Tag Archives: Ridenhour Canyon

ODD PERSPECTIVE

Posted on September 9, 2025 by | 2 comments

Photo: Allie Fox

It’s that time of year when the cows begin calving, and these two girls were in the bottom of a Ridenhour Canyon when Allie, her sister Katie and the two 1 year-old boys, Asher and Hayes, passed by on the way to check water in Paregien’s. Robbin and I have been checking the first and second calf heifers after they’re fed… and yes, we’re feeding hay too, having just increased the amount to keep up their strength before they calve. We have a few on the ground already, coyotes thick as fleas on a ground squirrel. It’s always exciting, and sometimes disappointing when you lose one.

Naturally, we love this time of year, especially now that the temperature is running in the 90s. It’s our beginning of the year.

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FOR COMPANY

Posted on February 21, 2016 by | 4 comments

 

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We grow wild beneath
the Red Tail’s cry
for company, beside

the dragging sound
of snake bellies
on well-drained dirt.

We fold our petals, sleep
to insistent tree frog songs
as the moon dances

upon the rippling creek,
mumbling constantly
of where it comes from.

And when we bloom,
we draw bugs as lovers
to inspire seed, clusters

of small town colors
beneath the Red Tail’s cry
for company.

 

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Posted in Photographs, Poems 2016, Ranch Journal

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PANCAKE POPPIES

Posted on February 20, 2016 by | 8 comments

 

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We, all of you with me,
travel miles of spring saved
by a thunderstorm—Jeffers’

old violence not too old
to beget new values—
blinding splotches of gold,

bright pancake poppies
a squinted eye can’t absorb.
We are rich, wealthy in places

we cannot spend away
from here, yet want to take,
steal with a camera

to share with the poor
punching clocks, chasing dollars
in corrals they have built.

 

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Journal: February 2015 — Seven Pix

Posted on February 17, 2015 by | 9 comments

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Robbin and I went to the Paregien Ranch Sunday to check the cattle, feed, and rain gauge since the storm on the 7th, 8th and 9th. An 1.43″, which was more than anywhere else on the ranch. We’re still trending warm and dry with wildflowers blooming a month earlier than normal, the poppies above and below in Ridenhour Canyon.

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Despite the lush look of spring, there is no rain in the forecast for the rest of the month with temperatures in the mid-70s. We’ll be needing another rain soon or it will be a short grass season. Nevertheless, the cattle are doing well, both cows and calves, taking advantage of early and strong feed.

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Looking ahead, we shut the cattle out our new gathering field to give the grass a chance to grow before we wean, which is normally in May — but it may be March or April if it doesn’t rain.

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Checking on the Windmill Spring, we were greeted enthusiastically by our independent ‘Little Buddy’ who can be seen helping us cut firewood Here and helping me plumb a trough Here before he was branded and tagged in December.

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Though it appears that we’re both having a drink, I was blowing on the overflow pipe to unplug it. Of course, our ‘Little Buddy’ was well aware of the hay in the back of the Kubota.

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