Posts Tagged With: #showjocks

Toni entertained the round robin crowd (which was quite large) at Kaine’s expense by teasing Kaine about being a chick magnet. Fun was had by all.

Posted on September 19, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Monday was a Monday prior to going to another fair so extra special. Monday Toni stayed with grandma, so she started chores before I got home. Kade rode Joss out across the alfalfa field. The boys are getting things ready to go to CBJLS on Wednesday. Toni is warning her clients she will be out of pocket after Wednesday. The men picked up the baled straw in circle 3. I think they said there were 64 bales, pretty good for 30 acres. We received our letter from NILE on who is getting our Nile Merit Heifer. We have not heard from her yet, so I am guessing she has not received her letter. We want to leave it a surprise so we aren’t going to say her name here. But we are excited. We are still hoping Kade is also getting a heifer, fingers crossed!

Tuesday Toni was back online shopping for steers and show heifers. I told her I think we are good on steers. I checked the watch list and there are like 7 steers on it…. I told her she is off the rail. The boys loaded up some supplies for CBJLS. You know, chairs, drinks, etc. My snap Tuesday morning from Traci was she picked up Anna on the side of the road and they were headed to Clarkston to look at steers. I guess she must not have many classes on Tuesday. Dad went to the Needle Spot and picked up our buyers gifts from Suzie. We have Shiney Guy in because he acted like he had junk in his eye, but he seems fine. Toni takes a flag into the old mare pen when she feeds grain because those mares will just flat run over you for the grain. When she set the bucket down Shiney Guy went right up to the bucket and started playing with the flag. She got a funny video of him picking the flag up out of the bucket and dropping it on the ground then stepping on it. The Tank foals are generally pretty nonreactive with lots of personality.  Tuesday night Toni and I went out and got some videos of a few of the foals for people. We had to fight off all the 2 and 3 year olds that all want to be in the middle of our business and I had to listen to Toni tell me how she doesn’t really want to sell any of the foals because she loves them all. Clearly we can’t keep them all so reality needs to set in.

Wednesday was weigh in day for CBJLS. Toni and Kade loaded up all the steers, and extra stuff, and took them in and met Kaine, Anna and Jaxsen in there. But before that Toni took Bell, Shiney Guy and Susie, moms little dog, into Sagehill vet with Uncle Skip as her side-kick. Bell and Shiney Guy got dropped off but Susie and Skip got to come home. Toni took them to the Cow Path Bakery for a treat on the way home. Uncle Skip, being diabetic, wanted 2 of everything and had to settle for one item. Toni bought a few goodies for our fair week to keep our energy up.  Sheena needed to look at Shiney Guy’s eye, but as we had suspected his eye wasn’t bad. We just felt it was better to be safe than sorry! Once home, Toni and a friend put a cast on Copper’s leg. The cast is just to help support her leg as she heals and it is a fiberglass one that is on the back of the leg so we can still treat the injury.  Dad and I picked Shiney guy up that night after chores. Emmett had one of our half clubbies at the Othello Community Fair, and they did great. He was second in his class and made it back to the championship round. Steers all got weighed in at the fair, all made weight. Toni and the kids went to the 4-H club dinner and had a good night with friends. The weather was decently cool so a good start to the fair week.

Thursday was market at CBJLS. The Mike Meads scholarships were awarded before the show and Anna received one. Good job Anna and thank you to Brenda Meads and the Meads crew!  Kaine was the only one of our kids showing FFA, he was 2nd in his class and made it back to the championship round. Kade was 2nd in his class with his light weight steer. Jaxsen was 3rd in his class with his home-grown Angus steer, Anna was 1st in class, and Reserve 4H Champion, Cheyenne had a half club from us and he did pretty good, Sophie had a Hereford steer from us and he was 4th in class and Tucker, Sophie’s brother, had a Hereford steer from us and he was 6th in class. All the steers showed great. Within the show there were a few bobbles with some of the smaller kids having minor issues but all of the older kids stepped up and helped where needed. The greatest part of the CBJLS show is the camaraderie, the mentorship, the sense of community.  Everyone did a great job. Emmett and Big Red over in Othello were Champion in FFA 1, so they got to go into the Round Robin, and were Reserve champion overall in FFA. We are also proud of Aram for being Reserve Champion Senior showman in the 4-H division. This is Aram’s second year showing steers and he has taken to it incredibly well.

