riding Archives - Butter, Love, and Cowboys

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Back In the Saddle Again

It’s March and the last recipe I shared was a Christmas treat. Gah! Life has slowed down a bit and I am here to report that I am happy be back in the saddle again. First, I feel the need to do a little explaining for my hiatus. In mid-December we bought a house! As if the holidays aren’t crazy enough, we spent all of our down-time from then until the beginning of February, painting each room, each baseboard, each piece of trim, and closets! Painting closets may have been the death of me if it weren’t for my angel of a sister coming to help me out.

Along with that, came a few other projects, the most noteworthy being re-staining/painting all the bathroom and kitchen cupboards. I learned THAT is not a project for the faint of heart. After that, we, still had to, you know, pack up and move our stuff from the old house to the new one. After a few weeks, we are finally settled into our, new to us, neck of the woods and are loving it! We are grateful for the space we have and the comfort and rest a home provides from day to day.

While I may have taken some time off from blogging, I have not taken time off from baking and my kitchen has been as busy as ever. I am currently working on my next recipe for ya! It should be live on the blog in the next day or two. Can anybody say cheesecake?!

Back in the saddle again from butterloveandcowboys.com

Playing off my metaphorical comparison of being back in the saddle to getting my tail end in gear in regards to blogging, I decided a picture of me in the saddle would do for this post. However, sometimes you find as the girl behind the camera, photos of yourself are in short supply. It was slim pickings, but I found this gem from 2 1/2 years ago. My Cowboy took it along with five or six similar ones. My eyes were closed or squinting, something awful, in about every single one. So pardon my silly face, but I really was having fun. It was bright that afternoon!

Getting back in the saddle after a long break does have some challenges though. Like a sore keister, the first few photos I edited for ya’ll were a little painful. My under-worked Photoshop muscles struggled, and parts of my regular editing process just wouldn’t come back to me! As I re-familiarized myself with the program, inspiration came and I think I have it down again :). Be sure to check back soon for a new recipe!

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xoxo,

Hannah

Ramblings

Branding Part 3: Roping and Groundwork

Howdy all. I still have a lot of branding pictures to share and I haven’t even gotten to the best part- the actual branding! While some of our cowboys and cowgirls rope the calves, there are also bodies on foot, who take care of the groundwork. Groundwork includes vaccinations, castrating, earmarking, and, you guessed it- branding!

Here’s how it goes- a cowboy/cowgirl heels a calf and drags it towards the branding iron, where someone on foot will place the head-catcher on the calf’s head. The head catcher helps keep the calf in place as those on the ground proceed to vaccinate, castrate, earmark, and brand. Once finished, they release the head catch, and off the calf goes- usually pretty swiftly!

The roping part is the part My Cowboy lives for. Few things in this life make him as happy as a day spent on the range branding, where he gets to ride and rope. He despises anything that has to do with a calf table. All operations are different and have to do what works best for their outfit, so absolutely no disrespect is meant towards any calf-table users. There are pro’s and con’s to roping, just like there are pro’s and con’s a calf table. I’m simply highlighting how much our crew LOVES their time spent roping.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

Clay’s oldest brother’s wifee! She is also known as “The Rancher’s Wife” as she has a blog where she shares all about what happens on the ranch- you can find her here. Check it out!

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

My Cowboy. My favorite cowboy.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

How cute is this little cowboy?!

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

While I still have more pictures to share, as for the explanation of a typical branding day, there you have it! It is always a full day of cows, dust, roping, singed hair, good food, family, friends, horses, and photos. I will be back before long to continue sharing all that I captured that day with you 🙂

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Ramblings

Branding Part 1: Gathering

We just finished up April. That means branding has been in full swing around this ranch. On most Fridays and Saturdays last month, you were sure to find our cowboys and cowgirls riding and roping the range. And without fail, they’d come home smelling like singed hair.

A few Fridays ago, we had the favorite family branding. This is the branding where My Cowboy’s family brands just their cattle. Most of the other weekends they will be branding with others in their cattle association. Those branding days are still great fun, but what’s better than just looking after your OWN cows?! My Cowboy looks forward to this branding all year. It probably hits the list as his third favorite holiday.

I will write all about our average branding day, but let’s start at the beginning- gathering. Naturally, if we want any calves to brand we have to gather ’em first! We like to start early, but not too early. Seven or eight am seems to be the usual. Personally, I despise rousing anytime before the clock ticks seven. So I sure am happy they don’t like to start TOO early! The riders saddle up and are off to begin the task of bringing in the Mama’s and their babies to the corral.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

I realize this post includes the first photos of our crew so I will make sure to point out the most common faces that you will see on Butter, Love, and Cowboys. My in-law’s had four other cowboys, five altogether, if you count My Cowboy. Now they are all grown and love to be in the saddle as much as any men I know. Four of the five brothers saddled up for branding this particular day.

We have many uncles, cousins, and friends who always join in to help get the work done as well.

Here’s a brother.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

And another brother.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

This post consists of a bit of a photo overload. I just couldn’t help myself when it came to sharing many of these photos. Branding days make up some of the most challenging and fun days when it comes to photography. My goal each year is for my photos to be better than the last.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

My Cowboy.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

The cowboy on the right is the oldest brother.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com

My Cowboy’s brother and his wife. This cowboy found himself a gal who could rope alongside him and it is fun to see them be able to share something they both love together! Plus they should be models for some western magazine.

Branding from butterloveandcowboys.com