I’ve Fallen Back in Love Again…

My heart is sure happy after this week of cattle, cowboys and camaraderie!

Hey there friends!

Just this past week, we had the opportunity to be back on the ranch and back on horseback. The cowboys commented that we enjoyed living in the “Big City” too much to come back to life on the ranch. And while that’s partly true, we did want to come back out to work cattle with the cowboys. We love it!

On Wednesday night, all four kids packed a bag and trekked in “Beige Buddy”, the Mercury Grand Marquis, up to Hominy to stay the night in order to sleep and wake up at 4:00 am and make it to the headquarters by 5:00 am.

Once we made it to the headquarters, we saddled our horses, shout out to Tanner and Braden, who helped heave our saddles onto our horses! FYI, the saddles are much heavier than they look! Soon, we loaded up and headed over to cowboy Pete’s house where we gathered a pasture of fall calves. Thankfully, that pasture was gathered relatively smoothly and without any complications! Once in the pens, we sorted the mama cows from the calves and worked the calves through the chute where they received not only medicine but also a brand and an ear tag! The yellow tags are for the heifers and the blue tags are for the steers. After that’s completed then it’s time for the mama cows to receive their medicine and fly spray, which they seem to appreciate! When this pasture of cattle was finished, we trekked them back to their original home ground.

Here’s the crew waiting for the roper to bring them a calf to begin working.

Then it was time for the fun… working the spring calves! These are the calves we can rope and drag instead of running them through a chute. Roping and dragging the calves is much more entertaining and fast-paced which allows for much more enjoyable for all.

Cowgirl Cate and Cowgirl Hannah the shot girls!

When working the spring calves there are several jobs to do. There are two ropers, two “head” guys, four people on the ground crew, one guy to castrate, one guy to brand, and one to three people to give shots.

Here’s Cowboy Tanner and Jackson working the ground.

Sometimes it takes the whole crew to get some of the bigger calves on their side.

I’d say this is a good looking crew… wouldn’t you??

The kids on the crew usually give the shots or work the ground, but this time we got to shake some things up. Cowboy Doug gave me the opportunity to brand the calves and I loved it! While it took me a bit to catch on to it, I really loved getting to attempt something new.

As Cowboy Haden, who is the cowboy holding the calf in this picture would say, today was a day of “light ranching.”

Thanks to coaching from Cowboy Doug and Cowboy Pete, I usually managed to not make the brand look like a seven instead of a rafter… 🙂

These two pictures show what the “Double Rafter” ranch brand looks like. This helps identify and authenticate who the cattle belong to. And if you turn the brand sideways, you can potentially see how a crooked brand might look like a seven.

By the end of the week, I fell completely back in love with working on the ranch with the cowboys, the camaraderie, and the cattle. It just goes to show you that sometimes when you slow down and go back to what is familiar, it is easier to feel refreshed. We are all refreshed from being involved in the ranch again! Further, I am grateful we had the opportunity to work this past week with such a fantastic crew of cowboys.