November 2008

November 1 - We made it to the American Royal to cheer on Brock. He showed his Charolais Cross steer early at 9:00 a.m. and was 2nd in his Class of steers. That automatically let him get into the premium sale, but the draw back was they had to stay until Sunday night. He had a good week! Grand Purebred Heifer and Reserve Grand Champion Percentage heifers in the Braunvieh show too. One thing about Brock though he knows how to handle the glory!


Brock peeking over his steer to see the judge!	Lined up and looking good!	Selected 2nd place steer in the class. Big smile on Brock's face!

We ran into old neighbor Mike, Trudy and Katie Nolles while we were there. We had a good visit! We then headed north towards Nebraska. We made it into Grand Island fifteen minutes after Sandi and Brian's wedding had already started so we took some time to get dressed. We relaxed and went to the Reception and Dance and had a great time. Met Bill and Beck there along with Keith and Lorraine, Nick and Larry, Kent and Faye, Homer and Darla, Bob and Sue, Joe and Cheryl, Butch and Deb, Bim and Jeri and the list goes on! It was great to see all the Ammon and Sybrant families too. I grew up with all those fine folks!
November 2 - We had a good visit with my classmates Bruce and Veta Hungerford, Sheila, Scott and their three children. We had an early breakfast with Bill and Beck. We met Shawna and Kyleigh, Shareen, Dalton and Dalya for late breakfast and then we packed up Dalton and Dalya and their bags and headed south to Oklahoma. A quick trip but a good one! We made it home about 9:00 and had a call from Brian that he was stranded on highway 71 near Carthage MO. He evidently got some bad fuel and his truck would not pull his trailer. So off into the night went Abbie to lend a helping hand. The kids and I crashed! He got home around 3:30 a.m.
November 3 - It was a real pretty day today. Dalton and Dalya played inside and out all day! The guys are doing some odd jobs around the place! I got the yard mowed and cleaned up a little! It was a pretty dirty lawn mower ride! It's starting to get a little dry again! I also got laundry washed and unpacked for a the last time for awhile I hope! The guys got some fence built while we were gone which was a good thing. Considering we probably won't have this nice weather for much longer.

November 4 - 5 Happy Birthday Thomas Ayden Thorne! Wow Four Years old!
We voted in Adair's new town hall after lunch. We took Brian's trailer and Heidi home too. We stopped off at Inola Feed and Supply to get an estimate on feed and took the two grandchildren, Dalton and Dalya out to supper at Eggberts. We were so sick of the political crap we refrained from turning on the T V or radio all day. We feared the inevitable out come.
I believe the sickness in my stomach today is from the election. I call it the "Obama Influenza". No way to vaccinate for it, just swallow hard and keep praying for a miracle. It's going to be four years of turmoil and a sickening degrading way of life in the USA. Of course the average citizen that voted for him is quite unaware of the upcoming destruction of our country and what this all this means in the long term for our children and their children. We are fast becoming the minority of a God fearing nation. The liberal highly educated in most instances are willing to put God last or non existent in our society. The Gay Community, Vegetarians, Animal Rights Activist and Abortionist are all willing to sacrifice a normal way of life in this country. I ask you, "Who would you want by your side in a battle of life or death?" Who do you suppose would turn and run first? I am sure our dear departed service men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice are turning over in their graves with disbelief. Keep our great nation in your prayers and please show your support of our FLAG and Country! We now have a president that will not salute it or honor those who gave him this rare privilege to govern our country. Keep America and our troops in your prayers.

Dalton and Dalya holding kittens

The wind is blowing 90 miles an hour today! There went our calm balmy fall. They are talking about rain tonight and possible severe weather warnings are out. The back to normal time has shortened our days again. The guys are breaking and clipping Spring calves today. Friends from Nebraska stopped by this morning. Kent Barnes came by to pick up breeding supplies too. So all is normal at the Thorne Ranch. Dalton and Dalya are having fun with the three little kittens. They have spent a lot of time in the garage. ha It's hard for this old grandmother to get into the groove of clutter. But so far they have been picking up their stuff pretty well! Yep it's grandmother's boot camp all over again.
November 6-10 Dalton, Dalya and I went after special feed for Annie at Moore Farms. So we got to see Renita at her operation. Jack and Jade were very content to stay at the end of the pasture so we didn't get to pet them, but we enjoyed the visit and we even got some farm fresh eggs as a gift! I am sure you all have heard that the egg industry is taking it in the arm in California. They are requiring much more space for the chickens to lay their eggs in now.
It's been fun to have the grandkids. I forgot how much attention they take and how stopping to tie a shoe or button a pair of pants required that special touch from Grandma Jo Jo. They have been good kids though and have traveled along with us without any complaints. We hauled cull cattle to Coffeyville on Friday afternoon so that gave them both a much needed nap. We stopped off in Nowata to pick up some groceries too. We made it to Cowboy Church on Sunday morning and the kids got to play with some other kids their own age. It seems like all I get done is wash clothes and cook. Those two are always hungry. Growing children! ha

