There is nothing better then your alarm clock going off at 5am when you have a day of branding ahead of you. In Colorado during the summer this was a weekly occurrence but since I have been here in Idaho the brandings have been few and in between which is wrong in so many ways that I can not even start to tell you. Come 6am the kids, Bazi and the two horses (Baby Sayo and Wells Kioti) are loaded and we are on the road to help the crew of the Flat Top Cattle Company brand a set of calves that have been running out on the desert just a bit north of Kimama Idaho. Once the kids (slept the whole way there) and I arrived we got to meet the crew for the day……..there is something about true cowboys and cowgirls…..they are just great people to be around.
To start we gathered a 5,000 acre pasture. There is nothing better then being out in the middle of nowhere with nothing but land around you, your horse and cattle. It clears your mind and everything fades away and it allows you to think and life is good. These ol’ girls all know how to gather and move as they don’t ever load on a truck once they join this outfit. Every summer they are moved across the desert from just north of Kimama to the ranch up by Carey Idaho. This is a trip that takes 5 to 6 days but of covering country. Once we had everybody gathered and sorted the work began. All good work of course. Between the roping crew who headed and heeled the calves while the ground crew gave four sets of shots, implants, ear notches, brands, and the bull calves got cut we hustled through the first group of calves in a hurry. Rays wife had a great lunch fixed for us and then it was on to the second bunch. Ray and the guys roped on Wells Kioti who they liked well enough to add them to their string horses and I of course roped on the best of the bunch, Baby Sayo aka Sayos Smoke N Chic. Baby Sayo managed to impress the bunch with how great minded he is and that not even a calf with two sets of ropes attached to it crashing into his chest bothers him. All in all……a great day, got all the calves branded, no wrecks, met some great people and we are on our way home the truck is totally quite as both of the kids are asleep from a full day of playing……and picking on baby calves.