Beating the heat, branding time!

We had a huge summer holiday break here through December and January – and by ‘break’ I mean the usual things that make up school holidays (beach, visits with friends, eating too much) as well as the ‘bush break’.  You know, where you work like mad things in the hottest part of the year.

Of course, none of these things have been blogged.  I would dock my pay, if there were such a thing for bloggers. (Ha!)  So I will endeavour to plough through my gazillion images (cause THAT part of the blogging venture never slows down) and work backwards in sharing ‘the best of’ with you.  Deal?

Every summer we do two rounds of mustering here at Granite Glen – where all our breeding cattle are brought to the yards.  The first (almost as soon as the kids are home on on holidays) is to innoculate the young calves against all kinds of nasties.  The second (around six weeks later) gives them their second innoculation (it’s a two-part series of injections) and to brand (mark, eartag, castrate, assess and treat if any major injuries are evident).

Often this job can become like a marathon race – endless mustering, branding, sorting from daylight til dark.

This year – partly because my energy levels are yet to return to my pre-chemo levels and partly because we had no ‘outside’ help – we decided to handle our days a little differently.

We would brand first thing in the morning – when it was cooler, and (after seperating calves and mamas the evening before) making my job of ‘mothering’ easier.
As I was mothering (noting down which newly-tagged and branded calf belongs to which cow) the kids (Dash, Violet and our 16-year-old niece Salina) and Mr I would head out to bring a new paddock in.

This was about morning tea time – as cows were coming into water.  It worked perfectly and all paddocks mustered very well and with little fuss.

Dash on his new steed and Violet on Chi Chi.

Some of the paddocks are up to 10km from the yards… This is Salina on Winchester and Violet on Chimmy.

My job during these long rides is being the water girl. (And photographer. But you hardly needed me to tell you that!). 

Chimmy is not overly endowed in the looks department, but he has the most magnificent tail.

It swishes and swirls as he walks. He’s like an equine cheerleader.  But only from the rear.

Sometimes Violet and Salina love each other.  I like to snap these particular times and remind them later on – a pair of strong willed jillaroos – no shrinking Violets allowed. (See what I did there?)

Then we would take a break – I would upload my new data into our computer, the kids would have a swim and cool off, horses would get a rest and cows and calves with settle and have a drink too).  I could also get washing done and the night meal organised while Mr I checked waters and did general maintenace tasks.

Then as the sun headed ‘downhill’ and the yards cooled off, we would put the cows and calves through – drafting calves off and dipping the cows.
Moving the mob from the big yards to the smaller drafting yards…

Dash on Chimmy here – bareback!

There is something a little magical happens when sunlight hits dust JUST the right way.

Of course, it’s still hard to breathe in!

But just fabulous for photos.

(Which is really the important part, right?)

And then the sorting proper begins…

Everyone has their post – as dusty as it might be!

(Can anyone see Dash in this pic… look carefully!  And no, he’s not being trampled.)

In the yards, on the gates, on the computers…

Because there was no riding in the afternoons, the jillaroos and jackaroos could wear shorts!

After sorting, the older cattle get dipped (to help rid the cows and bulls of ticks and flies – I reckon they have SUCH a great sleep that night with no kids at them, and no pests bugging them either!).  Some like a little extra attention at this point…

Well hello Graphite…

You great hussy.

Tip: Scratch (quiet) cattle where they cannot reach and they are PUTTY in your hands.

So we did this new routine day-after-day-after-day… and while it took a little longer, we think it worked a treat.  Low stress for animals and humans alike!

This is the very final mob going back to their paddock – on the 9th day of branding.

Did we celebrate our freshly-completed, new-style 2016 brand in style?

Why…

Yes.

Yes we did. On a 39C afternoon, overseen by a Great Dane and accompanied by a chilled Pinot Gris.

I think we had meat pies for dinner that night. What can I say? I was stuffed.  I had to prioritise, people!

😉