July 17, 2015 - Getting Work Done, Cowboy Style

Coy roping the calves. 

Yesterday we had our last, last branding (gosh, I hope!). We have been saying this is our last branding for quite sometime now, but for some reason, we continue to add more cattle and thus have to brand more calves. Right now some of the calves weight about 300 pounds, so we better be done!

OH gosh....he's a big one!

While watching the branding, some thoughts about being a cowboy (or cowgirl!) came to light. Being a cowboy requires you to be able to handle anything that comes your way and be able to adjust. At the ranch, we always joke that we start the day with a plan A but end on plan D or C, or Z for that matter. This way of being couldn't be more true for the cowboy life.

On this day, our day went like this:

1. The boss says, "Oh, by the way, we are branding today". We say, "uh-oh, we better get ready!". After shuffling through the leftover branding items including shots and ear tags, we had the material in hand to get the job done. You see, we thought we were done with branding season a month ago and put everything away!

Kyle says, "Austin, are we done yet"! 

2. We gather the cattle and sort off the calves. This is no problem at all, as we do this all the time. Ok...things are looking good for the day.

3. We go in to rope the calves and realize that not only are they big, but that all the green grass sticking up out of the ground isn't helping much with our ability to rope the calves two hind feet. So after many throws, we get our roping perfected and start bringing out calves...and the fun begins!

And the job is done and the cows head out. 

4. So the calves are HUGE calves (I mean really, really big) and it took everyone to get a hold of them! There was many words said and some ouches here and there but we found a way to get them held while they were branded. It took quite a few times and quite a few people to figure out the best way to get a hold of them, but we did finally succeed.

Though things didn't go as normally planned, we found a way to do it and got the job done. Lesson learned from the day - don't get stuck in plan A and always give it your ALL whenever you do anything.

Until next week....