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Tides are affected by both the moon and the sun in addition to the earth's rotation. It will be higher and lower during a new moon because both the moon and sun are on the same side of the earth which multiplies the gravitational pull.

Dang...I should have checked before this morning's work. I need to know if I should go back out after lunch or not. Not to worried though, I can find a little dirt if I need more. However, the lighting this morning did have me worried.

I've mooned a few holes in the ground. Sometimes the dirt won't all fit in after I'm done.

Ralphie, we try to band and tag calves as they are born out in the pasture. A couple small 200-300 acre pieces where we winter and feed. Drive around in the pickup and I rope them on foot. Grouchy cows make for a daily adrenaline rush!



Don, the only thing we schedule around is semi trucks and the weather. Only 3 weeks late this year and there are some BIG fricken calves right now.



But we are almost done with 'Hell week', aka one of my least favorite weeks of the year.





Couldn't find ANY help yesterday so dad and I branded/vaccinated over 50 by ourselves before we lucked out and someone answered the phone. Big 20 year old 'kid' saved our ass, he was a great worker and even he was getting tired out.

Still didn't get done sorting off a couple more semi loads pf pairs until it got too dark to read ear tags.

Ralphie
Nice Rommel reins! Would love another picture of them sometime.

Sam we couldn't get any help if we used a table lol. We are branding 300 calves at the Lakeview ranch on the 4th of Jun, will have a crew of about 20 to 25. We feed them a big Tri-tip lunch and all the beer they want after the branding. We use a knife to cut and earmark, head and heal everything. Will have about 8 ropers up at a time. We don't separate the calves from the cows, found out the calves are quieter that way. On the moon thing we don't follow it, probably some truth to it though. My guess it has something to do with atmosphereic pressure. Ed

Ed, I know what you mean!




laughing



We used to wrestle calves, back when my brother and were in school and had a lot of friends.

My dad cut studs for people in a 100-mile radius for many years and always cut by the moon sign. We branded this past Saturday. Great weather and great crew. I will quit ranching before I'd use a calf table and we sort no cows out from the herd. Calves stay quieter and it is easier to stalk the few wild ones with cows in with the calves. Given the choice, we use calf-wrestlers, but we have also used Nordforks when short on help.

I have used Nordfork, three Cowboys can work a lot of calves in a day with one. Worst branding I was ever at was when me and this other fool roped and branded 35 calves by ourselves lol. Had to rope and tie off on every calf lol, never got so tired on getting off and on a horse in my life lol. A Nordfork would have been damn handy at that one. Ed

Nordforks can be great with good ropers and one good man on the ground who knows how to quickly and correctly put them on. I sort of prefer them, actually. For years we just used a stake, inner tube, and a rope with a loop. I utilized that technique in my novel, LOOKING FOR LYNNE, where a small crew hires out to brand 1000 calves. Good calf wrestlers are getting harder and harder to find. We had some good kids Saturday but they were long on enthusiasm but short on technique.