We are in for rain this afternoon and evening according to the weather man. Then warm up a little in time for an artic blast that is coming this next weekend. So we best get all those last minute outside projects done. I trimmed all my crepe myrtles while the kids were napping the other day. Now I have a pile of limbs to burn or haul out. That might be a good hot dog roasting fire for the kids.. ha

The guys set up about 80 head yesterday to prepare for breeding. So we will be A I breeding and transferring embryos soon. The fall calves are growing off well and we have some that will definitely be in the show ring and breeding pasture. The 2008 Shows are done thank heavens! Now we will prepare cattle for 2009 Shows. Abbie had 14 new recruits tied in the barn on Saturday. Most of them will become replacement heifers but there are a few that will get the privilege to become a pampered barn brat.

Brock called the other night after the show in Perry OK. He had a really good day. The Hereford heifer was Supreme in both rings. Heidi was Champion Chi and Reserve Champion Chi in two rings, two judges. His steer was supreme Prospect Steer both rings and his Maine heifer was Champion Maine in one ring. So yes he had a good day. We are pretty proud for you Brock and Brian! Hard work does pay off!

Updated the pricing on the web design page due to less time and higher prices trickled down. I don't do the web sites to make money that is for sure. Most of them I donate my time, but the time has come to make my time more valuable. When I create a web site it has been for a two year contract due to the pricing break from the host servers that I purchase from. That usually amounts to $5.00 a month for hosting when you buy ahead of time. I don't know any place you can advertise world wide for $5 a month do you?

Five of the seven

Show Steers left!

Polled Energizer first calf heifer with her calf sired by Hot Rod.

Dalya and Dalton

TLC Kyra Wave

November 11-14 This week went by pretty fast. Considering this grandmother has decided that motherhood is for young ladies. Meaning I feel pretty old right now and worn down. The grandkids have been up at daylight almost every day. I know one thing if we are going to have any more grandkids come stay we need an extra king sized bed. ha

The guys have been breaking and clipping cattle pretty non stop this week. They have them going really well though and the hot head Hardcore girls are taming down a bunch. The entries are due for Ft Worth tomorrow so I worked on that all morning and finally made it to the mail box before 4:00. Dalya had fallen asleep after lunch, so I convinced Pappa Abbie to come up and watch her until Dalton and I got back from Adair. It's been cloudy and raining off and on almost all day. The wind from the north is blowing a good clip too. Sure someone shuts the door up there soon. We have some folks coming tomorrow to check out the halter broke heifers. Also heard from a man from Arkansas today that is looking for a steer and a heifer. Glad to hear that folks are still thinking of showing. Considering the drop in the economy. Always something to be thankful for if you look for it!

I took several cattle pictures yesterday. Check them out at the Club Calf and For Sale pages. The sun actually blew through the clouds once in awhile and the cattle worked well. Pappa took the two kids with him to Claremore to pick up supplies and I got an afternoon to take pictures. J R was a big help in getting them stopped on the right feet. The cow modeling classes are hard work on the picture taker though. I am up and down a bunch to get the right angle. I really felt like a grandmother today! ha Where is that show stick? I can tell that I have been in the house too much cooking and cleaning. So today I opted to try and clean the barn up some!

