Alberta weekend, Post 1: Branding

On the Victoria Day long weekend (May 19th to 21st), we headed to Alberta to spend the weekend on our friend Nicole's family's ranch. They always brand their calves that weekend, and due to hearing all about it from Angharad - who'd gone with Tyson and Nicole last year - we'd been signed up to attend this year's branding weekend for months! Nicole's sister Nadine - who lives in Calgary - had invited Roxy too, so this was the first time we had seen each other since Roxy's move to Calgary 2.5 months prior.

Around 2:30pm on Friday afternoon, Nicole, Ben and I set off for Calgary in our car (yes, the RX-8's first real road trip!). Tyson had flown to Calgary the previous night so he could do some work before we arrived. Insert an enjoyable albeit long road trip here, and the three of us arrived at the ranch (which is a couple of hours from Calgary) around 4am on Saturday morning. Then, after a few hours of sleep, we were up and at it!

Over breakfast, we were reunited with Roxy, Tyson and Nadine (who'd driven out together the previous evening), and met Nicole's dad Tom, his wife Monica, and their daughter Tisha. They live in a fascinating log house with a lot of unique country décor features courtesy of Tom's creativity. Tom is a retired school teacher, and Monica a nurse. They were so cheerful and welcoming that we instantly felt at home!

The branding was to begin around 10am, and people started arriving to prepare for it a couple of hours earlier. There were quite a number of neighbours and friends in attendance. At this time of year they spend their weekends going from ranch to ranch until everyone's branding is done!

Roxy, Ben and I were probably the only ones there who hadn't been at lots of branding days before, so it was steep learning curve. Roxy and I were given the easy job of spraying the ointment/sunscreen mix onto the fresh brands (as Nicole put it, "the kindest job"), and Ben was mostly helping hold the calves on the ground while they were being branded. I'll confess that the branding itself was my least favourite part of the weekend, and that to start with I felt quite queasy at the sight, sound and knowledge of the calves' pain! It was all over within a couple of hours, though, and I survived.  :)

Since we took more than a hundred photos of the branding, I'll let them tell the rest of the story!

Earlier in the day, the calves were separated from their mothers, who sounded quite distressed at this turn of events...

Roxy

Then everyone stood around for a while...

Roxy

Me, with Nicole and Monica in the background

Alton

Tyson and a cowboy

Us

The vaccination syringes were prepared, and the brands heated up...

Medications

Nicole

Tom

Brands in the brazier

When the branding started, a rider on horseback would rope an unbranded calf and drag it away from the herd...

The calf would be held down by two people...

Layne and Ben

Tisha and Nicole

Alton and Nadine

And then the brands would be applied, one letter after another until the calf's side read "ZMO". This was the part I found a bit distressing, as the calf would bellow and struggle. There was also a disgusting smell of burning hair, lots of smoke, and occasionally some flames.

In between the brands being applied, the calf would also receive three vaccinations. After each needle, a kid would mark the calf's hair with a coloured crayon, so that the people holding the calf could tell when all three needles had been received and it was okay to let the calf go.

As soon as the third brand was lifted off, Roxy or I would squirt the skin with the ointment and sunscreen mix, at which point the calf would relax somewhat. Then the calf would be released and it would trot off, never having to endure this again...

My squirting style

Roxy's squirting style

Roxy and I also each had a chance to hold down a small calf while it was being branded. Ben took a ridiculous amount of photos of those two situations, so I will try to choose only the ones with the very best facial expressions to share. The calves might have been little, but they were very strong, and they wanted to get away!

Tyson helping me get into position

Not too sure about this...

Maybe this grimace will help...

Nadine helping me out after it almost struggled free
("Pull back on its leg like you're water-skiing")

Yee-haw!

*Rub calf's chin*
*Apologise to calf*
*Let calf go free*

And now for Roxy's turn...

Nicole helping Roxy get into position

It's all going well so far...

...But now the actual branding starts!

Yep, that's how I felt too

Hang on to it!

Tyson to the rescue again

And that was our branding experience!

To be continued (with the weekend's other activities)...