Some of the girls on the crew…………………………………….some of the guys………………………………………
Our first branding of the year took place last Saturday. Branding is a stressful day. For my husband, he has to gather cattle, branding supplies (vaccine, medicine, barrels, irons, wood, and all the little details) and arrrange the time and place for friends, neighbors, and family to show. For me, I have to worry about feeding 30+ people. We seem to invite more than 30 people…but it has averaged about 25 people who show. Then you have to take into account the weather…if it’s hot, are you going to run out of drink? And those unexpected guests or no-shows. We now have a nice large shop building and therefore electricity close to our branding corral. Back in the day, we branded on the mountain, having to reheat or cook on a campstove or fire…and we were an hour from home if we forgot something! Now it seems so much easier. This year I voted for lasagna… I had escaped from home for a quick trip to Casper and Torrington the days before, and lasagna sounded easy enough to feed the people. Now I have never fed lasagna at branding before, and was a little unsure of the amount necessary for 30 people. But lasagna, garlic toast, salad, orange jello salad (my kids’ favorite), and desserts sounded good. Until Daniel says: “That’s all you’re making? I can eat most of that by myself!” I should have slapped him… but the seed was planted and I got nervous. How much will all those teenage boys eat???? My mom suggested serving the lasagna myself to control portions…but I went with the approach of putting all the other food first, and leaving the lasagna last in line… It worked and the 26 people who ate finished just over half of what I had prepared. Daniel had made me paranoid for no reason! The branding itself went well. We had three new people come with a neighbor…they travel around the country and put on horse clinics with Buck Brannamen and on their own. Rick and Sara were good hands, and her dad Jim was fascinated by the branding. Jim was from Baltimore, and had never experienced the old fashioned kind of branding. Most people have switched to using a branding table – capturing each calf individually by running them through a chute and then squeezing them and flipping them on their sides. It is much less labor intensive. We prefer the old way. A cedar wood fire, metal irons in the fire, two ropers who rope the calves by the heels and drag them to the fire where a pair of “wrestlers” grab, flip, and hold the calf who then gets branded and vaccinated. Though we worry about weather, workers, food, and drink…branding for us is also a fun time. Neighbors helping neighbors. Kids learning from parents and grandparents. Stories being told. Hard work followed by good food. Now we get to do it all over again in a week or so when we do a larger bunch of calves. What will I stress over next time? I don’t know… I haven’t decided what to cook yet!!!
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