Item of the Week #13

While Christmas shopping this year, I have found a lot of really great things. I thought of all my followers when I seen this dinnerware set at Welsh's Western Store in Edmonton.  

Welsh's is a great little western store with 3 locations in Edmonton. Over the next few weeks I have a few really cool items to feature from them!

This Is It 32X

Yesterday we made an addition to the High Country bull line up. We were in need of a new bull to do some clean up work on the cows after AI and Embryo implanting was done. 

You might notice a recent trend that we are loving the baldy cattle right now. It is a nice added touch to add a little white to the face, as long as it is staying off the belly and legs.

This Is It was a class winner at Agribition a few weeks ago, and comes out of a really strong donor cow from the McIntosh Livestock program.

24 Days of Christmas

In my attempt to be more in the Christmas spirit this year, I thought I would share some of our Christmas traditions with you.

Last year I shared the store of our advent calendars. You can read all about it here.

 

This year I did not get my calendar right on December 1st as a certain elf forgot to drop it in my car after Agribition. It showed up in the main on the 7th, and I got to open up a few gifts!

This is what the first 7 days of the countdown got me. Along with some really yummy chocholates!

There is a really neat magnate, actually 2 that say Cattle Chick, a tide pen, a $20 chapters gift card, and Robyn Beazley's new book, Live an Amazing Life!

Agribition Part 5- Making New Friends

Each year at Agribition you always meet new people. This year I have the pleasure of meeting 2 really great people, as well as getting to see lots of old friends.

Emma Burpee met my family when they were in Australia for the World Simmental Congress. She was there working for another breeder, and got visiting with my family. Emma won a trip anywhere she wanted to go as part of a cattle scholarship. She decided to come to Canada to see Red Angus cattle.

Emma stayed with us for 2 weeks when she got to Canada. Her first week here happened to be the same week as Agribition. It was perfect timing for her to come as she would get to experience all that is Agribition as well as getting to meet many cattle breeders.

The other person that I really got to get to know well was Greg Goudy. Greg is a fellow Simmental breeder from Saskatchewan. A few weeks earlier we had taken a trip to see some Simmental cattle together. He had 3 animals of his own at the show.

I event got to show his bull calf for him.

It seems like there is always lots of people to meet at the shows, and new friendships formed no matter where you turn!

Agribition- Part 4.... Way

So it is taking me a little bit to get through all my Agribition blogs. It is a long week, and it seems like so much happens during this time.

For the last few years it has become a mini family reunion for us. Crystal has been able to join us at the show, and mom gets to make it out for a few days as well. Each year I notice that Crystal becomes  more "Americanized" when she comes back to the Great White North.

This year is was not so much an American thing as just a word thing that I really noticed. She has a habit of saying the word "way". Now this does not sound to weird yet, until she uses it all the time and most of the time it makes her sentences become improper English!

After I pointed this out, Jon and I decided that we would use it just as much as her to make fun of her. These were some of out favorite phrases, and most of them were her's originally:

Way Cool

Way Good

Way  Awesome

I can promise you one thing, it is not a phrase that I will be picking up anytime soon!

Bah Humbug

It should come to no shock to many of you that I am not a huge Christmas fan. I am not sure exactly what the reason is, but I though this year I would really make an effort to enjoy the Christmas season.

When I returned from Agribition it was great to see my roommates again. There was also one added addition to our house.... A Christmas Tree!

 

Now this was not all terrible. I do not really like decorating trees, so it was great to have it done and me not have to be part of it! The only problem that I had with it was that it was up before December 1st.... In my parents house we always have had a real tree, and it usually goes up the week of Christmas. So to see one up this early was a bit weird for me.

The best part of the tree had to be 2 decorations that caught my eye. Our newest roommate Kristen is also and Edmonton Oilers fan so I was thrilled that there was someone else on my team!

We told Brett maybe she could get a Saskatchewan Roughrider ordainment, but there was no way a Vancouver Cancuck ordainment was going on our tree!

Agribition 2010- Part 3

Each year one of my favorite cattle events is the RBC Supreme show at Agribition. This event truly showcases the best of the cattle show throughout the year. It is always fun to try and guess what the dollar value is of the animals in the ring. Without a doubt it is in the millions!

This year in the supreme show there were over 40 bulls and 40 females that competed. In each the bulls and females a top 10 is selected. From those 1 bull and 1 female go on to be selected the Supreme Champion! The winner of this prize wins $10,000, but the money is really a bonus. It is the prestige of winning this title.

The winners this year were of excellent quality. I think that it is the strongest top 10 females I have ever seen. While I did not agree with all of the top 10 bulls, the one that one, I can definitely agree on.

Supreme Champion Bull went to Big Gully Herefords, the Leachman family of Maidstone, SK. He was a Horned Hereford bull that they had raised. The Leachman family have been friends of ours for years, dad having known them from back in his Hereford days, and Crystal going to school with their son Lance at Kansas State University.

The Supreme Champion Female was also an excellent choice. It was a cow/calf pair owned by the Serhienko family of Maymont, SK. The heifer calf on this cow is probably the best heifer calf I have seen in a long time. She is flat out good! Dennis has had lots of contenders in the best, so it was great to see him final win the Supreme title.

The show was really fun to watch yet again this year. Congrats to everyone for qualifying.