This story comes from Abby, second of the Elzinga sisters. Abby lives a few miles from the ranch with her 3 kids and husband, Ethan. It was just Becky and I in the front, driving the long, dark road home from Salmon. My three little kids snored in their car seats in the back, rocked to sleep by …
Are Fearsome Herbivores History?
Dear Friends Sometimes I am grateful to be clad in the cover of steel and safety glass. And to be racing along at 55 MPH. Because if I was simply a human on two legs in the deep winter white as we drove through in a sort of snowplow carved tunnel, I am almost certain the fiercest herbivore would …
Who Chose Who
My eyes notice them, but my mind does not. It's a subtle peppering of dots, blending into the natural mosaic of grassland and sage on a distant ridge. I'd see it, register it, but the conscious level of my brain would dismiss it as rocks or a sporadically placed stand of antelope bitterbrush. But …
Death on the Trail of Yellow?
"There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;It's luring me on as of old;Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wantingSo much as just finding the gold." -Robert Service, from 'The Spell of the Yukon." "Hey Marc. Chris. Check this out." I gestured into the murk of a thick subalpine fir and …
Cows, Concrete, and Carbon
Soil Carbon Coalition founder, Peter Donovan, after giving a conference lecture on soil health, stepped out of the conference room. Before he could think about coffee or the restroom, a farmer stopped him in the hallway. "What is the fastest way to get carbon into my soils?" Peter thought for a …
Dow Meets the Cow
"You mean you're certified organic, both on the cattle and the grass?" Former Wall Street Investment Banker was incredulous. "What the heck for?" "The consumer wants the whole picture. They want to know for certain that their food is clean, and for cattle, that's from birth to finish. That …