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 …
Between Fire and Ice
Dear Friends We were hiking high up in the wilds of the remote North Fork of Hat Creek. It was Sam and Jess, the two summer range riders, and I. We were on a quest to inspect some of the farthest reaches of barbed wire boundary fence on our grazing ranges. It was a beautiful blue sky day …
When Horse Runs Rogue (It’s Usually Our Fault)
Dear Friends The horses have run ranch-rampant. But they're on vacation at this time of year. They've put their time in on the range over the summer season. There, they worked off fat and built muscle mass from carry rider and camp gear over nearly a 1000 miles during the grazing tour. But that's …
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