Tag Archives: snow

Snow on Sulphur

Posted on March 7, 2025 by | Leave a comment 






Snow comes off the mountain
on the backs of trucks,
white caps on compacts





like trophies
to melt on roads
into town—





cold hands
shoveled dirt driveways
steer downhill.











							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Photographs, Poems 2025, poetry, Ranch Journal					

								
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INTRINSIC HABIT


			

				Posted on March 29, 2023 by  | 2 comments
			


				

				





 


 


 


Too many years courting goddesses,


genuflecting at the foot of ridgetops:


oak trees sharp and close enough to touch


 


to beg relief—to even entertain


such shameful blasphemy, such


feeble will to forever lose their ear.


 


Every river canyon churns to fill


and spill its reservoirs, white-capped


Sierras stacked with two-year’s snowpack


 


awaiting summer’s melt to flood the flats


and yet I can’t concede what is not me:


always ready, waiting for a good-hard rain.


 


 
							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Photographs, POEMS 2023, poetry, Ranch Journal					

								
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MOTHER NATURE 101


			

				Posted on March 1, 2023 by  | 4 comments
			


				

				





 


 


1.


 


Thrum upon the roof, 


the creek stretches loudly now,


rain streams day and night


 


from heaven’s dark skies—


a decade of dreams and prayers


descend upon us.


 


 


2.


 


Our totems come and go to rest


before our eyes, eagles and herons


inspect our souls without asking,


 


families of quail titter at our feet,


antlers tilt to consider our hunger


in places we mark in our memories.


 


 


3.


 


She doesn’t care, has no compassion


for our self-indulgence, shapes her track


of least resistance embracing landscapes,


 


rearranging the gravity of facts


we must endure when she leaves us


with fresh metaphors into the future.


 


 
							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Haiku 2023, Photographs, POEMS 2023, Ranch Journal					

								
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SULPHUR PEAK 3,448′


			

				Posted on February 26, 2023 by  | 9 comments
			


				

				





 


Your robe’s frozen sleeve


reaches the creek once again,


my unending friend,


 


you carry both storm


and heaven on your shoulders


when I reflect up—


 


face unwavering


beneath sun and starlit night


always in the morning.


 


______________________________________


 


It’s been interesting weather, now half-way through our rainy season, over 18 inches of rain after a decade of drought.  Already whispers from the loudest drought complainers for relief as these hills leak crystal rivulets again. 


 


We lost a month in time in January to the Atmospheric River during branding season, and now with nearly 3 inches in the past 3 days and 3 inches more forecast for the next three, it will be at least a week before we can get to our upper country to brand the last bunch, putting us close to the middle of March.  These calves will be big, a handful.


 


The Paregien Ranch ranges from 2,000 to 2,600 with its own light blanket of snow now, time-released moisture soaking into the clay and granite ground that leaks down the smooth rock waterfalls of Ridenhour Canyon, adding to Dry Creek that peaked at 684 cfs last night, that probably washed out some of our watergaps replaced after January’s peak flow over 3,500 cfs.


Job security, but patience until we can get there—you can’t fight Mother Nature, just try to adapt and face the consequences—fully enjoy her luxuriant and persistent presence after so much needed moisture.


 
							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Haiku 2023, Photographs, POEMS 2023, Ranch Journal					

								
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Weathermaker


			

				Posted on February 21, 2023 by  | 4 comments
			


				

				





 


The foothill poppies are beginning to show on our south slopes as temperatures hover near 70 degrees.  The white popcorn flowers and orange fiddlenecks have begun to claim the gentler ground in what appears to be the beginning of a colorful wildflower year with the ample moisture (Atmospheric River) we received last month.


 


Beginning this evening, forecasts vary as temperatures drop into the low thirties with a cold front that will engulf California.  Weathermen are predicting snow down to 1,000 feet, nearly 1,000 feet below this photograph.  There is even some talk of fourteen inches of snow in Three Rivers.  Furthermore, Weather Underground predicts rain on all but one day for the next two weeks.


 


The road to the Paregien ranch has just dried out and cleared of fallen trees, but we still haven’t been able to get to the calves to brand up there.  We lost a month in time to the Atmospheric River in January, but two weeks of predicted rain with a week to dry out puts that branding into the middle of March at the soonest and our calves are almost too BIG to handle.


 


Nothing is certain in this business, but as a weather dependent livelihood we’ll have to be ready to adapt. (Cut another load of dead-standing Manzanita and Blue Oak yesterday, at least we should be warm).


 


 


 


 
							

	
			

				
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Rain and Snow


			

				Posted on December 15, 2021 by  | 4 comments
			


				

				

Sulphur Peak




2.16” of rain the past two days and snow down to about 2,000 feet yesterday have been a game changer for Robbin and me.  So long dry, it’s not been easy to think in any other terms than drought, but we’re getting there as the south and west slopes fill in with green.  Forecast for more rain on the way through Christmas. 
							

	
			

				
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DOLLARS AND SENSE


			

				Posted on January 29, 2021 by  | Leave a comment
			


				

				






1.
We feed on numbers,
irrigate and harvest plans
with shaved efficiencies,
 
measure our well-being
by more or less
with what’s on paper
 
so easily burned
or suddenly erased—
we forget who we are.
 
 
2.
We share amounts of rain,
compare numbers
with the neighbors,
 
too often disappointed
with what we need most:
just enough moisture
 
to revive this ground—
this flesh and our more
common senses.


 

							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Photographs, Poems 2021, Ranch Journal					

								
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SIGNS OF PLENTY


			

				Posted on February 18, 2019 by  | 1 comment
			


				

				
 




 


Low snow up canyon, cold

rain at dawn, vernal pools

in the pasture stand full

waiting for Wood Ducks,

waiting for spring.


Sycamores stripped naked,

their white limbs wave

from across the creek

upon these ponds of water

in the evening sun.


Headlights slash the darkness,

a caravan of jeeps

and 4-wheel drives

whine down canyon—

weary songs back home.


 

							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Photographs, Poems 2019, Ranch Journal					

								
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GOOD BAD WEATHER


			

				Posted on February 16, 2019 by  | 4 comments
			


				

				
 




 


Dry cordwood stacked, I crave

unpredictable clouds of change,

the cold and ice, the hail and rain


and the look of snow-capped green,

black cattle grazing an angry gray—

fancy whiskey in a glass with you


inside, woodstove sucking air to flame.

No matter what the pundits say,

it doesn’t change a thing.


 

							

	
			

				
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						Posted in Photographs, Poems 2019					

								
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Snow on Dry Creek


			

				Posted on February 10, 2019 by  | 3 comments
			


				

				
 




 


Light dusting this afternoon down to 2,500′ on Dry Creek. Exceeding the forecast, just shy of an inch of rain overnight and this morning. It’s wet out there.


 

							

	
			

				
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