Easter Weekend

Go Matt, go!

Easter weekend started with working all the spring pairs. I had great intentions of trying to take pictures. Somehow I wasn't able to actually help with cows and take pictures at the same time. So my few pictures were from the guys sorting out the first handful of cows. But we got all the calves & cows vaccinated. Spring heifers got CIDRs earlier in the week. CIDRs are in the first group of cows and the pairs are out to triticale. They are so happy. Hopefully the weather will cooperate a little and keep the grass growing.

After working & moving cows we headed to Walla Walla to spend Easter with part of my mom's family. The mountains are beautiful, green and everyone's spring flowers are blooming.

The people who sat behind us in church had extra entertainment. We had our usual crew and in front of us was my cousin and his family. They have twin girls that are 11 months older than Molly and Max who is 10 days older than our twins. We could pass off two sets of triplets. Certainly not identical but close enough to do some fooling.

All the kids lined up after a round of Easter egg hunting.

Jeff & Tyler were talking cows & grass. Imagine that a couple of cattlemen that haven't seen each other for awhile talking about cows & grass! They may have snuck some comments about kids in there (not part of the college banter - but we must admit we're all 10+ years older - oww!)

Egg hunting on the porch & Aunt Sheryl trying to teach a herd of 2 year olds how to blow bubbles. Sheryl's hair was complete with bubbles & soap (spit?) all over her glasses. Lila got the award for most accomplished. The boys were trying to laugh and blow bubbles at the same time.

And the kids got prizes for their egg hunting skills. These little boys were most excited about their flatbed trucks and tractors!

Happy Easter to All!
Blessings.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood . . . . . .

Jeff keeps telling me it's March. Around here it generally doesn't matter what day of the week it is - so if someone tries to tell me a wrong day/date I can be taken in very easily.

These pictures might help explain why Jeff's trying to confuse me.

So, some of the ice had already melted by the time I took a picture - but you get the drift of our weather of late. I went to a MBA (Master's of Beef Advocacy that is) training in Pullman yesterday. I talked to one of our "old" professors. He told me one of his neighbors (large Whitman County farmers) where considering planting rice! We haven't been that wet but certainly unseasonable cold. Looks like hay & pastures are 3 plus weeks behind to date. The fall cows are mad. They think it is time to be on pasture - but for some reason when it freezes at night and might hit 60 during the day the grass doesn't grow too much.

To top off the ice, when Jeff came home late morning to move this water it was snowing. It didn't stick but there was snow falling from the sky! Oh well. Remind me to not whine in August. Maybe if I keep saying it it will come true - "Happy Spring!".

Water's on.

It's windy, cold & time to change water lines! Sounds like the end of March (or first of April this year) at our house. Jeff enjoys multiple showers throughout the day. When the kids and I went by today Jeff was perched on a ladder working on an end gun along the edge of the road. 'Gotta fix stuff where all the neighbors can see.

We still have handlines & wheellines on our place so the fun of daily moves.

There are a few flowers blooming - notice the still leaveless (not sure if they are alive) bushes in the background. The 15 below in November may have done in some of my poor bushes yet again. The tulips are getting ready to bloom also. Love the fly on the flowers - did I ever mention we have lots of flys at our house in the summer. In the morning the East side of the white house is often covered with the little critters - oh well!

The lawn is covered with sticks and until the rain we had last night the lawn was so dirty, Trevor running across the lawn put up a little dust cloud with every step. Bad when you have to wash the lawn first thing in the spring.

Jeff & I took a long weekend to visit the bull studs & Midland Bull Test last weekend. Lots & lots of black bulls. We also visited a ranch south of Billings with directions that began with "what are you driving". Needless to say 4 wheel drive necessary.

We also stopped at the "Land of Magic" Steakhouse in Logan, Montana. If anyone is ever in the area it is a must stop! Awesome CAB steak and multiple courses for a reasonable price.

The kids and I planting some cool season vegetables in the garden. The strawberries and raspberries we planted last spring look good. More than one day that the kids would like to spend more than 15 minutes outside would be greatly appreciated. Can't wait to eat our own berries. The few we had last summer were AWESOME!!

