Waltham Branding

Yesterday we went to our friend's parents place to help brand, needle, tag and castrate their calves.  They roped all the calves and dragged them to the 'nordfork' which then holds the calf's head in place.  The hind legs are held by the roper and then no one has to hold the calf in place.  It makes things a lot easier then having two people hold the calf down. 
Cody's cousin Chad and his two kids Cameron and Sydney where out from Saskatchewan to visit and help with the brandings going on this weekend.  They brought their own horses so they could ride and rope as well. 

 In the roping pen

 There is a pin the in the ground holding everything in place

Then the tire inner-tube to allow stretch in the line so it doesn't hurt the calves

Then the metal part to go over the calves head with a handle so we can put it on and pull it off when the calf is done

 This is cousin Chad making his Blog premiere

1st on Ghost (or Goat like we prefer)

 2nd on Shorty

This is Cody's brother Lee....he must not want to loose his hat

 And for those keeping track...yes Lee and Chad are wearing the same shirt and yes it was planned

 Relaxing after all the work was done

Bryce slept the whole time we were doing the calves and woke up after we were done.....apparently he didn't want to work today

After we were done calves we went to the house and had a great supper.  The weather was pretty good....thought we might get a little wet once but the clouds kept moving on.

Birthday Party #2

On Sunday we had Cody's family and a few friends over to celebrate Bryce's Birthday.  But this time we put them to work first.  The original plan before Cody got hurt was that we would brand our few calves and help Chunky brand his heifers he bought before Bryce's Party.  Thanks to our friends and family it still got done, but Cody just wasn't able to do help.  After the branding at Chunky's everyone came back to our place for supper and and watch Bryce open more presents.  We also had in the garage since it was already set up from the night before. 

 Running the cows through the chute to brand

Our excellent helpers

Some of the calves waiting to get done

It was raining outside so we did everything inside the barn

Chunky and Darcy holding the calves to get their tag, shots and brand

Cody couldn't stay away from the action

Caleb's helping Darcy hold this one down

Supper time

Puppy cake again

Cake everywhere

Time for a bath and pajamas again

Thanks again for all the presents for Bryce and coming to his party.  Sorry we made you work for your meal but glad to get the cows and calves done.  Now time to turn them out to pasture for the summer!