Monday I felt pretty worn out, but I am sure lots of people felt worn out on Monday. Everyone was back to school and work.  Rainy the miniature horse was out when Toni went to check cows, so she was a miniature horse wrangler and put her away. The old mares that Kade and Toni put down in circle 5, where they have lots of grass, were not happy about being down there. I guess they need more pampering. Toni stayed with grandma Monday night.

Because Toni stayed with Grandma on Monday night, she normally just goes to mom and dads and has dad drive her out to check in the side-by-side. There was nothing to see however. On Tuesday I told Toni all these buckskin King fillies look alike. She said no, Peaches has a spot, they do look a little different, but not a lot. Toni also told me we have to get down to 3 fillies we are keeping and put prices on the rest of them. I told her impossible. So we compromised at 3 each. The three below are my pics as of right now, however, if Miss Gen, Reba, Gina, Gracie, etc have fillies my picks will change. And so we priced BBs to sell, and now she is sale pending. Toni really wanted to keep that filly, but she wants to keep them all, as do I.  Toni, Kaine, Jaxsen and I worked on fence in circle 6 on Tuesday so we could haul Tank out. He is still up at Tonis and would like some more grass.

On Wednesday Jeannie came out and picked up the gelding that dad and Kade got for her at Moses Lake sale. Toni took her around to pet the foals. She really liked Almy, like most people that meet him. He is just a really friendly colt. The boys took the tack out of the Wilson so Toni could take it to Allie’s on Thursday with Benelli and Annie to get Aied. Toni, Jaxsen and I worked on some more fence on Wednesday night. Anna went to Puyallup with Hannah to take pics at the show. Anna had two steers showing there so she was really excited to go.

On Thursday Bell had a cute colt by Tank. Dad and Toni took two of the mares to Allies, Benelli and Annie. Annie is a re-breed to a Shiner Named Sioux and Benelli is being bred to GSR Rein N Bullets who is HZ dun and black. We are excited about both potential foals. Now just keeping fingers crossed that they take the first breeding and we get foals out of them. Benelli has a NZ Scotch Time colt at her side now that is AWESOME. This is our second NZ Scotch Time foal and we like them. On the way home Toni got pulled over, no not for speeding, but because the tabs on the trailer were expired. No ticket. Anna and Hannah took pictures all day at Puyallup and they had a long day. One of Anna’s steers she wold was Grand Champion for type and Reserve for Showmanship. Great job on that steer! Toni had a lot of phone calls when she got back from hauling mares with dad, so I did most of her and my chores, and I told her I had Friday off, so lets skip building fence.

On Friday the Meachams minus Jaxsen went to Wenatchee for Trap Shooting State. Anna and Hannah were in Puyallup shooting pictures still. Kaine and Jaxsen went to school. Ben went to work. Mom and Dad went to Moses Lake for fencing supplies. The dogs and I went to circle 6 to work on fence. Later in the afternoon some nice people from Oregon stopped by to look at horses, so the dogs and I got a fence building break. And the neighbor Cecily brought some coffee by for me and then I went and stayed with grandma. Jaxsen stayed the night with mom and dad, so dad went and got us all pizza from the Pizza Station in Connell for dinner. Ben was running around after work getting circles running. That seems like a never-ending job. Kade had a great first day/night at State trap. The Connell kids added a full team for 2024 so up to three teams at State. It is a great group of kids.

Saturday morning I stopped and picked up Jaxsen on my way home. Jaxsen and Kaine worked on their steers and heifers. Anna and I went down and got almost all the fence done by 1. We had one circle gate left but we had to go sort cows for some people to come and look at them. And besides the fact that Reynolds and Rush had gotten out (two yearling bulls that we had been using but got back in to feed and sell one and put one with the show heifers) and we had one sick calf to doctor, it was a complete waste of time. Not only a waste of my time of sorting but a waste of time showing them. The wife was nice. We turned the cows down to circle 5, so they have a little more grass and the circle is on.  Kade shot his heart out at Trap Shot State and scored an 80. He shot great last year too but this is an improvement. Good job buddy, all the kids did an awesome job. Connell #1 team was 6^th place. Toni went and bought us a new drill and some more batteries for the tools while she was in Wenatchee. We needed a bigger drill to put in the circle gates. Because I can’t smell, I may have burned up the other one. Ben and I went to a friend’s 50^th birthday party Saturday night. We had a great time after a long day. Jaxsen stayed at my house Saturday night because his parents were later getting home from State than anticipated.

Sunday morning Toni and I went down and finished the fence. Kaine and Jaxsen worked on their steers. Anna worked on her steers and heifers. Toni and I took a lunch break after the fence then started moving mares into Tanks pen. The fencing projects always take longer than we think they should, so we got a late lunch. The mares were all happy to be on grass, there were too many of them in his pen at Toni’s house, so they were getting supplemented with Alfalfa and now they are in lush green grass. We also moved some of the older open mares down to that field because of the amount of grass available. We tried to put Revel in with Tank but even with all the grass, her or her colt went straight through the fence so they had to be brought back in and she got hauled back home. Now she is being bred to Cappy. Tank now has 9 mares and is a happy camper. He will get a few more before it is all said and done but they haven’t foaled yet. We also got our water going on Sunday. We have big guns in the little pastures to keep our grass green for the horses. The yearling fillies really ran and had a good time when we turned their sprinkler on. It is always fun to get the water on. It adds an extra hour of chores to move the water but so worth it.

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” Henry David Thoreau.  Such a good paraphrase of the famous quote, especially when thinking about livestock. There are so many choices that just aren’t worth the exchange. The price of livestock is always worth it. What they give back to us makes everything we put into them worth it. Always buy the heifer, cow, bull, steer, etc. And don’t call me and expect me to talk you out of buying it, you only live once and that is how memories are made.