Category Archives: Ranch Journal

FIRE DESIGNS

Posted on September 5, 2019 by John | 2 comments

Ashes, white on black
slopes, drought-dead Blue Oaks, final
portraits of a fire.

2 Comments

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

Tagged "Creek Fire", photography, poetry

POWERLESS

Posted on September 3, 2019 by John | 3 comments

It’s black early yet,
few lanterns glowing
across the quiet canyon,

drought-killed Blue Oaks:
roots simmering
in the rock-hard ground.

The wind will turn
the burnt to gray
until the rains

bring a fresh green
start—nothing
we can change.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2019, Ranch Journal

Tagged "Creek Fire", CalFire, photography, poetry

Creek Fire Mop-Up

Posted on September 3, 2019 by John | 1 comment

It could have been several thousand acres of fences and feed. Robbin, Bob and I thank the entire CalFire crew for their professionalism, the pilots for their impressive air support, the dozer operators cutting breaks and blading existing tracks in the dark for what seemed to be well-over a dozen 4×4 engines, the water tenders and the often-overlooked hand crews with boots that still remain on our otherwise inaccessible ground. It was impressive. Thank you all!

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged "Creek Fire", CalFire, photography

Creek Fire Photos: Burn Area, Phos-chek, Hand Crews, Hose Lays

Posted on September 2, 2019 by John | 4 comments

Click photos to enlarge.

Double click to see CalFire personnel in upper left hand corner. 1 mile hose lay.

7:00 p.m.: 756 acres, 80% contained

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged "Creek Fire", photography

Creek Fire: Mid-day Update

Posted on September 1, 2019 by John | 4 comments

Air support concentrating in the canyon across from the house, in the form of a turbo-prop tanker and helicopter, returned mid-day as winds picked up. Obvious concern was burning parts of Blue Oaks rolling down the north slope to the bottom of the canyon and igniting dry feed on the opposing south slope. More paint was laid at the bottom of the south slope while the helicopter dumped water on dead Blue Oaks that remained burning.

The real heroes are the many hand crews who have encompassed the burn with a 4-6 foot space cleared manually. Though there are 3 dozers still on the scene, they are limited to existing roads due to our mostly inaccessible terrain.

Meanwhile, we’re staying out of their way.

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged "Creek Fire", photography, wildfire

Wildfire Invasion

Posted on September 1, 2019 by John | 5 comments

The fire started on the neighbor’s about 2:00 p.m.

Blading a road for 4×4 engines on the west flank at 7:10 p.m..

Last phos-chek dropped at 8:00 p.m. on our place. Hand crews and air support, planes and helicopters, kept the fire contained.

Coming off the mountain at 10:00 p.m. Dead Blue Oaks, as a result of the four-year drought, burning.

CalFire Incident: “Creek Fire”, 600 acres.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged "Creek Fire", photography, wildfire

First Wagyu X Calf 2019

Posted on August 30, 2019 by John | Leave a comment

As in the past, we record our first Wagyu X calf and first Angus calf born as part of the age and source verification process necessary for the buyers of our calves to market them for export and domestically. Though born on August 28, 2019 to first-calf heifer 8144, I hesitated to post it because it arrived two weeks early. We had another Wagyu X calf born prematurely this year on August 14th to live only a couple of days.

It’s not unusual to lose the first calf born to a first-calf heifer when social urges outweigh maternal instincts, the calf too often left alone and subject to predating coyotes and eagles. Once a couple of calves are on the ground, the heifers begin to form nurseries. This morning another calf was born prematurely. It’s survival appears doubtful.

We put the Wagyu bulls out on December 13, 2018. With a nine-month pregnancy, due date for our first-calf heifers is September 15th, give or take a week. Quick to confirm that there were no other bulls anywhere near our first-calf heifers to produce a calf at this time, we’re left with a mystery.

We’ve read recently that unusually hot weather can shorten bovine pregnancies. Even though the rest of the U.S. has had a miserably hot summer, our summer has been relatively mild with the usual week to ten-day spells of temperatures above 105˚. Another factor may be that some Angus bull breeders are pushing for ‘calving ease’ bulls by selecting genetics for shorter pregnancies to produce lighter calves. Our Angus heifers may have these genes.

We have no answers, watching our heifers closely.

TO WATER CATTLE

Posted on August 20, 2019 by John | 5 comments

Before we traded ranches,
your mother witched a well
that artesianed into a trough
to water cattle, that overflowed
to fill a pond twenty-four seven
without turning a wheel.

Before we traded ranches
you had tenants
that wanted more
to irrigate cannabis
with a pump and gas generator—

pulled granite sand and pebbles
to dam the crack
where water ran underground
from Sierra peaks
to the wellhead freely.

Married now to a generator,
storage tank and pump,
I pack gas and oil,
carry electrical testers,
tools and spare capacitors,
for a second well we drilled
too deep for solar
to water cattle in a trough
that never overflows.