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Branding, with a lot of help from our friends

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Bringing in the cattle
Upper Meadow, Home Ranch

This late, wet spring has made it a challenge to get the calves branded. Several weekends ago, Eamon and Megan came home with several college buddies who were young, strong, and ready to help with the branding. Alas, it rained and snowed all weekend. The following weekend, Bridget and Chris came home with their urban friends, who were inexperienced but willing. More rain. More snow. Finally. on Mother's Day weekend, our daughter-in-law Megan lured her entire family to the ranch: her Dad--Jeff, her Mom--Georgia, her sister--Halli, her brother--Clay and his girlfriend--Jessie. Meghan, Brian, Siobhan, Seamus and Maeve also lend several hands. At last, we had a break in the weather and branded three days in a row, with this intrepid crew. Thank you all!


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Eamon, roping

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Eamon, catching
Upper Meadow

see"continue reading" for more photos

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Branding crew
Upper Meadow

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George, Sharon, Siobhan, Halli, Jessie and Georgia hard at work
Upper Meadow

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JO brand on Charolaise calf
Lemmons Meadow

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Branding irons
Lemmons Place
photo by Meghan O. Lally

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Chief, Siobhan, Megan, Jeff and Eamon
ready to go
Lemmons Meadow

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Brian, Clay and coats on a warming day
Upper Meadow

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Maeve, Meghan and Pat
Lemmons Place

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Pat and Sharon
Lemmons Place
photo by Meghan O. Lally

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Seamus on the tractor
Lemmons Place
photos by Sharon O'Toole

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The opinions expressed in the Western Folklife Center's Deep West online journals are those of the online journal participants and not the Western Folklife Center. The Western Folklife Center does not moderate these journals and as such does not guarantee the veracity, reliability or completeness of any information provided in the journals or in any hyperlink appearing within them.

About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Sharon O'Toole
Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.
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