Well, sorry about the radio silence! I updated my version of WordPress which set off a mess of problems… oh, yay. However, since this has happened to me in the past, I didn’t panic, just knew I’d have to spend some time with GoDaddy to straighten things out. I tried using their automated bot to get somewhere, but it didn’t work and it was late and I had to wake up early for BRANDING. Then, after branding, I was TOO TIRED to care…
Yes, it’s that time of year. Well, kind of. It is, it’s just we are a bit discombobulated, having to change up what we’ve done for many years into a new/old pattern. This year, we’re using a place we refer to as the “wheat field” or the “dry farm field”. One of my favorite and earliest photos I ever took of this ranch was one of Vernon working this field… back when we lived in a trailer house high on the hill. The trailer house is long gone and after trying to grow wheat in this field with no extra irrigation, just Mother Nature’s, we’ve never used it except as pasture.
It hadn’t snowed like they predicted, and the clouds that had socked us in early in the morning began to lift. It was cold enough, but cold won’t cancel a branding like rain and snow will!
The cows and calves were in our hay fields below, so cowboys were delegated to bring them to the top of the hill.
It made for a pretty picture as I drove the food up…
We began sorting the cows off of the calves. We used a passthrough. The idea is the cows will walk by, the calves will duck under the high bars of the pen and be captured without having to hustle too hard.
It worked pretty good.
It was time to get to the business at hand…
But first… my favorite photo of the day!
Wow! Just look at that sky!
Clever sorting method — only the calves need to be branded, so after they go find their moms?
Wonderful pics!
Would fun for you to post early photos of you and your family. I’m sure you probably have but I haven’t seen any. When did you marry and start living at the ranch?
Glad everybody is okay there! 🙂
Every picture captures the preparations for branding day very well. I liked
seeing the calf duck under the bars of the pen, and the picture showing
the hue of spring behind the riders.
So glad you’re back with us. I got a message saying there were issues with the web site so I guessed you needed to battle with technology!!! Great photos. We’re you up extra early to make the food?