A Treat So Sweet it Takes Both Hands....
Holding On Tight.....
Freeze Branding......
Cold Hands.....Warm Hearts....
Not all of my pic's are of My baby girl, but she's just at that age where most of them are still pretty magical. The 3rd & 4th pic's I took in November while we were freeze branding cows on the ranch. I have a lot of branding pic's since we hot iron in the spring and freeze brand in the winter each year and it is a pretty important family tradition that I always fear will be gone someday and only pic's left to tell the stories. My dad is branding in the 3rd and my Grandpa is taking a break in the 4th with Tatie--one of my favortie pic's.
Soory to be so naive, but how is "freeze branding" done? Have helped on several occasion with hot iron branding, but never heard of the other.
ReplyDeleteI like the candy on the face in the first one, made me smile for sure. The last one is priceless as well.
ReplyDeleteThese are great - the colors are so rich in the "freeze branding" photo, and the one of your grandpa with Tatie is adorable. Her hands seem to tell a story - "Grandpa, your heart is in my hands"! The sweet treat one makes me want to grab a washcloth to wipe off that dear child's face (wow, she really gets into eating that treat, doesn't she) - and hanging onto the puppy so tightly... also so sweet!
ReplyDeleteJim-- Freeze branding is done by mixing isopropyl alcohol and dry ice and letting the branding irons soak in this until they are VERY cold--can't remember exactly the temp, but below zero. We shave the spot where the brand will go, and rub it with alcohol (these are registered black angus, so it is their registered number that we are applying on their hip) this causes the skin to scab under the remaining hide and within a couple of months the hair grows back in white and is visible from quite a distance so the cows are easier to identify. Not naive at all-I would imagine most people don't know what it is unless they have had much to do with cows or horses (it's used quite a bit on horses, too)
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