One hundred and ten
in the shade, no need to feed
oak to the wood stove.
the second day of weaning, the steer and heifer calves will be going opposite directions next week. Steers weighing 700 pounds will go to town and then onto a feedlot before your plate. The heifers will be sorted to their own pasture until our weaning is complete, and from them we’ll select our replacement heifers to hopefully enjoy a long and productive life on the ranch.
This morning, the fourth day of weaning, we, and the Kubota with alfalfa hay, have replaced their mothers completely. Perhaps the gentlest bunch of calves we’ve ever raised, they’ve known us since they were born and have no reason to distrust us.
Posted in Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged Paregien Ranch Calves 2015, weaning, weekly-photo-challenge
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Ranch Journal
Tagged Garter Snake, Toad, weekly-photo-challenge
In these hills, a man finds space that feels
familiar and friendly, and it must ask
in ways where we hang empty words
like ribbon just to find our way back – but
we stay a moment and let our horses blow.
They feel it – perhaps they feel it first
and do the asking of the place, or perhaps
it is the shards of light diffused at dawn
upon the many-legged oaks standing
knee-deep in grasses on the near ridge
that shield us from man’s square creations,
his cubic thinking. Perhaps the sensual grace
of limb or slope, or granite worn to look
inside our minds, but there are places
that ask nothing else of us but to breathe
and taste the air, inhale with our eyes
and drink with our flesh for just a moment.
Once dared, it becomes ever-easier to be
enveloped with the wild, an addictive peace
that embraces awe as eagerly as a child
might love – where a man can ride beyond
his time and station, beyond the tracks of those
before him: spaces that beg a moment’s notice
where both grand and simple revelations
are left and learned and lived in place.
“Poems from Dry Creek” (Starhaven 2008)
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged 'One Moment, Please!', Poems from Dry Creek, Red Tail, weekly-photo-challenge
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged nature, turkey vulture, weekly-photo-challenge
We are, and always have been, subjects
of the weather, of the blazing sun
and phasing moon, the swirling winds
and tides—subjects, lackeys to the Queen’s
whims and oversights—all men’s progress
subject to a careless sleeve. We think
we know her moods, read the signs,
taste change, but wait for instruction.
We are among the insects of the grasses,
our labors short-lived and forgotten
on this planet, with our real selves
but a mumble in the background.
We must learn to sing, find a voice
to harmonize with every changing
circumstance—a steady rhythm
we can dance to without stumbling.
No one of us can save the world
its pain, far greater than we care
to imagine, but before us each
new day, a place to put our hearts
and hands to work—opportunities
to improve the space in which we live—
a contagious caring running beneath
the outrageous currents we can’t control.
Posted in Photographs, Poems 2015
Tagged grasses, Humanity, insects, Mother Nature, real selves, weather, weekly-photo-challenge
In the branding pen,
the steady dance of old hands
celebrating spring.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Motion
Posted in Haiku 2015, Photographs, Poems 2015, Ranch Journal
Tagged branding, Greasy Creek, weekly-photo-challenge