Spring Time Branding

Life on a cattle ranch is far from the bright lights, fancy dresses and crystal chandeliers you see on Yellowstone today.  They make it look so exciting ... good looking guys riding off into the sunset.  Believe me, it was NONE of that.  Growing up on a cattle ranch meant hard work and long days, even if you were a kid.

Yessirree ... here I am in my hand-me-down jeans, my brother's handmade shirt, my smashed hat (recently reconfigured in the tomato field when my horse jumped out from under me) and my holster.  There's probably a little Hopalong Cassidy gun in it too.  You never know when the bad guys are going to show up.  I'm maybe 6 or 7?

Its springtime, usually around the end of April through May.  By then calves are old enough to be branded.  That means this was a 4:00 morning, which is why I can't sleep past that time now.  We were on our horses and heading out to gather the cattle before the sun came up.

Once we had them all in the corrals we began cutting the calves away from their mamas.  That's how I got run over on this morning.  It happens that this ranch had a huge setup of corrals and chutes for working cattle.  It's why we bought this ranch in the first place.  

Let me just say that mama cows don't WANT to be separated from their calves.  Some can be mean as a junkyard dog.  "No time for horses" my dad said ... just jump out there and wave your arms.  So I did.  and I got run over faster than I could blink an eye.  I jumped up and went crying to the fence, but got no sympathy at all.  GET THAT COW!!!  And so I did.  You have to be tough to be a cowboy!

The barrel behind me with the stick sticking out?  That's where we heated up the branding irons.  It cost a lot of money to raise a calf ... and to lose one because it crawled through the fence and wasn't branded, could make or break you.  

As a second identification, we marked their ears so you could easily tell if the calf was yours or the neighbors.  Any bull calves were castrated (ouch) and all were vaccinated.

The long chute to the right is where the cows were run through to get vaccinated ... I think 8 at a time if I remember right.  On this end just out of sight was the squeeze which would hold them if they needed something else done ... like cut out a cancer eye.  There was no being squeamish on the ranch.  You jumped right in to help and did what you were told.  NO exceptions.

Enough of the gory stuff.  If you were branding, your neighbors came to help.  It took all day long, so a big meal had to be prepared.  That usually involved a big rib roast, baked potatoes, green beans with bacon and homemade dinner rolls.  

My Mom was known for her meals.  So much so in fact that she was probably the first ever to go on TV and show you how to cook beef.  No kidding ... back in the 50's, as part of the Cattlemen's Association, we would drive to a television station in Modesto California where she would be filmed cooking a big roast ... or maybe a pot roast.  When done, everyone in the studio would get to eat the same meal we had at branding.  Yes, that's the same Cattlemen's Association formed back in the days of sheep wars.

Dessert was always a must and baked the day before branding.  Maybe that was the she-she part of ranch life back in the day.  You were all correct ... angel food cake.  Back then however, there were no BOX mixes.  You had to prepare it all by hand.  I remember watching her mix beaten egg whites into the flour with a whisk.  She could lift it two feet in the air each time she took a swipe.  That would put the air in and make it light and tender.  

No way I'm doing that now!!!  I cheated and got the box mix.  Yessirree ... these things can rise to the ceiling.  Be sure and place it on the bottom rack.

Once done, Mom would stick it on top of a coke bottle ... kept just for the occasion.  I didn't have any soda bottles, so I used one of my old medicine bottles.  In our old kitchen, I would sit at the table and smell the deliciousness.

Just as in the old days, you have to take a serrated knife and cut around the outside, as well as the middle piece, then try to shake it out.  Surprisingly, this came out perfectly.  Lucky me, I always got to have a butter knife to scape out the goodness left in the pan.  YUM YUM!

This is how it was served at branding in the afternoon after all the work was done.  Not on paper plates of course ... we used the "good" china.  The Melamine.  

Was this the end of the day?  Of course not.  When the neighbors left, we were back out in the corrals making sure the calves mothered up. 

I can't tell you the number of times we got run up the fence.  Sometimes you had to walk in the corral and push the calves to mama.  Some mamas are over protective to say the least.  It's where I learned how to read cattle.  If you didn't instinctively know which way to go and when, you would get run over.  Believe me, that is NOT fun.  We learned to jump up on that top fence rail in a hurry.  

Finally ... we would turn them back out to pasture with a last check of the babies to be sure they were okay.  Still not done ... you had to unsaddle the horses, feed them and put them away.  It was plenty dark by the time we got back to the house.  

Just one day in the life of a cowgirl/sheriff on a small cattle ranch.