Because We Live Here    

By Lance Waldren

May 2, 2007

Pioneer Press

Fort Jones , CA

Page E6

Well, it finally feels likes spring.    We've had a few warm days.  Most of my friends are now busy out preparing fields to plant or farming.

The other way I can tell it's spring, is it seems there's a branding somewhere, every weekend.  This is also a time for neighbors to come together and give each other a hand, working their calves and getting them ready to put out on pasture.

Some of my favorite memories growing up were of spring brandings.

Friends and neighbors spending the day working, laughing and eating together.  

As kids, if we were working with a chute or calf table, we were stuck pushing the calves up the alley.   You had to work your way up the ladder on a branding crew.

You'd crawl in the pen with a bunch of calves and try to get them heading towards the chute.   The calves would kick and try to turn around and run you over and heaven forbid if the table ever had to wait on you.

We would always end up covered in manure and black and blue from the waist down.  But we loved every minute of it. 

Even when working the calves with a chute.   We always saved a bunch of them to be roped and drug to the fire.  

This was the best, as you got a chance to showcase your roping skills.

This was hard physical work,  but it seemed you could always hear someone laughing. 

At lunch there was always a fantastic barbeque.   Feeding the crew and feeding them well is a priority if it's your calves being worked.

The tradition of gathering neighbors to lend a hand at branding time continues.  

It seems to me, these kind of work parties always turned into the best social events of the year.

Now if we go to a branding, it is my boys who are covered in manure and black and blue.  Oh yeah, and smiling the whole time.  

I'm glad there are still wonderful traditions that go along with growing up in a rural, agricultural community. 

It's for these reasons I will continue to try and be a voice for this lifestyle.


Lance Waldren can be reached at ldwaldren@yahoo.com

(Permission to post from the publisher.)