Category Archives: Photographs

GRAZING GRANITE

Posted on September 8, 2022 by John | 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 by John | 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.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs

SERIOUS BUSINESS

Posted on August 30, 2022 by John | Leave a comment

Occasionally, I feel guilty.

I’ve killed so many

that I may allow

one to escape

my will to kill

before becoming numb

as machinery,

before squeezing

the pellet gun

the .22,

the .223

or the 17 HMR—

…like now as I write:

one breaking from

the dogs’ empty pens

with cheeks full

of puppy chow.

Little bastards,

I’ve fed tens of thousands

to our local wake of buzzards

waiting for the first report

of war in the canyon.

Falling off hillsides in hordes,

battalions of vermin

to strip tomatoes

green from the vine—

every sweet and juicy issue

from my darling Elberta,

our plump grapefruit

and leather-hided pomegranates

that will never spread

as jelly on toasted bread.

Serious business in a drought

to become an oasis

for the flea-infested

and their underpopulated

predators, but I’d like a day off.

First Calf 2022

Posted on August 29, 2022 by John | 1 comment

In the feed grounds this morning (8/29/22), our first calf of the season with its mother (7052), posted here as part of our age and source verification program and to share with those following this blog. Due September 1st, there are several other cows pretty close up, so it’ll have a playmate soon. An Angus calf, no Wagyu this year.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged age and source, first calf

How To Beat The Heat

Posted on August 28, 2022 by John | 1 comment

What a delightful afternoon after work (8/19/22). 109 degrees at the ‘Sip and Dip’: Katy Fry, Allie & Shawn Fox with Robbin, Buster and Tessa.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged neighbors, rejuvenation, Sip & Dip, youth

NATIVES

Posted on August 27, 2022 by John | Leave a comment

I look to the ridges for clarity,

for a sign of an approaching storm

gathering somewhere north—

trace silhouetted skeletons

of drought-killed oaks, branched

like Challenge Butter bucks.

As my eyes escape the first waft

of chaos and claustrophobe,

I leave my flesh to rest among

all the old cowmen with nothing to do

but watch the learning process

over and over again.

The Natives retreated to the hills,

but at the top of mountain peaks,

there’s no place left to go.

COYOTE TREE

Posted on July 22, 2022 by John | 1 comment

Along the road the CCCs

chiseled in the 30s, men and mules,

wheelbarrows and Fresno scrapers,

miles of sidehill on perfect grade

while the old oak watched

from the saddle

before the place got a name.

Coyotes trapped or shot

were tied with baling wire and hung

from a long, horizontal limb

through summer heat and rain

before becoming skeletons.

How many bones beneath it now

howl from its hollow limbs?

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022

Tagged 30s, bones, CCC, coyotes, photography, poetry, skeletons

Wind Event

Posted on June 22, 2022 by John | 2 comments

Major wind event continues at noon today originating from a cut off low off the coast of Southern California, a pre-monsoonal surge of subtropical moisture bringing lightning and thunderstorms to the Southern Sierra and Central Valley into tomorrow. Little moisture. A.M. wind blew the top of a sycamore across our electrical service line to our pump at the corrals. We’ll have to haul water to our cattle.

Meanwhile we have cows and calves gathered in Greasy awaiting weaning planned for today if a tree hasn’t fallen across a fence up there. We’ll have to take some hay and check the damage tomorrow. We’re not done with the wind gusts.