Friday was showmanship at CBJLS. Kaine was grand champion FFA showman and overall supreme champion showman. Kade was reserve champion Sr showman with Anna the runner up. Jaxsen, Julian, Natalie, Tesa and Ady all made it into the final drive for showmanship, in additional to Charlie Casey who had a steer we found for her (we did not raise him). Tesa was grand champion intermediate and Natalie was reserve champion. Brock, we also found a steer for him, was grand champion jr, and friend Clare Cox was reserve champion jr. All the kids did great. Kaine stepped in and helped another young kid with her steer, then Jaxsen’s steer went 2 rounds in pee wee with Kade helping some young kids and Red Velvet aka Lamborghini, Kaine’s very special steer, also did pee wee. Anna also had some kids she helped in pee wee.  The round robin was Friday night, the grand champion pig FFA show woman got Kaine and took him to show the pig and sheep. She shows steers, but she practiced on Red Velvet anyway. Red Velvet thought he was being tortured after he then had to go back and show peewee. However, by then he had given up and started ignoring Kaine. Yes, the steer would literally look away from him, giving all of us tortured cute face look but none of us would come save him. Emmett and his Red Velvet were in the round robin in Othello at noon, I hear Emmett did a great job. As a side note Emmett thought he was super funny to re-name Big Red to Red Velvet and copy Kaine’s name.  Kaine and Tesa did great that night, Tesa was grand champion intermediate show woman. Super proud of her, she prefers to show pigs but was a good sport and did a great job with her steer. Kaine was a good sport as the emcee and his aunt Toni entertained the round robin crowd (which was quite large) at Kaine’s expense by teasing Kaine about being a chick magnet. Fun was had by all.

Saturday was the sale, both in Othello and Connell, which made both sales be really soft. Luckily, we have a lot of really great people in our community. Diann Lovejoy Farms bought Anna’s steer, Christensen Oil bought Kaines, Bar W (Wes and Beth Wieseler) bought Kades and Ag West bought Jaxsens. Steers were last so we did not sell until around 5:30. Livestock judging was also Saturday morning and guess who got a perfect score?? 5 year old Kayla. The rest of the kids did a great job and Kade was our 4-H club high score with a 192 out of 200. We had a bunch of friends and community members come by on Saturday to see the steers. It is always fun to see the people you only see a few times per year. Saturday night we loaded the steers out and the kids had their big 4-H dance. We were all really tired but the kids love the dance and so they got to stay up late and enjoy themselves.

Sunday morning we woke up decently early to go pick up our stuff at CBJLS and then come home and nap. We are almost thankful that the Othello and Connell fairs were the same time this year. Normally we would pack up at Connell and head over to Othello to set up for another week at another fair, but not this year! There are some real advantages to the fairs being at the same time, like we don’t have to go to one of them. Sunday night we changed Copper’s bandage and looked at her leg. Toni says it is healing pretty well, mom agrees. I think it is gross and try not to look at it at all. Anna had to come over and help for a few minutes. I am not saying that Copper is getting kicky, but she is pretty done with this whole experience.  Then we did chores.

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To put it mildly, fair tired is an all kind of different tired!

Posted on August 30, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

The week of Aug 19th – Aug 25th was a fun filled week at the fair, it is known around here “The Best Week of Summer,” or by adults as the Longest Week of Summer or depending on how hot it is, the Worst Week of Summer. Anna started college classes Monday, and Ady decided to not go to the Benton Franklin Fair. We felt like we were short a few steers and kids all week. We only took 4 open heifers since last year they decided to make us clean out our beds, we used to take a whole bunch of open cattle. So it was a pretty light week for us really. Monday Kaine, Jaxsen, Toni and I hauled the steers in, Kade and Kicker took Kade’s pickup to B&W to have a gooseneck hitch put in, then Kicker brought Kade over to the fair. Ben and Kicker did all the chores all week, except the horse chores on two days when Toni and I drove home to dr Copper.

Tuesday was Market, Kaine and Kade were showing FFA this year, so they were first, they did a great job. Kade was grand champion in Market and Kaine was Reserve champion. Jaxsen, Julian and Natalie were showing 4H. Natalie and Julian both made it back to the champion round, Jaxsen was 3rd in his class which had 2 phenomenal steers in it. The funny thing is last fall we had some friends ask us to buy them steers for their kids. We bought some super top-notch steers and Toni said- we are going to regret buying these steers. The Market championship round had 3 of the steers that we bought last fall. They are that good. And one of them beat Jaxsen.  Natalie was grand champion 4H. That afternoon the kids went on rides and Toni and I went home to dr Copper and do the horse chores. We got back in time to go to the rodeo and eat dinner.

