Winter in Wyoming!

WARNING THIS IS A GRAPHIC POST. 

PLEASE DO NOT PRECEDE IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE ANIMAL SUFFERING AND BLOOD. 

I have had the wonderful opportunity to be home at the exact right time to be involved in the true Wyoming experience.  In my younger years, I grudgingly participated in these events and tried to stay as far removed as possible in participation. Now that I can't be here for all of these things and my moments at home are becoming more and more limited I pursue these activities with gusto. So here's a look at some of my holiday activities -- Wyomin' style! :)

So at Thanksgiving my grandpa had four cows that needed branding because they were too small in the spring when they did branding the first time.  However, these calves were HUGE after the six months wait! There were just four of them, but they were four cows possessed by some real unholy spirits.  They were crazy! They each escaped at least once, and one cow escaped more than once. Thankfully my grandpa jumped onto his iron horse (his four wheeler) and rounded up one calf that not only escaped but jumped into the next field. So annoying.. anyway you may remember a previous post that details the entire process of branding, so I'm going to hit the highlights or rather highlight!

I BRANDED A COW! I didn't do it prettily or even well, but I DID IT! Check it out (I would apologize for the nastiness that is my brandin' attire, but I really didn't care about anything at the time expect being warm...):

And of course I had to try to do round two of this picture -- The Branding Crew: 

Another regular part of my growing up that I have rarely participated in before was processing the meat from the animals my father has hunted and shot. This time around I not only got to be there, but dug in with both hands! So the days leading up to Christmas (including Christmas Eve) were spent with various elk limbs splayed out on my mom's counter (my poor mother is such a trooper)!



Here's the a picture of the big pieces of meat that I cut down so that it would fit in our meat grinder!

And here I am actually doing the work! It may look from my hand placement that I was a hesitant participant, but I can assure you that I was really getting into it by the time this picture was taken! All the blood and gore was a little bit more than I was used to, but the worst part was how cold the meat was -- my hands were frozen by the end the night!

What a great couple of holidays! 

I hope all of your holiday activities were just as productive and just as adventurous!