These past couple of weeks...

I can't believe midterms are next week already and that two weeks have flown by like nothing. However, they have been filled with some good times :)


The first week back, I had a full Tuesday of livestock eval, marketing, Steer A Year, Purebred Cattle Management and club lamb meeting.... have since decided to break up a few of these meetings so I might get home by 7 pm rather than 10 or later..... Wednesday was a small/short 4-H meeting. Thursday was livestock eval and left for our Steer a Year trip! We left Corvallis around 5 pm and drove straight to Yakima, WA. We got into our hotel around midnight and had to be up at 6 am. We then toured Washington Beef. I won't go into any details.... we then drove to Toppenish, WA and toured Trinity Farms, a Angus/Sim-Angus ranch... very beautiful cattle and a wonderful lunch there! We then drove down to Pendleton, OR. We got there a little early, so we did some shopping. We had a dinner reservation at 6:30 at a nice steakhouse. Dinner was good, went to the casino afterwards since the pool closed at 10 :( Celebrated one of our member's birthday. The next morning, we had a tour of Lorenzen Red Angus.... a very beautiful place with some really nice looking cattle. We then got on the road again to drive to Boardman, Oregon where we toured Beef Northwest. Again, I will not go into any details, but we had an amazing time here, we learned a LOT and walked away very appreciative of the extra-long and informative tour. Definately a place I wouldn't mind working in the future ;) We got back to Corvallis pretty late that night. I crawled into bed and didn't wake up till around 11 am on Sunday.

Monday I sent in my entry for Mini Lop Nationals. I went ahead and entered 7....

• Hades - BSD (1 leg)
• Titan - BJB (2 legs)
• Theodore - BJB
• Mason - SJB
• Dominic - SJB
• Taylor -SJD
• Last Minute - SJD

*the rest have not been shown!

Theodore has a down payment on him and is coming back to Oregon after his trip. We pre-sold three, two leaving at ML Nationals and one leaving on the way back. That will give us some cages to work with for litters :)

Tuesday was another full day, along with Wednesday. Thursday was not fun either. Had marketing at 1 pm. From 2-4 I had class. At 5, I fed... and at 5:30, I went down to the swine barn to help shave the pigs that were being sold in the hog and lamb sale for the 4-H kids for their market projects! Um.... yeah I got a little dirty that day... but it was fun, exhausting, and I climbed into bed after a well-deserved shower because I had to be up at 7 am! I went to the 8 am chemistry class, finished packing and left for so. Oregon for the weekend. I judged a 4-H show that evening (very great kids, wonderful low-key experience) and then went home to get my rabbits ready.

I entered 5 rabbits, 3 in the same class which helped me decifer my ML Nationals BSD, Hades will be going. She won 2nd in show A... not sure why she lost but whatever.... My other two does, will be bred here soon. My SJB won his class but there weren't enough for a class leg and the senior buck was prime. Titan, pulled out and won BOS and had raving comments. He is such a pleaser -- pleasing to look at and a wonderful disposition, along with a wonderful growth rate! Loosing Zeus was tough, but this up and coming buck really makes up for it, because he's been sitting in the barn the entire time! Show B was the same... for once, consisitency.

I sold the two I brought... and I came home with one. The night before I had fallen in love with a beautiful broken chocolate buck out of my stock :) I went home wishing I could have a breeding from him, and I went back the next day and Stacey offered him to me! I couldn't object... he had a couple type flaws but nothing that can't be fixed with correct breedings. I have already bred him to Maddelyn :) We'll see if she carries chocolate, if not, the babies at the min will carry chocolate and dilute!

also registered a ton of animals, a variety of breeds too..... my first English Lops, more French Lops, some New Zealands, a Himilayan and Thriantas. Had a great time. Drove back Sunday evening.

Monday afternoon we ultrasounded our last 16 head of calves. Basically we are looking to see how much backfat and marbling they and how they should grade, even though we will measure that upon carcass as well.


Today during livestock eval we had an intro to carcass Yield Grades, and at 5 we had an extensive lesson on Yield Grades during Steer A Year. I did learn a lot :)

Tomorrow I have Purebred Cattle Mangement and a Young Cattlemen's meeting. Thursday is full of classes until 4 and Friday and Saturday I am feeding and pulling a homework/study weekend.

So.... it's very likely I won't report anything until after Mini Lop Nationals. I'm looking forward to a safe, fun and exciting weekend :D

Above is a picture of our new broken buck, "Chocolate"