Mid Winter Boring..........

It's hard to find something to blog about in the middle of winter.  We're waiting for calves to arrive in another month or two.  We're hoping for some real snow because we need the moisture this winter.  It was 48 degrees here today - just beautiful - but not our typical winter.

So, just for fun, today became a picture day so that we could be outside.



Above are Seanna and Carnival.  Carnival is growing like crazy.  Seanna is such a good mom.

Some of the boys hanging out in the sunshine.  Winchester on the left, Max the steer in the middle, Harper behind Max and Yellowstone to Max's right.  'Dance was relaxing farther down in the meadow with his best steer pal.

Yanni, with her hay belly, comes running as fast as she can go when she spots the treat bucket.  She's rather spoiled.  Nothing stops her full out run when she knows a few treats are headed for "her" feed bucket.

She and Cinder disagree every day over ownership of the feed buckets.  They eventually sort it out.

Just because they look so cute and are such good pals:  Yellowstone on the left and Harper on the right.  Harper is for sale, by the way.  We think we might show Yellowstone this year.  We'll decide after he loses some of that winter coat and we can get a real good look at all his stuff!  Harper is such a nice little bull that we hate to sell him, but we can't keep them all - darn it!  Not too many of our boys make it to bull status, so we think these two are particularly nice guys.



What to Do? What to Do?

Winter in Wyoming usually means that we are well tethered to the home place.  A cow's gotta eat and we are responsible for making sure that happens.  Whatever the weather, we fill feeders every few days so a winter vacation is out of the question.  A short getaway works, but there aren't many warm options available!  Denver is a mere four hour drive for us and the Denver Stock Show is on in January.  Officially known as the National Western Stock Show, the National Western hosts "more than 25 'Yard' shows representing 19 different breeds, and 50 'Hill' shows including 1 World Show, National Breed Shows, 28 Auctions and 28 Rodeo performances."

As usual, after a few days of exceptionally warm weather, our trip involved high winds, blowing snow and black ice.  Yippee.  We arrived safely in Denver and met up with our friends from South Dakota to take a look at all the hoopla.  We had in mind that we'd like to maybe, just maybe, show Dexters here someday.  Well.......

Maybe not.

All the credit in the world to those who show here.  Seriously.  Even with our limited experience, we still know that showing is tough work even under the best circumstances.  If we were to have a Dexter class here, we'd be housed outside in the Yard - no matter what the weather might be.  Tents, heaters, windbreaks.....still too cold for us to do this voluntarily.  It's one thing to be out in the weather because we have to take care of our Dexters.  It's a whole 'nother thing to volunteer to be miserable.  Call us crazy........

The National Western is an amazing experience though.  We'd like to go again.....preferably without the wind and snow!