Posts Tagged With: #ranchingFebruary

Life is the sum of your choices- choose to buy a horse.

Posted on March 15, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

No new babies on Monday morning. Dad went to the Palouse and got pellets, he said it is snowing there. Ben and Kaine unloaded the trailer and then took it up to feed cows. Bouncing Betty lost a tire on Saturday, so we are down a flatbed trailer. Jaxsen had an FFA competition on Monday, Toni thinks Jaxsen is going to be short lived with FFA, he got to miss chores but did not miss any school. The boys placed really well, they were first, and the girls team was 2^nd. Good job guys. Jax tied for first on the meats test. The kid knows his food.

No new babies on Tuesday either, and Playin would like someone to play with. She is being evil to her mother. It was Savannah’s birthday on Tuesday and a lot of times we have a foal on her birthday, but not this year. Anna went to the Jr high to do a presentation for FFA on ag related jobs. Dad went to work running tractor for Luke. Kade worked on opening and closing gates on Mauney. We are done halter breaking the foals, but we still have Bellini in the round pen due to her eye graft. She gets the graft removed from her eyeball next week. She is doing really great, but has lots and lots of energy and needs to be out of the roundpen.

Toni went and got her stolen child and brought her out to see the horses on Wednesday. She got to pet Libby, pet horses, hug Abby, etc. Things a small child likes to do. She wanted to pet all of the cows, but since most of the cows are not halter broke and don’t like small children, that was a no go. Coffey had to come back out and work on the freezer, it had an error message. 626B calved, one of the last few stragglers. She was a show heifer and produced a really pretty little heifer for Kade. Dad went out to drive tractor again and dropped mom off to stay with grandma. Toni stayed with grandma Wednesday night.

On Thursday we had a big ditch break at work, but it could have been worse, no one was injured. We are starting the main canals up to start water on the 13^th. Toni checked cows and horses when she got home, no one new. We got a gorilla cart and some circle tires in the Booker auction, which was good. We were bidding on some hay spears in the Yarboro auction. Hopefully we get those too. We missed some weed shearers in the Booker auction that would have been really great to have on the Russian olive trees. I was really disappointed we missed those. Toni is also watching those standalone 24 foot panels at Booker, but they went too high. She may have access to those panels delivered to Othello for $350 per panel if anyone needs any.

On Friday Ben and I went with Anna, and Lane and Myles were also there, to Moscow to tour the University of Idaho. We had a great time in the walking tour and then Micheal Colley took us for a tour of the production cattle, feed lot, sheep and dairy facilities, etc. We all had a great time. I had an emergency board meeting at 1, so I missed part of the tour. Toni had a bunch of meetings, and Chad was out so Toni was busy with him. We are trying to get all of the yearlings trimmed up for the first time. They got three yearlings done then four big mares in the time they had. The yearlings were all good, but they were the ones we expected to be good. They also had Celeste in to get a trim but Celeste is only good when Celeste is doing what Celeste wants to do. She was not into having her feet trimmed. Mom helped hold horses as well. Kaine went snowmobiling with Maxx, Marlo, Kade and Toni did most of the chores. We got home about six so Ben and Anna did go feed the cows.

On Saturday morning Anna and I went to the Big Bend Annual meeting for her to accept the scholarship she won. She got to read her essay to the meeting attendees. We sat with Uncle David and Shattucks. Our whole table won door prizes, we were a pretty lucky table. Dad went with Kade to Colton for Trap. Dad and Kade both reported it was a cold and windy trip. They then went to St John and saw Uncle Skip and went to Ed Hayes before coming back. Ben went around and got all of the auction items we bought, circle tires from Booker, hay spears from Yarboro. In the afternoon Ben and Anna rolled up fence. Toni and I moved mares and stallions around. We are trying to get the open mares out with studs asap before the mares with foals go out. We turned our 2 year olds out in the big pasture, but Gunner and three mares in their pen. MC got moved to Gunner’s pen with 2 mares. Cappy was able to stay in his pen with 2 mares. Dude and Bug still don’t have mares just because. I stayed with grandma on Saturday night. Anna and Lane went to Ritzville prom in Spokane.

