Posts Tagged With: #WAlovebeef #ranchingheritagebreeders

Another busy week, graduation, sorting cows, graduation parties, big court cases, etc.

Posted on June 7, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Monday was Memorial Day. For our freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom to assemble, freedom to petition, freedom of the press, and more. On Memorial Day, we remember those who gave their lives so we could live free.

We finished working the cows on Monday, then everything around the barn, fat steers, bulls, heifers, etc. That took quite a few hours. We had people coming out to look at foals, so showed them and they purchased a filly. On the way down to show the horses Toni saw a turtle in the middle of the road and did her good deed for the day by moving it off the road so it didn’t get ran over. We moved Star in with MC, and Lendy and Eddie back to Sagebug. We saw Sagebug’s herd, they all look good. Cammie was the only one left in circle 5, so we hauled her home and put her in with the old horses. We put Blueberry, the grullo roan mare we got in to breed in with Dude. We moved water, etc. The kids washed their heifers and steers when we got done working the cows. We are in the middle of cattle show season so the kids need to work on their cattle as much as they can. Jaxsen doesn’t, but the other 3 do pretty good.

Back to work and school on Tuesday. Anna only had a few days of school before graduation. Rosie had a cute palomino colt by Sagebug on Tuesday. I named him Tuff after his grandma and one of the Twins’ friend. Now just down to Cammie and Crystal left. Mom and dad went to Tri Cities. Kaine started summer football practice. Kade fixed the circle gate in Tank’s pen, he was going in and out of it. Anna drove around the cows to check and see if they were paired up. We managed to get chores done, but were all pretty tired from a jam-packed weekend of work.

Toni has been getting ready for a big court hearing, so not much got done with the horses on Wednesday. Kaine still had football leaving Kade and Jax to do most of the house chores. On Wednesday night Toni went and stayed with grandma. So I made Jaxsen come out and fix the hose with me. We did a great job.

Anna had no school on Thursday, so her and dad went to Alan’s to get their Charolais. Charlotte the Charolais and her calf came home and then the two fall heifers. Anna has decided she needs to show a couple of Charolais on top of everything else that is in the barn. Luckily, they are really nice heifers. She is going to show one and one of the boys will show the other at the Sagebrush show in July. I went and stayed with grandma on Thursday night. Toni and Jaxsen did chores.

On Friday Toni had a big court case in Ephrata. The Kings, who are family friends, have been fighting on behalf of the ag community to protect the exempt stock water rights in WA. For anyone that wants more info, there was a good article in the capital press: https://www.capitalpress.com/ag_sectors/livestock/washington-ranch-sues-state-over-canceled-grazing-leases/article_56e569b6-db41-11ee-966b-1b51d10498e9.html

Anna graduated Friday night, so in the morning she had graduation practice. When she got home we got the cows and heifers in from the run to preg check and the bull in to trich test. Hank came around 1:30. Toni got home from court and Allie got there with Benelli, and we ultrasounded Annie and Reba. Annie is still pregnant and Reba is not. When Cammie foals Dad and Toni will run Reba and Cammie up to get bred. Then we all went in to the graduation. It was so great to see Anna and the other kids that we have watched through the years walk across the stage and accept their diplomas. We have been friends with many of these kids parents for years. This is a great group of kids for Anna to graduate with. As a graduation gift we bought her a saddle from Sheridan Saddle with the HJ brand and the KT brand on the saddle.

On Saturday Cammie foaled, fancy brown roan filly by The Goodbye Blue, “Cookie.” Anna went to Ritzville for Lane’s graduation; she went in the morning to help set up. I went out to check the cows, I saw a fat steer had gotten out, a bull calf was limping, the fall heifer we weaned had gotten back out and we needed to get the Marvel heifer in. So we ran them all in and sorted those off. Plus banded a black ballie. Then we did chores and went to Kelten’s graduation party where we got to eat some alligator and see some of the graduates.

