Calf Whisperer

Family cattle ranch alert.

My sweet niece Brynn with a sweet little calf. Pretty precious.

What a great weekend this was. More to come.

Matt Squared

Family cattle ranch alert. Family cattle ranch alert.

Can't remember--did I share these joyous shots with all of you last summer? It would be a tragedy if you missed out. If you have seen them, I'm sure you'll thank me for sharing once again.

At branding, I always take a Matt and Matt picture. Both great guys. Both named Matt. The picture is a must.

I present the 2009 Matt & Matt photos. . .
at the barn dance.
Sure they're tough cowboys, but who knew they could dance so well together! It was a pleasure watching them twirl the night away.

Happy almost weekend to you all.

Duct Tape & The Boys

Scenes from the Wade Ranch--NOT Galloping Grace.

As you can see from John David's Team Tom & Jerry shirt (that my sis-in-law had made for the teams of Tom and Jerry to show their competitive spirit against team Rax--real cute I must say), he got really into flanking this year. JD is such a bruiser, he didn't need to concern himself with proper form. He simply tackled the calves. However, this method caused a little issue with his britches.
Naturally duct tape was the solution to his woes. His dad looked on with pride. Of course that's how it's done.
What good would a needle and thread be to those mutilated jeans anyway?
And now due to majority vote and not because I have the humor of an eighth grader, I present the bull part to one of our newly created steers . . .

and his bovine brethren.
These calves should hold their heads high. Since they were too large to be banded (rubber band around sack until the testicles fall off due to lack of circulation), they had to be cut. That thought alone might get them through the sore days ahead.

Remember that book I'm going to write about why I wouldn't want to be a cow?? Well, this topic might deserve a whole chapter all by itself. Men, may I get an amen to that?

Freight Trains

I might have to talk about branding weekend at our family cattle ranch for some time. There. Are. So. Many. Pictures. Exciting stuff, I tell ya. This isn't even all the people who came to help out, but the picture gives you a good idea of our crew. The calves were ginormous and MEAN!

There was one particular cowboy that had it going on! Handsome as they get. Look at all the people on the safety fence. This crop of calves definitely had our respect. As pathetic as it may sound, my forearms were sore from not only lugging my camera around, but because I had to keep pulling myself up on the fences to avoid a trampling.

Instead of running away when someone flapped their arms around, the calves charged!

There was one huge, mean calf in particular that I'd really like to turn into hamburger right about now. Because he was so unruly and dangerous in the arena after being branded, someone decided to let him out. The problem with that was our four year old son was outside the arena to be safe. From the stories I heard, that calf saw Grant standing there and deliberately charged--put his meanie head down and barreled right into poor Grant. I thank God he is OK. He was really shaken up, but we'll take that any old day over what could have happened. By the time I got to him after being told what happened, Max had him and was trying to calm him down.

Later that same morning, I got report that Brooke was also run over by a mean, scary calf. She was walking back to the safety pen after doing her job, when a calf blindsided her and then "tap danced" on her back. Again, I was told it looked horrible!! When it happened, three calves were being held down on the ground by our flankers. No one was available to help stop the accident. I heard several members from Team Tom and Team Pink sprinted over to assist Brooke (thanks, guys!) We also thank God she is alive and well.

Branding of 2010 will long be remembered for the craziest calves ever born on the ranch. . .
And I hope that record stands for a long, long time.

That's No Bull

I dedicate this post to my cousin Kristy and her swooning office mates back in Mansfield, Ohio.



Hey Pioneer Woman, are you reading my blog today? (As if! The lady gets thousands of comments a day!) If so, I wanted you to know I took one of your ideas and ran with it.

Remember the day you came up with slogans for your ranch that would make great t-shirts? Well, you were right! I ordered one for my cute cowboy husband to wear to this year's branding at our family cattle ranch. (For those confused, this is a different ranch than Galloping Grace.)And boy did he look cute wearing it!The front--And the back-- It made me smile every time I looked at it--NO BULL! That there's funny, I don't care who you are!

So thank you, Pioneer Woman. Keep those brilliant ideas rollin'!



FYI, I also had a shirt made for myself with another PW slogan. It read, "You can't HANDLE the calf nuts." (Said in your best A Few Good Men voice.) However, there are no images for your viewing pleasure. I am not near as photogenic as my hubby.

Branding Day

We should be in the middle of a bunch of dust, blood, and smoke today--it's time for our annual Band & Brand. Every year I pray for a safe branding for our family and all of our guests. It's dangerous work, but it's also a lot of fun. If you're the praying type, please say one for all the participants out at the Wade Ranch. Our necks, backs, legs, arms, eyes, and feet thank you kindly.