On Sunday Wagners came out and looked at bulls. Dad and Ben went to Alans and got a harrow, checked on the Charolais cow and had cinnamon rolls with Alan. Anna went out and pulled more posts out of the fence. Kade tied up his steers, Anna washed her steers and heifers. Kade rode Stormy out to check things. Then Toni, Kade, Jaxsen, and I went out and got a few mares in out of circle 5. Shiney had foaled and had a big, pretty, grulla colt. We are very happy he is alive and healthy, but this is the second stunning grulla COLT she has had. It isn’t too much to ask for a filly is it? We have more to get in, but the main ones we wanted came in so we left it alone. We just had our little old white trailer so we took them in two loads. It was super windy so we called it a day. Then we did chores. Kaine got home in time for chores. Kaine had tons of fun on his trip, but it was good to get him home and back to work.

Life is the sum of your choices- choose to buy a horse. We have five really cool yearlings left, a brood mare and Kade’s sale horse. All ready to be someone’s project.

Sale Page

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Last Week in Pictures

Posted on March 5, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #2024Foals, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAProud, #Barnbabies, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingFebruary, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchingspring, #ranchinwinter, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised, #WABeefLove, #WAJrAngus, #WALoveBeef, #WAlovebeef #ranchingheritagebreeders, #washingtoncattlemen, AQHA

Productive Friday, pulling CIDRs, shipped two colts, semen tested bulls.

Posted on March 2, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #AQHA for sale, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAProud, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingFebruary, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchingspring, #ranchinwinter, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised

There is always so much optimism when the end of January hits and we can all see spring coming. Of course mother nature usually has some surprises left in store for us in February.

Posted on February 21, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

On Monday we all skipped work/school to go to the BB Cattle Sale. Kaine, Kade and Toni took horses, so they did not have to chase the bulls on foot. As kids we always used horses, but for the past few years they haven’t been, and the boys decided they did not want to walk anymore. Toni just rode before the sale with them, she was in bidding on bulls for us. We let Kade take Stormy and ride her in the morning. It was Stormys first ride away from home and she was a rock. A few things she kind of big eyed, but she was super great. She had to stay in the trailer when the sale actually started and Kade rode Electra. We had a couple of bulls we were bidding on and Toni had another couple for a client. We did not get any. However, that is good for Joe, and we will just use one of his bulls or our polled bull, since we did not get one. Toni did get one for a client. Erina and Terry also came up to see us, and Morgan took Tel for a spin on Kevin, Kaine tried too but Tel did not want to ride with Kaine. Kaine also took Kayla for a ride on ol Kevin. I guess he took Kevin instead of Pow Pow so he could give kiddie rides? Kaine and Kade ran bulls back and forth with the twins and Nick. Anna, Traci, Marlo, Emma and I ran gates with Todd, Luke, Amy and Bree. Dad socialized. Ben sorted bulls with Jolene and Mar. Toni and I bought a dart medicine gun after the sale from Old Mill. We have been wanting one for over a year so were super excited about it. Then we went home and did chores.

On Tuesday Toni was busy all day with clients so she texted Kaine and Kade and asked them to do her chores for her, she included me in her text. So when I got to the house dad asked me if I knew if Toni was stopped on her way to grandmas to feed the “colts?” Toni stayed with grandma on Tuesday. I said she is not, she asked the boys to feed them and the old horses, dad said he did not see the boys feed them. So I called Kaine, he said I did not get a text, I said not looking at your texts and not getting it are not the same thing. Did Kade feed the foals? He did not know, even though they are doing chores together he does not know if Kade fed them?? I called Kade, he also did not look, see or check his text messages. Lesson here, Kaine and Kade don’t read texts. Since they are always staring at their phones does that mean they are snapping?? Gina, Blue and Abs were NOT happy about the tardiness of their grain when I went out there, they had all been fed hay, just not their grain.

On Wednesday mom went over and stayed with grandma. Happy Valentines Day, and it would have been grandma and grandpa’s anniversary, so mom and dad stopped and got flowers at Kaffrins on their way. Toni chopped 2 poles and put them in her pu to take down at chore time. The poles left in the pile are all huge. Luckily she got to cut a bunch off of them as we only need to fix two spots on a 12 foot width fence. Kade and Anna had FFA practice after school so Toni, Kaine, and Jax fixed the fence at mom and dads in Dude pen. An old pole broke and was a little leany. Toni now wants to work on the fence along the top of Cappy’s pen to get it shored up before breeding season. Kade went down after chores and started riding BB, the mare he has for sale. It was dark out but she did a great job. Kade is just riding her in a halter.