November 15-19 We had all kinds of company on Saturday afternoon. Hoof kickers of all kinds! Some folks from Arkansas drove in a $70,000 rig to buy a $1500 calf. It has always been the other way around at this ranch! ha We don't make any excuses for our prices. We hope you get what you pay for! We also had folks from north of Tulsa come by and it looks like they are going to take one of the green broke heifers out of TLCC Hardy. Mike our neighbor came by and said he and Ag Teacher for Adair, Davin Delosier had been everywhere looking at cattle and our cattle were still the best one's that he had seen. You know how it is to shop away from home! Everything has to be better further away! Right? ha Most of our Ag Teachers have an in somewhere for all their show kids. They either own a few show calves themselves or their tight friends or closest relatives may have some that need peddled. So we don't hold our breath when it comes to local Ag Teacher support, even though we attend all the premium sales and support all the kids we know. Even the one's that don't buy from us! It just makes you feel good when you help out a kid that does a good job with an animal! Brian came by with his cows to breed. The kids played hard on Saturday with Madison. They were all dirty little grunions by night fall.

Chad Burroughs stopped by from Ohio. We had just heard that Naughty Pine was a good bull to breed to and he shows up on our door step with semen for sale. He had lunch with us and we enjoyed his visit. Warmed up Chicken and Noodles! I am running out of idea's for meals these kids. It was kind of funny as I had cut my hair before Chad came by. Abbie saw me and called my hair do "Bushy Park"... Chad was wearing a Bushy Park cap what a coincidence! ha We all had a good laugh about that one! All the hair cutting got me in the mood to chop off the locks. Can't blame anyone else for the bad hair cut! ha

Shareen made it in on Monday the 17th to spend a couple of days and then return Dalton and Dalya home. We ran to Tulsa shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond yesterday. Picked up some much needed household stuff. We had lunch at Applebee's then made it to J C Penney's Home Store to check out bed spreads. Didn't find what I was looking for. Wish I had their prices were good. We met the guys at Pryor for Mexican supper and made it back home by 9:00.

Shareen and the kids got taken off this a.m. and the house is really quiet! Amazing how much you get used to and appreciate peace and quiet as you age! ha Everything is staying in the same spot again! Amazing! We had a quiet lunch today and I believe the dogs are finally relaxing! The guys had four head tied behind the tractor at lunch time. They are walking the walk pretty well now. No use fighting the big blue! ha

We are taking more pictures today of the ladies in training! It's a balmy 65 degrees and no wind. We best take advantage of this photograph moment now! See the new pictures of all the halter girls! Some fancy girls after they all received their fall hair cuts.... like me!

Dalton and Dalya

Dalya Rae

Gold, King, Tracker & Ted

TLCC Hello Dolly Sire: TLCC Hardy

November 20-23 Cloudy and colder here this weekend. Jessie and I had plans to go ride some trails but we decided it wouldn't be very pleasant today. I made it to Tulsa yesterday to check out the 600 plus booths at the Craft Fair held at the Tulsa Expo Building. I wasn't terribly impressed with most of it. It looked like lots of it came from China all decorated up for us dumb Americans to buy. Pretty bad when our flag has to be made in China. There were some booths though that had real American made products, but of course you pay the extra price. I didn't find much for Christmas presents. It's going to be tough to get in the mood this year. I dread it more every year. It should be enough for us all to be able to get together and enjoy each others company. Without all the buy we this and buy me that. Christmas should not be about buying. But our department stores use it to up their profits big time. I have been looking for a set of new pans and came across stainless steel set that had been marked down to $132. from $179. But just for Christmas they marked them back up to $159. I was lucky enough to find one set that had not had the new price hike! So today I cooked up a chicken dinner with the new pans with great success. At least I saved enough to buy the chicken! ha If our bureaucratic government has it's way we won't even have a chicken for every pot!
Word is out folks so hang onto your hats. We are going to be in a battle to keep our cattle and our way of life. Beef, Dairy and Pork producers this is no laughing matter. Now what would they do with all that money collected? Stuff it in the ozone hole? Check this and other stories out at R-CALF.
- Recent news releases by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and its affiliate organizations suggest that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, which AFBF claims would essentially result in new taxes on livestock operations and lead to assessments of $175 for each dairy cow, $87.50 for each head of beef cattle and $20 for each hog.
- If this were true, then livestock producers should immediately suspend all efforts to properly implement country-of-origin labeling (COOL), halt all efforts to enforce U.S. antitrust laws, discontinue fighting to prevent the introduction of diseases like BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and FMD (foot-and-mouth disease), ignore the anticompetitive effects from packer-owned livestock and other captive supply practices and, instead, immediately refocus all of their available resources toward the EPA to stop this tax, as it would effectively wipe out independent U.S. cattle producers.