Just a few shots from 2007. Nothing fancy, but you get the idea.

Beth looks like she's taken some aggression out on either her hubby or son. Yikes. She's such a nut!

Be back soon.

City Slickers Part 1

Max organized a men's retreat for about 30 guys this past weekend at our family cattle ranch. The majority of guys attend our church. Max knew quite a few of the guys, but some were people he had never met before this weekend. There were also a few veterans that came to help Max with the whole thing. (Thanks, guys!) As far as I can tell, a great time was had by all. I tried to be respectful of the male bonding and only came down Saturday morning to grab a few shots (OK, a lot) of branding.

My sweet mother made the 2 1/2 hour drive with me so that she could watch Grant . Nice, nice mom! We left at 6:20 AM and arrived just in time as they were finishing up a cattle drive.

Pictures of the end of the cattle drive are better than no pictures at all. I guess. Sorta. I took a few pictures of the guys sorting the mamas from their babies. I don't know if any of you remember me saying that I would never, ever want to be a cow for so many reasons. I would like to add how much I would despise trillions of flies hanging out and biting my back. I don't know if you can see the flies in the picture, but there were soooo many!

Most of the guys that came out had never worked cattle before. I don't know about these two men. I do know the one on the left took pictures the whole time wearing chaps--fancy ones!!! I must admit I felt a little threatened. I told him that not only was he moving in on my turf, but he was looking better doing it. He just laughed. That's it! I'm getting some chaps before the big branding. But what color??? The man pictured below is Candido, the ranch manager. I just love this man (in a friend kind of way, of course!) He is so patient with all of us, no matter the crowd or level of expertise. I think he gets a kick out of watching everyone so eager and willing to learn. Nice man. He has been around cattle pretty much all his life. He has so many interesting stories that I think would make a fabulous book. I'll get right on that. I always follow through with my good ideas. Sometimes. (Maybe once.)

May I brag on myself for a minute? Am I ever good at sensing with someone has a camera aimed in my direction! Uncanny, really. Who does the man think he is trying to take a picture of me? I showed him. He was so cute smiling about the whole thing.

I love branding shots as long as I don't think about the pain the poor calf experiences. If I remember correctly, New Mexico is one of the last states to require branding. Does anyone know if that's true or not? I'd do a Google search if it wasn't already past midnight right now.

Usually the calf gets branded and that's the end of it. Every once in a while this happens. The poor thing caught on fire! That's what happens if the person doing the poor on spray pours on before the calf is branded. It's an honest mistake when you're doing hundreds of calves. There was no one objurgating this event. Luckily for the calf, the flankers held on and got the fire out. I don't think I would want to hold on to a fighting animal on fire, but I'm known for being a bit of a wimp. I can only imagine how terrible things would have turned out if the calf ran off still sizzlin'. Yikes. The scene above happened when the roper brought out three calves at once. Craziness I tell you! I think he roped two calves and a third got tangled in the rope. There were men all over the place grabbing at these calves. It was quite exciting!

I'm about out of steam for tonight. I will end with this ooops picture. This one particular calf got branded incorrectly. The "w" is correct, but the open "a" is upside down making it look like a "u."

Pretty funny, at least to all of us. (The smell of burning hide has probably warped our senses of humor.) Thanks for reading. I'm planning on doing another post about this tomorrow. If this interests you, check back. Repulsed by the whole thing? Skip the next one--I'll understand.

Until next time.

Good Times

I mentioned that I was going to try really hard to get a picture of squirting blood. Well, that didn't happen. The mama cow herd did not have a lot of horns this week. How about some oozing blood from some sweet little baby calves? The whole branding experience is pretty hard to swallow the first time out. The shock wears off, and it just becomes something that needs to be done. But, the shock doesn't wear off with the dehorning. The sound is terrible! Max even admitted that he really doesn't enjoy that part of working the calves. Here is Mr. Robb in action. I don't know if he minds the process. Enough of the post hole diggers to the skull. On to more blood. Guess what happened to this cute, sweet thing. (Notice face.)Max tossed an "object" at her which bounced off her jacket and on to her face. She was totally grossed out. These little guys usually get banded, but some calves were too large and had to be cut.
Brooke and Claire had a little rodeo fun.
More great teeth. She's a keeper.

Every once in a while it takes some time for the ropers to catch a calf. When there were little breaks in the action this weekend, our adorable shot crew could be seen dancing a little jig.


Branding isn't all blood and singed hair. It's also a lot of fun!

Good job, Michael! Not bad for a rookie.

I think I'll try to ease up a little with the blood. I'm sure there are plenty of you who do not understand or enjoy all of that.