Dear Friends and Partners, After the ground crew pulled wheel chocks, Howard Thompson, Flight Officer aboard the B-17 Flying Fortress fired up the 4 Pratt and Whitney engines while Commanding Officer and First Lieutenant Joe Brensinger worked through the preflight. It was late …
Work and Life on the Ranch
A Thanksgiving Card Fom Alderspring
It was the weekend before Thanksgiving Day. Winter had already staked claim on the country, but we had to ride. Thirteen-year-old Melanie and I left the woodstove warmth of our cozy kitchen after a breakfast washed down with hot coffee. In the mudroom, we put on silk scarves …
Love on the Range
In retrospect, I know now that it was a love affair. Her name was Missy, and I believe it was mutual. I didn’t even try to keep it a secret from Caryl. I knew that she figured it out early in my forays into distant rangelands with the then nineteen-year-old Missy. We had been …
The Best Friend in Border Pups
The Salmon River was starting to swell with the first release of spring snow melt, and it flowed like a ribbon of liquid cold steel. Twelve-year old Melanie and I stood horseback, wordless, in the spitting rain on the rocky shoreline and eyed the 20 or so cattle on the opposite …
Ranching and the Whims of Weather
The weather flipped to fall. Snow blanketed the high country over the last few nights, and the aspens and cottonwoods are gilded with gold. The air is thick and clear. I love this time of year. I fired up the wood stove for the first time this year with daughter Emily …