Wednesday was Fitting and Showing, the kids all did great again. Kaine was Grand Champion FFA in Fitting and Showing and Kade was Reserve champion. It was super cool because during that round the Judge said she kept waiting on one of the boys to make a mistake and they didn’t. She finally chose Kaine due to personal preference because they were both showing that good and their steers were that good. Let me tell you, we were beyond ecstatic to have the boys go back-to-back Grand Reserve/Grand Reserve in reverse. We did get asked if there were more than 2 FFA showmen and yes there were.  Natalie, Julian and Jaxsen all made it back to the championship round, and Natalie was grand champion. The kids all did great showing. Jaxsen’s steer, Gunz, that we raised took such good care of Jax. Some of the steers on both days were a bit much, getting loose, running the ring and steady eddie Gunzy and Jax just stood there and did their thing. Super solid. Wednesday football practice started, so Kaine and Max went to football practice when they got done showing. We walked around the fair for a while, got a massage in the massage chair, got a bundt cake sample, shoes polished. Then did chores and went to the rodeo and dinner.  We had heard rumors the big boys were wandering the fair with girls, but no first hand knowledge on that. Toni and Leslie also went to Craig Morgan and said it was an awesome concert.

On Thursday the kids went around and learned how to show all the animals for the round robin. Aram and Emmett “managed” the round robin kids. Kaine tried to fire Aram but since he didn’t hire Aram, he couldn’t fire him. Aram and Emmett are really good at managing people and it was hysterical to overhear Aram trying to boss Kaine around to get him motivated.  They did a great job. Toni and I went back to do chores right after lunch so we made it back in time for the round robin. All of the beef kids did great, none of them won, and we could not hear the announcer at all from our side of the ring, it was kind like we were the red headed step child (isn’t that the saying??) Our kids all did well though, I am proud of all 4 of them. Then we went to the rodeo and had dinner.

Friday was the sale, Kade, Natalie and Kaine were at the sale of champions at the beginning. Thank you Musser Bros Trucks and Auto, Watts Construction and Wheatland Bank for buying their steers. Then we waited around until last, had lunch, etc. Finally, it was Jaxsen and Julian turn. Ray Poland Construction bought Julians and Les Schwab about Jaxsens. Thak you to all our buyers. Kaine, Max, Keegan and Andrew went to practice on Friday. We went to the rodeo and dinner. Let me tell you, by Friday we were tired. Also, as kind of a fun thing there was a really cool hat booth that had set-up at the fair that had blanks, meaning you get to pick how the hat is shaped. Kade, Kaine, Julian, and Lane all wanted a semi-custom hat and it was really a fun process. Toni bought a pre-formed hat. Super fun to all have new straw hats. Jax got a ball-cap and a sweatshirt because he didn’t pack one. The weather was very moderate this year and it was rainy and windy by Friday.

Saturday was livestock judging, and Toni and Leslie have a good time getting the steer class together and placing them. Toni probably more so than Leslie. It is one of her favorite things. Judging cattle, what is more fun?  The kids all did pretty good, Aram was reserve champion in FFA and the FFA team with our kids was 1st. Natalie, Julian and Jaxsen all placed well in 4H. Kaine was at football so did not judge. Manny reserved tables for the rodeo on Saturday night, so we had great seats and Ben, Kicker, Anna, McCall, Marlo and Lane all came. We had a great time. Saturday night is really the only night we get to relax and enjoy the fair like normal people. Other than eating. We eat fried food all week at the fair. Funnel Cake, Elephant Ears, the big Fry square, etc. Lots of crap food.

Sunday morning we got up and cleaned out the beds, packed up our stuff and came home. We all took a nap when we got home, then did chores and cleaned out the camper.  To put it mildly, fair tired is an all kind of different tired!

We had a great time at the fair. Got to see good friends, help people, see people, and just let the kids enjoy their last week of summer.

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It was a long trip, but worth it. The kids made new friends, new experiences, showed their best, and had a good time. We got to spend quality time with them. Time in the pick-up where they can’t escape us. It was good to get home, but the trip was great.

