branding 2013

So. Branding. That's what we did Saturday morning. Good times, good times. It's been quite a while since we were able to participate because we were in Nebraska for five years and Terry's dad had sold his cows. But this year he bought 25 new ones and has 23 cute little calves, all who needed branded. 

And sorry for so many pictures. There were too many good ones!

Here are the guys having just sorted the mama's away from their babies, and getting ready to shoo them into the barn on the left.

Once through the barn, they went into the crowd tub and alley...

...where they came out one at a time and were forcefully squished in the green shoot, branded and sprayed down with anti-bug spray.

Terry's folks brand is "P/F" standing for "Poor Farm."

Evie is quite the fan of dandelions... And daddy is quite the fan of Evie. 

At first the kids were way turned off by the very loud noise the generator made (it kept the brand hot) and by the terrible stench of burnt cow hair and skin - not to mention fresh cow poo and bellering. But they got used to it, even making fun of the cows bellering, and eventually started hanging out on the corral fence, which is where they totally should have been.

Samuel also took some coaxing to get closer to the action. Once we walked around enough, he sat with me on the unused and mostly clean calf table and played (was forcefully squished by me) there.

He's too cute. And he has simply the best hair (I guess I have said this about Evie as a baby too...) 

I love her little freckles and the fact that her mouth and nose are all yellow from smelling those dandelions. 

Here's me hanging out with my punks at 9 months pregnant. On this day I had two weeks to go until baby #4's arrival. Today I only have one week to go (hopefully!).

There was time for some play in between the branding of the cows and calves.

The kids did even better watching the calves be branded. This photo is my facebook cover photo right now. Cute kids.

 The calves in the tub.

He's always a little grumpy/serious faced. I love that little face! And again - THE HAIR!!! Seriously, how awesome is that hair?!

The calves had to be vaccinated as well. Noah helped by taking the used needles back to gramma to refill.

Here's one last shot of the burnt hair/skin smoke that the kids eventually started playing in. I smelled  great for graduation receptions later that afternoon I am sure. Yeah...