Guess what, on Thursday we woke up to snow and it was snowing. Groundhog, what happened??? My drive to work was not too bad headed south, but the drive north for Ben was terrible, he said the worst he has had. The kids also said it was terrible going to school, Kaine needs new tires on his pickup and he spun out a bunch of times driving slow to mom and dads. 006 (an old show heifer) felt that Toni needed to feed her some corn when she checked due to the cold. Jax had more baby teeth pulled on Thursday. He had to have 7 removed before he could get braces, so that is next on the agenda. Kade rode the black mare on Thursday night and Toni got some pics and videos for him to post. Then Toni went up and dug a couple of holes for railroad ties. The ground wasn’t so frozen she couldn’t dig. Then she had clients that night so she didn’t get as much fixed on the fence as she wanted. Her and Jax had tried to lift the railroad ties but they needed more muscle. These railroad ties have been on the place long before we moved here back in the 80s and they are all of 10 feet tall and still heavy as heck. We had a cute black ballie calf on Thursday out of a Hereford cow.

We still had some snow on Friday, but a lot of it had melted. Avery, one of the clubby cows, had a cute Angus cross calf on Friday. Toni showed horses and Chad came out around the same time, so a lot was going on. Mom and Dad had gone to town so Toni and Chad were on their own to get everything done. The yearlings came in great, so the people that came got to get a good look at the colts we have left for sale. They really liked a couple of them. We are color testing Mage for them to see if he is going to be gray or stay buckskin. Marlo came about the same time as mom and dad got home. Marlo told Toni that Kaine and Kade were broke down at the intersection of 17 and Hendricks. We found out later that Kaine’s transmission went out. The boys had someone help them push the pu off of the road as they were blocking the intersection. Then Anna had to go find Ben to go tow them home. Marlo and Toni did most of the chores before the boys finally got there for chores. Toni asked the boys to come help put up the two railroad ties as she had the holes dug. It took Marlo, Toni, Kaine, and Kade to get the railroad ties up and in the holes. Once both were up, one of the boys said we just had to put the ties up right? Toni said yeah, so the boys took off. In their defense they still had to feed circle 5 and had a long day. Marlo and Toni tamped the ties in, put a cross bar up, chopped the fence out of the tree and got the fence fixed. When they stopped it was 6:50 pm and they could still see a little bit, so it is getting lighter out. Toni still wants to fortify the fence. It is basically at the top of the hill so it is pretty prone to sloughing. Kade took a snaffle bit and rode BB late again. She is just a super cool mare. Too bad she doesn’t have papers. If she was reg we would probably keep her!

On Saturday we got the cows in and sorted them to put in CIDRs and put the rest out with the bulls. It was still pretty cold, so I let Toni ride my horse, Shimmer, and rode with Jaxsen in the pickup, Toni was going to have to haul her horse down. Anna rode Jag and Kevin and Kaine rode Pow. Kade was at a trap shoot. We got all of the cows sorted, bulls moved out of the pasture, the AI cows into that pasture, cull cows sorted, the few cows that need a little TLC in, all of the ranch stuff we needed to get done we got it done. The horses were great. We had a small technical difficulty with Pow. We were out in the middle of the cornfield and her bridle just came off. Luckily Kaine was able to get her stopped with the halter so he switched bridles with Anna. Shimmer is not a horse you can ride chasing cows without a bridle. She is on the hotter side even now that she is older and likes to chase. Basically she will chase cows just for the love of the game. So a great horse to chase cows, terrible to try to trail ride. Good thing we don’t trail ride. Kevin was fine with the bridle switch. Pow and Kaine had some adjusting to do, but they got it done and we got the job done. Luckily we chose Saturday because even though it was cold, it wasn’t as bad as Sunday when we had snow and rain spitting down all day. We had a long Saturday but a really great one. We were all really cold by the end. I went and stayed with Grandma Saturday night.

On Sunday we woke up to the snow rain mix. My drive home was fine. 039 calved and had a pretty nice bull calf. Even though it was snowing it wasn’t terribly cold so we didn’t take her to the barn. She had the calf down in the weeds so it was dry and warm. Kade and Kaine went over to help Marlo move a couple of couches. It didn’t take long and they were back before lunch. Lots of ranch stuff to get done, but we all kind of took it easy on Sunday, or as easy as we could anyway. Kaine worked on one of his show heifers and his steers. Anna went to Warden to see Lane, so Kaine helped feed the cows before we went up to do horse chores.

