Category Archives: Ranch Journal

Sunday Breakfast

Posted on August 7, 2016 by John | 1 comment

Temperatures have eased off in the past few days, mornings in the low 60s, allowing our cattle a little more time to graze. The replacement heifers were undeterred by the Kubota or my presence this morning while the pump was filling their stockwater tank, intent on breakfast before heading to shade.

Though the highs have been just over 100 here, a good part of the day feels like fall, though we know summer is a long ways from being over, but a welcome relief from the highs of 113 at the end of July. Forecasts for the next ten days appear to be relatively mild, more of the same.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged cattle, photography, Ranch Journal, weather

TURKEYS GONE WILD

Posted on August 4, 2016 by John | 3 comments

It could be anytime past
that you brought back
and left to us

incubating hundreds
of turkey eggs,
illegally eliminating

as many predators
to keep a few alive
to become ‘street smart—’

at home in the wild.
You made the rules
you lived by

surviving yet beyond
your fences, ever
since you’ve been gone.

for Gary Davis

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged photography, poetry, wild turkeys

Deadfall

Posted on August 1, 2016 by John | 1 comment

Even the oaks that are still alive are pruning themselves. This Valley Oak lost its top Saturday night into the Holdbrooks’ driveway, either side of their electric gate, missing the solar panel and keypad pedestal. As a direct result of the four-year drought, trees and limbs of trees are falling on fences and into access roads everywhere. We’ll be packing chainsaws as we go.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Drought, oak trees, photography

G & T

Posted on July 30, 2016 by John | 4 comments

No fanfare here, no trumpet’s blare
before day breaks the ridgeline,

no attaboys, no outside noise
to diffuse the summertime,

no accolades but breeze and shade
within short circles lined

with water here and dry feed there,
and a trail of dust behind.

                    Like cattle
                    we plod
                    the heat,

                    mesmerized
                    by the rhythm
                    of our feet

                    leaning
                    towards evening’s
                    G & T.

4 Comments

Posted in Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged poetry

THIS WORLD

Posted on July 28, 2016 by John | 2 comments

October 29, 2015

There is much to envy
cows content with fate,
grass at their feet, shade,

water, friends close—
no one preaches more
nor promises relief.

They’ve left irrigated
green for dry ground,
tall, brittle stems

fold beneath bellies
growing with calves
for the first time.

Under sycamores,
112° churns,
burns on a breeze

out of the south,
too hot to find
the open gates

to their new home
as mothers nursing
new life, new love,

devotion on the fight.
There is a place they go
if need be: head low,

blood in their eye,
red swirls in brown
pulsing towards crimson.

They will learn
to bellow and bawl,
shake and salivate

and come to the call
of others, like family,
within 45 days, well

before the vote
and victory dances
beyond this world.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

Tagged first-calf heifers, photography, poetry

GRACKLE BATH

Posted on July 26, 2016 by John | Leave a comment

Everyone out early in the heat
before the earth is too hot to touch,
a Grackle shakes the last drops

of a morning bath to preen
and quickly drip-dry upon a rock.
Time essential, we squeeze the work

beneath the angle of a risen sun
that by ten bakes all living things.
Everyone out early when we meet.

Pelicans at Sunset

Posted on July 22, 2016 by John | 2 comments

With processing the replacement heifers behind us, irrigation water off and the ranch in the capable hands of Terri Drewry Blanke and Allie Fry, Robbin and I slipped off to the 70° weather of Cambria for a couple of days. Mid-week on Moonstone Beach was relatively quiet, sparsely occupied for the most part by old people and their dogs with only a couple of gangs of unobtrusive city urchins learning a little about the beach and the unpredictable habits of waves.

It seems the only chance I get to read much beyond a long poem is when we get away from home. Though I’d seen the movie “Cold Mountain” years back, I began the written version while were there, enthralled with Charles Frazier’s prosaic style, chuck-a-block full of similes and metaphor à la the vernacular of the Civil War period. I ought to finish the book this weekend and catch the movie one more time on HBO.

We also managed to over-satisfy our ambitious quest for of seafood that ought to last us for quite a while. We’re glad to be back home, rested and ready to get back into our ranch routines.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged "Cold Mountain", Cambria, Charles Frazier

Summer Heron

Posted on July 18, 2016 by John | 4 comments

4 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged Great Blue Heron, photography

Our Future

Posted on July 17, 2016 by John | 3 comments

According to my records, we’ve only had two days since the Solstice under 100°, but the mornings have been fairly cool from first light until 9:00 a.m. This morning was no exception, simply a beautiful Sabbath.

We’ve kept our replacement heifers close to the corrals since they were weaned in May and June, waiting for their Bangs vaccination for Brucellosis and second round of shots, deworming and fly control that has entailed pumping water daily. We’ve had a lot of eye problems due to foxtails and some foot rot due to bacteria encouraged by the wet spring. Having them close by has helped us gather for doctoring.

We think this year’s heifers are exceptional, both in genetics and temperament. They have gotten to know the Kubota since they were calves, and then again when it brought hay everyday to the weaning pen. So we utilize the Kubota when we gather—they come to it naturally.

Saturday, after Friday’s processing, I led the bunch off the dry feed and irrigated pasture, fed some hay, ready to open them to 300 more acres of dry feed and another source of water, our irrigation pond. By this morning, they were exploring the shore of the pond when I arrived to see how they were doing. Naturally, they all gravitated to the Kubota to discover tall, untouched green feed in the spillway of the pond where excess water flows back into the Kaweah River.

Followers of this blog know it’s all about the girls, our prejudice for females—after all we are a cow/calf outfit. Though we were quite pleased with our steers, it’s not about bragging rights as to how big or nice they were in the sales ring—just an annual dividend, they pay our bills. It’s about the girls, two-thirds of which, with a little luck, will be with us for ten years. They become our future.