Category Archives: Photographs

In the name of convenience
we deaden our senses
far from the basic elements
from which life rises
from this dusty, musty earth—

lost touch with old ways
of believing and seeing things
intrinsic to the spirit.
Yet we acquiesce to custom
and anonymity, bow

to technology more fallible
than a man’s word, or
become slaves and addicts
to selfish notions
where the lazy work the hardest.

for Terri

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015

Tagged convenience, Fredrick Nietzsche, lazy, Maintenance, technology, work

Autumnal Equinox 2015

Posted on September 23, 2015 by John | 4 comments

I don’t recall a more-welcome fall, this astronomical landmark when our daylight hours equal dark and night promises to last longer as we move towards the Winter Solstice. The sun slides south down the ridge, rising later, as sunset doesn’t hesitate, but literally falls into Antelope Valley just to the west of us.

We have endured the summer, we have endured four years of drought, as we enter that time of year when it might rain, bring green grass and fill the earth with moisture, bring water to our cattle. Wildlife walks with a different air, lingering longer in the morning. Coyotes and bobcats take their time as if they own this ground. Perhaps displaced by the Rough Fire, we’ve already seen more lions and bears than any year I can remember.

This is the time of year when our calves are born, the beginning of another cycle with the hope of rain, green grass, and fat calves, mornings and evenings by the fire. Just another day, but this is the one we have waited for.

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged astronomy, autumnal equinox, beginning, dark, light, Rough Fire

NON-NATIVE INVASIVE

Posted on September 21, 2015 by John | 1 comment

Blooming immigrants
among common fiddleneck—
new color for spring.

1 Comment

Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs

Tagged Bermuda Buttercup, spring 2015, wildflowers

GODS ONCE

Posted on September 20, 2015 by John | 2 comments

As always, we don’t know
what’s coming
or when, but we prepare

for rain and cold
with odds in our favor.
There is no election,

no debate, no polls.
The fickle gods
write their own rules

and grin like hell
when we object
to their unfairness.

We were gods once
when we were children
with scraps of wood

and leaves for sails
cheering ships
floating down a furrow.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

Tagged gods, weather

LIVING COLOR

Posted on September 18, 2015 by John | 8 comments

My feet have slowed—
my eye measures distance
and my mind weighs

the importance of moving
as I withdraw
from all the magic

flashing the horizon
like explosions
of another war

that will not wound me,
fatally. This time
is mine to spend,

frugally. Summer sighs
into September shadows
as I wait for storms

to wash the outside
world clean away.
Too old to play football

or politics anymore,
I hear colors sing
without a score.

8 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015

Tagged bumblebee, flower-friday, hibiscus

Rough Fire: Evacuation Orders Lifted

Posted on September 16, 2015 by John | 3 comments

139,000+ acres
49% containment

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Rough Fire

September Echinopsis

Posted on September 14, 2015 by John | 2 comments

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs

Miramonte

Posted on September 13, 2015 by John | 4 comments

The prospect of having to gather this country ahead of the Rough Fire is daunting.

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Miramonte, Rough Fire

Smoke in the Valley

Posted on September 12, 2015 by John | 15 comments

7:20 a.m., Sept. 11, 2015

Smoke continues to get worse throughout the Valley as the Rough Fire moves within a mile of the 2,000 year-old General Grant Tree and grove of giant Sequoias, also threatening the communities of Wilsonia and Pinehurst as it moves up the Mill Creek drainage, and towards the town of Dunlap on the western edge of the fire. Currently consuming 128,000 acres in the Kings River watershed with only 29% containment, the fire is expected to burn rapidly through the drought and pine beetle impacted timber today. Cost to date to fight the fire, that began with a single tree struck by lightening on July 31st, approaches $80 million. 2,570 personnel, 14 helicopters and 18 dozers battle the blaze in rough terrain.

Mandatory evacuation orders have kept Dry Creek Road busy. We helped haul four gooseneck loads of horses and mules from Miramonte yesterday, the last of the stock removed from the Cedar Grove Pack Station ahead of the fire that now burns upcanyon past Hotel Creek and towards Granite Lake. Park and pack station structures were saved.