There is always so much optimism when the end of January hits and we can all see spring coming. Of course mother nature usually has some surprises left in store for us in February. The last two years we have had bad weather all the way into April. Lets hope that this year this last burst of snow is the last of it. We are all looking forward to warmer weather and green grass.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #AQHA, #AQHA Bay filly for sale, #AQHABlackfilly, #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAProud, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingfall, #ranchingFebruary, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchlife, #WABeefLove, #WAJrAngus, #WALoveBeef, #WAlovebeef #ranchingheritagebreeders, #washingtoncattlemen

No words of wisdom for this one.

Posted on February 15, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

It rained Monday, we had a nice day Sunday to dry out some of the mud, but no more. Toni checked cows and horses and then sorted out 9 poles out of the pile to put on the fence. She texted the boys after school they get to help her get poles and put them up. Jaxsen texted he had FFA practice, but it got canceled so he got to help. Lucky Lucky him. Toni and the boys put up 2 poles Monday night, in the section we already had two in, so we are down to 6 sections of poles to put up. Ben and Anna are still feeding the cows with the tractor due to the mud.

On Tuesday Jaxsen had a dentist appointment, so he got to skip some school. They also took the Pendelton upholstery fabric with them for Toni’s office couch that she is having reupholstered. Toni checked cows in the Am in the mud. She told Monica it was her day to calve, and Monica had a calf by the time Anna got home. Monica is one of our clubby cows. She has a cute black white-faced calf. Toni and the boys did another section of fence. Kaine and Kade both went to help work on friends’ pickups Tuesday night so they took off to go be boys.

On Wednesday dad and mom came to town and brought a coffee too me, they are the best. Guess what, fog and rain on Wednesday, made checking difficult for Toni. She got pics of Charlotte the Charolais, Monica and her calf and 710 and her calf. She told the old cow in the calving pen it was her day, so she thinks she will calve on Wednesday. Kade had agronomy practice after school, but got home in time to help with the fence. The old cow in the heavy pen did not calve, so talking to the cows does not work to inspire them to get with it. We are making progress with the fence, but it isn’t fun.

On Thursday when Toni checked there were a whole gang of calves out, and they were not concerned with her catching them up. They sauntered around. Toni and Kaine had to go and get poles for their fencing project and then put up a few more poles, but ran out of lag bolts. Jaxsen is in charge of the lag bolts so should have probably mentioned they lag bolts were running low. Jaxsen had to have baby teeth pulled at the dentist to get ready for braces. Kaine and Toni weren’t in a good mood after loading 8 more heavy poles and getting them up the hill. Dad had gone to a funeral in St. John so brought home some of Uncle Tommy’s genealogy boxes. It was mostly full of moldy gross stuff but we found one crown jewel. It was a story that Great Aunt Bess typed up in 1927 of a trip she took around the Pacific Northwest with some friends. The story is 11 pages long and super well written and informative. It was also super interesting that on the trip they went and visited the Mastersons in Cle Elum which have been friends on our Mom’s side of the family for generations. So part of life in ag of how we are all related somehow continues. Very interesting and entertaining.

On Friday I worked on the corn field fence until around 11:30, then mom and I went to Cowpath in Othello for lunch. It was really good, we had potato soup, carrot cake and brought donuts back for everyone. Toni went into Connell and had lunch with Evy and Evy’s mom Holly, so she did not go with us. After dropping mom off I finished most of the corn field fence, then went down and we put up more poles. We are getting really close to being done! The CX Ranch cattle sale was Friday in Lewiston. Our agents, Dad and Uncle Joe, went on our behalf. We had a couple of head picked out but Uncle Joe said we were going to love one of the heifers. Toni told him he had authority to make it happen, so we got a new Hereford heifer on Friday. We didn’t see her or any pictures, but we trust Uncle Joe and of course Bill and Kayla. CX Ranch has good quality cattle so we weren’t concerned, but were very excited.

Saturday morning Anna, Ben and I finished the last few things on the fence and then turned the cows out. They were happy. Kade had trap shooting and went to Colton. Terry went up to watch him shoot and brought snacks. After lunch Toni and I got 7 more poles ready to put up and bid on some mares in the Moses Lake sale. We did not get any. We also got grass straw out to all the pens that needed it. We got the poles set out and did chores then went to Tel’s 1^st birthday. We were very excited to finally meet Tel. He lives in Wyoming.

