Posted today are a few photographs from branding day at the 4-R
Ranch in the Elkhorn Mountains.  The ranch
belongs to my dear friends Tom and Patti Russ. 
I spent the better part of yesterday at the Ranch helping with the branding
process.
Most of us growing up in East Helena, Montana, considered the Elkhorn
Mountains our mountains.  I and Tom, and most of our mutual friends
spent a great deal of time in the Elkhorns: camping, hunting, hiking, riding motorcycles,
or just driving along the meandering roads. 
 I constructed my house so my bay
window frames the highest peaks in the range. 
Those mountains are among the first things I “check” at first light each
morning.
Are the Elkhorns still out there?
Check!
And my year would feel incomplete if I missed branding day at the
4-R Ranch.
Separating the
little ones
Administering a
shot
Branding
The spectator
fence
Hops on the old
ranch house 
—Mitchell Hegman





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