#WALoveBeef | KT Ranch

Another crazy week has gone by.

Monday Toni was supposed to go to court in Yakima, but found out she could call in. Which was good, since she was in court for 30 min. So she was able to check in the morning and make a list of sick calves. Ben took two bulls into Sheena to get semen checked in the morning, he dropped them off on his way to work and picked them up on his way home. Thank you Sheena. My hair appt was changed to Monday after work, Tennelle’s daughter Grace has a competition in Reno on Friday they are trying to go and watch that. So I picked Kaine up from driver’s ed. Second from last day, final test is Tuesday. Then final drive. Because Kaine was gone Jax had to help with chores and was “forced” to lead one of the weanlings, Summer. Summer is pretty much a pet so was fine for Jaxsen and just followed him along. Now that we have Summer and Joker in Toni can’t lead them together because the Joker bites Summer and isn’t nice to her. He is a great colt, just wants to be the boss.

On Tuesday Jaxsen helped Toni with the foals, she tells me Summer is 100% halter broke, Jaxsen was working on her again. Jaxsen doesn’t know why we are still catching the foals because clearly they are halter broke. Kaine had his written test for drivers ed on Tuesday, he passed. He is ready to roll like firestone tires now. We were hoping on Tuesday to start chopping trees, but our guy hasn’t gotten over to start the project yet. We want to get it done before we start foaling, which is soon.

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny day and Toni send pictures of the calves basking in the sun. The weather was so great that everyone was in a good mood and ready for spring. Our little bull calves are ready to be big bull calves and are starting to ride cows at 2 months old. After we AI the cows then we will end up splitting the bulls off from the heifers to try to minimize injuries. But for now we are still calving and aren’t quite ready to split everything up. Bulls will be bulls, no matter what the age.

On Thursday Anna had an FFA practice after school, so Toni went and got the boys and had appts for them to go down and get their hair cuts from Tennelle. Well, Jaxsen is the only one willing to cut his hair. Kade at least got his cleaned up. Kaine still looks like a fur ball. Or Toni tells him he looks like he is wearing a clown wig that isn’t died red. Then she had to take them to the quick mart to get food because they were starting. So picking them up from school was expensive. When they got back Toni made the two long haired kids work on the foals. They just wanted to take them for a walk, but Toni showed them that we are working picking up their feet, working getting them to move away from pressure, actually doing things with the other than admiring how pretty they are. The boys still took them for a walk around the ranch after.

I was home on Friday, so I checked the calves in the morning. Then I ran into the school and took pics of the FFA officers for the year book. I edited the pictures at lunch time and sent the album to Heidi. After lunch the dogs and I went out and got pictures of the bull and pulled up wire, so the Russian Olive trees could be mowed out of circle 4. That night Toni and I worked on The Joker and Summer. Kaine went snowmobiling with his friends for the weekend so he was MIA again. Kade did not have Jaxsen help him with chores because he said even with Kaine gone he is faster at doing them alone than with Jaxsen helping him. I am not sure that is teaching Jaxsen anything. Normally Marlo would have been out but she took a trip to Kansas to see her sister, her friend Mary, and go to a Ian Munsick concert. Hopefully she had a great time.

Kade had shooting practice Saturday morning. Anna went to Richland for FFA. The rest of us worked on fencing the rest of the corn filed. Kade got back and came out and helped. We got done fencing and went down to do chores. Kade rode Stormy around, Toni and I worked on Summer, The Joker and T. T got selected because she was by the gate. That is our selection process. We have quite a few coming yearlings that we want to keep, so we are just going to continue working on them and whichever one is handy gets worked on. Kade had some problems with Stormy. Normal stuff when a kid is a young buckaroo and needs to be reminded that his mom and aunt actually DO know what they are talking about. We got Kade and Stormy back working together so that was good. Grandma talked Kade into leaving her in the roundpen so get the water trough flipped over and filled. Sometimes when a person is breaking a horse it is good to remind them that fundamentals are key and you don’t stop working on them. Ever.

On Sunday morning we went out and checked the cows, after Kade and Anna tied up their steers, and then we got the cows in. We sorted off a handful to go to Topp, and a couple heavy cows. We turned the rest out on the newly fenced stalks. Kaine was back, and him and Kade rode. Kaine finally got Pow caught and got her rode. Thanks to Rachael for such a wonderful job getting her broke. Toni went out and caught Wild because she was next to the gate and worked on her for a bit. Then we went to the Sale Dinner and BB Cattle and watched the super bowl, saw family, saw friends, and met some new people. None of us really cared who won the Superbowl, but I did prefer the Chiefs, but it was fun to watch.

We found a new stud we want to try to buy. The problem is that we haven’t done a good job selling the studs we want to sell. We have Jackpot and King that we need to sell but Toni has a real problem selling them. So far she hasn’t found the “right” person but I have told her she needs to be less selective on the deal. We can’t get a new stud until we move at least one of these. So if you know of anyone that wants a stud, they are for sale. They are great studs but we have way too many related horses and we need a non-creme stud that isn’t related. Until now we hadn’t found the right stud to bring in, so it wasn’t a huge deal. These studs are both broke to ride and good to pasture breed. Let us know if you want to talk about them. We all want them to go to a good home as we raised them both and are emotionally and financially invested in them, but it is time to see them off to their new adventures. I told Toni a guy at work told me that when people want to go on vacation they just post their venmo handle and that they want to go on vacation and people just send them money, I thought we should try that. King and Jackpot are below.

