Tag Archives: community

Cleaning Culverts

Posted on March 12, 2023 by John | Leave a comment

With a break in the weather, we, with the help of our neighbors and their equipment, began addressing the plugged culverts that were spilling flood water across Dry Creek Rd. Though we had cleaned the debris from this culvert after the first Atmospheric River, it became impacted with sand with subsequent rains. Essentially, the culvert is too small for these kinds of events and with so many flooding issues in Tulare County, we are low on their priority list.

All in all, we cleaned out three culverts yesterday, two of which have needed attention for years. The weathermen have downgraded the amount of rain to expect in coming days, but on top of the 1,000 cfs already flowing down Dry Creek canyon, its impact rides with the intensity of those rains.

We’re ready as we can be and doing what we can without getting off the asphalt and getting stuck.

EAST BEQUETTE BRANDING 2023

Posted on February 3, 2023 by John | 6 comments

As great (for us) as the three-week Atmospheric River was, it put everyone’s branding schedules behind, most roads too wet to get to our cattle. Normally, we’d be at Elko this time of year, but with travel and time away from business, we needed to stay at home before our calves got too big to handle easily.

When I look around our community’s branding pens I realize now that most of the old timers are gone, that we have taken their places going ‘old-people slow’, and we prefer it. Fortunately we have some young muscle to work the ground.

Robbin and I have scaled our operation down, in part due to our heavy culling to adapt to consecutive years of drought and also by selling half of our cows to my son Bob. Branding pasture by pasture, our bunches are now small enough to get by with three ropers, one calf stretched at a time. Our relaxed pace has become even more conducive for old friends to visit while we get the work done. These photos from our second branding of the season, it’s been great!

We head to Tony Rabb’s next week to brand after he assesses the rain forecast for this weekend.

6 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged brandings, community, Drought, Elko, neighbors, old timers, photography, poetry, rain, weather, youth

THE BRANDING PEN

Posted on March 20, 2022 by John | 2 comments

Once again, the south slopes fade, begging for moisture. We’ve been following yesterday’s forecast rain for well over a week, watched it vacillate from 3/4s to ¼-inch daily, while hoping to get Kenny and Virginia McKee’s calves branded in Woolley Canyon at the same time—a four-day gather in wild country. On cue, a light shower began as we finished up, but unfortunately the trailing storm evaporated by late afternoon. But it was a delightful branding, an efficient dance of ropers and ground crew that was almost mechanical, yet seasoned with quips and joviality, reminding me that the center of our culture and community has always been the branding pen.

Two years of Covid and the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has upset the equilibrium of the planet, injected fear with the hopeless horrors of war into nearly every soul. The meatpackers’ conspiracy that has defrauded both producers and consumers has added to the instability along with our ‘megadrought’, new terminology from the scientists denoting two decades of drought not seen since 800 AD—all in all, the impacts of which have created an overwhelming mess.

Kids—recounting the branding at home, Robbin and I tallied at least 10 little kids in and around the corrals, another generation exposed to this lifestyle, caring families who treasure the opportunity to teach their children how to get the work done. We are not helpless, it is a luxury to still have a place to ignore the outside world where we can pour our attention to what’s important, to the things we can do something about.

2 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal

Tagged branding pen, community, Covid, Drought, families, lifestyle, meatpackers, megadrought, rain, Ukraine, weather

A NEIGHBOR’S HAND

Posted on January 23, 2022 by John | 3 comments

It’s not easy to get glimpses of myself

among the young men in the branding pen,

awkward young bulls bellowing

as they wrestle fat calves to the ground.

Yesterday, I carried the nut-bucket

and dope instead of riding with a rope,

instead of sliding a wide loop

beneath two feet. I can feel it, see it

in my mind, the smooth dance and dally

round a cotton-wrapped horn, rolling

calves and slipping slack when needed—

but my metronome has slowed.

I don’t wish to be among the old chiefs

who stayed too long to become obstacles

in space and time just to be aboard,

just to lend a neighbor’s hand, like always.

3 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2021, Ranch Journal

Tagged age, branding pen, community, neighbors

ABOVE IT ALL

Posted on December 24, 2020 by John | 5 comments

There is comfort here among dear friends,
despite the drought, despite the news,
despite a virus that grips the world
 
somewhere below these old corrals
where we brand calves—our common
religion around Christmastime
 
that we wrap ourselves within—
a joyous insulation from despair
where we can lend a hand.

5 Comments

Posted in Photographs, Poems 2020, Ranch Journal

Tagged branding calves, community, old friends, Paregien Ranch

(Some) Branding Pix @ Paregien Ranch 2014

Posted on December 10, 2014 by John | 5 comments

A beautiful day for a branding with friends, Teri heels a calf for her Dad.

Sid and Javier

Robbin and Lee Loverin

Tony Rabb

Kenny McKee

Break time between teams, we try to keep the work slow for us older people, time to visit, have a snack and a beer.

Clarence Holdbrooks and John

Virginia McKee, Craig Ainley and Kenny McKee

Bev Drewry, John, and Maggie Loverin

Teri Drewry and Lee Loverin

Bill Drewry

Brent Huntington sets one up for Teri

And the oak tree, one of two in the branding pen that keeps the pace subdued. Clarence renamed it “The Release Tree’.

Bill leads one for Teri.

For our first branding of the season, everything was just right. A good place to start on the ranch before the ‘forecast’ rain, still on for Thursday night and Friday, makes our road too slick to travel for who knows how long. Good to get the calves worked before they get too big.

In this ever-modern and high-tech society of work saving devices, we are yet a throwback cattle culture trading labor within our small community. Miles off the asphalt, the branding corrals become another world apart from the latest media hysteria, an opportunity, we like to think, to talk about important things.

Proud, pleased and exhausted, Robbin and I collapsed on the couch.