The Branding Day 5

The day had arrived! Ryan and Jason were gone by 5 AM, Kiley was up preparing already. We had to have everything in the oven and the snack out to the cowboys, we left the house at 8:30. The kids got to wrestle a calf, well we forced them to wrestle a calf, and then spent some time playing. It is quite a fun site to see all of those cowboys and cowgirls going to work like they do. We counted and re-counted 56 in all. We had to get home to put more potatoes in, we only planned on 50, which was fine, we had plenty in the end. The cowboys get to a good stopping point and then take a break to have a snack and a drink, most of these guys have to drive hours to get to the branding by 6, so a lot of them are up at 4:00, 4:30 {yes am} and the cold cereal runs out fast when you are working hard! Kiley took out glazed donuts, they were a hit. We then drove the half hour back home to get lunch on. It all turned out great, we had a spoonful of baked beans left, but the rest of the food we still had plenty of. Cowboys don't care much for fluffy jello salad, they go for the beef and the beans! It started to poor rain right at the end and so everyone went home quickly after, which was kinda nice too. It was definitely a success, Kiley and Jason are old pros now at this stuff!

Nebraska {day 4}

Tuesday was our work day. Jason was branding his 900 calves the next day and out in Nebraska they ranch like they did in the old days. All of the neighbors, friends, co-workers all come and help and get the job done in a hurry. It was really nice, Ryan was amazed, it takes us ALL-DAY-LONG to brand 80 calves and Jason can do his hundreds in a couple of hours. Also like the old days all of the cowboys come back to your house for a fancy lunch with all the fancy viddles. [isn't that what they call it on 7 brides for 7 brothers??] Kiley gets to do all of the cooking, which she is so organized and had a lot of it already done and in the freezer, but there was still a days worth of salads to put together, and all the rest of the food that couldn't be pre-made. Plus we tried to keep up with the kids, and all of the other regular house work. It was a long day, we were tired, the kids had a ball. There were lots of puddles to make mud pie soup and float sticks, besides calves to feed, trees to climb, critters to catch, and endless sand to dig in. It was so fun! I loved the pace of life, we shut off Ryans cell phone for the first time since he bought it, I didnt need my purse, computer, cell phone, no where to be, even if I wanted to, it takes two+ hours just to get to the nearest Walmart! It was really quite lovely! I LOVED it! I have a new goal {and I hope} to simplify our lives here, more staying home and letting kids be kids, running and playing, and less of me running here and there, Home is where it is at!