Branding

Hide your eyes if you don't want to see Christmas Miracle's Balls on a fire (Christmas Miracle is a cow by the way).

I was honored to be part of Josh and Micca's First Annual Branding of their newest venture - natural cattle. Josh had help from longtime rancher (and Micca's dad), JP, his lovely wife Patty, Josh's parent Jay and Joanna. Oh, and me of course. I was in charge of paparazzi and documentation (taking pictures). I did get to hand flank a little one in the end... You will read more about that story below.

Let's see - the day starts BRIGHT and early - I think Micca's dad was texting her at 5am {from the upstairs bedroom, mind you} to ask her what was for breakfast. Josh had stayed up late the previous TWO nights, organizing his meds, tools, and making sure he had all the necessary things for a successful branding.

The troops were all rallied by 8am and we started promptly at 9:00am. One by one they were scurried into the shoot - vaccinations were done by Micca and Patty, the actual brand was stamped on by JP, ear tags were quickly done by Jay, and then JP was back in the saddle (so to speak) by checking if it was "boy or girl" "bull or heifer." Those unlucky enough to be boys were gently de-manned. The leftovers were thrown on the fire that we used for warming up the brand.

Poor Joanna didn't make it past the first calf being branded and quickly made herself useful by running errands and checking on a sleeping Matine.

We were almost done, and had saved the last cute calf for last - Rosie was a darling little red calf with a white face - small and playful, she has been on the Rasp's personal property for a while, acting much more like a pet than next years burger. She was given special treatment because we didn't think her small frame would stay in the shoot and it just feels a bit more personal to "manually" hold her down for the branding and vaccinations.

So, down little Rosie goes- we pet her and tell her the branding will be done very quick and it won't hurt that bad. She gets her meds to keep her healthy and we are getting ready to put her back in the truck wiht the rest when JP does a quick crotch check --- "Uh, Mic, Rosie's got balls."

"What?"

" Rosie's a dude!"

Darling Rosie, the sweet little Rosie who we have been calling a girl for months now isn't quite as feminine as we thought. No wonder she and that BULL have been so friendly in the yard!

So, down she, I mean "he," goes and Rosie is now a Ross.

It was a successful and fun branding - we were drinking beer by 10am and Micca {like any good rancher's wife} had a delicious after-branding feast for us all!