Category Archives: Photographs

High Mountains

Posted on March 4, 2014 by John | 1 comment

We haven’t seen the high mountains in over a week of clouds. Our snow level has retreated from 4,500 to 7,500 feet with recent temperatures in the high 60s and low 70s. Roads were dry enough to feed at the Paregien Ranch this morning, offering a temporary glimpse of the Great Western Divide, including the Kaweah Peaks, Sawtooth and Castle Rocks.

At 2,500 feet, as shows in the photo, the green is coming nicely in the granite, but the cows and calves are still interested in hay. A few more warm days and a 50% chance of rain on Thursday may change their minds. We have our eye on a Pineapple Express aiming 100+ miles north of us, hoping the high pressure will weaken to allow more much needed rain. Meanwhile, Dry Creek has come to a near standstill across from the house.

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Posted in Photographs

Tagged Great Western Divide, Kaweah Peaks, weather

Dry Creek

Posted on March 2, 2014 by John | 2 comments

The two Wood Duck pairs in the raft of leaves at the down water gap are only 100 yards above where the creek has made it down the channel. No raging torrent, the creek arrived here this morning. We’ve been watching its progress two miles upstream for the past six weeks or so, drying back with high temperatures near 80 degrees as the sycamores began to take on water to support new leaves. Typically, the creek is usually running by December, some years without the benefit of recent rains. The creek is the physical and psychological lifeline for all life in the canyon.

It’s estimated that the creek carried 20,000 cubic feet/second during the Christmas Flood of 1955. The USGS gaging station was washed away during the Flood of 1967, relocated before the larger Flood of 1969 that measured over 14,000 cfs. According to the USACE Hourly Reports USACE, current flow is 5 cfs. Though paltry, we’re tickled to see it.

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Posted in Photographs

Tagged Dry Creek, USACE, Wood Ducks

WPC – Abandoned (2)

Posted on March 1, 2014 by John | 13 comments

A lone Blue Oak that has provided shade for cattle for as long as I can remember, well-before we hauled horses in gooseneck trailers. We still park and unload them beside the old tree to the gather the pasture, but it’s just not the same. Its limbs twisted within one another while alive, it must have been like a house of cards when the high winds came on August 18, 2013, to leave them resting against its trunk.

WPC

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Posted in Photographs

Tagged photographs, weekly-photo-challenge

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WPC – Abandoned (1) …

…before my time. The galvanized casing of an old water well, perhaps a windmill, elevated to fill a tank or water trough for livestock.

WPC

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Posted on March 1, 2014 by John in Photographs

Tagged photographs, weekly-photo-challenge

OUR WINDOW

Posted on March 1, 2014 by John | 13 comments

Have I become so hardened by this prolonged drought that I am reluctant to express much joy with our recent rains, ever vulnerable, afraid to let my guard down? A drop in the proverbial bucket when considering the bigger picture, am I afraid we may be spurned again with only two months left of our grass season—too long in a dry rut?

But none of this obstructs our evening conversations, finding lines of poetry in the space between us. I pen my name—and you hear rain like applause on the roof.

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Posted in Photographs

Tagged photography, poetry, rain

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Flower Friday – White-Veined Mallow

It seems a bit early for wildflowers, especially with so little grass, but a few Fiddleneck and Popcorn Flowers are also starting to appear on the shoulders of the ‘long pasture’.

0.42″

Posted on February 27, 2014 by John | 1 comment

Wild Cucumber (Sierra Man-root)

Not a drought-buster, but the grass is happy—and hence, so are we.

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Posted in Photographs

Golden Eagle

Posted on February 27, 2014 by John | Leave a comment

We’ve been watching a young Golden Eagle since the first-calf heifers began calving in September. Everybody’s hungry in a drought and the small Wagyu X calves had to be tempting. Yesterday, it landed in a tree outside the window to watch us. I’ve often thought we were entertainment for eagles.

Click to enlarge.

WPC – Threes (2) – Good Guys, Bad Guys?

The sound of a low flying helicopter brought us out of the house, our horses nervous and uneasy. We assume it was looking for marijuana gardens in canyons that have been bone dry since the beginning of the drought.

Camera shy, they avoided the house, then headed to a steep pasture where a 75 year-old man is gathering remnants on a young horse. We worry. The colt would damn-sure blow-up if face-to-face with a helicopter coming over the ridge—damn-sure scatter the day’s work and maybe get someone hurt.