Posted on July 14, 2023 by horseshoeangusranch

On Friday June 30th Toni, Anna, Kaine, Kade and I headed for Grand Island, Nebraska for the 2023 Angus Jr Nationals show with 6 heifers. On day one we went across WA, Idaho and Montana. We stopped in Missoula and had lunch with Pete and Samee, who were headed to Gelbvieh Jr. Nationals with Samee’s niece and nephew’s steers.  We continued our trip, staying the night at Millers’ Horse Plaza in Laurel, Mt. On day two, July 1st, we headed down to Wyoming, and cut across South Dakota and then South to Nebraska. We had a great trip and saw a lot of country. We made it to Grand Island on the 1st in time to get our stuff unloaded and the heifers fed then over to our Air BnB.  Some of the highlights of the trip: 1) spending good quality time with Anna, Kaine, and Kade. We did play some travel games- like if you got stuck on a deserted island who is the one person you would want with you? Questions like that. We got some really great answers. At times we were all laughing so hard we were crying. 2) We saw lots of new areas and some really cool sights as we cut across South Dakota. Everyone but Toni wanted to pick up a stray dog in Montana and take it with us on our trip. She was the fun killer. 3) We have now been told that Kaine and Kade want a ranch in the mountains. We pointed out lots of snow fences, they weren’t phased by snow fences. Maybe one winter off butt deep snow will change that.

                On Sunday we finished getting all set up got the heifers washed. Vjeraskas got there and we helped them get unloaded and then headed out to dinner and back to the air BnB. We had lots of our friends at the show. The Grand Island facility was a million times better than what we got the year before in Kansas City, MO. The boys and Anna all had friends that they had met in past years or at other shows. Kaine and Kade have a good friend Teegan from South Dakota that they met back up with. Toni and I have met lots of people and of course made it our mission to become friends with the parents stalled on either side of us. We had Mississippi on one side and Utah on the other. The Utah people are actually good friends with some of our friends, the Uznays. Small world. The Mississippi people were really talkative and we went back and forth to each other’s tack areas. The one Mississippi guy’s cattle liked our alfalfa hay better than the hay he brought so he got hay from us for the week.  The WA parents also got the stall decorations up, which was entertaining. Lots of opinions, but it all went up.  Our friend Kat had bought Toni a present- a t-shirt that said “purebred taste on a sale barn budget.” Super fitting and funny shirt.

Monday we washed and got the heifers ready again. The kids talked to Scott from Seldom Rest, he came over to see the heifers. The vendors were open so the boys went over and spent way too much money on shirts, jeans, ballcaps, and cologne. Toni about fell over at the bill, but boys clothes are expensive. Anna also got some stuff. We tried to find stuff for the people back home. The men are a pain in the butt to shop for. We had opening ceremonies and the tail gate. WA brought Apples and Cold Brew coffee again. We had a great time. Thayers, Vjeraskas, William and us poured coffee for people and kept the apples out. The kids ran around and to all of the states and tried their wares. Then we tore down, took the heifers out to the tie outs and went to bed.

On Tuesday our McKenna came and took pics of the Team Fitting. Kade, Kacey, Cora and Alyssa were our Team Fitting team. They did really good, we are proud of them. Toni went with Anna back to the house to get dressed for the delegate question and answer session, Anna and Kady were our voting delegates. And Happy 4th Everyone. Lots of fireworks and excitement in Grand Island. That is an area that really puts on a fireworks display. Because of thunder and lightening warnings, along with a tornado warning, the fireworks were less than they could have been but more than we are used to.

On Wednesday we started showing with Bred and Owned heifers. Anna had McKenna to help her fit Gamora and Kaine had his team of Kade and Teegan. Kade also flipped around and did Gamora’s front leg as well. Teegan also trimmed Kade’s hair a bit. Teegan is the boys’ good friend from South Dakota. At noon Kaine and Anna went over to get their Angus Foundation Scholarships for LEAD. Mayhem and Gamora were in the same class and both did really well. They were 5th and 6th in their class. McKenna left Wednesday when we got done showing to go to work.  She is working nights right now for KDOT. It was a three hour drive one way so we were really thankful she was willing to come see us. It was also colt on July 5 so Toni and Anna got sweatshirts from the vendors. Lots of people wearing sweatshirts on Wed. To add to the excitement, Toni had bought a yearling filly out of Kansas in an auction, so we went over to the main office and talked our way into renting a stall for the filly, named Lily, so she could be delivered to the fairgrounds then go home with us.  The gals at the office were pretty nice about it and let us rent a stall. Wed night we went to Italian dinner and Teegan and his parents were there along with our friends the Rylaardams. Teegan and his parents sat by us, which was the first time we had met his parents. They were great people. We had tried to feed Teegan a tamale at lunch on Wed and found out at dinner that none of them had ever had a tamale. So our mission for Thursday was to get the tamales cooked and make sure they got to try them.