Anyway - May will be lovely - as it usually is! And the locals were quite happy with the rain in Montana. Happy Spring from the Sackmanns!

WOW & THANKS

The 2011 Red, White & Black Bull & Female Sale is in the books!

A HUGE thanks to everyone; the buyers, bidders, JR Ranch, everyone who came to work & to eat! We had a great sale! It was great seeing everyone on a pretty nice day (for March!).

Here are some of the cuter pictures - other pictures will be posted on our website http://www.sackmanncattle.com.

Molly was a super helper - all day - at the sale. She came with dad & I first thing in the morning and played & helped until after the last heifer was sold. Bigger jobs next year!

Nana Robyn went home with Trev & Lila but the rest of the grandparents hung around. As usual they know tons of people - even if they haven't heard a name since college. Or in some cases knew other people's parents from college. GO COUGS - by the way! We'll take the NIT.

The other big helper & his dad (who helped too). Levi helped his mom in the office all day and reported he was ready for a bath that evening. So cute!

Sid & Jeff discuss the days happenings.

What a great day - yes, we are glad its done for another year. The rest of the crew has been planting wheat & thinking about turning on water. Here comes irrigation season. It actually felt like spring here today so I guess it is time.

Busy day!

I was raised with pigs, as were multiple generations of my dad's family. I've heard raising pigs is just in your blood and a habit that can be hard to beat. I fit that category! So we have a very small pig herd. But today half of our sow herd farrowed! For real hog farms three litters in one day is a bad day - but around here its kinda crazy!

So 22 new little pigs are running around, would like more, but two were gilts so I won't complain too much.

The kids were good helpers processing litters this afternoon. Molly is finally big enough to sort-of be ok holding the little monsters. Trev and Lila just want to pet them.

On the cattle side - the Red, White & Black Sale Catalog is off to the presses!! A feat worthy of celebrating. Check out the catalog online http://www.sackmanncattle.com/. Jeff & Jeff have semen testing on the docket for tomorrow. Bulls are mostly clipped - soon it will be time to cook that awesome sale day lunch!

Welcome March - loved this blog format - because that is what it looked like here today!

Spring?

Let me whine - it's been winter here since mid-November. Can it be over yet? The wind has started to blow. We picked up the branches off the lawn - so its probably our fault! Back to single digits and below zero with wind chills. But we didn't have the snow other places did, so I guess we should be thankful for the dirt we see. The tulips that were popping through are probably wondering what they were thinking.

But spring should be on the way - last week while running errands in Moses Lake we had a less than 30 minutes snow/rain/sleet/hail storm. The last few minutes included sunshine. Ahh, spring in the NW - if you don't like the weather wait a few minutes! And for the lady who, on her cell phone at the store, was changing all of her plans because of the wet stuff falling must be new to the NW.

We're almost done with spring calving. Jeff & Trev check the new pairs. Before the bull sale we should be done calving, farrowing & maybe started farming. The guys need to plant wheat this spring. For our dry-land friends and relatives planting is just part of the game, but for these irrigated hay farmers planting is a big event!

Bull catalog is down to final edits & I promise baby pig pics in future posts!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It is catalog time again (I thought we just did that!).

So we headed out to the pasture with the new babies (25 in less than 2 weeks - including twins with a project for Molly). Taking pictures of these crazies is a project. I have plenty of pics with a piece of {Molly or Trevor}. This was my fave - it is the true Molly!

This is going to be our "family pic" in the catalog. They are much cuter than throwing in the adults. Everyone got cowboy hats for birthday or Valentine's (thanks Nana Robyn & Papa Hal). Lila isn't quite sure she wants to wear hers but I have convinced her to wear tiny, skinny ponies sometimes.

Another cutie! Lots of bull pictures to put up on the website and sent off for catalog & flyer publication to go with the kid pictures.

Yes, that's two n's.

