I was branded in the Osage

a cattle chute

Now I will have to tell you I was pretty use to branding cattle and even clipping hogs ears to identify them as belonging to to us.  Our brand for cattle was a half circle open A which means half a circle over the top of an A without the little crossbar in the middle.  In fact I have one of our old branding irons at my house where we keep it by the fireplace.  I don't think folks ever notice it but on occasion I like to look at it.  In fact as young boys it was fun to heat one up and then brand about any board you could find.  Most of all we branded the cattle so you could identify who they belonged to.  You could say metaphorically I was branded in the Osage because I grew up there but unlike most I was branded physically.

Here is how it happened and the permanent damage it caused me.  I was working at Art Jacque's house and they had one of those fancy electric branding irons.  Our branding irons were the kind you set in a fire pit and got it hot enough to mark the cattle.  When we got fancy we had a propane tank with a torch to heat up the irons.  But the Jacques had technology and they had an electric iron.  That is actually pretty cool (not in the cold sense) as it would stay hot and you would not have to have a half dozen irons in the fire getting hot.  Now that I think about it I imagine this is where we get the saying, ".. there are too many irons in the fire".  The good side of an electric branding iron is you can put it about anywhere as long as it is plugged in and it will stay/get hot.  The bad side is if you forget where it's at.  I did!  Someone hung it on the cattle chute and I was getting calves into the shut and accidentally landed my right hand on that iron.  Dad-gum-it it was hot.  It took the hide right off my hand between my thumb and forefinger.  It was oozing with water and not bleeding a bit.  Of course I ran to the house where Mrs. Jacques bandaged it up.  She was and is a great lady.  Then we went back to work, no excuses.  By the way there was no permanent damage and you can hardly see the scars unless you are looking for them.

So now you have to ask yourself what good can come of something like this?  For one you always remember to watch out for the branding iron especially when it is electric.  Second you always have a story to tell and I can prove I belong to the Jacques family.  Do you suppose Dave and AJ got branded too?  If so we could be a band of branded brothers!

Well what do you learn in the Osage?

• Pay attention to the details - like where the branding iron is hung
• Have a little empathy for the cattle
• A good story always has a little pain in it but you get over it if you decide to
• A little lemon can make lemonade - kinda like a little pain can make a good story to tell your kids
• When you do something stupid it is not someone else's fault and you don't need a lawyer

If you have a good lawyer joke I really do enjoy them so share, please.   I don't hate lawyers but everyone could use one for an anchor for their boat.  

Thanks for your time,

gary@thepioneerman.com