Hilltop

Posted on October 5, 2016 by | 3 comments

 

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Wordless Wednesday

 

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TO LIVE FOR

Posted on October 4, 2016 by | Leave a comment

 

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Late spring rains last into October,
empty-headed wild oats bow
to a southwest wind suggesting change

from broiling days—maybe rain.
Snakes crawl out from under shade,
backs to the sun, warm their bellies

in fine trail dust. Blue Oaks shed
large dark acorns glinting
in dry leaves like burnished gems

and we are rich, breathe deep relief
as fresh calves find steady legs
to run without direction, learn to stop.

We gladly give all up to chance
and certain change believing
this is the time we live for.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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Hereford Show Calf

Posted on October 2, 2016 by | 6 comments

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It was chilly this morning when Robbin and I left to look at the calves on the Paregien Ranch, going up Ridenhour Canyon along the way. Though we employ a few select Hereford bulls for heterosis that have added frame, durability and a calmer disposition to our cowherd, we typically don’t have too many straight Hereford calves. At 30 days old, we caught this bull calf posing in the canyon’s early light as if he was aspiring to become an FFA/4H show calf.

Since we posted a photograph with his mother at five days old, I thought it appropriate to include a photo of his father, Ruger 119 from Mrnak Herefords West, ready to go to work for his fifth year on this ranch.

 

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POGUE CANYON

Posted on October 1, 2016 by | 8 comments

 

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Half a mountain slipped away
to move the river south, left
alluvium of clay and granite rock—

a good spring in a steep draw
collecting stories at a pause
with brittle bones and rattlesnakes

for spice—half a century saved
to hunt and wander from the flats,
to ride to gather heifers with my father,

all the alliterative murmurs
that damned me and God
when the wind is almost right.

Half a mountain slipped away
to gather by myself, holding
highlights of the boy I used to be.

 

 

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: ‘Nostalgia’

 

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Tarweed

Posted on September 30, 2016 by | Leave a comment

 

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Born Without Fear

Posted on September 29, 2016 by | 2 comments

 

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A few days old and separated by 150 yards from his mother among a line of cows feasting on alfalfa, this bull calf returns home, to one of several shady pockets or nurseries where the calves are laid down after nursing. In good shape, we try to limit feeding this bunch of third-calf cows to once a week to reduce the pandemonium when the hay arrives—a new experience for this calf fresh into this pasture. Every cow’s head down, he’d walked the line back and forth, his calls unanswered, hot and frothy when he and another older calf wandered towards me, the older gently guiding, head to neck, the way to the nursery. The older calf immediately claimed the shade he must have risen from when the hay arrived, the younger calf still assessing his place in the world through the twigs of a fallen sycamore.

 

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VISITING FAMILY

Posted on September 28, 2016 by | Leave a comment

 

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1.
I am lost in a blond pasture
of cows with calves,
lone silhouettes under oaks

stressed by years of drought—
or nurseries: black lumps
around a cow—

the expectant gathered
under sycamores watching
babies steal the show.

2.
Hanging in the leaves,
estrogen
rubs off on me

each pair bonding
differently—
love’s rough tongue

or murmuring song,
some taught to follow
the swing of an udder.

3.
Closer with each visit
we become family
with gesture and tone—

all the poetry
unnecessary
from now on.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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Twins

Posted on September 27, 2016 by | 4 comments

 

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She was not thrilled to have twin Angus calves, but we’ve been watching 3024 since they were born ten days ago, having gone so far as to make arrangements for bottle feeding one of them if necessary. As it turns out, the calf on the left was the one roused by two coyotes in our post of September 17th, when hours old and left in the middle of the pasture. It’s not unusual for a cow with twins to abandon the weakest, but now this cow seems to have acquiesced to her plight, both calves healthy and much stronger than they were. Whether she is keeping better track of them both, or the weaker calf is keeping better track of her is another question. She has plenty of milk and if she can raise them both, she’ll do a better job than we can do.

 

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BRUSH STROKES

Posted on September 26, 2016 by | Leave a comment

 

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Summer breezes comb
late spring rains of golden hair,
fine-stemmed wild oats ripened

in the rocks with a trace of lichen
rouge for looks—our sexy
centerfold to hang and frame

in the back of our minds,
our cluttered caves of thought,
to remember her by.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal

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SEPTEMBER DAWN

Posted on September 25, 2016 by | 7 comments

 

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                    But God himself comes often and stays long,
                    when the castrati’s singing disturbs Him.
                                        – Ranier Maria Rilke (“The Voices”)

Within the quietude of dawn
streaked in yellow flame
between charred black shadows

when the sun peeks low beneath
the branches shedding leaves,
I hear voices in the canyon,

from the ridges and the draws,
of the generations gathered
where women left their track

ground in stone, and men
built barns and fences,
some yet leaning into time

unknown, for a different breed
of cattle and of dreams—
a chorus clear and strong.

And all the working hands
that left no mark upon the land
they still inhabit singing

harmony and peace
within the quietude of dawn
streaked in yellow flame.

 

 

“A Voice for the Voiceless”

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016

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