---

This Week’s Story: 100 Days, 600 Miles

“Are you sad that it’s almost over?” As we bumped our way on the 2-track out of the backcountry from our last cow camp, I was asking my 26-year-old Linnaea about coming off the range with the cattle in the next few days. She, along with our other daughters and some great crew members, has been one of the main driving forces up there in the high country, crew bossing and doing most of the route-finding to new camp locations. It’s been a challenging summer…..

Store News

Next Shipping Date: Monday, August 25th

SPECIAL NOTE: This weekend is a great time to put in a beef order as next week we will only be able to ship 2nd Day Air orders and local orders due to UPS being closed on Monday, September 1st for the Labor Day holiday!

We generally ship every Monday, holiday weeks excepting (see calendar). You’ll get a tracking number when we ship your order. UPS may initially show an extra day of transit time, but will correct late Monday night when orders hit the Salt Lake hub.

Next Restock Date: Wednesday, August 27th

We restock every Wednesday and send out a sale flyer on Wednesday in the early evening with the week’s deals.

This Week’s Reader-Only Deals

Use the code “GROUNDLAMB” to get 5% off ground lamb!

Use the code “FREEZERSTOCKUP” to get 10% off all sixteenths and all ground beef bundles!

Use the code “QUARTERBEEF” to get 5% off all beef quarters.

To access these sale items, and for more deals and products, you can click the button below!

Ranch News

The cows and calves will come off the range and all arrive at Alderspring North this week. Scott and Rebecca have grown a great crop of pasture there for us this year. They should get well into the winter on their tall grass graze! Photo credit Glenn Elzinga.

That’s Glenn, holding an aspen tree in hand. This grove of young trees that winds it’s way up along the wilds of Big Hat Creek has grown up and manifested in spades when we kept our Alderspring cattle from grazing the young saplings. Photo credit Caryl Elzinga.

It probably has some sort of fancy name, but I just knew it as the Packer’s Cinch. I learned it from an old friend named Lloyd Clark who spent a good piece of his life trailing horse and mule strings in the remote Selway backcountry of Idaho. I’d almost forgotten about it until one day I saw Melanie using it–she’d learned it from a Nevada buckaroo. The leather knot holds it all together for a horseman. Unlike the Half Cloverleaf knot or a steel cinch buckle that most people use on the broad strip of latigo leather that holds their saddle on the horse, this one comes off easily and pops loose with one pull of the end of the cinch if there’s no weight on the saddle. It’s really nice in thickly forested backcountry where saddle gear can get tangled up in brush or downed trees. When everything has to come off fast, this knot enables you to do it! Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

This is intern Ian making sure his wool cinch cover is perfectly clean before putting around the chest of his horse. Even the smallest piece of splinter, thorn, or pine needle can become an insufferable nuisance for a horse, and riders have always got to be careful to run with perfectly clean gear. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Reuben saddling up in Aspen Camp in the big hat country. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Buster reveals his true self sometimes by the steeliness of his wolf-like eyes. For the most part he’s conservative with the cows except every now and then when an unusually recalcitrant cow gets the much deserved dog-swinging-from-the-tail treatment. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Leona from Montana stops for a brief moment to take in a 50 mile view. Maybe she’s finding out that Montana is not the only state with Big Sky Country! Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Rose puts the finishing touches on Clancy’s gear in Aspen Camp before she heads out. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Chris getting ready to hike back up to Camp after catching Sunny on mountain pasture just as the sun breaks the horizon over the distant Lemhi Range. Photo credit Melanie Elzinga.

Your purchase supports our regenerative work. For more information go to https://www.alderspring.com/regenerative/.