Monthly Archives: July 2014

FERAL SOW

Posted on July 10, 2014 by | Leave a comment

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Startled to rise
from primordial ooze,
my presence wears no guilt.

 

 

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MANZANITA DOE

Posted on July 9, 2014 by | 4 comments

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What comfort to have
my presence be
less imperative than an itch.

 

 

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BLUE OAK WOODLAND

Posted on July 8, 2014 by | Leave a comment

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Not many leaves, but
hanging on to the tops
of mountains no one sees.

 

 

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GOOD GUYS

Posted on July 7, 2014 by | 2 comments

Short of death, we crawled home bleeding
after the war, a pretty nurse waiting
to love us, to kiss our ghastly scars

in painless dreams of perfect sunsets—
all worth the suffering our heroes wore
stoically, just under the skin. Even

in the cultivated fields, courageous acts
to save a crop, men and machinery bent
before a freeze, or swimming horses

in a flood to save some cows. We took
our chances in stride, ready to do
the right thing when we knew what it was.

 

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Greasy Creek Ranch Water

Posted on July 7, 2014 by | 7 comments

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Robbin and I went up to Greasy yesterday to check cattle and to see how our water was holding up. A fairly cool morning under light clouds. Lake Kaweah is dropping quickly in Greasy Cove with agricultural irrigation demands in the Valley, leaving a little green ring for the cows in Belle Point to graze.

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The old concrete trough that Lee Maloy and Earl McKee Sr. poured in the 30s still holds water at Sulphur Spring, the overflow of which is keeping the troughs in Sec. 17 and the Gathering Field full.

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We found a good pocket of water in Greasy Creek at the head of the Lower Field,

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and like the pond at Spanish Flat, it may or may not last until fall. We opened the gate between our Lower Field and the Gathering Field to allow access to more water for the cows in the Lower Field, taking the pressure off Greasy Creek and Spanish Flat.

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My father told me that in 1939, the water at Grapevine Spring was the only water available on Top after the Gill cowboys rode up and dug the spring out with shovels. We have since developed it a little more.

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Railroad still has a fair amount of water, but down substantially from normal years.

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The top pond at Railroad has gone dry. We put out protein supplement tubs as we went to go with the dry feed that looks pretty good everywhere considering the drought. Water will be the big issue until it rains. It’s a relief to see it holding up as well as it is, but we’ll have to monitor our water situation weekly and start bringing a little hay when we come.

 

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VENUS AT FIVE

Posted on July 6, 2014 by | 6 comments

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Listening to silence
through blue velvet skies,
old friends before the sun.

 

 

WPC (5) — “Contrasts”

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PORTRAIT OF A COW

Posted on July 5, 2014 by | 10 comments

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Full in the shade,
no hurry to abandon
wonder for alfalfa.

 

 

WPC (4) — “Contrasts”

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Paregien Ranch Water

Posted on July 5, 2014 by | 8 comments

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Meanwhile, back at the Windmill Spring, the cows have gotten ahead of the water. While trenching and plumbing the abandoned well before we install a solar pump on the Paregien Ranch, I’ve been checking the Windmill Spring every day, counting cows and noting how fast the troughs were recovering. As other water sources are drying up, the number of cows has increased from 30 to 46 this past week with temperatures well above 100°.

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Both overflow troughs were all but dry this morning, and only three cows had watered. Fortunately, we have the two wells near the corrals, one with a submersible pump and 11hp generator I ran for about five hours yesterday towards filling the 2,000 gallon trough and 5,000 gallon tank that normally we utilize only at branding and weaning. I topped off the tank this morning, but only the tracks of a couple of cows had been around the trough. So I went off in search of cows to lighten the load on the Windmill Spring.

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About a half mile away, I found some in the shade near the middle spring that is almost dry

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and convinced them to follow the Kubota and a bale of hay to new water.

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Obviously they hadn’t watered yet today. With a little luck, they will center on this trough instead of the Windmill Spring. Until the solar pump is installed, I’ll have to run the submersible twice a week to keep the top half of the tank full.

Scenarios such as this are happening on ranches all over the arid West.

 

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FOR WATER

Posted on July 3, 2014 by | 4 comments

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The sun is not yet high
and the loose dirt burns
my feet through leather boots

as we work for water:
trenching, gluing pipe
from well to tank to trough

among the oak trees
half-mile above the blacktop
where silhouettes of cattle

claim the shade, chew cuds
and watch. They cannot feel—
cannot see the urgency,

ever-trusting, unafraid
of our intrusion in their world—
we’ve kept them well.

The sun is not yet high
and I recognize the edge
of fuzzy delirium that turns

the order of this world
upside down, that obfuscates
governments and fear,

economies and philosophies—
that boils and distills
each moment down

to reliable water—
up here above it all
where nothing else matters.

 

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Bumblebee, G & T and a Buzz

Posted on July 2, 2014 by | 6 comments

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While in the garden with the Olympus point & shoot last Saturday evening, I attempted some shots of bumblebees, at work on Robbin’s Cosmos, with its telephoto in a breeze. Most photographers know better.

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Last evening on the deck with gin & tonics to assuage the 110° day, I brought the macro lens out. As we were talking, a bumblebee crashed into the back of Robbin’s head and landed on the table, seemingly overcome with heat,

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only to come back to life and head for my glass.

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Whether for the condensation or the coolness of the glass, or both, it was determined. With fading light, photographers understand my lack of depth of field, and the flash

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that didn’t deter him a bit. After 15 or 20 minutes, I went back out to the Cosmos.

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He was still busy on the glass when I returned.

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Whether moisture or coolness, Robbin decided to let him have an ice cube from her glass.

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Whereupon he spent another five minutes or so, until he had his fill, then stumbled off and collapsed. We thought we’d killed him.

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But alas, he rallied, crawled across the table, fell off the edge onto our 2” x 6” deck, then crawled off between a crack—much better, we assume, for the experience.

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