Even though I only have one grandchild so far, I find myself fervently hoping my grandkids will like Honeycrisp apples. I swing the pick high overhead and bring it down, business end striking the soil like steel on flint. Daylight has long since faded as I have already planted 9 starts in the …
Respect for the Mystery of History
I yanked on the stubborn cheater bar to no avail in an attempt to open the rickety gate in the barbed wire fence. Caryl would just love this gate, I thought. The cobbled together fence marked our property line with the BLM; it was probably easily over 60 years old. Many hands had fixed on it over …
When Economy of Scale becomes Loss
July heat levitated in visible waves from the black pavement and buffeted us through our wide open pickup windows. Caryl and I were in the outback now, up in the broad headwaters of the Lemhi, clipping along at 60 MPH, skimming across the wide open sagebrush ocean of high desert Idaho. Caspar’s 6 …
On Trusting the Horse…and Them Us
As I came across the deep swale and dry wash that we call Lawson Creek in the moonlight, I let the lines go lightly slack on the two tons of draft horse in front of me. I shouldn’t have. My timing was off, and it was my second mistake of the night. It was at that point that things began to unravel …
Life and Death at Cow College
The cows were dying; of that I was certain. All of them. As I stood in the low angle sunlight of this February morning, they huddled around me, silently. I could see their slack bellies and ribcages in the early morning light. The windrow of lovely and fragrant green alfalfa hay that I laid down the …
Water Wars and Cat Justice
Cats can be the agents of quiet revenge. Perhaps poetic justice is more appropriate. Either way, it began when the late model white Lincoln Town Car Signature Series slowly cruised up our potholed ranch lane after crossing the bridge over the swollen snowmelt torrent of Agency Creek. It had been …