Branding

When I was young, I found that among the the best times I ever had were going to my grandfather's ranch to brand cattle. Every six months, there were a lot of calves that needed to be marked with the name of my grandfather's ranch: The Spear Open 6:

Branding day was a great time because all my aunts, uncles and cousins from my Dad's side of the family were there and we all helped out. We would separate the calves, fence them in, hold them down while they were being branded and we each got to personally brand one of the calves ourselves. After the branding was done, we'd all go in the house and enjoy a big lunch with Grandma Ogolon's fried chicken. And to top it all off, Granddad would give us each a dollar for a hard day's work.

On this occasion, Dad said we were going to Granddad's to do the branding. I was so excited. I couldn't wait to see everyone there and I was really looking forward to getting that dollar because I knew exactly what I wanted to spend it on. Dad, Mom, Loyd and I arrived and I knew something was up when there weren't any other cars parked out in front. We were the only family there. It appeared it was the end of an era.

What had happened was that my grandfather was getting too old to tend to a herd of cattle, so he just kept a few on the ranch that would provide meat for him and meat for our family. (Some background here: When my father and mother got married, Granddad's wedding present to them was a calf. That calf grew up into a cow and produced meat for our family for 17 years. While writing this, I realized that I don't think that my Aunt Pand or Aunt Berd had their own meat-making cow.)

We only had to brand two calves. That was it. This happened to be the first time Loyd was going to get to participate in the branding. We both got to apply the brand to the calves. Afterward, Granddad went up to Loyd and offered him 50 cents for the hard day's work. While I was a little disappointed that we were only getting 50 cents, I understood that we didn't really work all that hard like we had in the past. However, Loyd said, "No thanks, Granddad! I just do it because I love you!"

Granddad started walking toward me. I knew after that display of generosity, I could not accept the money, even though he offered me the entire dollar. "No, thanks. I just do it to help." I know I didn't sound too thrilled when I told him that.

The thing that got me about this is that, as I have mentioned before, Loyd could be always be counted on to try to take and take until there was nothing left. Why did he have to pick this one time to be a nice guy? I could understand if this was something he did on a regular basis, but to have this behavior only creep up sporadically was almost too much for me to handle. I really wanted to throttle him, but realized he had acutally done the right thing.

Otherwise, it was still a good time. Grandma made her fried chicken and there was plenty to go around. However, I did miss the camaradarie of having the other members of the family there. As it turned out, that would be the last time we branded cattle. From then on, we had to buy our own meat.

(A note to all you animal rights enthusiasts: I realize that it's wrong to sear the flesh of cattle, but I do understand the reasons why it was done. While it was a good time for me at that point in my life, I know I will never personally brand cattle again. Also know that nobody who has branded cattle enjoys that smell. Despite what you may think, we are all aware of the pain the calves must be going through during the process.)