From Under Water to Under Plow
The piles of rocks were what grabbed my attention. They had to be old piles; the stones had live bushes sticking out of them and were habitat for a healthy colony of lichens. I turned to Jim Baker, the owner of said rocks, and the land under them. “What’s the…
The Annual Hail
I texted a warning to the crew. They are in wide-open country, and I had just read the Weather Service forecast. Hail was to hit the range crew hard today, and with hail comes thunder and lightning. And that can get really dangerous in the Big Open. I should have known…
Cliffside Herding
I slowly navigated my pickup across the narrow span of the Salmon River Bridge. It’s a one-lane bridge, but what was mesmerizing about it was that the boiling river was approaching flood stage. The rapid rush of blue green waters festooned with logs and debris quietly surged underneath. I rolled to a stop in the…
Secrets of Smith Basin
“There’s dynamite in Smith Basin,” Nancy said simply. “Yep. I’m sure Jack put it there. We was up there doing some diggings for gems. If I remember right, he’d kept a powder cache up there in a cave.” She smiled while looking past me, rocker creaking next to her too-hot-for-me-to-stand-it woodstove, obviously remembering those good…
The Peace of Pigs
A pig will eat you. It isn’t personal—it’s just how pigs are. They are omnivores, and as such, are not opposed to sampling human if the opportunity arises. I would never lay down in the grass in a field of pigs. I’d be quite happy to do it with a herd of cattle, unless there…