On Sunday we did some work around then house. Then Meachams, mom and dad went to Diesel Buss’ graduation party and then we went to Daisy’s party. Then we came home and did chores. We had mares to move after we had eaten too much at the parties. We had planned to put Butterscotch with Cappy but she went through the fence so she ended up with MC. One of the outside mares in with Cappy can be pretty aggressive so we already had concerns, so decided it was better to move her after she moved herself out. We also moved mares that we hope are bred back out so the pens aren’t crowded. Kade managed to ride Honey and Stormy over the weekend. Both are really coming along. He also worked on the 2-year-olds except for Wild who he ignores. Wild is not wild, she is just big.

We are super excited to announce we have put a colt in an online auction. We are working on expanding our market-

https://internethorseauctions.com/auction-ptb.php?aucid=541

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We had a hot week. The temperature, number of activities, constantly on the run.

Posted on May 30, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

On Monday one of the extra Spokane steers was harvested, we just have one left of the Spokane steers to harvest. Monday night was Anna’s senior project presentation. Mom was mad it was a pass/fail deal and not graded, or you could get extra pts. Anna did a showmanship clinic last summer that was a huge success. She is doing it again this summer with some other kids and they got a grant this year to help pay for it. Last year she got donations. The presentations were great. Toni and the boys finished chores, and the boys finished clipping their heifers and Jaxsen dyed his steer. Then Kade and Kaine went and picked up Kaine’s pickup since the transmission was finally fixed. Toni had 2 big hearings, one in Ritzville the other at her office, so she was busy most of the day. Toni stayed with grandma on Monday night.

On Tuesday dad and Toni took Annie, Benelli and Gina up to Allies for checks. Annie is confirmed in foal to a Shiner Named Sioux and Gina is confirmed in foal to Brother Jackson, yea!! Benelli is not in foal, so stayed up there. Both foals did great loading and hauling. It was a fast trip because we had a mare coming in at 1 to breed to MC so Dad and Toni hustled. The mare still beat them home, but it was fine. The owner is a long time family friend so him and mom went and looked at horses. Ben stayed home from work on Tuesday cooking for the FFA banquet, he did a great job. Kade was the star greenhand, we are very proud of him. He was also appointed at the sentinel. Kaine did not run for anything and him and Jaxsen said they did their job by having their friends vote for Kade….. All kids received awards and did a great job. We absolutely think the Connell FFA program is one of the best in the state. Anna’s video for being the District champion was shown during the dinner.

Minnie had a beautiful filly on Wednesday, the amount of white she has and her blue eyes may have been a little surprising. We were expecting some white, but not paint quantities of white. Also on Wednesday Kade and Kaine came home at lunch time, as did I, and we headed to Ellensburg for the Angus Regional show. Anna had a Sr assembly after school, so her and Toni came after school. Mom and Dad ran to the cities to get Anna some extra feed that she needed for the trip. The boys had I had everything set up and ready to go when they got there, and we were eating the lemon sugar cookies mom had made. They were really good. Toni and Anna brought most of the cattle. We went to the pasta place for dinner, we normally go with the Tracis and Leslies, but the last time we were in Ellensburg there was a long wait, so we did not want to worry about breaking tradition. We decided to go on Wednesday and chance going twice. It was a great dinner. We had an air bnb in E-burg that was 2 stories so lots of room for all. Aram, one of our extra kids, came with his heifer to the show on Wed as well so he stayed with us Wed night since Jax didn’t end up coming on Wed. We did bring Jax a steer for the jackpot.

On Thursday morning Kade and Anna did the fitting contest with some new friends and placed second. The judge, Justin Click, had some great pointers for the kids. They had no fit showmanship in the afternoon. All of the kids showed great. The kids also stole Mason, a super cute 10-year-old boy, he helped them all day instead of his sister Morgan. Kade and Kaine also helped Aram clip Gogo before the show. The kids then had ice breakers with the green coats and then picnic in the park. Lendy and Eddie foaled on Thursday. Both by Sagebug. Ben said the colt was a buckskin but we could tell in the pictures that the colt is a grulla. The filly looks pali. Long, but productive day Thursday. We got to see lots of friends and help our friend Kat celebrate her bday with a signature beverage and lots of laughs.

