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.