tell Santa what they wanted and Toni attended a Cattlemen’s meeting. They also got to see their little cousin, Kason “Bronty” and many friends. Toni tried to get Santa to tell Kade that Santa is NOT bringing him an old English bulldog puppy in his stocking, but Santa just laughed.
KT Ranch 
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