TLCC Tracker TLCC Molasses	November 24 Took pictures today of one of our up and coming young herd bulls we will be promoting in 2009. This guy's name is TLCC Tracker. Just like his name he tracks and moves very well. He is a half blood Maine and Braunvieh out of our old Donor Veronica. She continues to stamp them out. Also a full sister named TLCC Molasses will be kept in the donor program. I made it to the post office and the grocery store in Langley today. Picked up supplies for the surprise party for Abbie tomorrow night. He doesn't have a clue yet, so don't you all go and spill the beans. We flush four head tomorrow and he thought that was good enough for his 65th Birthday present. Wait until the naked lady jumps out of the cake! ha No I am kidding! ha He would have a heart attack! ha Congratulations Allison and Amanda on your big win! Oklahoma State University World Champion AQHA Judging Team! We are proud and happy for you! Amanda was high point individual too! WOW! See the results below! It's great when our cattle kids can go out and win in the horse world too!
Amanda Burrows High Point Individual	OSU HORSE JUDGING TEAM 2008 AQHA SENIOR WORLD CHAMPION 1^st High Team in Halter Kristi Wright-Burton – 2^nd high individual Amanda Burrows – 4^th high individual 2^nd High Team in Performance Allison Bond – 2^nd high individual Amanda Burrows – 5^th high individual 1^st High Team in Reasons Amanda Burrows – 3^rd high individual Allison Bond – 5^th high individual Sharon Thomas – 6^th high individual McKenzie Nygren – 9^th high individual 1^st High Team Overall Amanda Burrows – 1^st high individual Kristi-Wright Burton – 5^th high individual overall
Abbie turns 65 years young!	November 25-26 Happy Birthday Abbie Dear! We pulled it off and he didn't even suspect until it was way too late! ha Thank you to our many friends that took time to make his day special. His birthday flush went well and he couldn't ask for better company for his surprise party! Gosh 65 and you would think he would be thinking retirement? Wrong! He just thinks of kicking it into another gear! Now I bet he wished he had sat down long enough for me to give him a little boy hair cut before this picture! ha His cake said; "Happy 65th Birthday Abbie Dear" On the other side it said, "You aren't 16 anymore!" The picture is digitized and it's amazing how good the picture came out in butter cream! ha He was a young teenager in the picture. Sometime in the 1960's. We had company this morning to look at the club calves. The Ben Yoder family with five boys. They picked out four head that may be making their new home with them soon we hope!
	The surprise party crew! Ed and Carol Smith, Brian, Brock and Madison Courtney, Richard and Susan Gebhart, Erica and McKenzie Boyer, Rod, Andrea and Dani Sullivan, Cody Duncan, and J R Ellison. Thank you friends for making his day very special! One he won't forget for a long time! Happy Thanksgiving folks and don't eat too much turkey! Enjoy your time with family and friends. Drive careful and keep the Lord as an extra passenger with you on your journeys!
Abbie, Joan, Andrea and Andy Delynn and their new home Pappa and Olivia big buddies	November 27-30 We packed up about 6:30 on Wednesday evening and headed to North Carolina to visit Delynn, Rick and family. We made it as far as Little Rock AR and shut it down about 9:30. We made it into their new home by 8:30 that night late for dinner. We unpacked all the goodies we took and had fun with the grandkids. Friday we had our late Turkey dinner in the afternoon when Rick got off work. So we stuffed ourselves with turkey, dressing and pecan and pumpkin pie. Andy and Andrea came to see us and we had a great visit with them. We all got to ride in Andrea's two seat "Silver Bullet Sports Car" with the top down. Delynn and I went shopping at the Mall on Saturday. We had a good time even though there was a whole lot of other crazy shoppers out there. Abbie and Rick got the new faucet installed in the kitchen. Abbie got all the cupboard doors marked and drilled for hardware, too. We watched the OSU and OU game on Saturday night. We yelled as hard as we could but OSU still came up short even though they played a tremendous game! We packed up and got left on Sunday afternoon through heavy traffic but not as heavy as the other side of the road going East. We made it through the mountains without incident. We came upon two accidents on the way home. Sure glad we weren't one of them. We took another route home off I-40 and we stayed the night at Clarksville, TN. We got up and headed to Paducah KY then on highway 60 to Springfield MO and home. The mutts were sure happy to see us as was JR I think! We have had several calls for cattle while we were on the road, so guess it's back to the normal life of cattle sales at the Thorne Ranch! ha Phillip and Clayton almost the same height now.

Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it! Hebrews 13:2