Cattle Branding

So a couple weeks ago I experienced my first ever cattle branding. It was an eye-opener, I'll tell you that much. Derek's grandparents own a ranch and they were doing their branding and so of course Derek offered to come up and help for a weekend. The girls were all over the place loving it, checking out the horses, climbing all over old tractors and anything else that was taller than they were. Derek got right to branding (he didn't even change his clothes, so while he looks super hot in all the pics, he also got cow blood and crud all over his pants).

Babies checking out babies...

Monkeys trying to find something to climb.

Derek wrassling a calf.

Derek: 1
Calves: 0

Searing through hair and flesh has a terrible smell. And no matter where you're standing,
you're bound to get a healthy whiff. In fact, if you move so that the smoke won't blow into your face, the wind will oblige you by changing directions. There's no escaping it.

Crazy calf on the loose...



watch for blackie there....



wait for it....



wait for it....

He's coming through!

Just milling around after the process. Calmly, of course. No one here is freaking out or trying desperately to escape the corral or scream-mooing.

Derek: 2
Calves: 0

That's right, this man is a calf-wrassling machine. She put up a bit of a fight, this one.

Hey there, Tex. T'ain't room in this town for the both of us.

Me jus' chillin against some old building on the ranch.