Branding / Nebraska

We arrived in Nebraska safely, leaving 100 degree weather in Oregon to rain with thunder showers at the Denver airport. It felt a little backwards to me. Our plane trip was kind of interesting, ten minutes AFTER we were supposed to be in the air from the Portland airport the stewardess announced we had a first aid issue that needed to be resolved and that maintenance was supposed to be working on resolving the issue so we could get in the air. Turns out it was a bad defibrillator, and evidently Southwest did not have a spare one handy. They did have a spare plane that we could use though, and we then de-boarded the plane and an hour later boarded the spare one they had chilling over on the tarmac somewhere. Good thing they had that thing all warmed up and ready for us...
(Personally I think there was another issue that they didn't want us to freak out about, but hey...what do I know)
We got to Denver an hour late, and our bags also made it, woo hoo! Jami's cousin Laura came to pick us up and drove us to the ranch from the airport. The weather cleared up and it was a good trip all the way back. It was horse talk all the way. I finally put on a movie for the kids and I put my mp3 player to good use decided to take a nap. Got to love technology.



Jami now-I think this was the longest I have ever gone without seeing my family so it was a most needed reunion! I hadn't seen my grandparents in 8 years. The ranch holds my fondest memories as a child growing up and ironically I was always the one who wanted to move back and live there. Our second day there was the cattle drive. My cousin Deb let us borrow her 3 horses and we had my sister's 2, along with 3 quads and a mule-that's an ATV. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera along so there's not one picture of it. Jer was busy making his "football picks" for fantasy football so he missed the whole thing! I'm aware that I will not reap the consequences had I thrown the wife card at him but I'm still a little disappointed that he wasn't there. Laura, Deb, Clint, my cousin Mikey, and I were all on horses while Great grams & gramps, Nana & Papa, and I think Jorryn rode in the mule. The kids and Julz were on the quads. I'm also sad to say that my kids did not ride a horse once the whole trip but couldn't wait to ride the quads.
Day 3-Branding. I can't imagine there is anyone out there that hasn't wanted to be a cowboy or girl at one time or another and this is as close as you can get. I'm hoping next year it will be more of the old fashion type brandings I remember but this one was super fun. The veterinarian was there to do the dirty work. John and Jodi, a couple who are friends with Julie and Clint, also were there, they were a huge help! I think Jer and Jodi had the most dangerous job-getting the calves and cows into the chute and calf table. Jer almost got kicked in the face a few times but his lightning fast reflexes saved him from some serious plastic surgery. He did have a cow kick the fence into his face and had a soar cheek for a few days. He never let on that he'd seen stars. Shortly after that he went face to face with one of the bulls trying to escape through the gate-yes through it! He gave that bull several good punches in the nose and he learned who not to mess with. It was after the gate had pretty much been mutilated that we realized we didn't need to have the bull in there and opened it to let him out. I was trying to beat the bull back with a metal bar on the other side of the fence so I didn't get any pics. I sure wish I had! Next time.



Laura and John definitely had the poopiest job-to put it nicely. Literally, they had the end of the calf you don't want to be next to when they are stressed. Laura helped get the calves down the chute too with Jer. She's an old pro at this. Mom and Julz were keeping track of the cows and calves and all the important details for the records. Clint and my Dad were making sure the cows kept coming and going the right way, plus putting their brands on. My brother Jeff helped with the calf table, moving hay bales and he had his own little herd to put his brand on. Jorryn didn't like the smell of the branding or the poor little calves hollering so he headed back to the ranch house to hang out with cousin Dallas-and play swords. The other kids hung out for awhile and then decided to take the mule for a drive. I remember my kid days there and doing similar fun stuff that now as a parent doesn't seem so good since it's my kid doing it. Strange how that happens. Brexton, Julie's oldest, stuck around for the entire branding. I was super impressed. He's got cowboy written all over him. It was a great day. I wasn't even tired of a whole day of taking pictures.
Day four-We went out shooting with Laura's AR-15 and siqsauer p226. We were suppose to be shooting groundhogs but we could only hit water bottles. Clint came with his 440 mag revolver. I loved the holster. Laura had to get back to life in Denver. I was so happy to see her, and am glad that it won't be another 9 years before I see her again!
My sis and I got in some really long rides the next two days. My mom spoiled us with some good eating. She had menus planned for the whole week. It was awesome. Their is a man in the town that owns a Thomas the train. He drives it around on Sundays picking up kids and taking them for rides. He brought the train to my parents house on Friday night just for us. We got a little tour of Oshkosh to boot. The trip went way to fast and next time we will definitely have to stay longer!

The Gate...

To the married ones, what I am about to say will make sense, to the single ones...not so much.
My wife looked me in the eye and said, "The gate needs to be built before we leave for Nebraska." Being the man I am, understanding the way things need to be in a family, stood my ground and looked her in the eye and said, "Okay." To anyone wondering, yes I still have my man card.
We started looking around at prices, new and used, and being the good with money guy I am, (broke is more like it), I decided we couldn't afford new or used, so I built one instead.
Before anything started we had to walk out the front door and pick fresh blackberries for our morning smoothie. That's got to be one of my favorite parts about living in Oregon. We have berries all over. Oh yeah, the smoothie was excellent.
We started off with a picture in my head, and transferred it to a piece of paper for Jami to see what I had planned. Either something was lost in translation or I am just a bad sketch artist. Either way, she said the finished product was better looking than my spaghetti bowl thing I drew and I am assuming that was a compliment. I only colored out of the lines a few times...pasta?
Dad came over and we went down to drop a few small trees in the field for the rails. It was good we waited until almost ten o'clock to get started, as the cool of the day would have been to easy to work in. Who in their right mind would make the project go easy when they can be a martyr later on by working in the hottest part of the day?
We only had one tree that stuck in the branches of an adjacent tree when we were cutting them down. After that we threw a chain around the trunks and drug them up to the front to cut them to length, notch, and peel the bark. We then assembled them by bolting them together, and then made a trip to town to buy a cattle panel for the backside of the gate.
Dad and I had too long of a break in town and when we got home we had to eat some lunch kill some time chatting about whatever, all the while waiting for it to either get cooler outside or the gate to magically put itself together. I have heard tales of things like happening to those in the favor the gate gnomes, but I think we must have ticked them off by not starting this project earlier in the cool of the day. At any rate, we decided that it was time to finish putting the thing together and our long days work out in the hot, hot sun was finally done and all we had was the gate assembled. Honestly I think we were only at it half a day, ALL day sounds better. It may have only gotten to 80 degrees too, but it FELT like more.
Over the next few days I worked on getting the holes dug, and some power poles put in place. I didn't have my tape measure handy, so I thought a "kids depth" should be deep enough. See the pics and you will understand. It works great. I think I need to patent it somehow.
We got the poles in and some friends came over and helped lift the gate into place. green timber is full of water, so it was a little heavy. The extra hands made easy work of it though. We worked until dark, getting the chain set and some final things done. All in all it turned out pretty good. Cheap...under a $100. I like that. I still have to make the man gate next to it and finish tying in the fence line around the gate, but that won't be nearly as much work.
I am just glad Jami didn't say the gate AND the man gate. Otherwise I would have had to bribe the gate gnomes with something and let them go to work. I wonder if I leave a drawing and some cookies out by my fence...hmmm. Nope. They may have a hard time deciphering what colors are inside the lines and which are out. I may end up with a spaghetti bowl in my front yard.