Category Archives: Photographs

MOUNTAIN GARLAND

Posted on June 16, 2019 by | Leave a comment

 

 

Amid the empty
heads of wild oats, Clarkia
paints hillsides purple—

long-stemmed families
reseeding new ground, waiting
for late rains in May.

 

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Posted in Haiku 2019, Photographs, Poems 2019, Ranch Journal

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Weaning Greasy

Posted on June 14, 2019 by | 6 comments

 

© Terri Blanke

 

It’s been a long week with early mornings and warm days gathering another bunch of cows and calves in Greasy. We hauled the last of the calves down the hill this morning to the corrals to wean. From the goosenecks, we unload them onto our scales to weigh, then apply fly spray to not only make the process a little more pleasant for the calves, but to reduce the risk of a pink eye.

The calves have done well but the market is weak and weakening with concerns about this year’s corn crop.

 

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LAST EMBRACE

Posted on June 13, 2019 by | 3 comments

 

 

Held in high regard,
we let the dead lean until
we lay down to rest.

 

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Weaning

Posted on June 12, 2019 by | 6 comments

 

 

It was a 104° at 10:00 a.m. after gathering some of our upper country to collect this year’s calves to be weaned, too hot to pursue the remnants we missed. We’ll be leaving in the dark to give it a go tomorrow and hopefully haul some calves off the hill. Forecast 98°.

 

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GRANDFATHER OAK

Posted on June 11, 2019 by | 2 comments

 

 

I’m not sure I noticed
the grand old oak on the ridge
when it was alive with so many

green others before the drought.
Crushed today, it wrapped
its brittle branches around me.

 

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Snowmelt

Posted on June 10, 2019 by | 2 comments

 

 

We’ve enjoyed an unusually cool May with over 2 inches of rain on Dry Creek, enough to bring summer weeds and some green annual grasses back to our grazing ground. Between rains, it’s been overcast, keeping temperatures down, but adding to our humidity—extended weather conditions that have bled into the first week of June to begin our snowmelt in earnest.

On June 6th, temperatures rose to 106° for a short time, then yesterday temperatures rose to 102° as the Kaweah River peaked at 6,662 cfs at 2:00 a.m. to retreat to 2,124 cfs by 11:00 p.m.

Still overcast this morning when the this photo was taken of the Kaweah River Watershed, from Alta Peak to Sawtooth, there is still quite a bit of snow on the Great Western Divide. Outflow at Terminus Dam has been held steady at 2,596 cfs as the high water at Lake Kaweah creeps up, gaining about 2,000 acre feet in the past 24 hours.

The capacity of Lake Kaweah is 185,000 acre feet. Water behind the dam as calculated by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is 155,535 acre feet, with room enough for almost another 30,000 acre feet.

Estimating the water content of the snow remaining and the increasing rate of snowmelt becomes a numbers game for the USACE. Lake Kaweah is beautiful lake and my guess is that it will be full by the 4th of July holidays for water skiers, houseboats and other recreationists. Unfortunately, we worry about fire as the high water mark reaches the dry native feed.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!

 

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NEW DAY

Posted on June 10, 2019 by | 2 comments

 

 

At first light, a hole in the clouds
up canyon, a fresh and fiery moment
approaching the wonder of all things—

especially the egrets, herons, and hawks
out early stalking gophers and squirrels
as the night sky catches fire.

But I’ve given-up collecting signs
of what’s to come—or of the consequences
of all we’ve done.

 

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SUMMER VACATION

Posted on June 5, 2019 by | Leave a comment

 

 

Canyon quiet,
calves weaned and gone,
girls pre-checked bred

for the shorter days
of fall—wait in the breezy
shade of blue oaks,

graze early and late
for ninety-five days
over a hundred degrees.

 

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JUNE DANCING

Posted on June 3, 2019 by | 8 comments

 

 

Leaves heavy with rain,
they bend and bow
to one another in gusts:

short blond feed quivers
as if this old dirt
is taking a breath.

I remember my mother
trying to show me lightening
in a Sierra thunderstorm

and all I could see
was the sun: a faded moon
hiding behind it all.

 

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Clover or Two-flowered Pea

Posted on May 31, 2019 by | 3 comments

 

 

The cattle are really enjoying this new greenery that has come as a result of the late May rains. Unable to identify from the Calflora website, but looks a lot like the Two-flowered Pea that is limited to Humboldt County, rare and endangered, so I suspect it’s not. Three leaves like clover and a clover-like flower that I don’t remember seeing before.

 

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