On Friday the show started at 9. 006 and her calf Hall were first, champion cow and calf. Next was bred and owned heifers, Kaine’s heifer was Grand Champion in the division and Kade was reserve. Hall came back to show as a bull, with the big boys. He was Reserve champion in his division. Then the owned heifers, REM showed great for her first show. Devo showed like crap. You would have thought it was her first show and that she had not won showmanship in Spokane. Bottom line the kids all did a great job. Aram got to get his heifer out again, so that is great practice for him. That afternoon the kids clipped Jaxsen’s steer, since he was planning on bringing his Angus steer, but he did not have him caught, so Toni and Ben decided he was bringing Gunz, who was not clipped. Jaxsen was not happy with them. Leslie and the three medium kids came up Friday night. We had their stalls ready when they got there. We tried to go out to the pasta place again, with Leslie, Kat and Kady, but there an hr wait, so we went to the Red Pickle. Kat told us it was only .3 miles and we should walk. Maybe as a crow flies, it was a walk and we aren’t city people that walk all over.

Saturday was the Ace in the Hole jackpot. Everyone showed great, Kaine had RJ and Johnny, Kade had REM and Queen, Anna had Devo and Crue and Jaxsen had Gunz. Kade made it to the champion round with Queenie, his bred and owned. Anna and Kaine made it to the championship round in showmanship. Jaxsen showed really well. After the show we headed home. We had some friends come in to watch the kids, as well as Mom, Dad, and Kicker came to watch. It was a long day so most people left before the show ended. When Mom and Dad got home they texted to let us know that Butterscotch had a cute little filly by King.

Sunday was an early start. We had a mare, named Blueberry, show up about 7 so she could be bred to Dude. Blueberry is a big, grulla roan mare. She is owned by some friends of ours. She was involved in a trailering incident last year so has trailer issues now so we are going to get her bred and see what happens. She is a Dynamic in Blue daughter so should produce some big pretty foals. After we got Blueberry settled, we started working the cows, we did not finish until Monday. Sunday, we got them all in and sorted the heifers from the bulls, worked all the calves and started working the cows, we got about half way done with the cows. Lots of saddle time but it was good for the people and horses. Toni left early because we had another mare come in to breed. I guess it is breeding season. She stayed down to give West Nile and catch the 2 and 3 year olds to get them worked. Mom and dad went to St John to put flowers on the graves as they do every year on Memorial Day weekend. They also got to see Uncle Skip. Mom has family in some of the adjacent towns to St. John and Grandpa has a headstone in Connell so it was a full day by the time they got home. I went and stayed with Grandma on Sunday night.

We had a hot week. The temperature, number of activities, constantly on the run. But the reality is that there is nothing better than being covered in sweat, dust, and the smell of cows. Working cows is probably one of the most frustrating and rewarding things a person can do. Working cows really works a person’s patience, both with the cows and the rest of the people.

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Last Week in Pictures

Posted on May 29, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

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If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.

Posted on May 22, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

On Monday Allie came out to ultrasound mares and bring Gina back down, Gina was AIed to Brother Jackson. Interesting story on the Brother Jackson semen, Brother Jackson is in CA, Fedex hub in in Tennessee. Brother Jackson semen got stuck at a hub in Tennessee, but do not worry, it made it in the nick of time. We are all happy Gina and Mirage are home. Mom thinks that Mirage is “hers” and is going to go out and pet her every day. Good news on the ultrasound front, only two mares that were open were two old mares, one was supposed to be open and one is not cycling yet. The three mares we did that had been with Cappy all bred, the ones from MC bred. Great news. Bad news, Opal is pregnant with twins, both in the same sack. And Annie is also pregnant with twins, but it looks like she is going to lose one, which is good, mares rarely carry twins. Annie is bred to a Shiner Named Sioux. I am SUPER excited about it. So, FYI, it will be a red colt and for sale. A red filly is fine. We can’t get lucky enough to get a filly.

We are down to the last few mares to foal and it is going slow. Nothing exciting on Tuesday. Everyone fed, worked on animals, etc. We moved Miss Gen into the old mare pen. She was fine out in the big pasture but she ultra sounded in foal earlier this spring so we want her close to the house. I led her in with a piece of string around her neck. These old mares are just so easy. Toni went and stayed with Grandma on Tuesday night.

Wednesday was a lot like Tuesday. We did our chores, gave the foals some scratches. We try to pet all the foals at mom and dad’s every night. Toni is going through a lot of horse treats right now. She has everyone in the pen next to mom and dad’s eating horse treats. Wednesday was Sr Skip day, so Anna clipped a neighbor’s steers and went with Brandy to run some errands in the Tri Cities. They brought a coffee to me since they are good kids. It is super funny how not wild Anna is.