                 On Thursday we had PGS classes, Kade showed Baby Cow in class 5, Teegan, Kaine and Kade fit her again. She danced around like a deer, but looked good in the show ring. Mayhem was 2nd in PGS Bred and Owned and Gamora was 3rd, they were 5th and 6th in regular PGS, but Mayhem made it back to the championship round, so we were really excited about that. Kady’s big heifer Spike won her PGS class, we really like Spike. Kacey showed cow and calf (Kady showed her calf) and they were 3rd in class, which was awesome. Teegan showed his steer, the boys went over to help him. He did a good job showing him. We had showmanship in the late afternoon, both Kacey and our good friend Sydney Rylaarsdam were in showmanship. They both did a great job showing. Sydney got an honorable mention, we are proud of both girls. Also on Thursday our new horse, Lily, showed up. She is a tall yearling filly.  Anna’s friend Kaydence also got a borgie puppy on Thursday, so Petey the borgie was also hanging out with us for the rest of the week and we were in charge of taking him home. We were full up when we headed to Nebraska but going to be much fuller going home.

McKenna came back to help fit on Friday. Kade was in class 5 with Roxette the fall heifer. The rain started coming down after we got them in the barn and it was pouring when they took her over to the open air barn to get fit. After a couple of large pop-up tents flew by in the rain and wind, Toni decided they were done in that barn.  So they came back. Roxette was a rockstar in the showring. Next was Baby Cow, who was still a deer, was sorted into the top 5 (which is AWESOME) but danced herself into 6th. Kade did a great job showing her. Next was Electra, who was also a shit show, more so than Baby Cow. Last came Nebula, who did great, we she was second place in the second tier. Or you could say 7th, which is also really good. After we got done showing the kids washed, Kady and Anna went and voted for delegates. We started packing up the trailer, and then the boys went to closing ceremonies. We were all tired when we got done and we had the gooseneck hooked up, so we ordered uber eats from Applebees for dinner. The kids had a great day of showing.

Saturday morning McKenna helped us pack up the house and then she headed home and we head to the Fairgrounds to feed and load out. Then we hit the road. Lily the horse was in the front compartment with the tack, the six heifers in the next two compartments. The three kids and Petey the borgie in the backseat. We jumped on I-80 and headed to Candice and James house in SE Idaho. We crossed ¾ of Nebraska, hit the corner of Colorado without going in, went across the bottom of Wyoming, looked at Utah and turned north without going in. Jake and Shannon let us keep the heifers and horse in the corral for the night. It was a long 12 hour trip, but pretty much uneventful. We got a tiny bit of rain after we got into Idaho. We saw some stunning country. The corner of Wyoming next to Idaho and right when you cross the border into Idaho is probably some of the prettiest there is. Again, looks like there is way too much snow in the winter, but in July it is pretty. We made a few stops during the drive, but mostly drove straight through. Mom had packed us enough baked goods that we had plenty to eat. Just had to stop to fuel up and bathroom.

Sunday morning we threw Kaydence in the back seat with the other kids and the puppy and headed north through Idaho, crossed into Oregon and got home before 3. The men and Jaxsen did chores again, we unloaded and got the horse settled and turned in for the night.  It was only about a 9 hour drive on Sunday. Again, pretty uneventful except lots of pretty scenery, mountains, plains, sand, etc. Most of our friends left Grant Island on Saturday and some had hail coming out of Cheyenne. Glad we missed that.

It was a long trip, but worth it. The kids made new friends, new experiences, showed their best, and had a good time. We got to spend quality time with them. Time in the pick-up where they can’t escape us. It was good to get home, but the trip was great.

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Come and Check the kids out at the Spokane Jr Livestock Show this week

Posted on May 4, 2022 by horseshoeangusranch
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I am way behind on picture editing for Last week in Pictures, these are mainly phone pictures.

Posted on September 20, 2021 by horseshoeangusranch
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Some of the show pics from Saturday

Posted on April 12, 2021 by horseshoeangusranch
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Spring Break

Posted on April 8, 2019 by horseshoeangusranch

The kids had a great start to spring break, they got to work on their steers, check cows and help with chores, check on the sheep, what more could a kid want? A vacation? Well, we get one of those at the end of the week when we go to a steer show in Pomeroy. More of the same happened on Tuesday. No new foals so far this week. Wednesday the kids started packing up their show stuff to leave on Thursday for Pomeroy. Toni’s Hereford cow, Lucinda, had a cute black ballie heifer calf. Toni and the kids have been working hard on the steers all week, and the kids are ready to roll. They have been super excited for the start of the 2019 show season, which this will be our first show.


