branding 2015

While Terry was gone on his two week mission trip, the kids and I tried to stay busy in order to more quickly pass the time.

On the tenth day of Terry's trip, the kids and I went out to the ranch to "help" brand the calves. We usually do it a few weeks earlier when Terry can help (like during Memorial Day weekend like in 2013 and 2014), but have had so much rain that Terry's folks kept having to move it back. Therefore, Terry wasn't able to help this year! Jerry's renters, Harry and Shari stepped in so everything went just fine without Terry. Actually, it went great! 

Shari, Noah, Jerry, Jessica, Alice and Sydney.

This was the first year Ezra didn't have a morning nap and was therefore present for branding. He was very freaked out by the generator noise, not to mention the bellering calves. They used to make me feel bad too. But I didn't want to hold Ezra for two hours, so after a while I set him down on a four wheeler far enough away that he was safe and I could keep an eye on him. He didn't appreciate it but it was good for him. He got used to it.

The smell of burning hair is just the worst. Yummy. 

The calves were huge! Three weeks time certainly and definitely made a big difference in size. They were more like young adults than babies. 

Noah's job in the beginning was to the hold the branding iron while Jerry was spraying the calves down with anti-bug spray. 

He doesn't appreciate the noise either. 

Shari brought their dog Sugar out. She's just Snap's size except shorter because although she is part miniature Schnauzer like Snap, she's also half Dachshund. She's so short! She's a little better than Snap about staying away from the cows (he's locked up), but not good enough that we could let her be. She was confined with Ezra to begin with. 

When she jumped down from the four-wheeler, Shari put her in this bucket! Ha! That only worked for a while, because although her legs are short, she can still jump. 

So after she jumped out, she was stuck with the girls who looked after her.

When Noah got bored of holding the iron, I took over for him and he helped Carson herd the calves down the shoot. 

I like this view and I took the same shot last year, though it was a nicer day. We were thankful the rain held off all day.  

Pretty-ness 

Nice big old trees. 

Last calf! 

When we were done, I herded my own kids to a more suitable location for some cute pictures. 

I wanted a shot of all the kids kind of like this one from 2013.

I think it worked pretty well!

Cute kids. They look so nice in pictures. 

Silly faces.