Monday was not as hot as it had been. I had an industry tour at work and we went to Ice Harbor Dam, Kennewick Irrigation District to see where they are going to put their reservoir and Lamb Weston. It was all pretty cool. The kids washed their animals and did ranch work. Kade has been riding as many horses as he can since he is home. He rode Honey on Monday. We also heard from our friend Roy that has a Gunner daughter that they are showing that his mare did great in her show over the weekend with Christy riding her. Super fun to have them showing their mare on their own. Dad is still harvesting. Toni and I attempted to get some good pictures of Blue Star Monday night, but there were wasps everywhere and I got stung about 8 times and I emptied two bottles of wasp spray on them. You have to love wood fences in this heat because all of the continuance fence and the gates are wasp habitat and those bad words can make a nest and be ready to attack in no time flat. We got some ok pictures.

On Tuesday morning Allie was coming out to ultrasound mares. It did not go great, but it went. To say we were disappointed would be an understatement but we try to look at the bright side. The studs were great to pull the mares out of their pens. We did have most of the outside mares bred, so they can go home. We had a mare go over the stantion, which is everyone’s nightmare, and yes she got caught. But with fast thinking we were able to get her out with no injuries. Then the kids cleaned the show supplies out of the back of my pick up, did their normal washing, tree chopping and riding. Kade convinced Jax to pull the TufKaf so roped a little.  Once of the risers blew the hose off so Toni got that fixed. To be a rancher, you really have to be a jack of all trades. My conference at work did not start until the afternoon on Tuesday, so I got some work stuff done first. Toni had to go to the Franklin County planning meeting Tuesday night.

On Wednesday Sagebug’s pen came up to the house, I guess they decided they were out of feed. We were already talking about pulling him and moving the mares anyway, so the timing really worked out. They actually still had feed, but with the heat and no rain there was no point in waiting until the feed was all the way gone. Especially with some older mares in that pen. So Toni and Anna put Sagebug in his winter pen, which really upset him, and hauled the mares down to mom and dads house. All of the foals loaded like champs, so it went really well. They went slow and easy, so no wrecks, no injuries, and they got them moved in 2 loads. Because they were all captive, Toni pulled hair on the 2 out of that pen that we needed samples to send for testing. She was able to touch all of the foals before turning them out in the irrigated pasture.  Toni and mom also fixed some poles down the driveway. I was still at the work conference.

On Thursday Toni and the kids ran the yearling colts to the house to get pictures, they could not do it in their pen because the panels were full of wasps. Anna and Kade helped the most. Anna also got some video for tiktok. Kade had some funny quotes so Anna is hoping to make a couple of videos. The colts all did pretty well getting their new pics. They are all really looking great.  Kade got some new pics of Honey so he could work on selling her. Thursday was my last day at the work conference. Anna came up and got video and pictures of Honey too.

On Friday I caught up on some ranch book work. Toni called me and I went down to moms. Dad’s recliner had been broken for quite a bit and the repair guy showed up while mom and dad were gone. Mom says he wasn’t scheduled to come then. He declared the recliner a loss so Macys is sending out a new recliner.  Still hot on Friday. A group of foals came into the corral to start eating grain so we got to get some good handling in. We then debated which ones we want to keep. Spoiler alert- it is all of them! I stayed with grandma Friday night.

On Saturday Toni and Jaxsen went to a good friend Karl Smiths funeral. He worked for grandpa when we were kids and we grew up with them. I loaded out some horses to leave on Saturday, they were outside mares getting bred. Kade and dad went to Mr Dansies to rope, Kade was really excited to go. Dad and Kade had a good time. Kade is working on being a healer. He took Electra. What was really cool is that Hadley Dansie was riding the colt they got from us out of Fancy by Leroy, so that was really cool. Anna went in to the Mike Meads Memorial jackpot show to help and take pictures. Kaine and I got the cows in that have bull calves and pulled blood on them for pregnancy testing. It was hot dirty work but doing the smaller field is going to make Sunday go a ton better.

On Sunday everyone came down and we pulled blood on all of the rest of the cows. The big field has all the cows with heifers and steers, the bred heifers, and Ben’s longhorns- which there are 3. This is significant because we have a strong dislike for the longhorns. Ben always has excuses for them. So the first one he got, Fred, is a steer and isn’t terrible. Then he got the two heifers, Wilma and Betty and they are loco and have way bigger horns than Fred. I was sorting everything with Kaine and Anna helping me, Kade ran the alley, Toni and Jax ran gates. As I was sorting the yellow and white long horn, when she ran by me she kicked me. And yes, she got me. Ben says- well she didn’t hook anybody. She is getting better. I have threatened her life. Overall pulling blood on the cows went well. We also sorted off the prospective show heifer calves, the three club steers, and Anna’s potential Evergreen entries. We also left a calf in that needs some extra groceries. Then we had to go sort out all the mothers to those calves. Again, hot dirty work. Whatever tan we obtained was really just dirt and it washed off in the shower. The horses all did good, the dogs did good. It was a really fun day. Toni and I also ran out to the desert and pulled hair on Playin and Alota to send in for disease panels. I think we have like 22 tests pending at this point? Some are for the same foal but I feel like quite a few of our foals are getting tested. Again, if you have an interest in something and want to see disease panel, just let us know.