On Sunday Jeanie brought a couple of horses out for Kade to ride and get pics of. He is selling one for her. She is a nice grade black mare that will be 8 this summer. She has been broke to ride, used in the mountains to move cattle, and used in general ranch work. She hadn’t been ridden since last November but saddled up great and rode right out. She is a very kind, nice mare. She will be on our for sale page very soon. Anna got Baby Cow into the heavy pen. We got our 2 little girls, Robin and Celeste, weaned and in the round pen. So we are DONE weaning the 2023 foal crop. Toni, Kaine, Kade and I finished the fence, then we all went to the BB Cattle Co Sale dinner. It was a huge relief to get the fence done. We needed that side finalized for a couple of reasons- 1) so we have a good, heavy, nice safe fence on the side that will be closest to other studs so we can turn a stallion out in that pasture; and 2) a good fence because we plan to plant the alley between the pens with native grasses. We already have 2 little trees growing on the hillside.

One project down. 14,345 to go. On fencing projects we only have a couple that have to be done asap. We start the next one next week. It won’t be as strenuous we all hope. We won’t be pulling heavy poles up a hill, so it already sounds better.

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Last Week in Pictures plus a few from January that I found on my camera.

Posted on February 14, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: #AQHAforsale, #AQHAforsaleinWA, #AQHAProud, #QHColor, #Quarter horses for sale in WA, #Quarterhorseforsale, #QuarterhorsesinWA, #ranch life, #Ranching, #ranchingFebruary, #RanchingHeritageBreeder, #ranchinwinter, #ranchlife, #ranchliving, #ranchraised, #WABeefLove, #WAJrAngus, #WALoveBeef, #WAlovebeef #ranchingheritagebreeders, #washingtoncattlemen

To quote Kaine’s favorite singer Walker Hayes (Kaine does not like Walker Hayes but I do so I enjoy making Kaine listen to him) – it’s good times, right.

Posted on February 7, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Monday was a Monday of Mondays. Toni went to check and 10 heifers were out and one Hereford pair (who was not even in the same pen). She chased them around, Murtaugh and Meranda showed up to help her at precisely the wrong time and ran them back over her. She got them in with the cows, but not before they went through a couple of fences and got Sagebug out with pushed over panels in all of the excitement. Sagebug proceeded to run through the fat steers about three times but did not go over the hotwire. After his three rounds of running he wanted to know what Toni was doing as she was trying to pick the panels back up so he just came back to his pen without any chasing. After everything was put in some type of a pen and the cows checked, mom sent her a picture of the coming two year old filly Absolute out and eating hay. Toni got down there to find that Absolute was covered in cockleburs, but unscratched besides that. Angel the tb stepped on something out in the circle and injured her leg, so mom and Anna went down and got her, they had to lead her up the hill since it was too muddy to get the trailer down there. And guess what else they found in there? 5 bulls that were out and in with the horses. Due to all of the run off there is water across Horseshoe Rd, so that is fun. But, it is warm enough we do not have to get up to check every two hours. Toni and Kade worked on the fence Monday night were Absolute got out, and Kaine went to help the others feed. And Debbie, I know you told me last Friday that Jaxsen likes to help more than we give him credit for, but I did not hear of him helping with the fence or feeding…

Tuesday morning Kade had a dentist appt, so Toni ran him down to that after checking, she called on her way down, and told them she was running 5 min late, they told her she was actually 10 min late, and she had to reschedule. So they rescheduled for Wednesday. Kaine made himself a hair appt after school, he said he was tired of his mullet, but his hair did not look that much different when he got home. Cows were out eating the corn and hay that night and Anna and the men spent a lot of time chasing them in the dark and fixing fence. For some reason we were not getting power from circle 3, so they had to run down to circle 5 and steal that fencer, so I do not know what is keeping those in. Ben’s transmission stopped going in reverse, so Kaine had to go down and pull them backwards. So they then came up and got my ranch pickup, which I am currently very concerned about since Ben is not easy on anything. And Debbie, Jaxsen helped Toni build fence on Tuesday

On Wednesday dad and mom went to tri cities, they brought me a coffee at work and mom came in to check on George 2.0 (the fish). Toni brought Kade down to the orthodontist after checking cows, the last char heifer calved. Kade wants to do leather work so they had lunch with aunt Peggy and uncle Tom then went and got some of the leather working tools Tom has. Uncle Tom also has a bunch of surgery tools from some random lot of stuff he got at an auction so he gave Toni more forceps, some tiny scissors, and some other cool stuff that we hope we never need. We had a load of grain delivered, Kendel went down to show him where to dump it and he got stuck, and he dug himself out by hand. MC got his gate open and went down to the house, so he was at the house. When Toni and the boys got down to do chores they saw the chain was broke and put him back and fixed the chain. They also put a few poles along the middle pen. It is time to get all the fencing projects that we need to get done, done.

