Dear Friends A light snow drifts down from an opaque grey sky over the ranch today. It’s quiet outside. Not a vehicle sound, or even a tractor can be heard in our rural valley. In the light snow, not a bird or coyote calls. The usually murmuring river has hushed in the buffering effect of the falling flakes. On this windless day, the silence is …
Most Recent Posts
On Good Horses
Glenn and Caryl headed down to Albuquerque, New Mexico this week. There, at the Quivara Coalition 2019 Regenerate Conference, Glenn presented on “Nurturing Health from the Ground Up” in collaboration with renowned grazing researcher and author Fred Provenza. They’ve been having a great time at this year’s conference, but it’s been a busy week for …
Why Alderspring? A Tale of Two Cities
Hi folks! We used the link to last week's story in the newsletter this week. We apologize for that. Caryl and I are driving back from New Mexico after an excellent Quivira Coalition conference where we got to share stories with other regenerative agriculture producers from all over the world. Now on our long return trip back to the ranch, …
Buck, Black, and Blizzard
I stepped back in time today and met what the West used to be. Unfortunately the homogenization of culture through the ubiquitous nature of technology means that most of these “real west” icons tend to be quite old, and tech-adverse. They are out of place in this age of smartphones, smart cars and smart drinks: kombucha and soymilk lattes. …
The Days are Short, the Time is Long
This week's story is from Abby, our second oldest daughter. She is a lover of plants and nurturing, of comfort and caring. You first notice the color change. Lush greens are fading to brown, the green color trickling down out of the tops of the grass and down into the roots. You can still see green, if you walk around and pick up a handful of …
Fixing Flats and Food
It was last Saturday night in Boise, Idaho, and the city was hopping. It was a lovely cool evening, and it seemed everyone was turned out in their shiny late model SUVs and chrome-wheeled hybrids for a night on the town. Melanie and I just finished a very successful beef sampling at the Boise Co-op Meridian Location, and were loading our cooking …
Pastured Pork and Cover Crops for Organic Weed Control of Quackgrass
I had no idea that my life could be transformed by a pig. Or pigs, rather. It started with the horses. They were the first teachers. We had them on some of our worst ground. I call it the worst because it was comprised of only quackgrass. This European non-native grass species was a ready and willing invader of some of our highest potential …
Fire and Morels
Dear Friends and Partners, It was an uneasy sleep that night. Despite the tumult just beyond cook tent, I tried to sleep on the ground in cow camp on the banks of the river, eyeing the sprinkling of stars through the latticework of bud-bursting cottonwood trees. Linnaea lay passed out beside me, in peace for God only knows what reason. I …