The Count Down Is On

December 1st has arrived and for many children ( including our adult ones) the count down began this morning to Christmas Day.  Here at High Country the count down is on to a few things

• The last sale of the year for us - Checkers on December 14th in Red Deer, AB.  We have 2 open heifers and 3 breds including the one from Double R Farms - Stacy and Dan Romanyk

• Jon and Crystal will be home for Christmas in 19 Days. All of us will be together this year. 

 

• Calving will be underway in 32 days, unless there is an early surprise.

Stacy and Crystal were among those that will open advent calenders this month.  It is a tradition that we started over 25 years ago.  Peek our Christmas Elf fills the calendars for them to open each day before Christmas.  When the girls left home for college, we thought that they would be packed away until they had children of their own to pass the tradition on to.  But we were soon informed that no matter where they lived they expected PEEK to follow through with the tradition and so it continues.

The next month looks to be exciting and lots of fun.

Gifts

I know that many of us are just getting over the Christmas gift giving season and the credit card bills that go with it, but Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  For Christmas this year the girls received a special gift.... a Stockyard Friend.
These special little buddies are made by Bethany from Purplebanner Designs.  If you send Bethany a picture of your favorite cow, she will replicate the color pattern and made a unique ear tag to go with it.

Christmas seen two of our families favorite cows under the Christmas Tree.

CAJS Elegant Force W24

Elle

CDY Harmony 8H

Harmony

If you are needing a special gift give Bethany a shout at http://purplebannerdesigns.blogspot.com/  She also makes wonderful unique baby gifts and children's clothes.  I don't think we'll be needing order those for our girls any time soon!

Custom Baby Bibs

Custom T-Shirts and Blankets

                                   

Christmas Comes Early

Wow what a weekend.  This past weekend was the 17th Annual Checkers Sale.  This sale has built a name for it's self as one of the top sales to purchase Simmentals genetics from.  This year in addition to the 60 lots of Red & Black Simmentals 25 top end Fullblood cattle were added.

We had 3 lots consigned - a herdsire prospect - RJY Rival 13Y, a Donor female - SS Ebony's Dreamdate S27 and a bred heifer - RJY Dream's Promdate 16X.

The sale started with Lot 2 - a herdsire prospect from Meadow Acres.  They purchased his dam from the sale in 2010 for $25,000.  A big investment.....that looked very good when the hammer came down at $83,000 for her first calf. Congratulations Kirsten and Dustin.

Lot 47 followed - our bull calf - he commanded $40,000 from Kopp Farms and the semen syndicate of Willow Creek, Barclay Smith, South Seven Simmentals, Hanna Simmentals and Bonchuk Simmentals.

Sale Time - Rival selling for $40,000

Thank you to this group of progressive breeders for their commitment to this young bull.

Continually throughout the afternoon females sold for top dollar.  The high selling bred for $18,000 and the high selling open heifer for $20,000. 

We are very excited to see what our females can do for their new owners.  Thank you to Scott Gosnier, Nebraska for purchasing Dreamdate and Bar L7, Calgary AB for their purchase of Promdate.



Dream Date 27S
Her new home is in Nebraska

Promdate is now owned by Bar L7

Not only was the sale fantastic, but we enjoyed seeing so many of our cattle friends, enjoying some Christmas cheer with them and all the laughs that we had over the weekend.  The people in the cattle industry are the best gift of all.  The sale averaged $8273 on 61 lots of Red and Black Simmentals and $7630 on 25 Fullblood lots.  Congratulations Simmentals breeders on the great cattle you are raising.  Merry Christmas.

It's Starting to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I know that there is always discussion on when is it too early to decorate for Christmas.  For many of our American friends it is the day after Thanksgiving.  For some of my Canadian friends it is after the first snow fall....but that could mean October some years.  For our family it is when I (Dee) gets around to it.  Rob isn't a big fan of puatting up outdoor lights, so that is usually my job as well as transforming the house for the holidays.

This year I am just a little bit behind.  With Christmas falling on the weekend, it seems like I have less days to do everything.  We were away most of November at shows and sales, and the first weekend in December was spent buying a dress for Crystal and Jon's wedding along with some Christmas shopping, This weekend we are excited to attend the wedding of Scott Harvie of Harvie Ranching and Kerrie Bennett and then next weekend we are at the 17th Annual Checkers Sale.  Check out Lots 47, 48, and 49. Those 2 weekends will be like having Christmas with our cattle family. 

My cow snow globe - handmade.

Snow globe and cows in the bathroom.

I did do a few things last night and hopefully the rest of it will get done on Sunday....depending on how the wedding goes!