Thursday Toni hauled Curly down to my house for Willie to pick up on Friday. Curly had to be a turd and run around before he finally saw the light and went into the corral. It also took a bit of persuasion to get him in the trailer, but he finally went. Mud had foaled, I saw her on my way to work. She had a cute buckskin colt by Gunner. Then Toni loaded up the kids and the steers and hauled them to Connell to get them all clipped. Jay helped the kids wash and clip their steers. Jay helping is somewhat humorous. After the kids washed, Jay came in and said they owed him $5 for every mudclod they had failed to get off. I think Kade may owe him $25? Basically they need to do a better job of washing to meet the Jay standards. Kade’s steer hadn’t seen a blower before Thursday, but all of the steers did really well considering the limitations winter placed on everyone and everything. They finished loading up our tack, that Jay had borrowed to go to Denver, and we were ready to set out for Pomeroy. I got off of work a little early and we headed on our way with as many people as we could fit in the Mini-Pete. We got there around 5:30, unloaded all our stuff, fed the steers, and then went to have dinner at Joe and Jessie’s house up the Toucanon. It was a long windy road up to their house (they claim it is only 12 miles, but I don’t think so).


Friday we did not wake up really early since we only have the three steers, we let the kids sleep in until 6. Kaine was in class 3, Kade in class 4, and Anna in class 6. All of the kids showed great, Kaine was 5th in market, Kade 3rd and Anna 2nd (so she made it back to the championship round). All of the kids showed awesome in showmanship and made it back to the championship round. Kaine was the grand champion Jr showman. Toni, Kade and Jaxsen headed to Clarkston with Grandma Sherri and Grandpa Bear, who came to watch the kids show. Leslie and I loaded up the 4 kids, Anna, Kaine, Ady and Julian, and headed home. The kids didn’t make it out of Pomeroy before they were asleep. I don’t think they are as ready for the show season as they thought!


Saturday we loaded up one bull and sent him to his new home, we checked the horses and cows, no new babies. Circle 6 still had about 14 days before they start plowing it, so we moved the cows down there to graze that down before Isidro sprays it. It was windy and cold on Saturday so we decided to let the steers have a day off since they had just been to a show.


Sunday we went out to check, no horse babies, but two calves, both Angus. Our neighbor, Teresa, came down and bred Rus (the cow), we bred her to KT Small Town Kid. Toni, Kick and the boys were back so they came down too. The three older kids unpacked their show stuff, and started packing the bigger show box for Spokane. There was some squabbling going on between the three older kids, so it is probably a good thing that Spring Break was almost over. Toni and I took the trailer down to mom and dads to haul out the two mares that had foaled this week. Tall John showed up on his way home from Moses Lake and helped us get the mares in and haul them out. Then we played with his mini aussie puppies he had in his pickup. They are adorable! If anyone wants one, he has 3 left to sell.


We remembered when we were doing chores that we were supposed to take pics of Duallin, so Toni grabbed him with her handy piece of bailing twine and used that as a halter. These yearling colts are just an amazing group. Duallin is definitely one of our favorites. Ask Toni to tell you her favorites in that pen, she has an excuse of why they are all her favorites. I blame her for not having them sold. When someone calls she gives them a questionnaire and then scares them off. We really only have 5 left to sell, but that is quite a bit for us.


Kaine and I also took Jag and Rich out for a walk. I am not sure if Kaine was leading Jag or if she was leading him. Whichever way works for them I guess. One of us adults is going to have to make sure Jag knows she is supposed to follow not lead at some point.
The kids head back to school tomorrow. We have quite a few shows on the schedule so need to continue to work on these steers and heifers. One more fun thing!

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I made a huge to do list for this week, I just can’t figure out who’s going to do it since we will be at the Adams County fair.

Posted on September 11, 2018 by horseshoeangusranch

Tuesday Toni and I got some much needed pictures of Smokey. He is such a pretty boy with very unique coloring. He is our special baby as he was raised on a bucket until he was 6 months old. He still makes nursing noises when he sees our Mom. She got up every few hours to feed him for the full 6 months. We finally had to wean the two off of each other. Wednesday was haul in day to the Columbia Basin Junior Livestock Show, CBJLS. The steers all weighed in really well and acted great.


