There have been a few moments, since becoming a rancher’s wife, that have helped me feel better about the dirt, dust, manure, and dog hair in my house, and the blood/manure/mud stains on the clothes piled next to my washer.  Moments like seeing the cows Mr. Rancher and I bought together all grazing in a pasture, like seeing the newborn calves each spring, like seeing how happy Ty is gathering cattle, or like seeing Henley shoo calves with her dad.  We all went to our neighbor’s branding last week and Miss Henley had to help Mr. Rancher with everything.  Here she is helping him and the other cowboys sort off some of the calves.

Doesn’t this picture melt your heart?  It sure does mine.  The two compadres waiting for another calf to be roped and bzrought to the branding fire.

Who says you can’t wrangle calves with a baby under your arm?  Just minutes before this scenario happened two of the ladies at the branding commented on how strong Ty was, as we all watched him throw down a huge calf without any help.  They were joking that all the rest of us on the “ground crew” could just sit back and watch my manly man work the calves on his own.  Then Mr. Rancher ran out to tackle a calf with the Little Miss in his arms and the ladies started laughing and yelling “we were just kidding, Ty!”

“Someone grab that baby!”  I heard as I whipped out my phone and snapped some pictures.  Once the calf was vaccinated and branded Ty and Henley came sauntering back–that’s right sauntering–and he proudly exclaimed “it’s good for her to work calves!”  Everyone chuckled a bit but our neighbor said he wasn’t so much worried about Henley but about Ty getting himself hurt trying to do too much.

Personally, I think it’s a good thing for everyone.  Good for me to learn to relax and let Henley learn the ropes of this whole ranching lifestyle.  Good for Henley to learn how to handle large animals and how to be safe when working with her dad.  Good for Ty to learn to do things a little slower pace and to be a little more careful.