Slim Randles' Home Country
A branding job with a bonus
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[May
11, 2013]
When the Rafter
E branded recently, a bunch of us went out to help. It's a badge of
pride to have worked your way up the branding ladder. |
As a kid, you flank the calves; you grab them, throw them and hold
them down. This is conducive to abrasions, muscle strain and
involuntarily changing the color of your shirt. As you get older,
you get to handle the branding iron, then move up to giving shots.
After that comes earmarking. When you reach the pinnacle of
branding, that is, when you own the calves, then you get to rope
them and drag them up to the fire.
It is a swirling cauldron of heat and hooves, excited cow dogs
and bawling cows. There is the smell of manure and singed hair and
sweat and corral dust.
[to top of second
column] |
At the Rafter E, I wielded a syringe as the youngsters got their
teeth rattled by the heavy stuff.
Wasn't the first time I'd given the shots, though. Once during a
branding at the Triangle Cross, I was about to immunize a calf when
it jumped and I stuck the needle into my thumb.
Hurt like the dickens, of course, but at least it was effective.
I haven't had black leg since.
[Text from file received from
Slim Randles]
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