Monday was a hectic day, Toni had a lot going on, so Anna offered to check cows before school, but I reminded her with spring forward that was not an option, however, we have more daylight at night, so it was great. So Toni checked after she got Kade and Jaxsen on the bus, which was late again. No new foals. Next Toni had to go to mom’s and get the horses caught for Dr. Davies to come. Then Toni had to get ready for a hearing on a bankruptcy which started at 11, she had multiple clients. Dr Davies was coming to do teeth work on horses and look at Pocket at 12. Dr. Davies got there and started work before Toni got back, but she had her assistant Katie with her so they were fine. Emma showed up to help Toni, they pulled Jag’s wolf teeth, floated Lona, Katie and Leroy. It was determined that Pocket had cancer, so we had to put her down. It was a very sad day for everyone, Pocket had been a great horse. We had a meat buyer come and cousin Kendel got the meat for them, then Kendel called because a white gooseneck came down our driveway, none of us knew who it was. So Kendel ran them down and it was someone with cows on DNR ground and 15 cows were at large. Kaine had football practice Monday night, Toni, Anna, Kade and Jaxsen did chores.
Tuesday Anna checked. The bus was late again, it was under discussion if the bus was missing again, no sub showed up?? Ben tied up the Spokane steers. Anna, Kade, Jaxsen and Toni did chores. Then Toni and Anna went out and checked mares and put-up Leroy’s pen, the bulls had knocked the fence down over the winter. Kaine had football practice. Kade had basketball practice. Kade was getting pretty antsy about going to practice by the time Toni rolled back in to take him. Anna let the Spokane steers go.
Wednesday the bus was late again. Anna and Toni both checked, there was nothing new. Anna went into school to practice for the Creed competition in FFA, Anna is 15 and is done with driver’s ed, so Anna drives and mom rides with her. Kaine went into school for an ASB meeting. Kade and Jaxsen actually have to go to school every day, much to Jaxsen’s chagrin. Toni went over to Bonina for lunch at the bull sale for an hour so she could socialize and eat. Lot of people were there and she said she ate at the Crave Food Truck and had a chai tea from 509 Coffee (our good friend owns it). Then Toni came home for court. Kaine had a football game Wednesday night, so Ben, dad and I went and watched, they played great, Kaine played the entire game. Toni, Anna, Kade and Jaxsen worked on the riding horse pen Wednesday night. Jax cut down weeds and trees with a hedge trimmer instead of actually helping to fix fence. He hates Russian Olive trees so he feels that is a good use of his time. At least he is being productive.
Thursday everyone was a school, so mom and Toni checked, mom must be good luck, Tessa and Ceecee both foaled and 102 and 719 both had calved. 719 calved in the cattails and although I assured Toni that 719 would not get her, Toni would not go pull the calf out of the cattails. Toni went back down at noon to make sure everyone was still doing great. By that time the calf had come out on his own so all was well. Toni and Anna worked on Sagebug’s pen some more on Thursday night. Kaine had football practice and Kade had basketball practice.
Anna checked Friday morning, no new babies. Marlo came and helped do chores, and she brought us Blueberry Creme cheese muffins, that were very good. Kade and Anna went and fixed fence in Sagebugs pen after chores, Toni and Marlo went and checked the horses, they could not fine 2 of the horses in the desert, they could only find 30, and there are 32. They searched and searched and finally gave up for the night. Toni, Marlo and the kids also put Fancy in with Tank, Lona in with Leroy, moved the old mares out of Double’s pen, in with the yearling fillies, and put Comet in the heavy pen.
Saturday morning we went out to see if the two missing mares were back, and they were, all 32 horses were there and accounted for. Since we were moving mares on Saturday, they all headed towards circle 5, so we opened the gate and locked them in. Toni showed the horses to a couple from Burns that ended up taking Black Eye home after extensive review of all the colts. After checking Kade came down and we caught heifers and steers. Then we moved everything around, got circle 4 in, sorted out show steers and feeder steers. It was windy so the kids did not wash, but they worked on showing skills. We worked on the fence in circle 5, so we could move the Herefords down there. Then we got the mares into the corral and started sorting them and putting them into pens. The yomigas, Whitney, Shelby and Shanice, were bored so they came over and helped the kids with their show animals, turning them loose and getting them used to strangers. Toni and I continued to sort, work, and move mares and mares with foals. We got all of the studs turned out except Jackpot and Sagebug. We moved Gang and Colonel down a pen each. We got done pretty late Saturday, but decided to be done. The yomigas had helped the kids with chores. Then Whitney complained that “her” mare, Charlie, is not with “her” stud, Leroy. LOL. Charlie (yes, the horse) likes to follow Whitney around and sip at the beer can, so Whitney now claims her. Charlie is kind of weird.
Sunday morning Kade came down and the kids caught their steers and heifers. Ben and I fixed a little bit of fence that the mares had gone through. Toni and Jaxsen fixed a little bit of other fence that colts had torn up. When we were done getting all the horse re-situated, we loaded up the 3 Spokane steers and the three jackpot clubbies and took them to a birthday party in Connell with us so they could get used to kids. They actually did pretty good. Ben and Kicker stayed home and moved the Herefords and rolled up fence. We got home and continued moving the horses around, Kade and Kaine moved the Herefords the rest of the day, Kicker and Ben had them locked in the corral, and Anna checked on the show animals. Jackpot and Sagebug got put out with mares. So all of the main studs now have mares. We don’t consider Colonel a main stud anymore because of his poor breeding mentality.
We had a fun filled, active weekend. We got our hands on all of our foals and are just so pleased. We are still debating which ones are the best, but that is because we can’t choose! We are also trying to decide on which ones to keep. Lots of negotiation, discussion, in-depth examination, and overthinking are occurring regarding what to keep and what to sell out of the fillies we have so far. Every time that we get a new filly, just ads to the quagmire of great options. So hard!
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