Thursday morning on my way to work I could see Tank was out, so I let Toni know. We have a 15-joule energizer on that fence, so when the horses get out they regret it. Tank was a good boy, Toni just caught him and led him back in, got the fence fixed. We are able to pet most of the foals in that pen too, so we do that every chance we get. Baby King, or whatever we are calling Queenie’s colt is still a pet and wanted to be petted the entire time she was down there. On Thursday Anna had a Sr class meeting with the principle, so we had that after work/school. It was just basic info on graduation. Toni and Kaine got pics of For, I think Kade was doing chores?? Maybe he was also there?? They got some pics and videos so we can put him in an online auction. He is a really nice colt. Mom stayed with grandma on Thursday.

On Friday there were still no new foals when I went by. However, Star had a beautiful black colt that afternoon. We are VERY disappointed he is a he. We are still trying to figure out how to keep him. Our friend John Gray came out to look at the horses on his way through. John has a son of Gunner that he stands over on the other side of the state. John has been buying horses from us for years, so it was great to see him. He has a place in Montana so goes back and forth. Friday night I stayed with Grandma. Marlo came and helped Toni do chores. The kids finished up packing to go to Ritzville. Dad is getting ready to spray the pasture and needed help setting up the sprayer.

On Saturday Ben and the three older kids went to Ritzville for the Wheatland Jackpot. Leslie, Traci, Jolene and their kids went the night before and spent the night. McCall, Whitney and Deb came and Whiney and McCall took pics. The kids did great. Julian was 5^th overall in market and Savannah was reserve champion peewee. Kade was 2^nd in his class with his heifer, so made it back, Kaine was 2^nd in his class with his steer so made it back. They all showed great. Toni, Jaxsen and I were busy at home. We got Butterfly in to take home, she needs to be on probiotics. Hopefully Tank got her bred. We hauled Freida and Irish down with Tank. We fixed the riding horse pen to lock them in so we can let Sagebug below circle 3. We West Niled and wormed the riding horses. Jaxsen rode Slick, Toni rode Jojo. Ben and the kids got home while Toni was still riding Jojo, so Anna jumped on too. Kade practiced roping when he got home. Traci came out with the girls and picked up Slick. They are going to borrow Slick to be a kid’s horse for Vanna and probably Kayla too. Slick is a good kid’s horse so we are happy to let them borrow him for now.

On Sunday we had Skip’s birthday, Happy 83^rd birthday Skip. Kade rode his young horse he got at Moses Lake, he finally got to move her out of quarantine and to his house. The kids washed, dyed and clipped their Angus heifers, steer and cow and calf to get ready to leave for regionals on Wednesday. I went out and checked on Gunner pen, they all look really good. Shorty foaled Sunday afternoon, a handsome chestnut colt by Tank. Because he was born on Skip’s bday we are going to name him Skipping Into Cowtown or some variation of that. Toni and Kade wormed and West Niled all the horses at their house. I put mineral out with the cows and checked them Sunday night.

A few people know that we have suspected that Peanut and Jitterbug switched foals when they foaled. Because they were first time mothers, we had them in a pen where we can watch them. They foaled the same night about 10 feet apart. When they foaled we were super excited, thought nothing of it. Jitterbug was bred to Leroy, so we were expecting something with some real dun factor, but Peanut is a dunalino so she could also have a dun. She was bred to King who is HZ black, blue roan. Basically, both foals, at first, could have been out of the mare that claimed them. We thought the Jitterbug filly, who we have named Hurricane Hailey, wasn’t quite as expected and Peanut’s foal exceeded expectations, but they were both amazing, awesome foals, so no big deal. Both foals we kept by the house. Within 3 days, Peanut’s foal was walking away from Peanut to hunt us down, like a Leroy foal. Tons of dun factor, and just absolutely a love bug. Hurricane Hailey has a small dorsal stripe, also loving, loves attention. As Almy (Peanut’s foal) continued to grow, he just started looking more and more like a Leroy foal and could be the little brother of Laroy, who is also from this year’s crop. But the reason we decided to DNA test the foals is because Hurricane Hailey’s hip looked pretty much like it was roan. Only one roan parent in this mix and that stud was bred to Peanut. Well, we have the DNA results, the mares did the ole switch aroo. Jitterbug is raising Peanut’s filly and Peanut is raising Jitterbug’s colt. Luckily both mares are doing an exceptional job, the foals look great.

