Author Archives: John

ON BARE ACRES

Posted on November 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

The black hole in the barn

has grown since August

as we peel-off long green

(high-dollar hay) vacuumed-up

by cows nursing hungry calves.

Al the prognosticators

tease us with promises

of thunderstorms tonight

if only to settle the dust.

RESTORING THE DECK

Posted on October 31, 2022 | 3 comments

Tenuous, dangerous navigating

redwood sagging on rotting joists

even the dogs avoided

and it took years to make repairs,

slices of time wedged between

perpetual routines

caring for the survivors of drought

when there was no grass or water.

It took the expertise of a patient friend

we have learned to love

and work with—Robbin and I

comprising only half-a-man.

for Jeff Spoelstra

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged accomplishment, Drought, friends, photography, poetry, repairs, teamwork

LATE OCTOBER

Posted on October 24, 2022 | 2 comments

They’ve taken Saturday’s rain away

with future promises

like plastic magic debt

no one intends to pay.

We’ve been here before,

crooning to godesses

not to forget us

like the hopeless homeless.

We are this ground

rooted into the future

like the plodding lives of cattle,

trusting, trusting, trusting….

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged cattle, Cosmos, Drought, godesses, Monarch Butterfly, photography, poetry, rain, trusting, weather

DEJA VU HAIKU

Posted on October 18, 2022 | 3 comments

Gray dust clouds rising

behind cows down powdered trails

off these bare mountains.

The diesel feed truck

awakes a bawling chorus

to claim the canyon.

All imperative

and hungry, it twists our guts—

La Niña pending.

3 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2022, Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged cattle, Drought, haiku, La Nina, photography, poetry, water, weather

“Yellowstone Effect”

Posted on September 18, 2022 | 5 comments

Devin Murnin, Western Livestock Journal, 8/29/2022

Most people have seen or heard of the hit TV show “Yellowstone” that airs on the Paramount Network. Admittedly, I have watched the show. It is set in picturesque Montana and packed with drama, lots of action and overly-fictionalized storylines around a ranching family trying to keep together the generational ranch that has been passed down to them.

This show is hard to watch if you are involved in production agriculture for the many incorrect portrayals of ranching practices and the over-the-top daily issues faced by this fictional family. However, it seems to be resonating with the public and is causing an influx of people wishing to move to the Big Sky state. The “Yellowstone effect” is real in Montana, and we have seen population growth and skyrocketing demand for real estate.

It’s no secret that the pandemic changed work dynamics, and the ability for employees to work remotely resulted in people moving away from areas with a high cost of living to more affordable locations around the country. Montana saw a huge demand increase for property. For example, in Bozeman, where the storyline of “Yellowstone” is based, the median price for a single-family home was a mere $500,000 a few short years ago.

https://www.wlj.net/opinion/devin/devins-comment-yellowstone-effect/article_8d1ab426-254b-11ed-9816-c36a6c2c9a13.html

5 Comments

Posted in Ranch Journal

Tagged ag acres, Devin Murnin, food supply, ranching culture, ranchland, water supply, Western Livestock Journal, Yellowstone

Tarantula vs. Tarantula Hawk

Posted on September 12, 2022 | 3 comments

Video by Katy Fry

While feeding hay, the girls caught this footage. More about the intriguing behavior of the Tarantula Hawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs

WORDS

Posted on September 9, 2022 | 5 comments

Change is made of choices

& choices are made of character.

– Amanda Gorman (“We Write”)

Nothing stays the same,

even the Earth wobbles on its axis.

We are not the same people—

we were raised with, and finally by.

Reason and truth have been inflated so

they have no value now, like fiat currency.

Yesterday, a man’s word defined him.

Today he speaks a foreign tongue.

But that’s all we have, a lifetime of words

to ease the speed and pain of change.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022

Tagged Amanda Gorman, change, character, photography, poetry, reason, truth, words

GRAZING GRANITE

Posted on September 8, 2022 | 2 comments

Up here, the deer unafraid.

We freeze together

to see who melts away first.

2 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2022, Photographs, Poems 2022

Tagged deer, haiku, photography, poetry, privacy

Dry, Dry, Dry

Posted on September 7, 2022 | 2 comments

An all too familiar sight across the West, this spring and rainfall fed stockwater pond has gone dry. Rainfall for 3 of the past 4 years has been below average https://drycrikjournal.com/rainfall-history-1/ following the 2012-2016 drought. In short, for 7 of the past 10 years rainfall has been below average.

Though currently temperatures have been running above 110 degrees https://drycrikjournal.com/journal-2022-23/ our summer has been relatively cool with more monsoonal presence than we’re used to, but without moisture. Typically, it’s too warm for our grass to survive before the middle of October anyway.

As new calves hit the ground, we’re looking forward to fall and a chance for moisture and feed for the remainder of our cattle.