Branding

I think the highlight of our trip was going out to a branding.  I've been to several brandings in my life, but I've never once paid any attention.  The smell was very familiar though!  Dusty's childhood friend, Juli, invited us out to her family's branding.  It was a blast.  It had rained the night before, so the road was pretty muddy.  The minivan didn't make it far before we decided it was time to jump in with Juli.  When we finally made it up close to the corrals, we ran into part of the crew that was trying to take the branding trailer up.  The branding trailer and truck were stuck, and the truck trying to pull them out was stuck.  So the 3rd truck had to get truck #2 unstuck, and then try to get the branding trailer/truck unstuck.  Then it would get stuck and truck #2 had to get it unstuck... over and over and over again.  Finally, after the branding trailer just kept sinking lower and lower in the mud, they left it.  When we got to the corral, the cowboys weren't there yet with the herd.  When they got there, we had to wait out a rain storm, but then they got busy.  What a highly efficient operation!!  First they separated all the calves from the cows.  Then, they sprayed all the cows with fly spray.  Then, it was time to get branding.  They had about 4 cowboys roping the calves.  They would bring them in and secure them with a Nord Fork.  In the matter of seconds, they tagged the calf's ear, gave it two vaccinations, branded the calf and castrated the males.  Juli's boys are the cutest little mini-cowboys ever!  They are not afraid to get down and dirty by helping clean the calf nuts in preparation to eat them.  Booker and Bodey were so jealous that they had their own pocket knives.  Here are a few pictures from the day... I didn't have my camera so there aren't as many as I would like.

Booker using the pocket knife to clean a calf nut.

Who's next?

Juli's husband, Cody, getting ready to rope the next calf.

Juli's 3-yr old son, J.P., cleaning his cowboy boot with his pocket knife!

Enjoying the day.

They just can't wait to go help!

This is the lady that performed the "nut removal".  She was good at what she did!

Rounding up the next calves.

A little blood on his face after cleaning nuts.

A day of branding wore them out.  They fell asleep soon after hitting the road!