Author Archives: John

White Golden Poppies

Posted on April 29, 2024 | 4 comments

Not enough gold left

in the last of the poppies

as spring fades away.

4 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2024, Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged Golden Poppies, haiku, photography, poetry

An exceptional feed year, the grass is thick and a couple of weeks from ripening and turning brown as we prepare to wean our calves for market. It’s been our custom to cut firebreaks with the skid steer between our feed and Dry Creek Road. Last year we had eight arson sets that we were able to minimize with our 500 gallon water wagon. Fortunately, CalFire was able to identify and arrest the arsonists who are now in jail.

Despite our efforts and equipment, the ranch gets no discount for fire insurance premiums. Since PG&E was found culpable for the Northern California fires several years ago, we have found ourselves within the recently mapped High Risk Fire Area in California, and most all our neighbors have been dropped by insurance carriers. It seems apparent that PG&E’s losses and premiums have been spread out over the state. We are now investigating self-insurance for our home.

As a matter of business, insurance companies insure one another for catastrophic losses, and taken to the extreme, may in fact be one insurance company. Last year our insurance costs were 10% of our expenses, but unlike our other tangible expenses like hay and labor, we get only a little peace of mind in return at twice the price, if available.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dry Creek, Fire, firebreaks, insurance, photography

MOONSTONE BEACH, END OF THE TRAIL

Posted on March 22, 2024 | 3 comments

No lone warriors left on weary ponies,

we gather at the edge of the West subdued

and yield to the fleeting moment beyond

our reach or reason—to be washed,

wave after wave, with our fears away.

All the people now in the picture—

I could have cropped the photo

to thirty-thousand yesteryears ago,

or by much shorter measure dialed it

to a certain future none will see.

Our hair is gray.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry

Tagged Cambria, Moonstone Beach, photography, poetry, Sea Chest Oyster Bar

BONE ON BONE

Posted on March 17, 2024 | 6 comments

All the places

I worked and played

too hard

are wearing on me

for this moment

I have trailed

with discarded rhymes

and poetry

even I don’t quite

understand

why I had to kiss

the wild so deeply,

why I had to walk

the fence

and dream beyond

the barbed wire.

6 Comments

Posted in Deck Poems, Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged age, photography, poetry

CELEBRATION OF LIFE

Posted on March 16, 2024 | 2 comments

Occasionally, neighbors become good friends,

and so it’s been with Steve and Jody Fuller, Robbin and I.

I am going to read a short poem that I wrote for them

when my mother was dying in the hospital back in 2010.

LAST NIGHT’S LEFTOVERS

We pray for heart attacks, Mack trucks and lightening

as our way out, trading tales of die-hard mothers

like rattlesnake stories, each triggering another –

pouring wine with whiskey rants to laugh

at the sad truth we can’t improve, can’t make easier,

can’t change, but in ourselves. Out of the rain,

my great bay horse, a bag of bones at thirty,

paws the gate in the barn for more grain – an indignant

impatience I trained for years, my mother’s hands

in mine again. It’s rained five days straight,

blew the barn down, blew a tire in a rockslide,

got a ticket parked too long at the hospital,

and we look up into the gray wanting to escape

town and traffic, find home and recuperate

with neighbors and last night’s leftovers.

– for Steve & Jody

Steve left his mark on the hearts of us all.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2010, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dry Creek, photography, poetry

JOINT ACCOUNTS

Posted on March 15, 2024 | Leave a comment

Yesterday’s rain

runs in rivulets

towards the creek

across the shoulder

of the road

and growing traffic—

Pond Turtle shell

glistening still

with all the wild

totems we lay claim to

in our joint accounts.

SURPRISE RAIN

Posted on March 10, 2024 | 3 comments

Mud from head to toe
before the bus to school,
how could I know

I’d never bring it home—
never be the hero
of black and white westerns.

But a lifetime chasing rainbows
has been enough
without the pot of gold.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged Dry Creek, photography, poetry, rain, rainbows, weather

WAITING ON A BLUE EVENING

Posted on February 19, 2024 | 3 comments

Despite the advance of new scientific instruments utilized for weather modeling, this year’s Atmospheric River phenomenon for Central California hasn’t followed predictions. However, we have enjoyed beautiful weather and average rainfall standing currently at 10 inches with March and April yet to go. Last summer seemed cooler, fall and winter warmer with yesterday’s high reaching 71 degrees.

Robbin snapped this photo about the time the deluge was forecast to arrive yesterday evening, but it didn’t start raining until 3:00 this morning. I love the rainy days, almost always smug when the experts are wrong.