Category Archives: Ranch Journal

Feeding

Posted on November 30, 2024 by | Leave a comment

 

It’s chilly in the morning (40s), foggy in the Valley after the 1.81” we received from the tail of the Bomb Cyclone earlier this week.  Normally, the ridge between Dry Creek and Antelope Valley keeps the fog out, allowing more sunshine for our fresh cotyledons. What a beautiful day, the sycamores are turning as winter knocks on the door.

 

We’ve been feeding lots of alfalfa trying to keep the cows with calves and replacement heifers in shape enough to cycle before breeding.  We’re in the process of getting the bulls out now.  With no forecast rains, we’ll begin branding soon.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , ,

CLICHÉ

Posted on November 27, 2024 by | Leave a comment 

Among the old timers
I tried my hand at similes
after a good slow rain

when it was warm and wet enough
to start the grass, they'd say
“thick as hair on a dog’s back.”



Leave a comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , ,

SLOW IN–SLOW OUT

Posted on November 26, 2024 by | Leave a comment 

1.

Honed peaks and ridges 
cut the clear blue sky 
and lagging cumulus rising 

between storms, 
as we await the tail 
of a Bomb Cyclone

predicted for our metal roof
with coffee before daylight—
or so we pray.


2.

Slow in—slow out.
Gray clouds clinging
to the hillsides,

four hundredths all day—
58 high,
52 low after 

an all-night soaker 
with little runoff
to start the grass.


Leave a comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , ,

HYDROCLIMATE WHIPLASH

Posted on November 25, 2024 by | Leave a comment 

We trust the rain, 
the early stirring of colored leaves,
our synapses electrified

before it leaks from the gray—
storms absorbed, the darkening 
of settled dust as the wet thatch 

of old feed folds 
to hold the damp explosion 
of open-handed cotyledons—

renewed miracles of life,
iridescent greens become tall 
heads heavy with seed

to feed ourselves and others,
the wild and tame, crazed and sane 
denizens of this planet.

We trust in rain.
We pray for rain 
and wait.



Leave a comment

Posted in Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , ,

CLEAN SLATE

Posted on October 18, 2024 by | Leave a comment

Hunter’s Supermoon – Photo: Robbin’s I-Phone


Inhaling darkness spiked with chilled silence 
soothes the synapses, spares the soul 
with deep breaths released to space 

beyond this combative planet and its grumbling 
eruptions, its mindless explosions 
of patriotic hatred.  Ingesting the cool blackness

purifies a moment, relief on an early morning 
clean slate to begin with, to try again
to write something worth reading.

Leave a comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , ,

BEFORE IT SLIPS AWAY

Posted on October 6, 2024 by | 1 comment 


With so many holes in my memory
what remains seems like yesterday.

I jettisoned the shameful first, 
then turned the irrational loose

to make room for the moment
before it slips away.

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , ,

EQUINOX

Posted on September 20, 2024 by | 1 comment 


It sounds like a drug
for the infirmed
or a dressing for horses’ hooves

or a government program
to keep poverty alive
and consuming—

it sounds soothing
to the summer-baked subconscious,
a galactic reprieve

before the leaves rain 
in gusts 
before the first storm

stirs weathered flesh.
Autumnal Equinox
just rolls off the tongue.



1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , ,

FIRST CALVES 2024

Posted on September 17, 2024 by | 2 comments

September 16, 2024 – #8043 Rocky – Chuck Fry Photo

September 17, 2024 – #8088 – Paregien – JCD Photo

for Age & Source Verification

A little more anticipation, it seems, as we’re calving 2 weeks later hoping to take advantage of cooler weather.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged ,

Image

VLM BULL SALE

1 Comment

Posted on September 15, 2024 by in Ranch Journal

MATERNITY

Posted on September 14, 2024 by | Leave a comment 

Dilated and making bag,
first-calf heifers choose to graze, 
closer to our familiar voices

over morning coffee. Perhaps security,
or our loving pride they feel
long distance as we imagine

a pasture full of calves clinging
to a mother’s shadow, the buck and run
as they get older like the thirty years

before them. We begin another season
of grass with rain, with feeding hay
ready to face the future with them.

Leave a comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2024, poetry, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , ,