Living on a ranch can be a wonderful experience.
There's nothing like waking up every day at 6 AM to feed. Once upon a time, I wasn't a morning person ~ ranching has fixed that. Even on my last "day off," I was up with the sun.
Ranching also has other benefits: there's nothing like the bitter, biting cold of the winters here, and the summers are even worse. Horses can't take the heat during the day, so it isn't unusual for us to start our days at 3 or 4 in the mornings, to try to be done before the heat hits.
Spring is my favorite season on the ranch. Even though we're all sleep deprived, covered in amniotic fluid 50% of the time, and suffering from varying degrees of sunburn, it's incredibly fun. Not only do we have tons of baby horses hitting the ground, we also have tons of baby calves coming. And baby calves mean fun work!
Last week, we had our branding, and drug (dragged? drugged? ...I's a colege gradate!) about 60 calves to the fire. As I was the official photographer, I was exempt from the "real work" but I've catalogued it for your enjoyment.
This is Travis, one of our cowboys working in the herd. He's actually a much prettier rider than you see here, but it's nice to see that everyone has their off days. I was nice, though, and didn't show the shot where he missed the heels. Twice in a row.
Here's Casey, our head trainer. He's riding one of our three year olds that I foaled out. Beau did so good that day! It's my version of watching a child graduate from kindergarden. I just love it when they're finally able to handle themselves and become a productive, "gainfully employed" helper.
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