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.