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We are winding down on foaling and pretty excited about the foals we have. We

Posted on May 16, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

On Monday we were all back to work and school if we liked it or not. We were in an exhaustion fog. Toni had some big court cases this week. Toni had court first thing, then checked when she got back. We got the official colt test for KT Gold Buckle Dreams, as expected, he will be a gray. The kids did chores, worked on animals, etc. Kade worked on Joss Monday night, she is doing really great. We have left Queenie in for a bit so we can love on her colt. He is super super friendly. We also brought Twiggy and Irish into the heavy pen. We didn’t have a halter when we went into the field so Toni just caught Twiggy with baling twine and Irish followed her in. Twiggy is another one of our favorites.

On Tuesday dad and Toni went to Allie’s and brought Annie and Benelli home, Annie is hopefully bred to A Shiner Named Sioux and Benelli to GSR Guns N Bullets. Allie will be down on Sunday to ultrasound them. They also took Gina up to Allies to AI to Brother Jackson. Jesse foaled on Tuesday and had a cute filly with blue eyes. Twiggy also foaled and had a filly with a white mane and a black tail, the best kind of buckskin. We all really love her. She is huge and sweet. Clearly we didn’t get Twiggy in too soon for the heavy pen. The Hereford bull got in with the Angus cows, Ben got him in and Kaine ran down and picked him up and brought him home. The kids got ready to go to FFA State.

Toni had court early again on Wednesday. Dad went into Connell and got a tire fixed and dropped mom off to stay with grandma. Mom took Leslie one of the lemon muffins that I had forgotten to take to Spokane. Toni has been spoiling Queenie colt, so now she does not want to turn him and Queenie out with Tank. I said too bad so sad. Wednesday was our last day of having a kid, Kaine was the only one still at home, help with chores. Ben tried to spray weeds Wednesday night since the wind was not blowing. However, he spent the whole time working on his sprayer. The other three kids went to Pullman. This is the first year back to Pullman since covid and we are excited for the kids to experience the WSU magic.

Our neighbor, Cecily, brought her kids over to see the babies on Thursday after work/school. Banks, who I think is 2ish, has not been a real talker, until now. And he is really into telling us if they are boys or girls, and he is very accurate. Except we might disagree if Queenie colts has nuts yet or not. He said this one has nut nuts, I said no not quite yet, but he was sure they were there. He also wanted Ink, the yearling colt, to play tag with him. He told Ink to catch him. Ink was not in the same pen with him, so I do not know how that was going to work, but you know, if you are 2ish. Toni is out of practice knocking the hay onto the trailer, since we had no kid help. However, Hendricks, who I think is 7?, offered to stay and help. But Abby (the dog) and I had to load a bunch of hay onto the trailer that Toni bounced onto the ground. And she seemed to bounce it right at Abby and I and wondered why we did not use our bodies to stop the three sting bales bouncing at you. It was a mystery. Ben moved the cows back to circle 4, they have been low on grass in circle 5 and getting 4 big straw bales every night, and they had been cleaning them up.

On Friday Freida had a big red dun colt. He is big. I told Frieda she could have had him a few weeks ago and been good. Toni went to Pullman Friday morning to judge an event at FFA State convention. Kaine was on the BBQ Team and they cooked on Friday. The middle school Food Products teams did awesome. Connell had high individuals 1-7 and Team 1 was first place and team 2 was second place out of 84 teams. Kade was on the Conduct of Chapter Meets Team, they made it to the final round and got 2^nd, good job everyone!! She brought Jaxsen home with her Friday night. Toni and Jaxsen got home around 10:15. Marlo and I went to grandmas, Marlo, Leslie, Grandma and I watched the evening session and how everyone did.

