It was a cold mid-December day when Allie and her best friend and border collie, Clyde, made a run for it. They occasionally do, just exploring the river bottoms adjacent to the big pastures on the Alderspring prairie where our beeves run herd for the winter. They ran off like Mutt and Jeff, big, white, wolf sized dog and 30-pound border collie …
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Regenerative Ranching: Tripling Organic Matter in 10 Years
The ground fairly shook with the rumble of 350 head of elk stampeding away as I made my approach to my sample area in our south meadow. To my chagrin, they had been dining on the rich green that still grew in fits and starts on this late October day in our high valley of the Pahsimeroi in the remote mountains of Central Idaho. They were …
Re-creating Recreation
“Hey you guys—make sure you check your shoelaces on this ice!” I looked up to my daughters, downclimbing along the 1400 foot vertical precipice, as they gingerly worked their way along the sandstone ledges covered with fresh snow and ice. My only saving grace was that they had a solid 3/8 inch log chain bolted to the rocks along their route to …
Working into the Ground
The kids and I worked outside much of the day. It was a little bitter. Although windless, the temp never got above the low teens and the sun was hidden behind thick clouds that spat snow on and off through the day. There was hay to fork, cattle to sort, wood to cut, and dog housing to build (for the border pups). Fences had fallen down with …
Coming Home for Christmas
It wasn’t Christmas yet, but it was dang close. The very next day would be Christmas Eve. My buddy Greg and I decided to grab Christmas trees for our families up on the Hat Creek Ranges this year because we both had little kids at home, and it was forecasted to be frigid cold. Normally, we bundle everyone up, drive as far as we can into the peaks, …
Working the Borders
There were cows up Lawson Creek yesterday, the long valley that goes up into wild country above Alderspring’s headquarters. I was hiking cross country in the light snow on the sagebrush ranges, when Clyde, the border pup I had with me suddenly perked his ears up. He spotted them in the thick birch trees along the creek. It’s nearly the middle of …
Small Town Christmas
“I think the biggest problem was that I wasn’t even able to get up on stage to perform last year. I was thinking they lost faith in me. You see, I was clear up on the range in the mountains turning off a water tank that we had forgotten about for the winter.” Parker looked over at me, hoping I knew what that meant. I looked over at him from the …
On Gratitude
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 …