Author Archives: John

Bird’s Eye Gilia

Posted on April 8, 2016 | 1 comment

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs

Tagged flower-friday, Gilia Triclolor, photography, wildflowers

FISH ROCK

Posted on April 8, 2016 | 2 comments

Sweet water rises here
from forgotten depths—
Sierra snowmelt streaming
granite cracks under pressure,

underground waterways
clogged with huge trout.
A near escape as the earth
cooled to mark the place.

Words leak out, collect
on paper, fill a trough
open to native myths
locked in rock.

for Sylvia

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

Tagged myths, photography, poetry, water

AT THE WINDMILL SPRING

Posted on April 7, 2016 | 6 comments

Out of earth and rock
imagination surfaces,
wants to talk in myths
science will dismiss.

We cannot deny
all senses of the eye,
how it dresses and addresses
what rises before us.

Good water, bedrock mortars—
fish flickering by firelight,
generations of good sense
secured in granite.

Weather Update

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged fish, myth, Natives, photography, poetry, water

From Alta Peak to Sawtooth

Posted on April 6, 2016 | 3 comments

April 2, 2016

Despite hopes that El Niño conditions would erase the impact of four years drought in California, the Sierra snowpack fell short of normal for April 1st. Even though this winter’s storm track targeted the northern Sierra Nevada, the region still measured only 97% of normal, while the southern Sierra measured only 72% of normal water content.

If rainfall amounts on the ranch are indicative of the southern Sierra Nevada foothills, we are currently above average for the season with the month of April yet to contribute, 18-20 inches thus far as opposed to our 14-15 inch average. However, the San Joaquin Valley floor didn’t fare as well, the town of Hanford still an inch below normal. Typically this year’s northern storm track stacked against the Sierras, bleeding south with rain, but missed much of the Valley floor.

Here on the ranch, it’s been a great grass year where most springs and stockwater resources have recovered. The south and west slopes have already turned as spring temperatures have been running well-above average. Still green in the flats and on the north slopes, we’ll be weaning some fat calves in 30 days.

more California weather info

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Drought, photography, rain, snowpack, weather

PRETTY FACES

Posted on April 5, 2016 | 1 comment

Over the ridge, friendly families
claim the hillside, pale homesteads
amid a sweep of shadowed green

beg for me to look, first to welcome
me back home, back off the road
two thousand feet below.

Here, now can last a long time—no need
to remember names when everyone
looks the same, ready for a party.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged Golden Brodiaea, photography, poetry, Triteleia ixioides, wildflowers

THE WATER AND THE WEEDS

Posted on April 4, 2016 | 2 comments

Life dries up and the dark earth cracks,
crumbles back into its open mouth,
stifling a dusty gasp. Already, I have

forgotten focus, how exactly each detail
hung on the moment, on my half-delirious
plodding one-day-at-a-time for years—

photographs no one wants to share.
But when life rains from the sky,
germinates and steams with spring,

I become an April fool inhaling
as much as I can, storing the miracle
in my veins until I become it,

ultimately. No alabaster walls for me,
no perfect city. Let me laze among
my gods: the water and the weeds.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged cinnamon teal, photography, poetry

PURPLE FAIRY LANTERN

Posted on April 3, 2016 | 8 comments

Within the silent clash of blades,
shy scarlet globes within green stems
hide with their heads bowed

if you know where they live.
In the thatch of another world,
snallygaster crane flies become

fairies within the grass forest
we part to share the light
of twenty-one springs together

in these hills with generations
of cattle, with all the wild gods
and goddesses as our witnesses.

8 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged Calochortus amoenus, photography, poetry, wildflowers

MANYFLOWERED MONKEYFLOWER

Posted on April 1, 2016 | 2 comments

Thriving in the cracks of granite,
small towns with no strangers
overlooked by bigger appetites

for glory, mountainsides of color.
Carefree young, I rest more often now
resisting time, give-in to gravity

to see my shrinking world up-close:
sagas of intricate adaptations
singing softly to the sun.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged flower-friday, Mimulus floribundus, photography, poetry, wildflowers

Robbin’s Pool

Posted on March 31, 2016 | 8 comments

With the invaluable help of Joe Hertz, stonemason and fiddle player for Cowboy Celtic, down from the cold of Alberta, we have completed Robbin’s pool. For a number of years, we’ve been discussing the work with Joe, but due to the demands of our long drought, our plans were postponed.

After the completion of the hydroelectric facility at Terminus Dam, the inside cap of the tunnel feeding the turbines was removed and given to me for a water trough. Thirteen feet in diameter and 1/2″ thick, the steel cap weighed between 3 and 4 tons. I began work ten or so years ago to recreate the feel of swimming in the river with smooth river rock to sit on, but had reached beyond the limits of my abilities.