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Roots

Tenacious. Ingenious. Examples abound.

We’re preparing to brand calves Friday, despite our lack of any green, knowing that we’ll set our calves back to some degree, but also knowing that if we wait much longer to get started, by time we get all our pastures worked, some will weigh 500 lbs. and we’ll set them back anyway, rain or no rain.

On the bright side, moving ahead is a relief from our monotonous feeding routine that continues concurrently. Though energy wanes, tenacious, ingenious examples abound and we’re actually excited—looking forward to what we all need: a gathering of neighbors and a job to share.

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Posted on January 7, 2014 by John in Photographs

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BEGINNING

Abandoned hay rake resting
in the sycamores has not moved
in my lifetime, unless with silt

under floods that rose against them
when farming across the creek
didn’t pay. How long have they

danced, changing clothes, adding
and subtracting limbs, courting
the moment to begin again?

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Posted on January 4, 2014 by John in Photographs, Poems 2013

Tagged weekly-photo-challenge

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Joy

                         Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
                         And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was                          oftentimes filled with your tears.
                         And how else can it be?
                         The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you
                         can contain.
                                         – Kahlil Gibran (“On Joy and Sorrow”)

I continue to find new splendor to color our current drought apart from its impact to our cattle and bank account. Not only is the determination of Nature exhilarating, but with it comes a rare glimpse of beauty in these bare hills.