Thursday was market, and our kids did great. Kade got first in his class with Happy and made it back to the championship round, Anna was second in her class with Snowy and made it back to the championship round and Kaine was third in his class with Angus. Angus and Happy are both Angus steers that we raised and we were very happy with how they did. We are excited to see how their carcass data comes back.


Friday was fitting and showing. Kade did AWESOME, he was Grand Champion in Fitting and Showing, now each kid has won a buckle this summer. Anna was third in showmanship and Kaine was in the middle of his class. Anna’s steer did not act the best, as the summer has progressed he has gradually gone downhill with his attitude in the showring. When he is home, he is super great. In the showring, he is a complete jerk. Anna handled it really well and has become a better showperson because of it. Early this summer she was grand champion in showmanship at NW Farm Supply, and I guess Snowy was not happy with that. Kaine showed great but ended up in a bad spot in the show ring, and sometimes that is just the luck of the draw. Friday night Kade got to show in the round robin, which was very exciting. He did really good for his first time, he was second in the Junior division.


For livestock judging, the deal is that all of the kids have to participate, or they are Jolene’s slave for a day. No one wants that. Toni has sweetened the pot by giving our kid with the top score a milkshake. The problem with CBJLS is we had LOTS of winners. Lane was the grandchampion overall with a really high score, Kade won the Jr. Division, Bella was reserve in the intermediate. Toni has agreed that lots of milkshakes need to be bought this week.

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Saturday was the sale, and all of the kids got great prices. We would like to thank all of the buyers, Three Rivers Potato Storage bought Kade’s steer, Davina and Mike Pink bought Anna’s steer , and KC Cattle bought Kaine’s steer. We felt that the sale was great overall. Then the kids helped Jen in the kitchen and serving at the sale dinner and us adults helped load the steers onto the semi. Then we had the awards ceremony, Footloose 4H won herdsmanship for the second year in a row.


Sunday we packed up at CBJLS and headed to the Adams Community Fair in Othello and unpacked our stuff there. On our way to CBJLS we passed a porcupine on the road and we stopped and got out and looked at it. Then we went to Chinese for lunch after set up and headed home to start weaning colts. The first three have been weaned, Vann, Dancin Dan and Daze.


Monday we all went back to work, school and football practice for a couple of days. Today is weigh in for Adams Community Fair, Toni and Leslie are taking the kids in. Wish us luck for our last show, and we have three great steers selling here if you have not gotten your beef yet.

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Believe you can and you are halfway there.

Posted on September 4, 2018 by horseshoeangusranch

So, we got back from Benton Franklin Sunday, and the kids started school on Monday. They all seem pretty happy with their teachers and classes. I don’t know that they are happy to be in school, but they are happy to see their friends. Kaine and Kade also started football practice Monday, which they love, but it makes the week hectic with coordinating pickups, luckily we are carpooling with the Jenks, and Kameron is one of the coaches. Also, Toni and I have been working with BeeBee every night, I guess 3 is a good time to get her started. LOL. She is herself. Basically she is a lazy, smart horse that will try to get out of work. We think she is going to be a kids horse in the future. So far she has been really good to work with. We like to start them bareback with a halter. We have saddled her a few times, but haven’t ridden her with a saddle.


We are always saying we want to get DOWN in broodmare numbers. I know it is shocking, but we aren’t. Last week we had some friends contact us about a really nice broodmare they had, a buckskin daughter of Slide on Bartender. Then we had an opportunity to get an older Smokin 45 daughter, so we got her too. Clearly we are doing a great job getting less mares! But these are both super nice mares that really fit well with our program.

Gunner and mares Sept 2018

I don’t have pictures of the mares yet, here is a random picture of Gunner.

Toni had to go to Yakima on Thursday for her big dairy case. She didn’t get back until late, so we just did minimal chores on Thursday. Then on Friday Toni went and picked the kids up after school and they went and got milkshakes, kind of a reward for making it through the first week. When asked why they deserved milkshakes, Sonny replied that he is hysterical and an angel, so deserves a milkshake, and then wrapped that up with because he is King. They all got milkshakes.

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Saturday Anna, Kaine Kade and I took the 6 seers and two of the heifers to Connell to get clipped for CBJLS and the Adams Community Fair. Leslie is already set up to clip and she helped the kids, and I kind of helped too. Leslie is great with the kids, she is our 4H leader and the kids (and the rest of us too) love her. Toni, Ben and Kicker got in and moved the fall cows and turned the Hereford cows out with the rest of the cows. They banded most of the spring Hereford bull calves and worked them in preparation for weaning. They also pulled the rest of the bulls. Toni and Ben also got up early Saturday morning to load out Reed. We did sell Reed. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right decision. We are excited to see the foals out of him next spring. Pistol and Shiney also got hauled back to mom and dad’s. We are starting foal weaning next weekend, so needed to get Shiney and Daze home to get acclimated and ready for weaning. We will wean the three colts being shipped to Utah this Sunday after we get back from CBJLS.


