The Old West is almost gone. So far we have been able to gather enough cowboys to rope and brand the calves. Working cowboy skills have for the most part dissolved into memories, histories and legends of the Old West. Grandpa keeps threatening to buy a calf table.

Between wind, rains and bull fights and riding the neighbor’s ranch to find missing cattle we finally gathered all the cattle for the branding event.   The recent rains have resulted in boggy roads and hillsides making traversing them pretty tough.  We are grateful for the rains but it made it tough finding a slot to get the calves branded between rain and friend’s branding events.  We rely on friends to help us brand and we in turn help them.

This year, we gathered all the cattle from our ranch and the neighbor’s in preparation to brand. The unmarked calves are identified as Grieb Ranch property through their branded mothers. Unfortunately, rain and mud hindered us on branding day.  So we put both herds, Papa and Daniel’s, in the holding field to wait for a few days of sunshine.  Our youngest cowboy helper this year was one year old and the oldest was 91 years old. This year’s branding got off to a rough start, but ended well.