Cow Boys?

We were invited for a cattle-branding last weekend at a friend's ranch. Even though I spent time on a cattle ranch as a kid visiting my grandparents and uncles in Arkansas, branding was a new experience for me and the boys. When we got there, things weren't quite ready to roll so we had some time to explore the amazing barn built in the 1930s. It was so cool and beautiful. I want to renovate that barn and live in it. The top floor had these high ceilings and natural light. I could just picture barn dances and socials going on up there.

Don't you want to live in the big red barn too?

If it wasn't for the aroma a la rodent I could have stayed up there all day.

Downstairs, the horse stalls were draped with authentic gear left there by the previous owners- saddles, chaps, etc.

Elijah wanted to pose with the saddle. I'm thinking horses might be more his thing.

Gabe was right at home in the horse stalls. I love all the little square windows.

The rustic tools on the walls didn't hurt it's charm either, but my favorite part was all the signatures left by farmhands who had come to work the ranch. There were several from the Great Depression era who returned year after year.

Of course, the boys weren't quite as blown away by the historical wonder as I was, but they were still having a good time.

Tobias and the little girl were playing house. He insisted on being the mom though.

The batteries weren't working, so this tractor was running on boy power.

The boys enjoyed climbing up to peer over the walls. David John has a handsome profile.

I also kind of loved these even older barn sitting back on the land. I am constantly taken aback by the beauty of the great plains. Some people complain that it's flat or that there aren't enough trees but I can drink in the blue sky and prairie grasses all day. I'm always very touched to see lone buildings in the midst of a wide open space and like to think about what brave little family first built a home to make a living way out here in the Dakota territories.

By the time the cattle were gathered and the irons were hot, the boys were rarin' to go. Gabriel, David John and Benjamin loved the whole thing.

It was exciting to watch the calves go through the chute into the little contraption that allowed the ranchers to turn the calf sideways long enough to brand it, give it some vaccines and an ear tag. It was then the boys' "job" to shoo that calf out of the barn to go find its mama. They had varying shooing techniques which I'm pretty sure made them easy to spot as "city-boys". Gabriel just kind of ran behind them with both hands making a forward motion. David John tended to gallop after the calf with his right hand making a bowling motion. Benjamin jogged whilst wildly waving both arms in a comic manner. Solid work there buckos. For some of the smaller calves, our hosts let the boys "wrestle" them and hold them while they got the full branding treatment. They were all in.

Elijah, Tobias and I had a little bit of a harder time with it. As you can imagine, the cows were not big fans of what was being done- especially those that were also getting treated to a castration on top of everything else. They made some pretty sad sounds and thrashed around a bit. Logically, I knew that branding kept them safe as did the ear tags and that the vaccines kept them healthy and the whole tying off the manly bits kept them from killing each other but it was still rough. Elijah has such a soft spot for animals and Tobias thought the whole thing was a little scary. So, Elijah and Tobias decided they wanted to go up to the house to rescue some kittens we heard were stuck in a car engine. At the mention of kittens, Benjamin decided to come too.

Tobias tried to hold her hand on the walk to the house but he was rebuffed. Tough break dude.

 Rescue them we did, which required me to lay on top of the engine and reach my hands way inside to scoop up the teeny tiny kittens.

Elijah was so good and gentle with the little kittens. He loves animals.

Benjamin thought the kittens were pretty awesome. So much so that he exclaimed, "Mom! I think I like kittens even better than ants!" That's high praise as he has been keeping "pet ants" in a jar at home.

When the work was done, we had lunch and headed home. I am sometimes tempted to think that we are little lacking in cultural experiences up here but I don't think that's true- we just have different ones. I'm pretty sure the boys would never have gotten to do this in Baltimore. I'm not sure that we can call them cowboys, but some of them might be on their way.