Sunday I pretty much worked on the Benton Franklin pictures all day, I am trying to get them done before we got to CBJLS. I don’t think that is going to happen. Toni worked on her law work most of Sunday and the kids rested and got ready for CBJLS.

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Monday Toni, Kicker, Kade and Sonny went and got 150+ lbs of peaches for mom and grandma. Ben, Anna, Kaine and I went to Moses Lake to get fair groceries. Monday afternoon we headed into the fair grounds to get everything set-up. Again, this is a really good group of kids, so it is easy to dedicate time to help them. Now, a few days at work and school and then we are off to CBJLS, hauling in on Wed.

CBJLS

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Spring break

Posted on April 9, 2018 by horseshoeangusranch

Well we had a very eventful week of spring break. Monday and Tuesday Anna went on two class trips. On day one they went to Tollgate fishing and on day two they went to Saddle Mt panning for rocks. She said she had a great trip, and a special thanks to Mr. Lernard for taking her. Toni, Kaine and Kade worked on steers those days to get ready to go to Pomeroy. Toni also worked at her law biz.


Wednesday and Thursday Toni and the kids continued working on the steers to get ready for the show. Thursday they also packed the tack and the trailer to head out on Friday. Toni had court on Thursday so they did not get to work on them until later in the afternoon. We also got a couple of foals during the week. We are up to 8 foals now.


Friday Anna, Kaine, Kade and I loaded the steers and we headed to Connell for our cousin Leslie to clip the steers for us. Leslie and one of our twins (not really ours we just claim them) McCall clipped our three steers and McKenna’s steer, McCall had her steer pretty much clipped. Grandma served us a great lunch of roast, potatoes, carrots, salad and fresh strawberries. Now we will get to listen to the kids tell us how great her cooking is for the next 2 months. If only we could cook as well as she does! Seriously though, she is a great cook and the kids absolutely love to eat with their great grandparents. Then we packed up the trailer and Leslie, Whitney, the twins, Anna, Kaine, Kade, Colt (the Corgi) and I headed to P Town (or Pomeroy for Kris who did not know what P Town was). We got to P Town, weighed the steers in and bedded them down for the night. Our friend Kayla (from P Town and one of the people who put on the show) lent us her camper for the night and hauled it in to town for us. She also cooked us dinner. Toni, Kicker and Jaxsen showed up at the fairgrounds with food for the following day and then headed to Clarkston to stay with Kicker’s parents (Sherri and Barry).


Saturday came and we were up before the sun to start washing steers. Midwashing the rain started, so Leslie and I got the tents up over the chutes. While the kids were getting the steers ready to show a gust of wind came and tried to take our tents away. One tent didn’t make it. While Leslie, Whitney, Kaine, McKenna, Kade, Kaine and I held the tents down, Anna and McCall got the steers out of the chutes. Whitney and I were in the middle, so holding a leg on both tents, and we could not figure out how to get them closed without losing one. Finally, someone in the barn saw our dilemma and came running out to help us and we got them closed. Well, that was all of excitement for the day. The kids all showed great. McCall had Reserve champion market steer. McCall, McKenna, Kaine and Kade all went back into the championship round for showmanship. We all got drenched in the monsoon. Some sports postpone, in our sport, the judge allowed the kids to wear their coats. After about the third class of steers, the show organizers found a little barn and the kids got to show inside and just had to stand outside waiting for classes. It was worse last year when it snowed, so this year was really a positive experience! The best part was that when we got back to Connell, Cousin Jay was home with his mini-semi! Seats 8, three rows of leather seats, dvd player, and it is an automatic, so all of us girls can drive it. Awesome!


Sunday, we caught up on other ranch chores. We moved Shiney out with Colonel, Toni and dad put big bales of hay out, the kids and I finished the miniature horse fence. We checked cows, tagged calves, etc.


Today, the kids’ last day of spring break, Hunter Steve took them out on the town. They are having lunch at Red Robin then going to the trampoline park. They had to feed calves this morning and go check to make sure all was good on the ranch before they got to head to town. We can’t have these kids thinking that life is all fun and games. Work comes first!

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