A Heart of Husbandry
Dear Friends My legs were on fire from the chem burn. Even worse, my eyes stung and the tears that rolled out of them fogged my vision. I squinted, straining to see the end of the field, but couldn’t quite make it out. The five-gallon bucket I was carrying was…
A Midnight Clear
Dear Friends Thirty Christmases. That’s how many it’s been on Alderspring Ranch. 1993: It was just Caryl and I that first year, huddled around a tree in our 350 square foot tin shack we called home. Without the wood stove that often glowed red on a frigid and brittle winter…
Hooves in a Hard Spot
This story is by daughter Melanie, featuring the mare Jimmie and an accident on the range this summer. We carry firearms on the range for a few reasons, but one of the most important is a situation where an animal has been severely injured to the point where treatment would be futile, and subjection to…
Vermont Sheep and Stone Walls
Last Week: The bronze, red, and gold of fallen leaves carpeted the road before me, often obscuring the double yellow lines. Negotiating countless curves with my rented pickup through fog-shrouded spruce and fir forested gaps in the ancient spine of Vermont’s Green Mountains, I made my way down through picture-book New England villages complete with…
The Beaver & the Wolf
Dear Friends I have a friend, Bruce, who is a beaverologist, and that means that his specialty is beavers. He was known as sort of the go-to beaver guru in the Intermountain West. People would call him about beaver troubles (“they’re damming my culvert!†or “they’re stealing all of my irrigation water!â€), begging him to relocate…