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 discovered in our …
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 bank across the …
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 yesterday. She was the wood …
Gen Z and the Ecosystem
I still haven't got enough of the air. I'll catch myself taking in deep draughts of it, filling my lungs to capacity, and slowly, reluctantly, guardedly, releasing. With it comes the fragrances of fall pasture; of legume flowers on the big meadows at home; red clover and sainfoin. I tell myself I'll …
When Wildfire Bends its Knee
In my chest I could feel, rather than hear the pulse of the Helicopter's rotors as they roared over, slicing through the hot, smoke hazed afternoon air. I was a sitting duck, a lone speck on a huge mountainside. I knew I would likely be spotted from the air. I wrestled the 300 pound motorcycle off …
Life Defined by Fire Part 2
After a long and complicated Monday packing orders this past week, exhausted, we arrived back home in the dark to do chores. But there was a sight in the night that made us halt. We gathered quietly on the patio to watch the fire. Gale force hot winds blasted the high country of our summer …