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 …
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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 …
On Good Horses
Glenn and Caryl headed down to Albuquerque, New Mexico this week. There, at the Quivara Coalition 2019 Regenerate Conference, Glenn presented on “Nurturing Health from the Ground Up” in collaboration with renowned grazing researcher and author Fred Provenza. They’ve been having a great time at this year’s conference, but it’s been a busy week for …
Why Alderspring? A Tale of Two Cities
Hi folks! We used the link to last week's story in the newsletter this week. We apologize for that. Caryl and I are driving back from New Mexico after an excellent Quivira Coalition conference where we got to share stories with other regenerative agriculture producers from all over the world. Now on our long return trip back to the ranch, …
Buck, Black, and Blizzard
I stepped back in time today and met what the West used to be. Unfortunately the homogenization of culture through the ubiquitous nature of technology means that most of these “real west” icons tend to be quite old, and tech-adverse. They are out of place in this age of smartphones, smart cars and smart drinks: kombucha and soymilk lattes. …