Ranch Update, February 18, 2014

Pogue Canyon – March 14, 2008

With no rain in sight through the end of the month, we keep the chance of rain alive with images of spring stored in our minds, recalling full calves in tall green grass, cows milking well, hills colored with wildflowers, slopes covered with skiffs of snowdrops, golden poppies on peaks—lush and verdant memories that begin to seem so unreal now, we tend to doubt ourselves.

May 1, 2010

There are no programs, no operational plans for the worst drought since California began keeping records. Apart from reducing cowherds, some neighbors have weaned their calves three months early to save their cows, foregone branding and the normal 200-pound gain through May to reduce the cost of supplemental feeding.

April 14, 2011

The south and west slopes may not recover this year, unable to germinate seed in the steep clay, absorbing every drop of very little rain before we see a cotyledon. After stacking two dry years on top of one another, the demands of the soil are great with less than 3 inches of rain since May 2013, and less that 10 inches in the year prior—12.25 inches of moisture spread over 32 months. The impact of the resulting lack of surface water to the San Joaquin Valley will be devastating to cities and farmers alike, to its culture, to California’s economy and the cost of food around the world. Drilling more and deeper wells in the Valley’s retreating groundwater is not a sustainable solution.

I’ve a dozen branding poems celebrating the rites of spring, of a community of foothill ranch families working, sharing stories and a meal together as the earth begins to bloom around and despite us. We keep going just like we had a brain—perhaps ingrained in our DNA.

White Mariposa – April 20, 2011