the brandings begin

 

 

 

 

And we're off...not quite a race just yet, but we've begun the branding...gonna be a few again this year. 300 or so down, 1500 to go...oh dear! The branding went good. We did 300 something in just 2.5 hours. Good cowboys, good ropers, good help, it went so smoothly. Got some pretty cool pics I think...neat shots of Tom and Arianne's little girl Tommy Jean...that little calf was her little friend, it was quite sweet watching her protect it. Laney and Tana weren't there...Loretta watched them because it was her normal day, so I just got to give shots and take pics and cook lunch, I missed them though. They are changing so much. Laney is in an AWESOME stage right now...not that she isn't always awesome...but she is really becoming aware of people's feelings, and what sounds mean or not very nice, and how to make things right without being prompted. The other day Tana was up first as she is most of the time, and was playing with Laney's backpack. She was filling it with dolls and carrying it around. Laney woke up, and sat down to eat breakfast. When she noticed Tana playing with her backpack, she ran over ripped it out of her hands, and went back and sat down. (The old me got very angry at this...a bit of smoke would start to roll out of my ears when she ripped things away from Tana) but I very calmly said that the way she just treated her sister warranted getting a story taken away at bedtime. She immediately got up went over and handed it back to her saying "Sorry Tana, you weren't hurting it, you can play with it." Now granted she had motive to do so to earn a story back, but I still think that what she said to her without me suggesting or asking her to was pretty cool. She is also riding her horse completely by herself and doing amazing! Today, she rode all over the arena by herself. Asking Sis to go, she used her reins, her legs, her voice, she even gets Sis to trot. I was so impressed, Sis wanted to go out the gate, Laney asks me "should I let her go out the gate, Mom?" I told her if she did, to remember to pull back and say whoa before getting to the barn. She walks her out the gate, stops her, turns her back around and walks back in the arena. She says she's ready to rope now. Ummm, ok, so the dummy, we can start there. Scott gets on the 4-wheeler with Tana and goes really slow, Laney totally got Sis to follow it all the way around the arena! I have pics for next week...so cool! Totally unrelated, but our pool in AZ finally got excavated, yay! So I included a few pics that the pool dude sent me.