Branding Day

The Branding Trap/Panels that were put up on Tuesday afternoon.

Because the branding trap is portable from place to place support poles are put in every other panel. Luckily we live in sand for a little gas agar is all that is needed to dig the holes quick and easy.

Thursday Morning-

Daniel is up at 3 and goes out on the 4 wheeler to make sure the cows are in the right pasture- his worst nightmare is that they would be scattered.

I wake up at 5 with the phone ringing. Mitch, our foreman, calling to see if everything is ready to go.

I get up and douse myself in mosquito spray, that the mosquito's are amune to it unfortunately, and head out to finish mowing the lawn. The lawn mower fires up--- but the blades don't engage.AHH! This can't be happening- lawn mower #2 is really broken as well. Wanting to cry at this point I park the lawn mower and walk back to the house looking at the randomly 1/4 mowed lawn. Not the impression I was hoping to come across to everyone as we are the new kids on the ranch. But there is nothing to do at this point.

I pull out my frozen cookies, cakes, and dinner rolls that I had made days before. Turn the baked beans back on to get warm and head up stairs to get dress for the day.

Once I'm dress I wake up Cinch to eat and get dressed. While Cinch is eating I warm up the 6 dozen cinnamon rolls and frost them. Pack the truck with the juice, cups, napkins, cinnamon rolls. Finish dressing Cinch have Sister Crump rides out to the branding with us to try and hold the cinnamon roll pans.

We make it out to the branding at 8:00 on the dot. Back up the truck, unload the food and start serving breakfast to the branding crew. Take my count for lunch to make sure I have enough food- 51 total, plus my kitchen help and missionaries.

Everyone eats lots- I guess my cinnamon rolls tasted okay, because people wanted seconds.

Some of the crew on breakfast break and the rest of the herd in the corral waiting to be worked.

The crew gets back to work and we hang around and shoot some pictures-like this

 for about another 15 minutes and then I realized they were half way done- they would be back for lunch before noon- so we get back in the truck and head back to the house to get everything else ready

Back at the house I had both sister missionaries cutting up red potatoes for me as I made the potato dish- 30lbs of potatoes later- they were in the oven ready to cook.

I had to cover the tables and sit out the butter for the rolls.

Run and clean my half/bath where I had planned on everyone washing up.

Mitch's wife Elaine showed up with the roast and started cutting it up- the roast was the size of Texas to say the least.

Then the call came over the radio-- They were on their way back to the house for lunch- it was 11:20.

So it came time to sit out my fruit, vegetables with dip, rolls, pour cups of water, ect ect.

The cowboys started showing up and washing and it was going to take all day if they were going to wash in just 1 bathroom (they usually wash in the down stairs apartment but since we have missionaries down there they couldn't) so luckily I had our upstairs picked up so half of them went up stairs to wash their hands. Finally the roast was cut and everything was ready- and I realized Cinch was no where to be found and couldn't remember the last time I had seen him.... Daniel walked in the door then with Cinch in hand, Cinch had been out trying to climb on his horse from the fence.

Well about that time, everyone was washed up, and the food was ready. We said prayer and it was time to eat.

Buffet style- there was Rolls, Roast, Red Potatoes with bacon & cheese, Baked Beans, Fruit, Vegetable Tray with Dip, a green salad and water.

And well it all got eaten, 2 big silver bowls of fruit and 2 sheet pans of vegetables, beans gone, 7 dozen rolls gone, and 25# of potatoes gone. So just a little potatoes and meat leftover.

For Dessert there was Peanut Butter Cookies, Snickerdoodle Cookies, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Cake (as tradition from the Flinder Brandings from Daniel's youth).

And all the desserts were gone as well.

This would be a mud room with 50+ pairs of boots and hats in it

And this would be our dinning room & living room with 55 cowboys and helpers eating lunch.

Well I think it was a success- all my food was eaten, people had seconds so I feel pretty good about it - minus the un-mowed lawn.

Well Dinner was done but the work didn't end there- tables & chairs had to be put down and hauled out for the branding the next day. Kitchen to clean up and a living room to be turned back into a living room. Branding Trap to be taken down and put back up at Mitch's pasture.

Sigh..

Luckily though I had all the house stuff done by 2:30 and Cinch & I went and layed down until 5. Daniel came home from setting up the branding trap and rested for a bit as well.

But then, the yearling heifers needed mineraling so we were back to work for a little longer.

We had some people camp out from the farthest parts of the ranch since its a 2.5 hour drive and we had a back to back branding on our unit they camped out in the yard.

Dinner was leftovers for them and the vet students. We visited with everyone and about 9:00 we couldn't keep our eyes open.

We survived our first branding- and the only thing that didn't go as planned was the lawn... so we really can't complain.

We had alot of compliments over the next few days about the food and how everything went, even from the general manager. It turned out that our branding was the most efficient out of the whole ranch with the number of cattle & crew members. Not bad for our first year- except it may have set too high of a bar to live up too- just maybe though.