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.