Saturday morning I worked on the riding horse fence. Ben worked on circles and getting water and pumping going. Toni had Jaxsen for help, they fixed the circle 6 fence. Hauled Queenie to circle 6 and then took Pepper and Rudy to Debbie and Cecil’s house. Toni paid Jaxsen in ice-cream, pop, and chicken on a stick from the Korner store. Ben and I went to Pullman to see how Anna did at the Start Farmer competition. Jaxsen helped Toni do chores. Anna had made it to the top 4, but they only tell you first place, she did not get first, but clearly, we all thought she should. She did an amazing job and we are very proud of her. There were thousands of applications for that award. Anna did get a scholarship for being in the final 4. The Meats Team was 4^th, Anna and Kade are both on the meats team. The BBQ team did not place. We headed home, the kids were hungry so we stopped at Dairy Queen. It was a fun trip for all.

Happy Mothers Day. Toni and I both told everyone we wanted to sleep in for Mother’s Day. Ben smoked Tri Tip and made bang bang shrimp and bacon wrapped shrimp. Mom made rolls; she was not supposed to cook but she did not want store bought rolls. After lunch on the way to do chores, I saw that there was a horse out, so Toni and I went back down, it was Gracie and Whitty, so Toni rode Gracie back in. We moved the heifers around, 3 more could go out with the bulls, and only 4 ones too young left. Irish had a cute filly by Dude. Kade hauled Honey to his house, so he has all his roping horses plus Friday at his house. Another event filled week.

We are winding down on foaling and pretty excited about the foals we have. We are already getting interest from people and have sold a couple of them. If you want to come take a tour, let us know. We have to haul the kids to quite a few cattle shows in May but June is pretty decent. We love to show people the ranch, so feel free to come out. And remember, we have a few Herford bulls left if anyone is still looking for a bull.

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Last Week in Pictures

Posted on May 14, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Sorry about the tardiness of the blog post.

Posted on May 10, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

We woke up to a beautiful filly out of Mil and by King on Monday. Toni and mom decided to put Mil in the round pen, because she did not like everyone visiting the foal, by everyone I mean all the other horses, especially the annoying 2- and 3-year-olds that are out there. We have a few that have some personal space issues, meaning they don’t understand the concept. Dad took bulls to Ritzville on Monday and picked one up in Sprague. The kids took some tack over to BB for Leslie and Traci to take up to Spokane, we have all the chutes, end panels, and hay in ours. Plus, most of our tack. So, we could not fit 2 of the chute floors and the grain in. Kade and Kaine had FFA practice after school, to get ready for state convention. Anna dyed her steer. Jax is ready for FFA so doesn’t need practice, I guess.

On Tuesday we headed up to Spokane for the Jr Show. Before we could leave we had to run down to Mom and Dad’s to see our new foal. Our precious Gina gave us a stunning bay filly out of the Masked Gun with a big blaze and a belly spot. She is perfect. Then we loaded and took off. Leslie and Traci came up in the afternoon. We were down on the floor, as opposed to up on the side like normal, which was great, we had lots of room. We did not take all of the stuff we needed for set up, so could not do a lot before Leslie and Traci got there. We weighed in steers, and Devo the heifer. Set up the camper, etc. We had pizza for dinner, everyone did great coming off the trailer and being at a decently big show. We hear there are 66 fat steers, 120 prospects, and about 40 heifers. This may be the biggest show in WA, probably the biggest terminal show for sure. (FYI that is Toni in the video)

On Wednesday there are a lot of competitions at Jr Show, Anna, Kade and Emmett did meats judging. Jaxsen was also there with the FFA meats judging. The rest of the kids washed the steers and caught up on their homework. We get to sleep in on Wednesday, which is a good start to the week. Dad said that the buckskin mare foaled, so that meant Twist. She had a really smutty colored buckskin colt by King that is super cool looking in the picture we received.

