COTYLEDONS DAY THREE

Posted on November 11, 2022 by | 2 comments

 

Three-day one-inch-rain,

warm wet dirt germinating

green hair on steep slopes.

 

 

(Click to enlarge)

 

 

2 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2022, Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

GOOD FORTUNE

Posted on November 10, 2022 by | 1 comment

 

After a slow three-day rain,

clay dust dark brown and firm,

we think we see a tinge of green

 

before wet seed has time to burst

with open-handed cotyledons

through the saturated dirt.

 

Yesterday, on the optometrist’s screen

I see my eyeballs and optic nerves

that anticipate such good fortune:

 

bare ground, sloping hillsides

carpeted with short green—

a start to change our luck.

 

                                    for Terence Miller

 

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

IT

Posted on November 8, 2022 by | 1 comment

 

 

Who bankrolls

the nasty TV ads

that verge on slander,

 

the propositions

to make law

no attorney comprehends,

 

then leave it up

to the common man

to cast his vote

 

for the profit in IT,

be IT self-righteous egos

or just plain cash?

 

Imagine the power-rush

spending someone else’s money

and then to get paid

 

with all the perks

for IT

for life.

 

 

1 Comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

QUEEN

Posted on November 5, 2022 by | 6 comments

 

The weather here is queen,

haggard goddess dodging phone calls,

prayers—she gathers storms

 

like cattle to market

leaving empty pastures bare to cook

for sometimes years—

 

sometimes centuries displacing

civilizations for archeological

supposition and conjecture.

 

We cannot know her mind—

she is old and forgetful

and often wanders in a haze.

 

But when we smell her

approaching on the wind

our dry skin tightens as

 

we become like reckless children

turned loose to prepare

the fires for her arrival,

 

be it wrath or cordial,

for she is queen

of eternity.

 

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , ,

BFORE THE RAIN

Posted on November 2, 2022 by | 2 comments

 

The cows know the way

following the idling sounds

of the diesel hay truck

 

to the feed grounds just beyond

the glacial slab of granite

honeycombed with grinding holes

 

of another era

when 300 Natives

made a living in this canyon.

 

After the flood

they moved the road

away from the creek in ’69—

 

exposing human bones.

The cast iron well head

for the red brick slaughterhouse

 

stands like a gravestone

among dead oak limbs—for

a time between then and now.

 

A cow turns back to attend to her calf

swallowing dust, another murmurs

trust that there will be hay.

 

*          *           *          *

 

0.28″

 

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

ON BARE ACRES

Posted on November 1, 2022 by | Leave a comment

 

 

The black hole in the barn

has grown since August

as we peel-off long green

 

(high-dollar hay) vacuumed-up

by cows nursing hungry calves.

Al the prognosticators

 

tease us with promises

of thunderstorms tonight

if only to settle the dust.

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , ,

RESTORING THE DECK

Posted on October 31, 2022 by | 3 comments

 

Tenuous, dangerous navigating

redwood sagging on rotting joists

even the dogs avoided

 

and it took years to make repairs,

slices of time wedged between

perpetual routines

 

caring for the survivors of drought

when there was no grass or water.

It took the expertise of a patient friend

 

we have learned to love

and work with—Robbin and I

comprising only half-a-man.

 

                        for Jeff Spoelstra  

 

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , ,

LATE OCTOBER

Posted on October 24, 2022 by | 2 comments

 

They’ve taken Saturday’s rain away

with future promises

like plastic magic debt

no one intends to pay.

 

We’ve been here before,

crooning to godesses

not to forget us

like the hopeless homeless.

 

We are this ground

rooted into the future

like the plodding lives of cattle,

trusting, trusting, trusting….

 

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

DEJA VU HAIKU

Posted on October 18, 2022 by | 3 comments

 

1.

Gray dust clouds rising

behind cows down powdered trails

off these bare mountains.

 

2.

The diesel feed truck

awakes a bawling chorus

to claim the canyon.

 

3.

All imperative

and hungry, it twists our guts—

La Niña pending.

 

 

3 Comments

Posted in Haiku 2022, Photographs, Poems 2022, Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , ,

“Yellowstone Effect”

Posted on September 18, 2022 by | 5 comments
Devin Murnin, Western Livestock Journal, 8/29/2022

Most people have seen or heard of the hit TV show “Yellowstone” that airs on the Paramount Network. Admittedly, I have watched the show. It is set in picturesque Montana and packed with drama, lots of action and overly-fictionalized storylines around a ranching family trying to keep together the generational ranch that has been passed down to them.

This show is hard to watch if you are involved in production agriculture for the many incorrect portrayals of ranching practices and the over-the-top daily issues faced by this fictional family. However, it seems to be resonating with the public and is causing an influx of people wishing to move to the Big Sky state. The “Yellowstone effect” is real in Montana, and we have seen population growth and skyrocketing demand for real estate.

It’s no secret that the pandemic changed work dynamics, and the ability for employees to work remotely resulted in people moving away from areas with a high cost of living to more affordable locations around the country. Montana saw a huge demand increase for property. For example, in Bozeman, where the storyline of “Yellowstone” is based, the median price for a single-family home was a mere $500,000 a few short years ago.

read more:

https://www.wlj.net/opinion/devin/devins-comment-yellowstone-effect/article_8d1ab426-254b-11ed-9816-c36a6c2c9a13.html

5 Comments

Posted in Ranch Journal

Tagged , , , , , , ,