Monday morning was brisk, but at least the sun was out. The boys all had football practice. Anna and Jaxsen did most of chores, before he went to practice, and then Toni and I worked on the foals. We hooked Nevada to Tulip, this is her second day on her. I led Dual Again around while Tulip led Nevada. Toni worked on Rog and Spark. Anna went home to feed the new show animals and lead them and let them go. Ben and Kicker were out fixing circles, we only have water for another week or so, so you need to get the last soaks in. and FYI, Ben and Kicker work on circles and chase water basically every night when water is on, I just don’t always mention it.
Tuesday morning was a little colder and a little darker, definitely fall weather. I am glad we are not in the weather stream for all of your areas that got snow. I had lots of snow snaps on Tuesday morning. Brad Cox delivered our cow, calf and heifer from Traynhams Ranches, Brett met him there to pick up his two pair and Stacy also came around the same time to pick up Adrian and Emmett’s heifers from the Evergreen sale. Toni took Jaxsen into get team football pics and pick the other two boys up after football pictures were done. That took until around 7, which was dark so I don’t know if they had the stadium lights on for pictures? Toni and Anna had done most of chores, but I still had to move dad’s water, since he was harvesting until late, worked on Nevada and Dual, Nevada did great and did not have to be tied to Tulip. Fed Stinger and Annie, moved Regan around and fed her. So I was busy until Toni got home with the boys.
Wednesday Toni loaded Spark and Regan and sent them on their way to CA. They loaded great and left at first light. Spark went to a new customer that hasn’t been here before, hasn’t met us, and had never seen Spark before she got here. That is always nerve wracking, but she absolutely loved Spark. Spark is our first foal out of King to be shipped. We had 2 this year, one sold to CA and one to OK. Both are excellent babies. Wednesday afternoon, the two big boys had football games in Connell, so Toni did chores early so she could go watch Kade. It was Kade’s first jr high game with the 7th grade team. When she was done with chores and about to head home, Hayley called to tell her that there were horses out at Hayley’s house. Toni didn’t think the horses could possibly be ours because Hayley lives a couple of miles away. Toni went anyway and much to her dismay found Gunner and Sagebug in Hayley’s yard. Toni got in touch with Ben and they finally got them home. On the way home, Gayle and Ken’s longhorn steer jumped out (Ben says he just stepped over the fence) of his single wire, low hot fence to join the party and was also out. Kendel came out to help them get him in. So after the studs got put back, then the steer, who has a huge rack of horns, also had to be got in and put back. Kendel went up and tightened her parent’s fence so that it might possibly keep him in for the future. Gunner had destroyed the wood fence so all of the studs had to be moved around. Leroy got moved up to Toni’s house, Gunner went in Sagebug’s pen, Sagebug went into Gunner’s pen. Toni did not make it to Kade’s game. They finished moving, sorting, and fixing when the game was over. Kade made a touchdown and an extra point for his team along with multiple sacks. Kaine also had a good game, which I got to see, with lots of great blocking and sacks. And Toni added most of this about the studs and Longhorn, I was not there, I was at the football game.
Thursday morning Toni had to go to in person court again. After work was done we worked on foals. Jaxsen had a game in Mattawa, so Toni, Marlo and Jaxsen went to Mattawa at 4. Kaine and Kade had practice, so came home on the activity bus. I dropped Kade off at his house, Anna was finishing up the steer and heifer chores, I dropped Kaine off to help her finish cleaning the barn. We also had our friend John deliver a black stallion for us to try. He is a son of Smart Lil Highbrow, who won $97k. We don’t know if we will be standing him in 2022, but we are seeing how he adjusts to our ranch.
Friday there was not any practice, so Kaine and Kade helped with chores and their steers after school. They got to lead foals, it helps having new people for stranger danger. We also had Marlo on Friday to work on stranger danger. And Toni got some good pics of Marlo for a social media deal at Lovejoy Farms, Marlo’s family farm.
Saturday everyone went different directions, or almost everyone. Ben, Kicker, Kade and Kaine went hunting with cousin Manny, this was the first time Kaine and Kade had been deer hunting. They were pretty excited. They did not see anything they could shoot, but did see lots of deer. Toni took Jaxsen to Royal for a football game, poor Jaxsen injured his ankle, luckily it was the last game of the season. Anna, Logan and I went to Pomeroy to get some more show steers from Jana Koller. Anna, Logan and I got home and unloaded the seers, then I rolled up wire at the bottom of the corn field and put out mineral. Toni got home and we went down and haltered foals. We have Nevada and Dual leaving Monday so getting them ready along with the other foals we need to get to their new homes. Then a poodle male came to breed Lynn, so Anna, Logan and I left and left Toni there on her own. Ben, Kicker, Kaine and Kade got home to do the cow chores. Mom wanted a gate in the old mare pen to walk through when the weather gets bad, so Toni put that in.
Sunday Ben, Kicker, Kaine and Kade went hunting again in the morning, they went to different places this time. Again, nothing they could shoot. Anna tied up the steers and heifers and then washed hers an started clipping them. We had meat buyers come out on Sunday, and actually on Friday as well. Then we went to Jaxsen’s house for his birthday party. We had tacos and banana cream pie. After that we tied up the Texas steers, Anna kept clipping and the boys worked on theirs. Toni and I loaded Nevada and Dual Again since they were leaving on Monday. We also went ahead and loaded Rog, just so we can get her really used to loading. She is the spitting image of Leroy and acts just like him too. She pretty much stands there and lets us do whatever, but has perfected the horse eye roll if you hug on her neck too long. Then we tied PBJ to Tulip. I took Tulip back to my house to tie steers too. Toni and Mom aren’t too happy about Tulip leaving, so I kept having to reassure them that I will bring her back.
Wow, we have been busy this week. Time just flies with so much to get done. We have a full plate of things to accomplish before winter, but we are getting through the list. One of the questions we have been asked this week a few times, is why do we have Jackpot and King for sale? Jackpot and King are studs we have raised and really reallly like. They are great horses with tons of potential. We really don’t want to sell them, but we have quite a few studs hanging around. We would like to get a black based stud that isn’t related to ½ of our mares. King is super cool, hz black, one copy of the roan gene, and fancy, but he is related to quite a few of our mares. And he is related to Double and Tank, two of our other studs. Jackpot isn’t as related to our herd, but he is a crème based stud and we have way too many of those. It is a hard decision to put studs up for sale. You put a lot of thought into a breeding program along with the emotional investment. We have the two for sale priced at what we think they are worth, so we will see. It won’t break anyone’s heart if they don’t sell. And mom does not want to sell King at all, he is her favorite, so the price literally gets added and taken off all of the time. It is back off now I think.
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