Thursday we spent all day in the barn so we took tamales down to the tack box for lunch. Anna was in class 1 with her heifer. They were reserve champion 4H heifer, Devo is a heifer we got from RJ in South Dakota. Next we had 4H prospects, Natalie and Julian. Both were in the same class and made it back to the championship round. Then Anna, Julian, Ady and Natalie had 4H market steers. Anna, Ady and Natalie made it back to the championship round, they all did great. 20-minute break then FFA prospects, Kaine, Kade and Emmett. Kain and Kade both made it back to the final drive with Kade being 5^th prospect steer. And Lastly, FFA market, Emmett made it back with his giant steer. Emmett had the heaviest steer at the show. The judge said the steer waddled like a duck but would bring in a big check. True. All of the kids showed great. Then Peewee, which Vanna won, team fitting which Emmett’s team won, and pen of 3 (with Gary Bye steers). I think we finally got done around 6:30 pm? Maybe? It was a long day. We hear there were some foals born at home. All colts. Dad said the one out of CeeCee was “special” we weren’t sure what that meant but Dad confirmed that means he is awesome. We also had a super cute colt out of Gracie and Whitty.

Friday was showmanship. We no longer have any jrs, so our first class was intermediates. Natalie and Julian both got a call back for the championship round that night. Anna was our only Sr, and she also made it back to the championship round. Emmett, Kaine and Kade showed FFA Jr/So, Kaine and Kade made it back. All of the kids did a great job showing. Anna won the Sr division and got to show in the round robin at Spokane. Kaine was 5^th in his division, Natalie and Julian were 6^th and 7^th, and Kade was 8^th for his division. Kaine and Kade washed the steers and Anna’s heifer, and send all the prospects home with Kicker. Leslie, Traci, Savannah, Kayla and I followed the round robin while the rest fed and loaded out the prospects. Anna did great, Spokane is different than the other shows. Only the Sr 4H and Jr/Sr FFA get to show in the round robin, and they show random animals, not the animals of the winners. All of the steers in the round robin were great. Most of the pigs were great, Anna had a really good pig. However, most of the sheep were crazy and the goats were a shit show. One would jump up and ram the kid holding it, one would jump up and strike the kid. But it was a great experience, and Anna was glad she got to do it. Dad let us know that the red mare had a palomino colt, so Queenie had a colt by Tank.

Saturday was the sale, the steers always sell last. We would like to thank all to the buyers of the Footloose 4H Club and Connell FFA. Thank you, Les Schwab, for buying Anna and Kaine’s steers, L&M Truck Sales for buying Kades, Co-Energy for buying Emmetts (a home town buyer), Byes for buying Adys, Fusion Seed for buying Natalies (a long-time buyer of Natalie’s steer), and Jonel for selling Julians steer. Spokane booster did a great job and put a minimum of 2.75/lb on the steer kids and added $100. The kids all did great. Thank you everyone for your support. All our steers loaded out Saturday night except Ady’s, so he got to go up with the Pomeroy steers. The kids got to go play laser tag with the Pomeroy kids, and they had a lot of fun. Emmett and Stacy invited the boys to go and stay at their camper that night, so Kaine, Kade, Emmett and Julian. They stayed up until 10:30 playing football, until Stacy finally told them he needed to go to bed, he was worried Toni wouldn’t let the boys have a sleep over again if he had to call her to tell her he lost the boys. So he had to stay awake. They then made quesadillas and stayed up. They had a great time. Toni’s law school roommate came over and had dinner with us while the kids were at laser tag, and it is always good to see Kellie K.

Sunday we loaded out Ady’s steer, the campers and came home. We had a lot of horses to move that had foaled while we were gone, Queenie we put down with Cleo to move the following weekend since he is a little guy. We put Gracie and Mud down with Tank, CC in with Sagebug and Twist and Mil in with MC. The boys turned Opal, Shadie and Katana out of the MC pen while we were hauling CC out, we will put them back in a month to make sure they are bred.

What a great week. We had fun at Spokane seeing our friends and family, meeting new people, and letting Anna enjoy her very last Spokane Jr. Show as a kid. We are very proud of our entire group of kids, they all showed great and did their very best. We all came home tired, but glad to have the memories made at another Spokane Jr. Show. Thanks to everyone that stayed home to do all the ranch work.

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Another busy week shipping bulls and getting ready for Jr Show in Spokane.