On Thursday 958 calved, one of the heifers that Kade showed. She had a big bull calf. One of my lucchese mules got chewed by Ben’s dog. However, Ben is denying it was his dog. Most chores in the mud, they are feeding the cows pulling the flatbed with the tractor, Old Red the pickup can’t make it through. Toni can barely make it thought with her pickup checking the cows. Toni stayed with Grandma on Thursday night but they got some fence worked on before she left. We are actually fixing a section that the colts had destroyed, so it is really annoying because it shouldn’t be on the list of fencing projects. But we have to get it done so we can take the panels that are there up the hill for the project that we really need to do to replace one last hill fence at Mom and Dad’s to use that pen for a stud. Barbed wire fence is not ideal with stallions, so we are trying to replace it all. This is the last high pressure barbed wire fence we have left to replace. We will still have some barbed wire, but not much.

Ben was home on Friday, they are working 9 hrs and get every other Friday off. Which is the opposite of the Fridays I get off. He hauled the heifers back up to the house and turned them in with the cows. Chad came out and trimmed the riding horses, Tank and a few others. We finished the rebuild fencing project and started on the actual project. The boys are still going and feeding circle 5 so they negotiated a stay on packing the heavy Powder River panels up the steep hill until Saturday. Everyone is busy, lots of mud, so whatever. We let them have a break. I stayed with grandma on Friday night.

Kade had a shooting meet on Saturday, he got second in buddy shot. He did great. The Connell team did great overall with a second-place finish and some of the other kids won some great awards. The trap team is overall an amazing group of kids. Ben and I ran down the power, and why we did not have any at circle 3, 2 fuses were blown, so we got that fixed and fixed the fence and turned the cows out into 2. Anna worked on fence then went to Milton Freewater with Lane. At moms and dads Toni, Kaine, Kade, Jaxsen and I worked on the fence in the middle pen. Toni got some new tool for the cockleburs in Absolute’s hair and worked on that for awhile. I told her she already has that tool but she is always getting new tools to try to get the crap out of the horse’s mane/tail. Absolute didn’t want to walk through water when her grooming session was done so we worked on her for awhile. The big boys packed panels up the hill and Toni and I tied them up and hooked them together. We were one panel short to reach the spot we wanted to get to with panels. Even if we put as many panels as we can up there we still have a bunch of heavy, long, terribly back breaking poles to pack up the hill and get on the fence.

Sunday was a nice sunny day and we spent most of it building fence around the corn field. Prior to fencing Kade took Stormy out for a ride. Kaine’s girlfriend Kendra came out and rode along. Kendra has one of those home ec fake babies that you have to pack around for a school grade. Funniest thing ever to see Kaine packing a car seat. Hopefully we don’t see that for real for about 10 years or more. Kaine’s dog Andee was freaked out by it and would not get near him and hid behind me. Both Kaine and Kade got their pickups stuck. Toni, Anna and Jaxsen got a lot of posts in while I pulled them out and Ben rolled up wire. We were amazingly efficient because the ground is so soft. Ben said that isn’t going to be great when the posts fall over in the mud, but we are all positive about the fact that we got all the posts in we needed to and can get the cows out on more stalks and into cleaner areas. Mom made us sandwiches since we were all starving. Then Kaine and Kade packed the last panel up the hill and Toni, Kade and I put two poles up. Now to the pole sections. We have 6 ½ sections left so that means 26 poles. We can do it. We can do it.

To quote Kaine’s favorite singer Walker Hayes (Kaine does not like Walker Hayes) – it’s good times, right. No really, we joke, but the crew worked hard this week. We are about to start the countdown to our first 2024 foal. We used to have a fun Facebook challenge on who would foal first, but haven’t done that for a while. If anyone has any guesses, just for fun, put it in the comments. We are checking mares, but should be a few weeks off. Exciting times ahead, and not fence building exciting, actually really exciting.