We may not pronounce our last name in the old world fashion - but it does end in two n's. Many of our family branches trace back to Germans from Russia - complete with multiple Ellis Island landings near the turn of the previous century. One of the traditions the Sackmann family continues to honor is making sausage. We must admit we are not as dedicated as our ancestors. We don't begin by spending days processing dozens of animals (thank you McCary Meats) and the guys happily use a digital, remote thermometer to watch the temperature in the 100+ year old smokehouse (while they play cards). We use our own beef and this year we did buy pork (thanks http://www.purecountrypork.com/ and Paul) since we didn't have any market hogs at the time. We make a smoked german sausage, summer sausage, and pepper stick. Each family makes their own batch to season as they wish.

The process starts by mixing fresh ground beef & pork in specific proportions and then adding spices. Mix it all up and fry up a sample. Re-season as necessary or stuff. Here's Jeff putting the sausage into the stuffer - being overseen by Molly & Sid.

Not sure how the child labor fits into the health stardards - but they were good helpers!

Or Molly standing on the table. It used to be you had to work your way up the table as you got older and more experienced. But apparently the rules are getting lax since Trevor was "helping" with the top dog job at his first sausage making experience (with help from Nana & Papa).

Trevor is inspecting the summer sausage as it awaits its turn in the smoker.

Tractor in hand of course!

German sausage hangs prior to hitting the smoke house. This is Jeff's sandwich meat for the summer. It's also great in a melted cheese sandwich or as a snack.

And a little fun . . . .

Uncle Paul's days of building floats may be over - but he still has a left over Jack-in-the-box so he and papa Sid climbed up to turn in on for the kids and examine how it worked. Molly hadn't been to sausage making for three years - but she still remembered the Jack-in-the-box. Better keep that baby around!

And Lila is driving Uncle Paul's big red tractor. Before we were out Travis said "oh, I forgot I hooked the horn back up". Oops!

Happy New Year!

Here I am a month behind again!

I promise we've kept "busy" even though some days I don't know what I've done. We made sausage, celebrated lots of Christmas, celebrated an "East coast New Year's", went to the American Farm Bureau Annual Meeting (including a SHUT down Atlanta) and the National Western Stock Show in Denver. And of course fed cows everyday, worked fall pairs, bred & implanted embryos in fall cows and complained about the winter. Why has Moses Lake been the coldest spot in the STATE many times the last two months?

Trying to take pics of kids with cows in the background. Trev prefers to watch the "tows". They are awfully cute even if they won't all look at me to take a simple picture!

More to come!

All in, all out, all done!

The Fall '10 sale is in the books!

A HUGE thank you to everyone who bought animals, worked (especially the crew out back) and who came to visit. All in all another successful sale. And of course thanks to JR Ranch who have allowed us to participate in their production sales.

Yes it was cold. The crew that worked out back were troopers (you can have all the cookies you want anytime!)

JR had the salebarn nice and warm, but from the GREAT collection of hats in the crowd everyone was still dressed to look at cattle in the open air. Although it may have been the nicest weather day of the week (it was -15 three days before).

One of Jeff's good friends from WSU is from Cut Bank, MT. He always used "above" or "below" when referring to the weather. I remember asking what was up with that? The answer was it was just as likely to be 20 above as 20 below. Jeff was using that nomenclature this last week. Great - its bad when you are happy because 15 "above" is 30 degrees warmer than two days before. Oh, well hopefully we've had our winter blast for the year - although that was only November. Enough whining - although I was laughing because many of my non-livestock "friends" on Facebook had great words like "fun" to describe the snow. Somehow the cattle and pig folks I talked to at the same time had different words to describe the weather. Hum!

Lila wins the award at our house - the first day it was cold & snowing the whole crew was all dressed and ready to go to chores. Jeff opened the back door and Lila was closest to the snow that was blowing in. We said "OK Lila - let's go out the door". She said "NO!" Smart girl.

Looks like our last Fall calf should be born today and we've starting synchronizing heifers for Fall breeding. It just rolls from one project to the next.

I'm thinking about getting Christmas shopping done - boring but MOST of it is done on-line.

Hope everyone has a blessed Christmas Season!