Posted on May 1, 2024 by horseshoeangusranch

Monday is the late start for school day, but always an extra early day, get a jump on the week for everyone else. Dad and Steve delivered a bull to Mary Cox in Nespelem. They had a blow out on the way home on the red trailer. Dad decided it needed 4 new tires. Aelina got the letter I mailed her on Monday, I am waiting for her to mail one back to me now. She puts more artwork on hers, I just put a pic on mine. Toni stayed with grandma on Monday night. Anna and Pepper had done up a flower arrangement in FFA for Grandma that Grandma has proudly displayed on her kitchen table, she is quire proud of her granddaughters. We had some people stop by to look at the horses on their way home from a wedding. So we just wandered around at the house and looked at those. The gal had flip flops on, so I was little concerned with keeping her feet intact.

On Tuesday dad went to Ellensburg to deliver a bull for Joe. Toni came home from grandmas, stopped at the grocery store on the way home for mom. Then checked everything. Then went back to town to get her hair done, and on the way home she saw that Dally had foaled. A nice bay colt by Tank. She was worried mom was going to want to keep it if it was a filly. Toni and mom wend ahead and gave it colostrum just because he was acting like he hadn’t nursed super great. We are pretty trigger happy on giving the Nursemate ASAP. Better to give it than to be sorry later that you didn’t. Especially for the cost compared to losing a foal. Hurricane Hailey was also out when Toni went down, so mom and Toni put her back. McCall came down so the kids all had some practice with their steers. Toni also bought a new small computer for travel as her Surface Go decided to give up the ghost.

On Wednesday dad and Steve went to the Colville area with two of our bulls and another bull. They then had lunch with Ruth and Gary in Ady, good friends of ours. Mom went and stayed with grandma during the day. Scott called and was ready for his bulls anytime, so dad and Scott decided dad would go to Moses Lake on Thursday. Revel got bred to Cappy and didn’t kill him, so that is really a positive. I did Toni and my chores, she was on a conference call, and then she needed some alone time so she went down and fixed the fence where the bull is crawling out into the desert. And guess who came up to see her? Gunner and his mares. The kids had McCall out again so they worked on their steers. It is crunch time to get ready for the Jr. Show and we do not feel like the boys are ready at all.

On Thursday dad took 4 bulls to Moses Lake, he stopped and got some fencing supplies on his way home. We had an outside mare come on Thursday to breed to Cappy. We turned Huckleberry, Revel, Peanut, Almond and Stoker out of his pen for a few days and just put the outside mare in the pen. On my way home Ben was down fixing the fence between 5 and 6, some heifers got into 5, I saw the horse fence was down, so I went and got Anna and Anna and I fixed the horse fence then helped Ben for a few minutes with the other fence. McCall came out again on Thursday and the kids worked on their steers. The steers are getting better, no comment on if the boys are….

Toni had briefing due on a case on Friday morning. She has been burning the midnight oil on the case. Friday afternoon Chad came out to trim some horses. Toni helped him until Kade got home, then Toni and Marlo did chores and Kade and Chad went to look at Kade’s new mare and get her trimmed. Kade is calling her Honey. The plant sale is going on in at the high school, so the kids, at least Anna and Kade, I do not know about the other two, are working in there. Anna brought a few plants home on Thursday.

Saturday Kicker and I left bright and early to caravan with Leslie up to Spokane to get the campers set up for next week. We had some issues with plug ins so we had to run over to camping world to get adapters, and it was a whole thing. So we did not get home until midafternoon. Toni was at home working, the kids were all working. Anna gave a tour to a group of kids from Connell. Toni had some friends out with a little girl to look at the horses, then she went and pulled hair on Chic to disease panel her for a gal. Needed to video Northern Gun for a different gal. McCall came out and Toni and McCall went and walked the alfalfa field. We had really bad winter kill so trying to decide what to do. We have a good agronomist in McCall. She works for a chemical company so knows her stuff. We also got Dally and Piper D in to get them worked and in with studs. Dally got to go back down to Tank. Piper D we are breeding the Dude. We moved Star in with Dude so she could have a safe place to foal, not out with all the young crazies. I went to stay with Grandma on Saturday night.

Sunday the kids got up early and started working on their steers, loading the trailer, and then took their steers over to Leslie’s for a pre-trip-trip. Jax isn’t going to the Jr. Show so his dad put him on a 4-wheeler so he could harrow the pasture. We had people out to look at bulls. People out to look at foals. Lots of people coming by to start looking and picking out what they want. We still have mares to foal, but what we have on the ground is pretty awesome.