This past weekend was Applefest, the big event of the year here in Cedaredge.  It is a fun time with lots of vendors, good music, and of course, APPLES!  The whole downtown is blocked off, and about 10,000 people come to participate in the festivities.  We have a great climate for growing apples(and other fruit) hence the celebration towards the end of the picking season.  We also had company, our good friends Kent and Anna Chavet from Phoenix came up for the weekend.  We went to the Applefest Gala Friday night and enjoyed good food, dancing, and great company. 
    Saturday morning Winnie participated in her first triathlon- which she thoroughly enjoyed and did very well in.  Next year I will do it again(skipped this year) and Winnie, and maybe Tori and Alex.  It is a shorter one, and the kid distances are perfect.
    We also sold  our younger Pinzgauer bull and a steer to Rocky Mountain Pinzgauers in Elizabeth, CO, and they left on Saturday as well.  The day before we had loaded up a yak steer for a buyer, so our animal numbers are shrinking!  We do have a few more yaks for sale that I hope to move before the winter.
    All in all a fun and productive weekend,

As we have watched the bulls plow through gates and beat each other up over the past several weeks, we have decided to sell "Gunner", the younger of the two.  He is challenging "Shooter" and it is causing problems around here.  We are planning on breeding him to two of the cows, so he will be ready to go in a couple of months.  We will move the girls and him to a friend's pasture to eliminate the competition.  He is a nice guy, just coming into his own.  He is a registered Pinzgauer bull, 2.5 yrs old, and has been semen and trich tested last October.  His official name is Grit's Gunman.  He has a rare cross of bloodlines that is hard to come by.  His mama is Diamond Panache (1998 Reserve Grand Champion Female).  He has True Grit for his Sire who is out of Tyrol (one of the original import bulls, registration #0000003) and Karman Oak (who was the foundation cow for Diamond T Cattle in Alberta, Canada). Please call for more details, price, etc. (970)856-6058.

Just got the camera talking to the computer again, so here is a picture of the last calf born.  He was born out on pasture and everyone had to check him out!

Today we took the bulls down to a friend's place in Delta to have them ultrasounded for meat quality.  It was our day off, and we were planning on getting there around noon.  About 10:30 I received a call that they were ready for us.  So I finished up the girls breakfast prep(they had slept in and I had already been down to work to catch up on  a few things), and ran out to get the trailer on the truck.  Everyone including Gus wanted to help, and Jeff was conveniently gone in Grand Junction.  So I hooked up the trailer and got it lined up with the bulls' pen.  Now to load them...  I grabbed a couple of buckets and some pellets, and put those in the trailer with much rattling and fanfare.  I opened the door of the trailer and the gate to the pen, and walked away.  I went to go get the herding sticks(sure there is a better name for them that I don't know!) and came back to two bulls eating happily in the trailer.  I closed the door and we were off.  We arrived just before noon, and no we weren't late(a rare event for me). There were several other breeders there, all Angus.  It was an interesting process, and we should receive the results in a week or two.  The only problem was the bulls not wanting to load back up, I should have brought extra pellets for the ride home!