Branding Day

This is the scene on branding day. Most of the Rex Ranch crew is here and a few neighbors. We had about 40 in all.

They start out by gathering all the pairs into this pen that we set up beforehand.

They each get a turn at roping (that's the fun part).

The ropers drag the calf to the wrestlers.

Two guys will throw the calf and hold him down while another guy brands, one vaccinates, and one castrates if the calf is a bull.

Sometimes it takes a while for a roper to catch a calf and the wrestlers have to stand around and wait.

This is the branding pot. We have two brands on the Rex Ranch. One is a crown (apparently "Rex" is Latin for king). They use that brand on the east side of the ranch. The Eldred Unit uses the Hip-O brand - it's pretty impossible to mess it up.

The hobbled horses.

We take the snack out mid-morning. Some of these guys had to leave home at 3 in the morning to come help, so snack time is pretty important. Everything shuts down when the snack comes out.

Brek sizing up the cowboys.

The kids were able to wrestle a few calves. The last branding of the season is called the "kid branding". The wives and kids are invited and get to help gather, rope and wrestle. It takes longer, of course, and that is why we only do that for the last branding of the year.

This is Dr. Mortimer. He is the vet that comes up from CSU to help calve. He and Kache are thumb wrestling, a favorite pastime of theirs.

I wish I would have taken pictures of our meal. We had great weather, so we set the tables up in my yard instead of having to clean the shop and haul everything down there. The crew seemed to enjoy eating in the yard too; usually they eat and run, but for some reason they stuck around for a long time.