Monday was a bit of a haze, I do not think I was fully awake. We unpacked our bags and coolers from the trailer. The boys caught and fed their animals, Anna washed all of hers. Kaine went and helped our dad with the pump. The pump ended up burning up, so the next step was calling the pump mechanic and getting the pump in to see if it could be rebuilt. One of the main factors with irrigation water is when something goes wrong, you get it fixed asap. There is no time to be without water ESPECIALLY with the “severe weather” (National Weather Service’s words not mine) we had starting while we were gone and we got home just in time to enjoy. It is always amusing when Mom says things like it is just 100 degrees, not too hot. No Mom it is 106, that is way too hot. We fed, moved water, etc. It was 76-83 degrees in Wisconsin while we were there. It is 100+ at home. I think I am ready to go back until it cools off.

On Tuesday it was still hot hot hot. We had some people out to look at colts on Tuesday afternoon, so Toni did most of the chores before I got home. Mike Niles came and put some Freon in our AC unit, so now the house is getting cool again. It seems like when it gets that hot, it is hard to get it to cool down. Kade rode in the late afternoon evening. He is pretty dedicated to making his horses into great rope horses. He only rode Stormy on Tuesday and she did great considering that she was off for the entire time we were gone. Amazingly Jax did not keep Kade’s horses legged up while we were gone.

                We still had a heat warning on Wednesday. Dad went to St John to get the freezers that they had taken out of Skip’s house, since the disposal company did not pick them up after they said they would. They said they were too heavy.  So dad got to the dump in Othello, and they also would not take them since they were not empty. So they are on the flatbed trailer still. Anna cleaned out the gooseneck trailer. Everyone lethargically worked on their show cattle because yes, we had another show to go to. Kade rode Stormy in the late part of the day again. We did chores, moved water, petted horses. I will say that moving water when the weather is this hot can actually be kind of dangerous. The metal on the sprinklers gets really got and you worry about getting burned when you touch it.

On Thursday dad and mom went to see Skip and then Dad went to Ritzville to deliver the last Angus bull, he has been sold for a while, but he was just delivered. Kaine went with him. The kids have been packing up to go to Colfax this weekend and washing and clipping. Bill Bailey came out on Thursday and Toni showed him our yearling colts and one weaning that we are pondering keeping. Kade convinced Jax to run the 4-wheeler with the TufKaf so he roped on Stormy then grabbed Electra. Electra has a chipped hoof so has had quite a while off and it showed when he rode her. She is a very pushy mare and likes to be the alpha. Once she remembered she isn’t, the ride and roping went really well. Both Stormy and Electra are sired by Double and you can see his stamp on them. We have multiple full and ½ siblings to Electra and have only managed to keep Stormy out of our Blackie mare. Thursday evening Dad also sprayed weeds. I am not sure the weather was cool enough, but it was the coolest day last week, so do what you gotta do.

On Friday we finished packing, got the two goosenecks hooked up to Toni and Kaine’s pickups and the fifth wheel hooked up to Butte, met up with Leslie and Tracies and headed to Colfax for the Sagebrush show. I still do not think I am awake. We took two pair of Angus cows and calves, two steers and 4 heifers. Leslies took 6 steers and 4 heifers plus Emmett and his steer. And then we also had Aram with his steer and heifer. I guess go big or go home. It was hot hot hot, so we rinsed everyone when we got there to cool them off.  The two char heifers hadn’t been to a show before, but they came off the trailer really great. Kaine’s calf hadn’t either, but as long as he can be next to his mom he is fine in general. Ady also had a steer that was new to the game, and I hear he did pretty well. Traci had made street tacos per my request so we had a really nice dinner with the family. We all were pretty tired and hot so made an early night of it.

The show started on Saturday at 1 so we got to sleep in to 6. The steer show was Saturday and we only took two steers so we helped the Leslie, Tracis, Aram and Emmett. We had a great show, Natalie was grand champion steer and cousin Delanie was Reserve champion with a steer raised by cousin Cade Lyyski. All our kids made it back to the feeder steer class, Kade was grand champion overall, Delanie was reserve and Natalie was 4^th in the feeder class. Kade had his Simmental steer and he was grand champion Simmental steer. Kade and Anna had really worked on fitting Sim (the Simmental steer) so he looked his best. He is one of Kade’s all-time favorite steers and has a personality similar to a dog. Kade takes him jogging and out for walks.  Kade looks good showing Sim because he is big enough to walk the same speed as Kade. Jax had his good steer Gunz and they also did great. Gunz and Jax are a really great pair and Gunz is very patient with Jaxsen. After the show we sent Kaine and Kade to Colfax for ice and ice cream. The show fed us pizza and we had a showmanship talk. Us adults got to sit around and visit with friends. Our friend Kimmy came out for a visit and our good friends Terry and Erina brought their grandkids out to watch the show. We also got to see our good friend Sarah. Due to the heat, no one stayed long.

On Sunday all cattle were being shown, the steers were in for showmanship. Showmanship was first. All of the kids showed great. Savannah was reserve champion peewee major. Kade was 5^th and Natalie 4^th for intermediate, and Kaine 5^th and Anna 1^st for Sr. Next, we went into the heifer show. The younger char heifer won her class and Queen won her class, so both made it back to the championship round. We had grand champion pair with 006 and Haul and reserve champion with Sylvia and Oat. We had a car full of visitors/helpers for Sunday. Lane even got to come up and help Anna fit the char heifers. Thankfully we had him because I am sure we wouldn’t fit them correctly if we didn’t have a char expert on hand. All the cattle showed awesome. We are really proud of how hard the kids work and the effort they have put into their show cattle. Then we packed up, headed home and did chores.  Again, it was crazy hot and a fun weekend. I feel like the kids are just all exhausted from the back-to-back to back-to-back shows and heat.

Now that we are back from the big show, it is time to get serious about selling foals. We are also looking to expand our market and try new things, so if anyone has any ideas please let us know. Having our FB account get hacked last Dec has really hurt our business as we lost all of our FB followers and have had to start fresh. To go from 5000 friends on FB to 0 was a big hit, but we are rebuilding and trying to reshape our brand. Instead of looking at this as a negative we are trying to be positive as it allows us to rise from the ashes of social media. Anyone that can help share our new page and our for sale ads would be very appreciated.