.IT'S CALF BRANDING DAY AT THE RANCH

May 23

Now this is "WESTERN". I'm on Jack and Jane's "Heart of Sky Ranch", and we are inoculating and branding about 50 calves. Today I really felt I was in the west -- about 5 people on horses driving the cows and calves to the paddocks (oops, I guess they would call that a corral out here). Then Jane is on her horse, Smokey, (above) splitting out the cows (or mommas) from their calves. So both the cows and the calves are upset. The amount of noise was amazing -- mooing coming from both sides. They finally get the cows in 2 corrals, and the calves in 2 different corrals, and then turn out the cows back into the big field. But they don't go anywhere but next to the fence to talk to their little calves. The calves finally get into one larger corral where the branding will take place.

How is the REALLY western part. Three guys on horseback roping the calves by their two back legs and dragging them out of the corral (the man on the horse is Jane's farrier, Lee). Then about 4 guys flip the calf on it's side, and hold it's head down and the back legs (so they can't kick you). The calf gets inoculated and then gets a green tag put in it's ear (so they know it was inoculated), and then the brand comes. It is fairly said to listen to these little calves -- their mommas are gone and they don't know what is happening to themselves. I've seen branding in the movies, and they put the red hot brand on the cow for just a few seconds, but in reality, they hold that brand there quite a while and the smoke flies. I think the 2nd calf that got branded had his hair start burning -- I mean he was on fire!!. (By the way, the guy branding below is Jack, the ranch owner) The guys quickly patted it out with their hands (the little calves still have winter hair). So now someone is assigned to keep a towel to put out any fires. And there is a girl with a water bottle who sprays water on the calf after they are branded -- and that is to put out any little fires.

It is really an amazing sight. Neighbors and friends come by to help. There are 2 or 3 young, strapping guys who grab the calf and flip it over -- of course, they have on their cowboy hats which never seem to come off. Katie is a young girl about 16 who lives down the road and helps Jane with the horses. Should have seen her flipping calves. She kept right up with the boys.

Now I actually had a job to do. I had a list of the calves who were born this year, and they all had a tag with a number on it when born. I had to mark each # off the list as they got branded so they knew they had them all. So as they say, "I helped!!". And of course I was taking a zillion pictures along the way.

After we were done, there was a big lunch provided on Jack and Jane's deck. Last year I asked why she had so much deck furniture out there -- now I know. They smoked some pork and we had BBQ. Delicious, and they really filled up the deck. Everyone got fed. Now that's western hospitality also.

I've put extra pictures at the end to give you a feel for the day. Enjoy.


The "Mom's"



















A Little Victim






















































(Left) Can't you just see the little calf on the right saying to the one on the left, "Do you have any idea of what's going on?"






And this is Grant, the last family member. He does roping. You see, it is a family affair to run a ranch!