Ranch life builds character. At this point we must be full of character.

Monday was a little colder than it had been, I think it was around 9 in the AM according to weatherbug. Toni and dad went and got Cappy from Jason Hicks. Cappy was doing great and looks like he will be a great colt. Now we are deciding if we will breed anything to him in 2023 or wait another year. He still has some growing to do. Toni and Dad had a great and uneventful trip. Kaine had drivers ed after school and did two of his drives, they are down to their final weeks and final drives. It will be good when that is over. Anna did not get her virtual trail class filmed on Sunday, by the time we got done the phone was too dead to go up and do it at our house. So Toni came up to do hers, and instead they helped load a heifer and then Anna and Toni’s phone both had low battery. So the videoing of Anna and Gunnie saga continues. But Gunnie is doing great and will know the pattern by heart when they get to the videoing.

With the change in weather there were a few calves getting sick again. Ben and Anna doctored the list Toni sent when she checked in the morning. The calves are easier to doctor at night in the feed line. We are still cleaning up the desserts mom made for my birthday, my scale is happy they are almost gone. Toni and Anna finished the video of Anna and Gunnie, however, our internet was slow and it took her phone forever to upload it to youtube. So, the saga continued to the bitter end. The video needed to by uploaded by 10:30 pm and it got uploaded at like 10 pm. The good news is the video process was great, except Anna is so done with it she kind of forgot a couple things, Toni reminded her on the video, but whatever.

Wednesday Ben had meetings in Moses Lake, so Toni and Kade helped Anna with cow chores when the horse chores were done. Kaine had drivers ed on Wednesday as well. Pow was on her way up from S. CA where she has been with Rachael. Bruce, the shipper, was stuck in Bend for a few days due to the winter storm, but Wednesday was the day. Pow Pow showed up around 2. We blanketed her since she had been is S. Cal. Pow thought it was a lot of fun to chase the other horses, since they were scared of her blanket. But when it came time to eat, Pow settled right in and is just part of the herd.

Thursday two cows were out when Toni went to check, they both had tags showing they were cows we bought, not raised. I am guessing I know why they were for sale. They had broken the gate, so she got them back in and got the gate fixed. Ben had meetings in Moses Lake again, so was not home for chores. Toni, Anna and the boys did all of the chores. The weather had been so nice that doing chores wasn’t a chore.

Friday Toni and the dogs checked. Then Jeannie came out to look at bulls. They couldn’t find them so had to drive around for quite a long time before they found them. The bulls are all really gentle so they got out and walked through them. The bulls are in a 100 acre pasture and just stand there while you walk among them. Jeannie liked the coming 2 year old Hereford bull so that just leaves the coming yearling Hereford bulls and some Angus. Marlo came out and helped with chores. However, we will not have Marlo next Friday because she is going to a concert, sounds like a fun concert. Toni and Marlo worked on the foals.

Saturday Kade had a shooting competition, he did really well, he was a using a new gun from his grandpa Barry. Dad went and watched. Anna and Kaine caught their steers and Anna caught her heifers. Lane came out while she was washing her heifers and helped her finish. John came out to get his wedding present, mom made him a cool basket and Toni and mom filled it with good, and to get his miniature horse, Mini. He had not told his bride he has a miniature horse until that day, and she was pretty excited to get her home and for her to have a foal. The boys got to go hunting in the afternoon for the youth hunt, so Toni and I did their chores. Jaxsen helped us, but we got an ear full about how the boys should have to come back from hunting to do “their” chores, he should not have to do them. We moved Holly over with the other yearlings and brought The Joker over to work on. He was very similar to Jaxsen, he did not want to go over and it was a slow walk. I feel like if we understood “horse” he would have explained why someone else needed to go over. The Joker and Summer do not enjoy each other either. Once Summer goes to her new home, we will bring another colt over as well to work on. Mom wants the other colt to be Willie, he is her colt.

Sunday was a rainy day. We were supposed to build more fence around corn fields now that hunting season is over, but we elected to do more office type work and wait on the fence. I put out mineral as well. Toni worked on a case she had on Monday. Anna and the boys caught their steers, and Anna her heifers. Camas came out and assisted Kaine with his steers. We worked on The Joker and Summer. The Joker realized he was in so did really well on Sunday. When the rain paused Kade rode Stormy around.

This week we lost our mare Tessa. She was an older mare that had started to decline. She was a great mare for us and we loved her. While John was out he told us that he had counted the mares on our website and there are 20 mares over 20. Although we strive to take great care of these older mares, the clock is ticking. You can’t beat time. We try to be really transparent on our blog and facebook page so people can understand what real ranch life is like. It isn’t all fun and games. We also have to deal with sickness, death, the stuff that makes life difficult. Ranch life builds character. At this point we must be full of character.