Author Archives: John

Mother’s Day

Posted on May 9, 2021 | 3 comments

The Echinopsis’s delicate, one-day bloom usually occurs around Mother’s Day, reminding Robbin and I how each of our mothers showed us the way.

Happy Mother’s Day!

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Echinopsis oxygona, Mother's Day

Shipping Wagyu X Calves

Posted on April 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

Terri Blanke and Allie Fox photos

Great day for the crew as we shipped our first load of Wagyu X calves yesterday, but one month earlier and 100 lbs. lighter than usual due to current drought conditions. Drier than 2013 with only 6” of rainfall for the season, we’re trying to conserve what grass we have. Today we’re preg-checking their mothers as we begin to reduce the numbers of our cowherd.

Gerald Haslam

Posted on April 18, 2021 | 2 comments

One of the Central Valley’s most prolific writers, died at 84.

https://www.bakersfield.com/columnists/robert-price-gerry-haslam-s-valley-was-a-place-of-renewal-and-comfort/article_41dbcd52-9f27-11eb-8d61-03cd5e2f0f42.html

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Tagged Author, Okies, San Joaquin Valley

MY FATHER’S WAR

Posted on April 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

Left arm numb

I worried some

after the Covid shot.

Long wire gate

it took the two of us

to close—

guitar-string tight

well past

the railroad tie braces,

it still aches

like my father’s war

I’m still fighting.

7^thArmored Division

trapped after leveling

St. Vith.

With such legacies,

how will we ever learn

to get along?

for Ken Rogers

Nest Building

Posted on April 12, 2021 | 2 comments

Good entertainment, the house finches are now busy collecting nest materials that continually rain down from the rafters. This ambitious female is retrieving what she dropped. (Click the photo to enlarge.)

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged House Finches

Purple Chinese Houses

Posted on April 10, 2021 | 1 comment

With so little rain, it’s not been much of a wildflower year—even the most common Fiddleneck and Brodiaea are scarce and on short stems. But we began yesterday with these Purple Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla), a wild gather as we collected the last of the Wagyu X calves for their EID tags and second round of vaccinations before shipping to Snake River Farms.